A Lady's Favor -- Tarkas

From SOTS

The rarity of senior males among the Tarka population was a subject of some interest to human biologists, who for many years could not understand the process by which an average Tarka male could become a senior. For years after first contact, (See: Trailer 4 ) these questions remained unanswered: why did so few Tarka males ever achieve the Change? And of those who did, why did some undergo the Change so early in life while others waited literally decades longer to go through the same physical process? If the Change was a random event, visited on only a tiny percentage of the male population, then why was it so common in members of the highest castes and less often achieved by lower caste Tarkas? Was the caste system based on a genetic tendency to produce more viable males? And if this was so, why were males Tarkas from humbler origins able to achieve the Change so readily after they had made some noteworthy contribution to society? Was there some correlation between the social recognition these Tarkas achieved and the production of male sex hormones?

Due to the social taboos surrounding the open discussion of the Change and its triggering mechanism it took years to find the answers to these questions. The key to understanding was finally discovered not in the laboratory but in the library; the answer was revealed when our linguists were finally able to translate the Tarka gutter dialects. A great wealth of pornographic literature had been written in these lower-caste languages over thousands of years and a sizable majority of the fantasy scenarios in Tarka pornography are directly concerned with the Change—and its aftermath of course.

The mechanism by which Tarka males achieve the Change is simple: they must eat the unfertilized eggs of Tarka females. Because these eggs are her personal and highly sacred property and because all Tarka females are aware of the prize that their eggs represent, no female will relinquish an egg to a male without reason. If she does not have a worthy male available at the end of her egg cycle, a female Tarka will simply eat the egg herself. The act of giving an egg to a male as a reward for his achievements or for services rendered is sometimes referred to in more civilized circles, but always obliquely. The act carries a delicately euphemistic name: "Shal mek Tot" or "The Lady's Favor".

No data is available on how many eggs a male Tarka must consume in order to trigger the Change; there is some evidence that the onset of the Change may vary with the individual. However, it is obvious that a single egg, or even several, is insufficient to trigger the transformation; it seems far more likely that the Change is brought on by a fairly steady diet of eggs over a significant period of time. It is also apparent that when a male Tarka consumes even a single unfertilized egg, the broth of fertility chemicals consumed has an immediate & powerful effect on his body and mind. All authors willing to discuss the subject describe the consumption of the egg as an ecstatic, almost psychedelic experience—eminently desirable even if it does not lead immediately to the onset of maturity.

Once the mechanism of the Change was revealed the behavior of lower-caste and less affluent Tarka males was far more easily understood. Their lives can be seen as a never-ending quest for reproductive viability and all the privileges that go with it; their willingness to accept great personal risk is balanced by what they perceive as the possibility of great personal gain. Achieving the Change is an important goal for any male Tarka but only one in a thousand is ever able to become a father; under the circumstances, male Tarka who are not born into wealth and power are extremely motivated to prove their worth to the females that surround them and to achieve as much wealth and status as possible.