Breeding compound

The breeding compounds of Nasheen are a joint venture between the country's magicians and organic technicians. Concocted as a way to "out breed" Chenja while giving Nasheenian women some measure of autonomy to govern the country in the absence of men, the compounds are controlled areas where women are impregnated and nurtured through a complex process that encourages multiple births with every pregnancy. See viability hex for more information.

The innoculations and composites given to women to increase their fecundity do have many side effects, however. The most feared among Nasheenian women is Azam fever, though there are many others.

It's believed that the compounds began as simple health centers. Birth on Umayma has been a dangerous and unpredictable affair from the time the first colonists arrived, and few are able to successfully birth and raise children without the benefit of innoculations and serums, many of which assist in preventing women from miscarrying. Already accustomed to visiting compounds for these purposes, there was less of a culture shift to be made when women were asked to dedicate two years of their lives to birthing children there. This was considered a woman's sacrifice for the war between Nasheen and Chenja, just as men were sacrifcing their own lives at the front.

Fertility is controlled through the application of a viablity hex on male and female Nasheenians during the first three years of their lives. It is only removed for donations by men and for pregnancies approved and conducted within the compounds. However, this does not always prevent illegal pregnancies. Though removing a hex outside the compounds is illegal, it can be performed by any magician, and many will do so - for a price.

Children born and raised within the breeding compounds may go home with their mothers at three years of age, or may remain at the compounds to be raised by the state. Most often, women will raise their female children and leave male children to be farmed out as house boys on the interior, though this practice is changing.

From GOD'S WAR:

Most of the women who permitted themselves illegal pregnancies were whores. Pay a hard-up hedge witch and you could get your viability hex turned back on—everybody had it shut off at the breeding compounds when they were kids. It came with the inoculations.