Elderling Creations Theory (Spoilers through all the books and Dragon Haven)

[Valarya]

CoD-level spoiling

It would appear that at least some of the theories 'thul had on Elderlings and how they come to be were true. For an Elderling child to be viable and alive at birth it requires a certain level of development. Thus it was not possible for Malta/reyn to have a living child until after their changes had progressed to a certain point. Had Tintaglia not abandoned them, that point would have been reached sooner.

It seems to 'thul odd that children born to Elderlings require the stuff of dragons to live at all, so they theorize that fully formed Elderlings (ones that have been finished by dragons in all aspects) possibly have more viable children, though the children will need dragon proximity to become full elderlings themselves.

I removed some of the stuff inside your spoiler tag for this reply because I want to focus on one point.

Warning! CoD spoilers within:

What makes you think the child isn't viable based on the stage-of-Elderling Malta/Reyn are?

I really don't think it's that at all, but that SINCE Malta and Reyn have been changed, period, it makes their bodies less able to produce viable life. I think it's merely based on two things:

1. they are less human than before... so how can they expect their bodies to work like human bodies and get the same results?

2. Dragon Magic is involved.

I stick by my pre-CoD statement that all the babies born around so much dragon-magic (Rain Wilders, etc) are semi-Elderling themselves.... babies already changed to something not-fully-human. Unfortunately, like Greft, their bodies will eventually not work like a humans, and not be able to stay alive. This is why those half-formed need a dragon's help.

I suspect it was very common of old for Elderlings to have this problem with off-spring, else why would Tarman have the memory of what needed to be done?