Why are there children in POE?

[Heijoushin]

Waidwen's Legacy has lasted for 15 years (stated in game) And if I understand correctly, there have been no births at all in that time.

 

In that case, there are a few small things out of place. For example, a couple of the quests involve young children, but there shouldn't be anyone older than 15 in the Dyrwood (well, I suppose they could be foreigners who have moved there...)

 

And people like Calisca's sister really shouldn't have any hope. I mean, if there hasn't been a healthy baby in 15 years, did she really think she was going to have a chance?

 

Finally, the Dyrwoodian economy should be plunging due to the shrinking population, schools should be deserted, shops and temples should be desperate for young hands, young brides should be in great demand...
Frankly, if there hasn't been a healthy child in 15 years, everyone should be a LOT more panicky for the future of the country. All of a sudden I can sympathize with Raedric's desperation.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Heijoushin

[Aramintai]

You're wrong in presuming that there were no healthy births during that period. There were, varying in numbers from place to place. In some places though, like Dyrford, Hollowborn were 100% of births for the last few years, probably because it's being located closely to Cliaban Rilag and that infernal machine inside. Same goes for Gilded Vale and Cilant Lis. The way I see it is that some places were far removed from any Engwithan ruins so Hollowborn rate there was not as high. Also, it seems that the Leaden Key had to sacrifice themselves regularly just to keep those machines running - in the game Thaos commanded his acolytes to go and activate it again in Cliaban Rilag exactly because a healthy birth was spotted near the Dyrford village.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Aramintai

[Infinitron]

If there were actually absolutely zero births the entire country would probably have been abandoned by the time the game started.

[house2fly]

There was a Leaden Key journal or something you find as part of the main quest that said "there are more kids being born in Dyrford so we gotta fire up the machine again"

[zered]

There were healthy births. Just a few of them tough.

[Sannom]

The Glanfathans seemed to have been mostly spared by the Hollowborn. Twin Elms is filled with children.

[Pus-in-Boots]

The Glanfathans seemed to have been mostly spared by the Hollowborn. Twin Elms is filled with children.

Which is really weird considering they seem to be never very far from some Engwithan ruins.

[Tigranes]

Being next to ruins doesn't mean they get the disease, though, right? It's a question of the machines fired up by the Leaden Key, which doesn't seem to have a presence amongst Glanfathans, possibly because of the difficulty in getting recruits amongst that community.

[Pus-in-Boots]

Being next to ruins doesn't mean they get the disease, though, right? It's a question of the machines fired up by the Leaden Key, which doesn't seem to have a presence amongst Glanfathans, possibly because of the difficulty in getting recruits amongst that community.

Of course, not every single one of the ruins has an soul-sucking machine inside, though they are exclusively located in some ruin or the other. And since the Glanfathans stick to them in order to protect them it seems strange to me that they of all the people are blessed with so many healthy offspring. Yet we are talking about Twin Elms now and probably there isn't any machine nearby. Unless you count that giant one in Sun in Shadow.

[sibakruom]

Thaos may also be deliberately not targeting the Glanfathans. One of his goal is stopping the progress of animancy and the Glanfathans could be his allies of circumstances here. He might be planning to instigate a war between them and an heavily weakened Free Palatine in the years to come, delivering a final blow to the latter.

[Nonek]

Well when a mummy really loves a daddy they have special cuddles...

[Pus-in-Boots]

Thaos may also be deliberately not targeting the Glanfathans. One of his goal is stopping the progress of animancy and the Glanfathans could be his allies of circumstances here. He might be planning to instigate a war between them and an heavily weakened Free Palatine in the years to come, delivering a final blow to the latter.

Actually, this makes sense. It seems to me that Glanfathans were indoctrinated to protect the ruins by the Leaden Key (or by the gods aligned with their agenda at the time), in order to make learning Engwithan secrets harder. So they are surely an useful tool.

[Faerunner]

It's not that there have been no healthy births in 15 years, it's that there have been so few that people have gotten worried. Healthy children have been born, just not NEARLY as many as they need to sustain the population.