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Subject Pierson's Puppeteer Bio-Information

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[quote:Nessus 595486:MV83MDkwNTlfMTA4NjQzMDNfMjczMzk4MUQ=]
[color=green][b]Language[/b][/color]

The beautiful musical language of the Puppeteers cannot be imitated by beings with a single throat (which unfortunately includes every other sentient life-form in Known Space). The language's complexity is compounded by an eighteen note octave scale which apparently relates as much information to a Puppeteer as actual words. Their separate larynxes can produce intonations that range from dissonant harmonies to burst or orchestral music. It is impossible to determine the sex of a Puppeteer by the timbre of its voice, and it is frustratingly thought by some male humans that the voice of a Puppeteer is that of an attractive woman.

The Puppeteer's huge doubled brain allows them to carry on two independent conversations at the same time, in two separate languages. They are outstanding linguists, a feature of both their vast intelligence and their need to protect themselves diplomatically. They speak [i]Interworld[/i], the language of Known Space, when speaking to humans.

An upset Puppeteer loses the ability to maintain human vocal expression. A terrified Puppeteer's scream resembles a dying steam calliope and often the Puppeteer will then bury its head.
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Original Message Sex Life

Puppeteers do not discuss their sex life with aliens.

The Puppeteer reproductive systems requires the use of three separate genders, not two. A non-sentient female is used as a host for the growing foetus, while the other two genders both have ovipositor or penile organs, one deposits eggs, one sperm. Nessus the puppeteer featured in Ringworld was of the egg-bearing type, while the Hindmost provided sperm. The drone or host animal is a "cousin" species to the puppeteers which breeds among themselves to produce more drones. The sentient Puppeteers refer to these drone animals as "females". Both sentient genders of puppeteers preferred to be addressed as "he", at least in English. When the foetus is mature it hatches of out of the drones body and is cared for by its Puppeteer parents.

The Puppeteers by their very nature are vegetarians, so the concept of having the puppeteer embryo feeding on the host drone "female" and then breaking out of the female's body is slightly inconsistent with evolution as we know it. In the story, Carol suggested that perhaps the Puppeteers bred, not by Larry's "Digger Wasp" theory, but instead that the host, an animal smaller than the Puppeteers but of the same basic body structure, and often kept as a "pet" by the Puppeteers, is impregnated (perhaps using the mouth's as orifices) by the winning Puppeteers following "The Dance" (the highly competitive dance practiced constantly by the Hindmost in the Ringworld Throne).

The gestating embryo is held in a special womb or even the stomach. The Puppeteer parents strictly supervise the diet of the host whist the embryo is developing (ensuring a vegetarian diet only for the hosts are omnivorous), and when the Puppeteer foetus grows large enough, or uncomfortable to the host, it is either "born" or "regurgitated" to be cared for by its true Puppeteer parents.

No forms of contraception, except abstinance and neutering surgery will work for Puppeteers. The population on their homeworld is currently at one Trillion.

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