I don't know if this topic has been raised previously however it's got me pondering.

Where do the little lamplitghters come from? Is it that the residents of BigTown dump their infants in the caves after they've been weened?

Surely the Lamplighters themselves can't be breeding amongst themselves although that isn't impossible since they do not leave the caves until they are 18?

I doubt that the Big Towners send their children back to Little Lamplight because of the general feeling of disdain that they seem to have towards them.

It's been speculated that they take in orphans from the wastes to increase their numbers.

Either they :

1. Grow from the green-mushrooms they harvest.
2. The little girls get pregnant at 13 years old
3. Big Town sends them their kid. But wouldn't they die on the way? I'm sure they would.

Little Lamplight is a very strange place.

My guess is option 1.

I don't know where they come from, but one thing is for sure. They are all little brats. My character is mild-mannered until someone mouths off for no reason, then it's go time. The kids at littlelamplight all deserve to be sold into slavery or shot. The fact that I have no other way of dealing with them than killing them with kindness is one of the only gripes I have about this game. It's like the devs made them extra rude on purpose because they knew the game would be designed to prohibit the slaughter of children. Ironically, the one child who is nicer than all the rest is the one who can be tricked into slavery.

Why do they have to be 18 to have babies?

Where they come from? Ask Satan about that, as they act like they came FROM HELL!! [censored] the little damn freaks, Eugene had the right idea!

They came about from the fact that you can't kill them. Irritating, immortal kids. Hm.

Little Lamplight kicks people out at the ripe old age of 16. There's (AFAIK) one kid you can bring to Little Lamplight so they do take in non-Mungos who travel across the Wasteland to them - which I imagine can't be a large number of children. This gets really gross now - so you may want to stop reading. Otherwise, it's teenaged pregnancy.

200 years, starting with a classroom about 30 ish. Children born to 14 and 15 year old girls (probably 16 as well, I imagine that being pregnant might be an extenuating enough circumstance to allow a slight extension to your stay in Little Lamplight. So it's been about twelve or thirteen generations. No wonder why they're down to less than a dozen inhabitants. The descendants of a society of inbred teenaged moms that are forced to leave their babies before they start teething. That's Little Lamplight. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go wash out my brain.