I don't want to relitigate this argument, but I would note that making a diegetic argument like "the character is happy with it" is not necessarily that relevant to a non-diegetic critique. Characters aren't real, and can be written to feel whatever the author wants about whatever situation they're in. Non-diegetic critique raises questions like "Do this character's feelings feel believable?" and "What is this saying?", and that's the frame of reference I'm coming from when I say the pregnancy stuff did not work for me.
Like, my great-grandmother had seven kids. This was not her choice. Constant pregnancies left her trapped for the better part of her adult life, not to mention pretty viscerally unpleasant complications with the last few. This is fairly typical of the experience of women before widely available family planning; it's what this kind of thing actually looks like in real life. So the idea of Halla having nine children, and still having time for the vast array of cultivator bullshit we do every turn, and this being treated as entirely stress-free, just kind of shatters my suspension of disbelief.
I mean, on on level, fair enough, on another level, Halla can shapeshift and fly. She's literally superhuman in just about every way and certainly physically so...her having the endurance to do things that are literally physically impossible for real people is not surprising. Having lots of kids is definitely physically hard on a woman, but we've seen Norsemen have their entire chest caved in and keep going like it's no big deal...things that are physically hard or damaging for real people being basically ignored by the Norse to the surprise of even other cultivators is an ongoing theme in this Quest.
For me, pregnancy being comparatively easy for her to the point that 9 kids aren't likely to be a big deal and she loses little time to it falls into the same category as lifting large objects being easy for her to the point she can hurl boulders. It's self-evidently a superhuman physical feat she can do purely because she is, in fact, superhuman. Like, I'm not trying to be flippant here, this issue did not even occur to me, and not because I'm not aware it did and does apply to real women, but because I just immediately went 'Oh, right, she's a high-end physically oriented cultivator, never mind.' immediately after considering how her pregnancies would go.
We do know that, due to their lower Hamr, the same is
not universally true of Norsewomen in the setting, who experience less trouble than real women did but can still have issues and die in childbirth (there was discussion of this as a risk during Halla's first pregnancy). Hamr 7, however, is enough that this is not really a problem for Halla specifically (I believe it was at Hamr 6 where we removed the risks entirely).
There definitely is also the aspect of, as you say, 'What is this saying?' but I think there's been enough subtext of Norse society being deeply messed up that her being comfortable with this arrangement falls into the same category as a lot of her other societal views not quite lining up with those of the reader. Like, Norse society or Halla being okay with something has not been presented as making that thing inherently good, and in particular there've definitely been references showing that she, quite reasonably in context, fundamentally does not understand mortals and what their lives are without the casual super powers all of the Norse possess. Halla operates from a position of profound privilege in a lot of ways, and that does come up in the narrative.
You're right. I'll see if I can tighten up the portrayal in future updates. I'll also see about adding in more player agency when it comes to this, though I'm not sure how to go about doing that.
I mean, the straightforward thing to do is not have options locked when we're pregnant just noted as high risk. We probably won't take them barring great need, but we'll at least be able to if we really feel it's worth it. In terms of getting pregnant in the first place, an option to use seidr to prevent pregnancy (without worrying about the mechanics of the specific spell) if we feel like it is easy enough to institute, I'd think, though that would be a little weirder to come out of nowhere. Though, on the other hand, we did just learn seidr (something most women dabble in), so maybe that
would make sense.
We might want more people because we don't want another Enemy Interrupt event.
It's my intention to bring several people, yes. We usually decide that as part of the Visit vote itself, but I could add a note to that effect.
