Ooh, sorry about that. Child of the Mind refers to a mutation that crops up sometimes where the Norn can do nothing but look at themselves all their life - they can't move, speak, or act on their environment. It's really one of the most tragic. :( Deirdre hatching that way was the final straw for me when it came to Emma's line. Though I only exported her and her permababies, so I can still bring them back in if I want to give Emma another chance.

Verrus and Emma (and Cherry, now) came from the hatchery, a pre-generated stock of six eggs for the player to start their population with. They're generated from a set of "mum" and "dad" genomes that the game has set aside. Mutations can still happen even from the hatchery! Verthandi and Sid were both imported as babies and shouldn't be able to have any mutations themselves (they're add-on breeds that are only available as already-hatched babies, not as eggs), but their offspring certainly aren't immune - because, yeah, that's how unpredictable the game's genetics are. |Db