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The Durlan species has twenty-three distinct genders, although most bi- and tri-gendered races cannot distinguish the separation between the genders, and try to lump Durlan individuals into “male”, “female”, and other simplistic categories. Each individual Durlan actually possesses a prime number of these genders, and this counting provides the basis for the complex Durlan caste system; those few Durlans who possess the full complement of twenty-three genders are deemed to be racially pure and are venerated into religious leadership roles. Durlan mating involves a prime number of Durlans — anywhere from the smallest combination, two, up to an unknown upper limit involving entire tribes and beyond — who combine themselves into a single biomass, apparently completely sublimating themselves into the greater whole, yet able to withdraw intact at the mating’s conclusion. The combined set of Durlans must possess all twenty-three genders for the mating action to be able to produce offspring. When such occurs, a prime number of infant Durlans are produced, fissioning off from the main biomass. (The distribution of genders among the infants has not been studied, Durlans being notoriously xenophobic when it comes to scientific recording of their most private and religious activities.) Durlan infants are raised in a special crèche system, tended by two-gendered Durlan adults in the only role their society permits them, deeming them to be somewhat imbecilic and not appropriate for religious and leadership activities. |