General Q and A

codaman wrote:

that's why I had been working on a mail system, Considering the risks of land travel, that's why I also have been putting together a character that could fit the bill. Originally back in the day it was going to be a male creature Identical to a harpy, but everyone shot him down before I finished him, so that obviously won't work. which seems to happen a hell of a lot here. if it doesn't have breasts it must be destroyed... lol

So I came to a thought of a possible "AngelAir" mail service. We've got the girls for the job, and I had been working out how it would work. Looks like we're going to need some stamps made xD

Maybe it wasn't the fact he was a male, maybe it just wasn't a good idea. Stuff happens. Go back to the drawing board.

Trust me, I know alot about bad ideas
(^-^)v

Getting offtopic here. If you want to continue that discussion, please take it to pms or something else.
Next question please.

Do Nekos have little stamina like great cats and usually save it by hiding instead of running, and ambushing preys with a strong pounce out of a hiding spot.

This is what I imagine and hope to be true.
I proposed it in the Elves vs Nekos thread and I didn't receive a straight answer.

Who or what has the power to turn a man into a giant? (Besides a Guardian). I'm a little stuck here in my story development.

depends how giant, a fairy can change the size of someone, but not anywhere past 15 ft probably.

the dimensional pocket storms might be able to if said person gets lucky, or unlucky rather.

past that...any insanely, ridiculously enhanced rune of some kind? I'm not exactly sure myself, honestly I've just accepted the idea that only fairies and guardians have that ability.

Still, fairies can't make it permanent, or that's what I think, as I've read the wiki and it somehow states that the sizeshifting magic in other beings will finally wear off, so you can be a giant for some hours or even days, but not forever... unless, of course, something make the change permanent - but knowing how the sizeshifting magic works for fairies, the new size is supposed to be the new actual size, right?

Also about Nekos, do they give birth in litters like cats?

Feadraug wrote:

Still, fairies can't make it permanent, or that's what I think, as I've read the wiki and it somehow states that the sizeshifting magic in other beings will finally wear off, so you can be a giant for some hours or even days, but not forever... unless, of course, something make the change permanent - but knowing how the sizeshifting magic works for fairies, the new size is supposed to be the new actual size, right?

Yeah, Fairy magic is a temporary thing. It requires the fairy to be close by to keep it going. If you somehow escaped a fairy while tiny, and she just gave up and went away, you'd return to your normal size after a few minutes. I think it is different for inanimate objects though, judging by Crisis' beltpouch and Anna's clothes. It probably has to do with magical fields. All living things have a magical field that probably interferes with and weakens the spell over time. Inanimate objects would have no field, so size-changes could be permanent.

As for making someone giant, yeah, I don't think they could. I imagine the only thing they can grow to giant sizes is themselves.

Probably for the best that it can't happen though. Just like shrinking preds to human size, growing a human to pred size seems like something that could be abused.

I like their magic being limited... and when I referred giant, I didn't mean what others think - 50 feet and beyond - but maybe twice a normal human's size. Taking in account fairies' limitations for shrinking and growing other things, we can rest assure that no one will abuse of their magic, or else it would place fairies as 'game breakers'. And we wouldn't like that to happen, right? Fairies have already given us a lot of headaches while balancing them to see them overpowered again.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Also about Nekos, do they give birth in litters like cats?

We could assume they aren't just humanoids with feline features, but actual felines that evolved until they had their current humanoid forms. Then, it wouldn't be a surprise if they gave birth in litters. But there might be some subspecies that are a bit more human than feline and they give birth to one or just two babies at once. Can't be sure, thought, I'm no neko expert.

Thanks for the help. I'm just gonna have to figure something else out. No giant dude, bummer.

Final question... for now.

What is the scoop on Iracal Island? It's on the Felaryan map all the way to the left. So far there are no entries on it.

For the fairy growing a human at its normal height, maybe they just double its size? If it's 6' something tall, she can grow it to 12' something and past that would cause the fey to collapse.

Sort of a big question(s) here:


Reproduction in Felarya:

Do (insert species here) live birth or lay eggs or something else? .... I think this information needs to be included in the wiki for species pages.

Do different sizes of species give birth to different size offspring? (For example, say a 100 ft tall naga and a 10 ft tall naga both gave birth (or laid eggs, depending on answer 1) would the child/eggs be the same size or would the one from the larger mother have a "head start"?

How do size differences between parents affect reproduction? Can a small male impregnate a much larger female (same species)? Can a larger male impregnate a much smaller female (same species).

Grave wrote:

Sort of a big question(s) here:


Reproduction in Felarya:

Do (insert species here) live birth or lay eggs or something else? .... I think this information needs to be included in the wiki for species pages.

Do different sizes of species give birth to different size offspring? (For example, say a 100 ft tall naga and a 10 ft tall naga both gave birth (or laid eggs, depending on answer 1) would the child/eggs be the same size or would the one from the larger mother have a "head start"?

How do size differences between parents affect reproduction? Can a small male impregnate a much larger female (same species)? Can a larger male impregnate a much smaller female (same species).

I don't know much about the other species, but I believe Harpies are able to mate with males from any other species and still produce Harpies, and I'm pretty sure they lay eggs.
As for the size of the mate, I think that works pretty much the way you would imagine it does. That's the reason I was asking about turning a man into a giant earlier.

gt500x wrote:

Grave wrote:

Sort of a big question(s) here:


Reproduction in Felarya:

Do (insert species here) live birth or lay eggs or something else? .... I think this information needs to be included in the wiki for species pages.

Do different sizes of species give birth to different size offspring? (For example, say a 100 ft tall naga and a 10 ft tall naga both gave birth (or laid eggs, depending on answer 1) would the child/eggs be the same size or would the one from the larger mother have a "head start"?

How do size differences between parents affect reproduction? Can a small male impregnate a much larger female (same species)? Can a larger male impregnate a much smaller female (same species).

I don't know much about the other species, but I believe Harpies are able to mate with males from any other species and still produce Harpies, and I'm pretty sure they lay eggs.
As for the size of the mate, I think that works pretty much the way you would imagine it does. That's the reason I was asking about turning a man into a giant earlier.

Alrighty, where to start.

Most non-mammalian preds tend to lay eggs, but it varies.

Predators born from eggs tend to be smaller at first than those who aren't. This mirrors how things work in the natural world, really. Eggs can be laid in groups, guarded, and don't put as much of a physical toll on the mother...but the babies are smaller and weaker at the time of hatching. With live births, the baby is held inside the mother longer, causes severe pregnancy symptoms and limits the mother's mobility...but when they are born, they tend to be larger and stronger.

Also, keep in mind that, besides Harpies, Dryads and Slug girls, all pred species will have both female AND male genders. Just because most people tend to choose not to mention them does not mean they aren't there. It is likely that there is a slightly larger ratio of females to males, to help prevent overpopulation...but males are by no means rare or uncommon. A good number of people just tend to not use them for some reason.

I'll just run down the list.
- Nagas: This can vary between the different naga sub-species. Most tend to lay eggs, but you do have some that will do a live birth. Nagas that hatch from eggs are roughly the size of a small-medium sized human child at the time of hatching. Live-birthed naga babies would be several times larger at their time of birth.

- Dridders: They all lay eggs. Whether they do them in mass groups like a spider, or in small numbers more like a human is not clear. Considering the more social/tribal nature of Dridders, I imagine it is the latter...since if they all laid eggs in massive numbers, they would overrun the forest. Like nagas, baby dridders would come out roughly the size of a small-medium human child.

- Mermaids: Mermaids lay eggs, at least the fish based ones. Esturine (spelling?) Mermaids are based on dolphins and likely give birth to live children. Considering the mobile nature of mermaids, especially river mermaids, it is possible they lay large numbers of eggs, bury them, and leave the hatchlings to fend for themselves, more like actual fish do. Mermaid parenting is largely unknown though, so some sub-species/groups could be better parents than others. Considering how obscenely dangerous the rivers and oceans of Felarya are though, the mass-birth scenario seems more likely. Baby mermaids, like nagas and dridders, would be rougly the size of a small-medium human child at hatching.

- Dryads: Unknown. Dryads are wierd anyway, so their actual methods of reproduction are unknown.

- Harpies: All Harpies are female. They can mate with nearly any male of a similar size (these rules apply for human-sized and giant harpies). Something in their genetics ensures that any child the Harpy has from that union will be a female Harpy like the mother...to prevent any wierd, malformed hybrids and such. Baby harpies, like other egg-based pred children, are going to be about the size of a human child.

Now, nearly all humanoid preds are going to be using the live birth method. Fairies, Elves, Inu, Nekos, etc would carry their babies to term and give birth to them just like a human. Their social aspect allows this to not be completely suicidal for the mother, since she has friends/pack-mates/etc to help her once her pregnancy goes into full swing and she has a harder time moving around. Since these are born normally, the babies would be the same size as a human baby (accounting for scale, of course).

- Centaurs/Pantaurs/Deerataurs: Their sexual organs are located in their animal half, and they reproduce similar to the animals they are based on. The child is carried to term and birthed naturally. Their children are likely the largest and most developed at birth, since they need to be able to walk quickly after being born to keep up with their parents.

(NOTE): The exceptions to this are the Squamataurs (lizard hybrids). Being lizards, they would of course lay eggs.

Anyway, this should account for most of the "main" pred species out there. Others will fall into one of these groups based on whether they are fish-based, reptillian, arthropods, mammals, humanoid, etc.

I always assumed Dryads multiplied by releasing floating seeds like dandelions so their children could germinate and be born wherever the wind carries them and if the conditions are good for it

The question is wether male dryads exist or they're another self-impregnating species

Thanks Rcs for part 1, very clear.

Anyone up for parts 2 and 3 of my question?

This thread is for asking questions about Felarya not questions about asking questions.
Just ask it.

Wait a minute, I'm a confused Forumite. If giant Nagas lay eggs, wouldn't the eggs be roughly or bigger than full-grown humans? I assume the eggs of a massive tail would be equally giant.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Wait a minute, I'm a confused Forumite. If giant Nagas lay eggs, wouldn't the eggs be roughly or bigger than full-grown humans? I assume the pulled out of eggs of a massive tail would be equally giant.

See, my thoughts exactly. Having a titanic predator lay eggs that are pretty tiny in comparison even for egg standards just sounds weird

Slimetoad wrote:

Sean Okotami wrote:

Wait a minute, I'm a confused Forumite. If giant Nagas lay eggs, wouldn't the eggs be roughly or bigger than full-grown humans? I assume the pulled out of eggs of a massive tail would be equally giant.

See, my thoughts exactly. Having a titanic predator lay eggs that are pretty tiny in comparison even for egg standards just sounds weird

It isn't tiny by egg standards.

A baby predator is a little smaller than your average human, somewhere between the size of a child and the size of a teenager.

A human, compared to an average pred is about as long as a finger.

Take into account the extra room needed to accomodate the internal food supply, the cusioning liquid, and tails, legs, etc, and you're looking at an egg that is probably 4-5 inches long (an index finger is about 3 inches long). Once you add the roundness, the eggs are decent sized. In terms of scale, they would be larger than a chicken egg.

Ooooh, that makes sense then. Being that small when born would allow predators to fill in a lot of niches before they grow up

Thought i can imagine death rates are off the charts by then. Not just from other preds, but humans and nekos that would want to reduce future threats

Slimetoad wrote:

Ooooh, that makes sense then. Being that small when born would allow predators to fill in a lot of niches before they grow up

Thought i can imagine death rates are off the charts by then. Not just from other preds, but humans and nekos that would want to reduce future threats

Pretty much.

That's kind of the consensus. A lot of preds don't make it to adulthood. Not really because of humans and nekos (since its not like there are millions of them running around in the jungle), but there is a LOT of exceedingly dangerous wildlife, in both land, sea and air. It works as a natural control, since, when a pred is full-grown, only the larger species of wildlife has a shot and taking them down (marsh vipers, kenshas, abyssal tonorions, etc).

The wilderness is still dangerous for a full-grown pred, but not nearly as much as when they are small.

It also encourages them to learn to survive. All egg-borne preds go through an awkward phase in their teenage years where they are too big to eat small animals (rats, bugs, or even tiny people like Neera)...and too small to eat larger game like Druikers, Humans and so on. During that time, they have to learn to find other types of food, and find better ways to survive.

Really depends on the way the pred was raised too. Preds that are raised by parents throughout their childhood will of course have a better chance of making it than someone who's egg was laid and abandoned to survive on their own. Just really depends on the parents, species and situation.

I still think a 5 inches egg would be minuscule compared to a giant naga's cloaca. And also, you said that a human is shorter than a predator's finger, and Humans are generally 6' tall. 5 inches are smaller than 6'.

I can get about a bit smaller than a full-grown human, but not shin-high.

Sean Okotami wrote:

I still think a 5 inches egg would be minuscule compared to a giant naga's cloaca. And also, you said that a human is shorter than a predator's finger, and Humans are generally 6' tall. 5 inches are smaller than 6'.

I can get about a bit smaller than a full-grown human, but not shin-high.

Sean...I was talking in relative scales. Let me break it down clearly.

Average human = 6ft tall

The average human is roughly the same length as an average predator's index finger

The average index finger is 3 inches long (So, a predator's index finger would be roughly 6ft tall to a human)

An average human is about 3 inches tall to a predator

A naga egg would be between 4-5 inches tall TO A PREDATOR (or probably 7-8ft tall to a human)

I use relative scales for this because it is easier to use relative things than wracking your brain to get every little measurement.