The Dredge

The Gith of Athas have evolved to bear their young via the laying of eggs. A Gith females can lay up to as many as 9 eggs in a single clutch and the various tribes of the Great Northwestern Nation of the Gith Authority operate a scattered network of hatcheries in shared territories. These spaces are often large rocky outcroppings or underground caverns.

Despite their often mutual hostility due to competition, the various tribes of the nation work in concert to keep these remote hidden places within Gith hands and clear of predators.

The various tribes move into these areas in a rotation based on agreement or intimidation. Tribes will move into this area usually coinciding with some event of astrological import. The females will lay and secure their clutches of eggs deep in the caves below and in the nooks and crannies of the rock.

The eggs will hatch over a period of the next 2-4 weeks..but gestation of up to 6 weeks is not unheard of, in which time the Gith hatchlings will instinctively crawl and dig their way to the surface,in many cased trampling and killing their own siblings and broadly tracking their mother by scent.

As each hatchling emerges, they are often but not always, named in the order by which they arrived. This name sets up a birth order not only for that Gith among their siblings but sometimes among other Gith born at the sametime. As that Gith and their siblings are all the same age this sets up a birth order and ranking similar to mammalian races and their offspring. It denotes rank and authority based on age.

Quite often a band of Gith may be pushed out of the area by a more powerful one before all the eggs have hatched. Those Sleepyhead hatchlings who gestate longer may end up hatching with an entirely different tribes' hatchlings. This is not uncommon and helps aid the Gith in genetic diversity.