How? You are inferring too much from a 5 year generation line Ulric throws out.
Not inferring anything from one line. It’s the combination of WCSB and later references correcting the 10-year generations in the WCSB to 5-year generations.
It’s also common sense. Leaving time for sibkin to mature and warriors to perform, surveying the growth and performance of every sibkin and bloodnamed warrior in a touman, assessing that data, and using that data to create geneparent pairings for the next generation of warriors is like performing a national census, evaluating thousands of incoming college class applications, and selecting parents for thousands of orphans. The are reasons why the US census is performed once every ten years, why colleges select the vast majority of their freshmen only once a year, and why processes like childhood adoption can take months to years. We shouldn’t expect the creation of Clan trueborn generations to be any less intensive or time-consuming. More so, in fact, given how the trueborn represents the pinnacle of Clan society.
The five years encompasses the basic turnover of most of the touman
Toumans don’t turn over every five years. Per CWoK, Clan warriors have an _average_ life expectancy of 45 years. (45.2 years to be specific!) Trueborns usually undergo their first Trial of Position or Blooding around 20 years. So, all other things being equal, about half of a touman will turn over every 25 years.
Ulric sent a trickle of replacements through those sibkos for the years it will be until the Warden Wolves had their own programs produce warriors.
I saw no quote to that effect in FMWC. FMWC states that Ulric sent sibkos with Clan Wolf-in-Exile that ranged from 2 to 14 years of age at the time Ulric sent them. Per my upstream message, that’s actually consistent with Wolf trueborn generations that are five years apart, specifically with sibkos that were mostly composed of 3-, 8-, and 13-year olds at the time Ulric sent them.
If Ulric did order his Scientist Caste to create a continuous “trickle of replacements” in preparation for the creation of Clan Wolf-in-Exile, then Ulric ordered his scientists to deviate from the 5-year standard for that special circumstance. That is not representative of the 5-year cycle that the Clan Scientist Caste normally uses to assess, evaluate, plan, gestate, and decant new trueborn generations. (But again, I’ve seen no evidence that Ulric even did that.)
Further, it would be a disaster and defies logic. Consider the big Bear/Horse battle for Tokasha that involved galaxies. IF that battle had happened say 1 year after your supposed decanting then both of those Clans would be crippled from personnel losses when both had galaxies get mauled for the next four years and be vulnerable to other Clans for that time.
First, per TP:Tokasha, only two galaxies were involved from each side, which represents a relatively small fraction of the relatively large Bear and Horse toumans. Even if one of these Clans suffered 100% casualties in two galaxies, either of these Clans has the depth to cover their assets by redeploying their existing galaxies. (Especially the loser, as they don’t have to garrison Tokasha!)
Moreover, when Clan toumans are truly devastated, they have numerous replacements at their disposal other than trueborn sibkin fresh from their ToPs. There are tons of references in the canon to secondline and garrison galaxies/clusters being moved to frontline status, to increasing the proportion of freeborn warriors in toumans, to harvest trials against other Clans to fill gaps in toumans, to contract bids with other Clans to cover gaps in toumans, to trueborn reserves in lower castes being called up, etc.
So even if the next trueborn generation is a few years away, a major loss is not the end of the world for a touman. In fact, if there was a continuous stream of trueborn warriors, then Clans would not have to resort to these other methods for filling depleted ranks. The existence of these other methods for filling depleted touman ranks is actually strong evidence that the Clans do not maintain a continuous stream of new, trueborn warriors.
Joanna on Coventry or as part of the Coventry campaign as written up in a 'Twilight' arc novel IIRC mentally monologues about the new warriors being tested, ranging from 18 to 14 IIRC and she even divides them between the 18-16 year old and the younger warriors.
Just like a grade in elementary or secondary school, you would expect a three-year range of ages at any particular point in time for a Clan trueborn generation, depending on where decanting dates line up with that particular point in time. For example, at any particular point in time this past school year, my kindergartner’s grade had old 4-year olds, 5-year olds, and young 6-year olds.
I can’t confirm the Twilight quote or those numbers like I did the FMWC reference. (Sorry, I just don’t have the time to search several novels.) But if accurate, a four-year spread might be indicative that the Falcons were not producing trueborn generations every five years at that time. But it’s not definitive proof that the Falcons had a continuous supply of new trueborns, either. Maybe all the Falcons had done was push their Scientist Caste to squeeze their 5-year cycle by six months on either end. (That would be understandable given the pressures of Operation Revival and the Refusal War.). The resulting four-cycle could produce the numbers claimed from the Twilight cycle. But we just don’t know.
Forever Faithful says Huntress had 18 sibko training centers
Which doesn’t mean anything in the context of this argument unless Forever Faithful also provides some info on sibkin ages at those centers. (I think you’re implying that Huntress has 18 centers each representing one year of sibkin maturation. But unless Forever Faithful actually states something to that effect, that’s just one possible implication and not proof of anything.)
Look, I’m not the Clan canon police or anything. Your headcanon and campaigns are your own. All I’m saying is that we have some very clear statements in the canon that the Clans produce new trueborn generations every five years, that these statements are consistent with the age range of the sibkos that Ulric sent with the Wolves-in-Exile, and that these statements are consistent with the existence of the many other methods that the Clans use to replace losses in their toumans in the absence of a continuous stream of new trueborns. I also think these statements are consistent with common sense concerning the timelines needed to allow sibkin to mature and bloodnamed warriors to perform and for the Scientist Caste to survey and assess the prior generations and plan the next one. The only potential evidence that might be inconsistent is the Falcon age range from the Twilight novels, and even that, if accurate and true, can be explained multiple ways. We have zero statements or definitive evidence from the canon that the Clans decant continuous streams of new trueborns. Instead, we have clear statements, dispositive evidence, and I’d argue quite a bit of logic to the contrary.
Hope this helps. My two Kerenskies. YMMV...