I awoke in a beautiful room in the Wisdom ClanHold. I was in the care of Clan Mother Luzeneaa. It was so sweet! I mean Mother Luzeneaa was sweet; well, everything was so confusing! It’s a Mother, but It… is an It! You see, The Delvimium have three sexes! The Mother looks a lot like a human female but is an It, and it makes the egg and carries the fetus then supervises raising the child. The other two sexes are the male and female. They certainly look different but apparently they both have plumbing a lot like a human male. Besides that, they can have more than two of the males or females contribute to making a child. (I can’t imagine how that works!) They are called the Set parents and they are always from a different Clan than the Mother. The birth Clan (Mother’s) raises the child. The set parents stay with their own Clan and do the work for which they were optimized. The Birth Clan supports the Mother and Child. Sets and setless lones support the Clans. The Clan takes care of everyone! The whole thing seemed strange at first but now I understand what it’s done for them. The Clans are big genetically related families but not like we know it. Mothers are very special. Their contribution to the new individual is the most important. They are the reservoir of variability and diversity that can be tapped by the proper combination of genes from the Set Parents.
Depending on Clan needs and Genetic Pedigrees, a Clan could approach another Clan which has a Set or even Sets of potential parents who have the genetics to combine with their Clan Mother to generate a specific individual to improve the Clan. A Clan with a very special Set might approach the Clan of an important or famous Mother with an Offer of Genes which would benefit both Clans or even be expected to create a new Mother.
The Breeding Groups are selected using everyone’s genetic and medical profile reports called GenMed’s. Everyone has one. Usually there are two parents in a Set, but there can be up to six. (Imagine that!) The Clans all have different genetics and specialties. There are Warrior Clans, Business Clans, Legal Clans, Mining Clans and, of course, the Wisdom Clan which has taken me in. There are hundreds of Clans of all kinds and they all interweave to make up Delvim Society. The social, sexual, economic, and power interactions of the Clans make me dizzy trying to follow even some of it. The whole thing is managed by huge computer complexes that correlate the GenMed information. The Delvimium have helped focus their race towards its self-defined excellence for thousands of years! (I am so glad I had completed all my degree requirements in genetics and eugenics before this happened. It is so interesting and will definitely further my professional career!)
It hasn’t always been this way. Mother Luzeneaa told me that legends say that in the old times they bred “halfs” where only the male-like sex or the female-like one was “put to the Mother” as they say. The results were sexless, mindless mules, which were used like animals. (There are no draft animals on Delvim.) It said the female types were used for physical work but the male types were mostly used for food. (Eaten! Can you imagine?) It said none of that sort of thing happens now.
Mother Luzeneaa also told me another legend about a long ago alien who brought an egg which made this race what they are today. It says some claim an alien Mother will come again and change the Delvimium once again. Even Mother Luzeneaa admits that these stories are very old and not believed by many modern Delvimium, but they are fascinating!