Kripint late years
*For a better understanding, this is the same Kripint I’ve been using to showcase all the stages of life*
Kripint adulthood years are quite longevous compared to humans. Kripints keep their youth, strength and ability to reproduce for a long time, only beginning to decay around age 80.
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-Senior: Their senior years (80-100) is when their health begins to trip. Their bodies begin to show signs of the age: wrinkles, lose of mass, growth in fur yet less keratine constructs (as well as their keratin constructs will gradually lose its color, turning into the color of the fur).
During this stage, the cartilage will begin to dissolve, so their limbs will lose strength, as the bone is not enough to carry their body weight, so its common for them to go back to just floating.
Another thing that could happen is that they will start loosing sign, usually from one eye at a time. Also, the pouch, once again, completely closes, so technically they wouldn’t need to wear clothes; many still wear them because of what they feel is basic decency, also to put a good example for the loosies who have to start wearing them.
At their latest years (after 95) they will also start losing the ability to impulse themselves while floating (as that’s done primarily with the tail, and the tail is 50% cartilage); so they’ll float low and impulse themselves slowly with the tip of their paws.
Other things that could happen is that the skin will get more thin, and the articulations will lose strength, so those who have retractile claws will begin to show them.
Usually this is the last stage, as 70% of kripints don’t go after 100. However… this is not necessarily because of biology, at least, not directly..
In reality, most kripints will try to have a peaceful more honorable dead.
As per their costumes, those over 80 can retire, for the obvious reasons listed up here. Yet, many kripints choose instead to continue working, even worse, they will ick the dangerous jobs, those that put their life on the line, and then, when worse comes to worse, they will sacrifice themselves for those younger than them; basically cannon meat.
This may seem like a honorable sacrifice, and it is, it requires bravery, however, the real reason they do it for, it’s because most kripints fear living long enough to become senile…
-Senile: This comes with the 100 mark, without fail, it’s even called the “curse of Stila”; no kripint who goes over this age will dodge it.
Any keratin constructs that they have left will fall in a matter of days, leaving them again in pure fur like a newborn, except it will get short, hard and brittle; the wrinkles will get more marked; the eyesight will be completely lost, their eyes turning grayish and opaque; they will lose all their cartilage and even more mass, being completely unable to stand up at all or move their tail, so they would just float aimlessly if anything; their memory will fail… getting into a state of dementia.
These kripints are kept together, being looked over by special caretakers.
Most kripints die within a few years of this, only a few go after the 20 years of senile.
-Elder: Also known as the “blessing of Stila”. Those very few who go after 120 years go through yet another metamorphosis.
They don’t get their eyesight back, but they will instead develop a new way to see, beyond what any other kripint could see. They are given wiseness beyond comprehension, to the point some even believe they can actually see the future.
Their keratin constructs come back stronger, with more and bright colors; their cartilage comes back and strong, although the bones are now more calcified, so the movement, although strong, becomes quite slow; their magic is what becomes the strongest, reaching an otherwise unreachable peak.
Elders are the core of the kripint communities. Each community, per their culture, will have one elder. Elders know when they’ll pass away, usually not living over 150, and that’s when, amongst the senile, a new elder will raise.
If a new elder raises before the current elder is near their end, it’s a sign for a new community of kripints to be formed, and so, the younger adults, specially those with children, must follow this new elder.
The elder is not necessarily the leader of the community, but rather a wise counselor for the leader or leader council.
*More information on how communities work later*
