Reproductive oddities: Ettins

The supposed reproductive cycle of the ettins is an interesting one, in the sense that there was never supposed to be one! In creatures 2 and 3 they are born from a machine, in the design documents for creatures 3d they were created by mixing gases and liquids to a certain extent. In theory, the machine could have even parsed the environment for certain challenges, producing specific Ettins for the job at hand. None of the games do this, but it would have changed the dynamic for the ettins and the world.

The ettins in creatures 3d would have looked quite different

In the original mythography for c1, ettins were simple small lizards whose only function was to deal with the bodies of the dead. No concepts about their reproduction had been done, and in the eventual game no ettins were included. Though a machine would perhaps not have fitted to the cosy southern english farmhouse theme, the ettin spore patch gives them an “ettin mother” ingame that feels as abstract and alien as being born straight from a machine while still fitting in a natural theme..

Muppetboys ettinmother had ettins pop up like mushrooms!

The cob can be found here

Interestingly, the spore patch would take a sample from every ettin it would touch to add to its gene bank, according to its description. It is a little more nuanced and doesn't quite function in the game, but with mutation added this would theoretically allow for slow and steady evolution.

As far-fetched as the idea that a moving and complex animal could also have a fungus in its lifecycle may seem; there is a group of animals that do something similar. Parasitic crustaceans are free swimming animals in their juvenile stage, yet eventually root in a crab to change and behave more or less like a plant or fungus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacculina

Luckily, ettins are warm and kind hearted creatures rather than cold blooded parasites or machines, but it is interesting to think how their lifecycle would have worked with either a fungal mother or a splicing egg layer for a parent.

*the concept art of the c3d ettins comes from the c3d design document, found here