And the nasty surprise I had for Sever. That she's the tenth generation of a pretty dire tradition. Her clan had a hero a long while back and they decided that they wanted that hero around in case things got bad again. So they've been birthing clones like a grapevine ever since.

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The malleable genes in some creatures allow for stuff like this. Look up the crawfish self-replicating all over the place and think of how much of a scourge that is. The more savage Deepworms made it a whole part of their culture to start tribes if there was enough resources or to keep one particular specimen/individual around if only in body and potential. This is a part of Sever's self-worth to a degree and it leads to a whole mess later on.