On this page you will find information about how to care for sick norns. It is meant
especially for beginners, but it may also contain useful tips for more advanced breeders.
The description of the herbs and weeds refer to the original Albia; they are all included
in Terra Nornia and Darwinia, but in these worlds you will find additional herbs and
weeds. If you haven't heard of Terra Nornia yet, please check out The Palace of the Evil Shee for
details - it's great!
The antigens
The first thing you should know is that diseases in Albia come in the form of eight
antigens. You can monitor the antigen and antibody levels in the science kit. Antigen 0,
1, 2, 3 and 4 are rather nasty diseases, even if your norns don't cough or sneeze. Antigen
5, 6 and 7 are far less dangerous because they don't use up as much glucose in the
production process of antibodies. They also have a faster decay rate which means that your
norns (or grendels) will recover more quickly. If you notice that one of your norns is
sick, the first thing you should do is to isolate it from the others, because if it is
coughing and/or sneezing it is highly contagious and will spread the disease.
How to cure a sick norn
Now comes the "hard part": You will have to get your norn to eat to keep its
life force up, but many norns won't eat when they are sick. At least (in my experience),
they won't eat carrots or cheese, so you will have to offer them something else. A very
good medicine for sick norns is the chicken soup cob from the Norn Underground,
it seems to be attractive even to sick norns, most of the time they will drink it without
a problem. You can also try Sandra Linkletter's strained carrots, by the way they are also very
useful to teach your babies to eat. Some norns will rather eat herbs than food when they
are sick, try to feed them morning glory and fever few, especially morning glory
if they are in pain.
About energy injections and how to use them
If your norns won't eat at all, you can give them energy injections or better, power
infusions because these don't have any side effects. If you inject them with energy from
the science kit, you should know that this is rather painful for your norns. The energy is
converted to glucose and pain, so don't forget to give them a shot of pain killer as well.
Another side effect of energy is the fact that it decreases the level of the ageing
chemical which controls the life stages of norns and grendels. This means that they will
age more quickly. You can prevent this by injecting them with the same amount of
antioxidans (also found on the injection page of the science kit), a chemical that rises
the level of ageing. If you want to know more about the function of all the chemicals
listed in the science kit, you can find a detailed description at the Norn Underground.
Anyway, if you choose to use the energy injections, don't be too cautious concerning
the doses. Two of my first norns died because I had read in a beginner's guide that all
the chemicals in the injection kit had terrible side effects and that one should only use
them in very small doses. I would recommend to begin with three full syringes and repeat
the injections if necessary. You can also inject your norns with antibodies to speed up
the healing process, or use these as a vaccine if you are unable to isolate a sick norn
from the others.
Coughing and sneezing
What can you do against sneezing and coughing? Alas, in the current version of
Creatures there is no medicine against coughing. What about the cough medicine, you will
ask? Well, the "cough medicine" is useless against coughing, it only helps
against sneezing. When I was a beginner, I always injected my norns with cough medicine
when they were sick (and coughing) and wondered why it did not decay in the bloodstream.
(You can monitor it in the science kit like every other chemical.) Then I have realized
that it only reacted with histamine A (the toxin that causes sneezing), but not with
histamine B (which causes coughing). A side effect of the cough medicine is that it makes
your norns sleepy, which is a good thing. They will recover more quickly if they sleep a
lot during their illnesses.
Evolving bacteria
I have realized that in longer running worlds the diseases seem to change over time.
With each antigen then comes one (or more) of the four "unknown toxins" from the
chemical list, and the histamine A and B levels rise higher than ever before. In these
cases the diseases seem to be nastier than before, but there is nothing you can do about
it.
The cave flies
The cave flies from Cyberlife give your norns a mild form of antigen 6, one of the less
dangerous diseases. I have used this cob for a while and noticed that my norns rarely
contracted antigen 6 naturally, because they always had a great amount of antibodies
against it in their bloodstream. They have also learned very quickly to defend themselves
against these blood sucking insects and seemed even to have fun when pushing them and
swatting them out of the air. They aren't really dangerous for healthy adult norns, at
least for the three standard breeds of norns that come with your Creatures CD. In later
genomes (Purple Mountain, Forest and Ron) there are two additional reaction genes for
geddonase, a new dangerous toxin only spread by the cave flies. These norns are affected
more seriously when stung, because geddonase reacts with glucose and glycogen. If
you have the cave flies in your world, always keep an eye on any norns that like to play
near the submarine bay or on the grendel tree.
The Grendel
Are you wondering why I mention the grendel on this page? Well, most beginners fear him
like the devil, because the documentation that comes with Creatures is very anti grendel.
If you believe in what it says, the grendel is a nasty animal that punches your norns,
poisons them with glycotoxin and infects them with various diseases - all this just for
fun.
When I was a beginner, I believed that grendels must have special instincts which made
them beat up the norns - well, this is not the case. When you edit a grendel genome, you
won't find anything like that. There is a script in the world file that makes them behave
like Rambo. It changes every grendel kiss into a punch, the poor guy can't help it, even
if he only wants to pat a norn.
The documentation also says that the grendel secretes glycotoxin that will poison any
norns near him. This is not true. They don't have a gene for it, and I'm sure that the
only source for glycotoxin in Albia is the death cup mushroom. I have been monitoring the
glycotoxin levels of my norns when they were near the grendel and I have never seen them
rise. It is just a myth left by the Shee to frighten the Hand. ;-)
Norns can get diseases from the grendel, but the grendel doesn't spread them for fun -
he just hasn't anybody who cares for him. The grendels from the grendel mother
unfortunately lack a lot of the chemical reaction genes, this is why they don't respond to
the injections from the injections kit. If you want to have grendels that behave rather
like norns and that have all the genes, get Sandra Linkletter's
breedable grendels. Don't forget to download also Grendelworld, because they won't
breed in an unaltered Albia. Grendelworld has the Grendel Machine removed, which means
that you must import your grendels. There are also some breedable grendels for download on
my grendel page, they are natural descendants of Sandra
Linkletter's grendels.
I hope that your next encounter with the grendel will be less frightening for all
parts. :-)
Last changes: 28/03/05 |
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