#there’s really just no conceivable way to keep purebred alicorns from going extinct

[bookwyrminspiration]

Theres no alicorns besides the family we know of, so, if the council wants there to be more alicorns, doesnt that mean Wynn and Luna will have to... have babies together?

excellent question, nonsie. The entire situation with the alicorns and trying to bring a species back from the literal brink of extinction does raise several questions and concerns, many of them more so as you get deeper into the science of how it might work.

cw: discussion and theories regarding animal breeding. inbreeding, hybrids, etc.

(Disclaimer: not an expert in any of this, I just briefly researched some of the science behind repopulation and tried to summarize it in the context of this question. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. You can also look it up yourself if you’re interested!)

long answer: alicorns have a basically 100% chance of extinction even though there are now double the number. Double sounds impressive, but they only went from two to four, which isn’t anywhere near the number needed to repopulate the species. There’s something called the 50/500 rule, meaning 50 members of the species is needed to help combat inbreeding concerns and 500 to “reduce genetic drift”. This has been applied to many different species but it’s always better to have the specific information from that species which we will not have seeing as this is a fictional species.

Even if the elves went the route of Luna and Wynn breeding, that would likely lead to genetic defects and complications. They aren’t perfect specimen. It wouldn’t work.

The elves would need to find several dozen more alicorns hidden around the globe to even have a chance at preventing extinction. They can’t do it the way things are right now. When a population dips below 1,000 there’s a high chance they’ll go extinct and right now it’s just one family of four.

however, it could be possible for hybrids to become a thing. There may be a species similar enough to the alicorns that breeding between the species could produce a fertile hybrid. Purebred alicorns would die out, but these hybrids could breed amongst themselves and whatever other animal they are part. My first instinct was to say unicorn but I have a memory of kotlc unicorns being very different than the unicorns usually shown in fantasy media. Unsure what is similar enough to an alicorn to effective reproduce with them and I doubt we’ll ever know the genetic makeup of fictional kotlc creatures so we can only speculate

short answer: there’s nothing the elves can do to prevent purebred alicorns from going extinct. They haven’t saved them. I’m theres just now a longer time before they’ll go extinct.

(tw, mention of religion and a few christian religious stories) so why say they’re saved? I think it’s likely this was included because it’s a middle grade fantasy series that’s already denounced human science, so theres no need to stick strictly to human reproductive sciences. Another thing, when we hear “two members of the same species are going to repopulate everything,” a lot of us probably think religious things, even if we weren’t raised Christian/catholic (I was raised bahai so I don’t know the difference between those or which one uses this story). It’s like Adam and Eve or all those animals on the ark. It’s likely based on subconscious religious stories that found their way into kotlc. Like I said, even people who have never been part of those religions (like me), know a lot about it. Regardless of Shannon’s beliefs, which I do not know and will not theorize on, growing up/living in America as a white person influences the religion she is exposed to.

I think I got way more invested into this question than you were expecting so I’ll stop here. But that detail has always bothered me so I enjoyed the opportunity to explore it and think about it from a more professional stand point. I hope that answers what you were asking, but if not feel free to send another ask!! This is a very intriguing topic and I’d love to talk more about it <33