stupid question - how do trollocs reproduce?

[mike hunt's here]

If this was covered in another post, please forgive me and enlighten at the same time.

 

Anyway - I dont remember which one its was - aginor, or someone "made" the trollocs and the fades?  But since they got locked up or killed...who is creating more?

 

And I'm guessing they dont breed otherwise some Aiel would have done a strikeforce to destroy the breeding grounds.  

 

Don't be too serious in any reply...

[Jak 0' the Shadows]

They... mate... like people. the females are cloistered and used as breeding machines and the males do everything else, except for, I think, the last battle when the shadow threw EVERYTHING they had against the light. Trollocs actually CAN mate with humans but the offspring usually die, like being stillborn and such. And are RARE, cuz no human wants to do that with a Trolloc. 

[dawnflower8]

I'm pretty sure that trollocs are mammals. Except maybe not the bird trollocs, but those still probably are too.

[Finnssss22]

Fades as well.

They are sometimes born amongst the Trollocs. Even Aginor has no idea how other than some kind of side effect of using the True Power.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Fades as well.

They are sometimes born amongst the Trollocs. Even Aginor has no idea how other than some kind of side effect of using the True Power.

 

 

I'm not sure about the TP stuff. It's claimed they're throwbacks to their human genetic stock--mutants, basically.

[iceknight27377]

Ask Narg. Narg Smart.                 

[mb]

There was at least 1 similar thread in the past.

 

Like some poster told, trollocs mate like other animals.

And like another told, myrddraal are throwbacks to the human side.

 

The encyclopaedia site and the guide both have info about them.

 

 

my understanding is that all trollocs and most myrddraal were destroyed.

Also that there will not be new trollocs for a long time.  Aginor/Osangar is dead, the surviving Forsaken I take do not have skill for creating shadowspawn, darkfriend channelers were captured by ogier.

[Finnssss22]

 

Fades as well.

They are sometimes born amongst the Trollocs. Even Aginor has no idea how other than some kind of side effect of using the True Power.

 

 

I'm not sure about the TP stuff. It's claimed they're throwbacks to their human genetic stock--mutants, basically.

 

Aginor attempted to create Trolloc's without success, his creations did not live long. That was until he incorporated the True Power in their making. The Fades were a side effect of that process.

 

How were the Gholams made? Were they created or bred like the Trollocs? How exactly are they controlled if they are immune to the One Power?

ROBERT JORDAN:

The gholam—singular and plural are the same—were created, not bred. Supposedly their creation involved making them so that they would be obedient to the Chosen, whoever they might be at any given time. This was an attempt at copying something that had turned up in Myrddraal, which seem incapable of disobeying one of the Chosen, possibly because of the use of the True Power in creation of the Trollocs, the parent stock of the Myrddraal. Even Aginor, who created the Trollocs, and thus indirectly the Myrddraal, was uncertain about the actual cause. (Becoming one of the Forsaken involves receiving a mark from the Dark One in return for your oaths; this mark is invisible and cannot be sensed by another human being, even another of the Forsaken, but it can be by certain non-human creatures, including Myrddraal and Draghkar among others. This may play a part in the Myrddraal's obedience but doesn't explain it completely.) This element in gholam has some flaws, however, as we have seen in a small measure. In any case, if I were you, I wouldn't try giving orders to a gholam unless I were one of the Forsaken.

And...

 

Where do Trollocs come from? Are there male and female Trollocs that mate? Are there only male Trollocs that mate with animals and/or humans to reproduce? Are Trollocs neuter, grown in a big vat at Shayol Ghul? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

ROBERT JORDAN:

You know the original source, of course...a blending of human and animal genetic material in an effort to produce the "perfect" soldier, though as envisioned by somebody who had never seen combat. Yes, there are female Trollocs, though you don't want to know more than that...there was a clear statement of this actually—that Trollocs breed—when where Myrddraal come from was explained. Sometimes a Trolloc off-spring is a throwback, but not all the way back to human, and twisted. Thus, eyeless but with keen vision, very strong indeed though not in Trolloc-class, able to vanish into shadows & reappear in other shadows.

 

There are no female Myrddraal; not even the laddie who made the Trollocs in the first place knew why...Myrddraal must have their "pleasures" with captured human women...there is no possibility of cross-breeding—it was tested, during the War of the Power, in the crudest sort of way; the Myrddraal isn't sterile, but its sperm kills both human and Trolloc ova—and the sex practices and other attributes of Myrddraal are such that a very strong woman might retain her sanity for six months, but very few do.

And...

Ishamael's corpse in The Dragon Reborn had only pits where his eyes and mouth once were. Was this a result of the True Power? If this is true, is the True Power the reason that Fades have no eyes, but some supernatural abilities?

ROBERT JORDAN:

The True Power is reason that Ishamael's corpse had no eyes, just as it was the reason that his eyes had been caverns of flame, but it not precisely the reason that Fades have no eyes. The True Power as well as the One Power was used in creation of Trollocs, which proved to be uncontrollable and useless as soldiers until the first Myrddraal were born, throwbacks to the human stock used in creating Trollocs, but twisted by the inclusion of the True Power in making Trollocs.

[Magicana]

As a side note, when the genetic line has a throw back to the animal side, the 'creation' dies.

[threadnecromancer]

I always wondered if the animal throwbacks were female. It would explain so much...

[mb]

As far as I am aware, neither author commented about the gender of animal throwbacks.

The death of the throwbacks I guess would be due to something else than its gender.

some possibilities::

-the throwback not being able to get nutrients from its mother; either inside or (out of) the womb.

-something in the genes of the throwback.

-trolloc food being incompatible with the digestive system of the throwback.

[Magicana]

As far as I am aware, neither author commented about the gender of animal throwbacks.

The death of the throwbacks I guess would be due to something else than its gender.

some possibilities::

-the throwback not being able to get nutrients from its mother; either inside or (out of) the womb.

-something in the genes of the throwback.

-trolloc food being incompatible with the digestive system of the throwback.

 

There was definitely a quote about it -somewhere-, I just don't remember where. Possibly the BWB? I'll check.

 

Edit: Found it. It's in the section on Myrddraal in BWB.

 

 

Trollocs do not always breed true; instead they sometimes produce throwbacks to either the animal or the human side of their genetics. The throwbacks to the animal half die, but the throwbacks to the human side usually survive, though corrupted by the evil of the original makers, and are called Myrddraal.