#mostly because the xi ro quote stays with me forever

[xivu-arath]

the hive are my niche so I might as well chime in!

I've never really gotten the "it's unrealistic for a three year old to be an experienced warrior/navigator/etc" argument for the same reasons cassiefisherdrake provides, that... many species don't age and mature at the rate that humans do! additionally, given what little information we're handed about young, motherhood and ageing as krill, we can infer a few things

the krill had large broods of children, guarded for a certain amount of time by mothers (and at this time they're referred to as spawn, not children). the helium drinkers had ten of xi ro's sisters to eat as tribute, but she doesn't make note of this being an enormous number, or the entirety of her living relatives, and while she's upset by it, the eating of children is considered normal. these are also surviving children (this is how aurash refers to herself in her letter to sathona), so there's some dwindling of numbers between krill that are spawned and krill that survive to leave a mother's protection

what I took from all of this was that from spawn, krill quickly reach an adult stage of growth and consciousness - probably with some wiggle room in the first few months where they're still very likely to die, and are thus more disposable

that they had ships, societies, the capability to make histories and war on each other came not from living a human-length amount of time, but being able to start functioning as an adult (if you made it that far!) much, much sooner. this meshes well with the implication that they have lots of kids (something you can also make assumptions about by how hive thralls vastly outnumber any other caste of hive). plus, there isn't a total loss of knowledge and skill, as krill society has the fertile members of the species also being able to live far beyond the usual lifespan, and thus connect the generations

but to step away from the in-universe reasoning for a second... taking the krill lifespan to be short regardless of how long a year is on fundament makes sense because that is what makes the tragedy work!! the siblings have to feel as if they are just seeing the world and are already losing it. sathona has to have the clock running out on her dream of a longer life. the desperation, the futility, the fear that they will be too late to do anything at all - those are the thematic cores of why they must dive, and why aurash makes the pact

to me, having a 30 year old argue against the leviathan or stand on the needleship's hull just detracts from the overall tone - but of course, this will differ from person to person. but to me, the poignancy of being both still very young and already doomed - that's why they must truly be short-lived

i wonder how many earth years fundament's year counts

cuz we are told that krill are naturally shortlived and live only 10 years at best but... 10 years of fundament. how long is one fundament year though?

like, considering some eliksni are pre-golden age and still kicking, avarge 300 years golden age human lifespan is laughable. if one fundament year is, idk, 6 earth years? 10 fundament years would be 60. not ideal and pathetic among many species but also not that bad honestly. also more plausible than "they were literally 3 earth years old and already were navigators, engeneers, martial artists ect."