General Q and A

I think the human part does breathing regularly, while her leaves perform photosynthesis.

Theoretically, she COULD keep herself alive in an airtight spot due to her breathing oxygen and her leaves breathing CO2

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I think the human part does breathing regularly, while her leaves perform photosynthesis.

But that makes no sense. Why not have the leaves route their produced oxygen directly to the human part?

And to answer JT's question, yes the lungs can, since they can exhale CO2 it's obvious that they are capable of doing the reverse.

I think that if you view a dryad as a human torse on a tree trunk it doesn't work. that's what they look like but it can't be what they are.
The cells of the humanoid part would probably appear to be somewhere between animal cells and plant cells. The plant part's heartwood cellswould probably be similar to the humanoid part, but the outer bark would be much more plantlike.

Pendragon wrote:

I think the human part does breathing regularly, while her leaves perform photosynthesis.

That's how I see it as well ^^

Jætte_Troll wrote:

Would they have human style lungs? Could those be capable of inhaling CO2?

Well I know much less about biology than I do about physics, but ignorance hasn't stopped me yet!

Human lungs work on the principle of partial pressures (the difference between partial pressure and regular pressure is that a partial pressure is the measurement of pressure due to a particular gas in a mixed gas environment); gasses naturally flow from high partial pressure areas to low partial pressure areas. In humans, the partial pressure of deoxygenated blood is less than that of the partial pressure of oxygen in air, so oxygen flows from the air into our blood. The reverse is true for carbon dioxide, so it flows from our blood to the air. If your blood somehow has less carbon dioxide than the surrounding air, then the carbon dioxide will from from the air into your blood. (If I remember correctly, this can lead to counter-intuitive situations, like someone choking to death in a room with more than enough oxygen to sustain them, simply because there is too much carbon dioxide.)

So if the dryad had some other means of taking carbon dioxide out of its bloodstream (like photosynthesis), then the partial pressures would favor carbon dioxide flowing from the air into its' blood. As for the oxygen flow direction, that I am not so sure about. Plants actually need some oxygen in order for their cells to function, but they produce more oxygen from photosynthesis than they use. They tend to dump their excess oxygen out of the pores in their leaves, but if instead it all went into some sort of blood, then the dryad would probably end up breathing out oxygen... except at night, when it wouldn't be producing any oxygen, and would then be exhaling carbon dioxide.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

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I think the human part does breathing regularly, while her leaves perform photosynthesis.

But that makes no sense. Why not have the leaves route their produced oxygen directly to the human part?

Well, that would require some sort of transport mechanism, like blood. I suppose I don't really see a reason why a dryad's blood couldn't flow up to her leaves as well as to the rest of her body.

Oldman, you posted after Karbo who just said that their lungs breathe like humans and their leaves do all the photosythesis.

I saw the mention of dust scattering from a fairy's wings as she flew a few times. Would that be a rare trait or would that be semi-common for fairies to scatter fairy dust?

On the subject of dryads, breathing in CO2 and brerathing out O2 could be very helpful for their friends if they ever found themselves in need of mouth to mouth...

Also, @ Sean, if you've ever watched Disney's Peter Pan you'd know that fairies mostly drop fairy dust when they're spanked. Yet another interesting possibility...

Now I have given you my two cents, I'm off to take a cold shower.

Felaryan fairies are not Disney fairies. I would say they are the anti-thesis of Disney fairies.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Felaryan fairies are not Disney fairies. I would say they are the anti-thesis of Disney fairies.

True. But it would still be funny.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Oldman, you posted after Karbo who just said that their lungs breathe like humans and their leaves do all the photosythesis.

No, Karbo agreed with a statement that you then inferred to say was like that of a human. And based on the material of your's and other's posts, I would then assume that you are incorrectly deriving gas exchange concentrations that humans make based on oversimplification of what you know.


One should point out that humans only use 6~8% of that oxygen concentration they are breathing, and exhale a mixture containing 3~6% more CO2 then that of the air they were breathing and ~15% oxygen content. If humans did not exhale some oxygen, there wouldn't be much point to assisted breathing - before someone goes there, I'll cover it as well. While immediate CPR training is moving away from the use of such, it is primarily for hygiene concerns and studies showing that heart massage alone is enough to keep someone alive until advance trained personnel can assist; once medical personal arrive they'll be using breathing apparatus that provide a barrier. The point to be made though is that the assumption of O2 in, CO2 out is a overly simplified view of what is actually occurring. You can make about five air changes with the same air before the oxygen concentrations become too low to be exchanged properly in your lungs - something that has been proven on submarines again and again and again. (In fact, they often manipulate O2 concentrations in hull to effect crew morale and operation)


Oldman presents a valid and interesting point about how lungs work. Given that dryads will be using a form of photosynthesis in combination with what we can infer to be typical-human style lungs, then the gas concentrations they inhale/exhale will change throughout the day based on exposure to light. The idea that O2 in CO2 out persisting is really just lack of informed persons. I would imagine that generally speaking, given their size, a dryad probably either breaks even or produces somewhat more CO2 than O2 over a given timespan with varying light absorption. In comparison to the concentrations used/lost by a human of relatively the same size, I would think the dryad able to produce a considerable quantity better/efficient exchange, especially given their general immobile state. This is due to the volume of their lungs compared to the surface area of their leaves and the process of chemical exchange occurring within the leaves.


In conclusion, I'd say that if dryads are attributing to the O2 generation, it would be akin comparatively to someone with wind/solar power at their home selling back to the electric company. Not a great deal, but something.

Sean Okotami wrote:

I saw the mention of dust scattering from a fairy's wings as she flew a few times. Would that be a rare trait or would that be semi-common for fairies to scatter fairy dust?

I believe this can be mostly attributed to butterflies/moths. Since most fairy wings are insectlike in nature, it follows that they would share some of their Earth counterpart's features. Of course, a lot of people think that all insects have dust on their wings, but only the butterfly/moth family makes it intentionally and it isn't dust at all, actually it's chitin scale. Other insects that accumulate dust on their wings do so due to the environment they inhabit.

Given the above information, I would say then that it depends on the type of fairy wing - someone like my character Kaede (with dragonfly wings) would probably never shed 'fairy dust', whereas someone like Aya (butterfly wing) would probably have this occur routinely with any excess scale.

I question the body structure of some insect like predators/prey. From some pictures, I've seen sentient Sapien like species to tend to have more or less traits closer to a typical human. Like the Mantoid (or that I think it was) picture I seen month ago. showing the girl had human legs,arms,and body, but insect arm appendages from a mantis The seem to grow from her back. Ultimately I'm trying to figure out if that's a common case or are they two different sub-species of the regular?

What would happen if a planeswalker came to Felarya and casted Obliterate? Since the spell can't be countered, what would the guardians do to deal with it?

I'd assume Felarya has at least one Terra Eternal enchantment on it.

One question at a time please.

And itsmeyouidiot, it wouldn't be able to come here in the first place.

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I question the body structure of some insect like predators/prey. From some pictures, I've seen sentient Sapien like species to tend to have more or less traits closer to a typical human. Like the Mantoid (or that I think it was) picture I seen month ago. showing the girl had human legs,arms,and body, but insect arm appendages from a mantis The seem to grow from her back. Ultimately I'm trying to figure out if that's a common case or are they two different sub-species of the regular?

The picture you are referring to is much older than the Mantoid race, and doesn't really show any Felaryan species. I think it was Karbo just trying out the idea of a mantis girl.

http://karbo.deviantart.com/art/Mantoids-doodles-142973175

This doodle page shows off the generally accepted Mantoid design. They are structured in a similar manner to Dridders, with a human upper half with sharp spines on their forearms, and an insect body starting at the waist. Mantoids have 4 legs on their lower bodies, and usually have the mantis' gripping claws growing from just below their hips. There seems to be a bit of variance in this though, as shown by the Mantoid with the claws growing out of her back in the top-right, but that does not seem to be the norm.

It should be noted that any referrences to eating their mates are generally used as a joke. Not only would this be impossible for a Mantoid, it is not even accurate. Mantises do not naturally eat their mates, and some scientists are starting to think that they only do that when under stress, in captivity.

Most arthropod-based hybrids are structured similarly though. Human upper half with some animal traits (antenna, spines, etc), and a lower half based on the arthropod they are based on. Extra appendages (scorpion claws, mantis gripping arms, shrimp claws, etc) tend to grow from just below the hybrid's hips.

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What would happen if a planeswalker came to Felarya and casted Obliterate? Since the spell can't be countered, what would the guardians do to deal with it?

I'd assume Felarya has at least one Terra Eternal enchantment on it.

Felarya does not operate under videogame rules.

A planewalker (someone who moves across various planes of existance, I assume) would likely draw Guardian attention anyway. They had that big war long ago with a race of planewalkers known as the Correctors", which were apparently strong enough for them to need to create the Titans to aid them.

"It is said that Titans appeared on Felarya very long ago, in a time of great turmoil. They were immense constructs, created to serve as the hand of the Guardians to maintain both a balance in Felarya, and to defend the land, which at this time was facing existential threats from the repeated attacks of a mysterious and very powerful race of Planewalkers known as the "Correctors"." ~ The Wiki

http://felarya.com/wiki/index.php?title=Titan_Lore

itsmeyouidiot wrote:

What would happen if a planeswalker came to Felarya and casted Obliterate? Since the spell can't be countered, what would the guardians do to deal with it?

They'd counter it anyway, then go destroy the planeswalker who was under the foolish assumption that the rules from their universe actually mattered in Felarya. (Presumably, the reverse might also be true; a Felaryan creature in the Magic universe might find itself unable to attack unless it was its side's turn, regardless of the fact that the Felaryan creature "knows" that people don't wait for their turn.)

I have a question. Given their coyote/canine attributes, would Kensha beasts see in color? Or perhaps something else?

Well despite some urban myths to the contrary dogs do see colour, just not all the colours that humans see. Dogs and other canines only have 2 colour receptors in their eyes, whereas humans have 3.

This leads me to conclude that Kensha beasts would have a similar eye due to their similarity to canines. The functions that the canine eye performs for canines would also suit Kensha beasts in my opinion.

This reminds me, since Kensha beasts are still giant wolves, would it be theorically possible for sufficiently civilized -and huge- predators like fairies or elves to tame them?

Slimetoad wrote:

This reminds me, since Kensha beasts are still giant wolves, would it be theorically possible for sufficiently civilized -and huge- predators like fairies or elves to tame them?

Ehh, wolves is a bit of a generalization. I think they were described as more Jackal-like in randomdude's stories.

They are likely a very mutt-looking canine race. I don't think it would be good for preds to be running around with Kenshas as pets. We do know that Kenshas are notoriously aggressive and viscious...it is likely that they may just be too bad tempered to domesticate.

After dream-eating someone, would a Nemesis's belly bulge out, or is there some sort of space warping going on. (OTHER than the process of getting the person there!)

rcs619 wrote:

Slimetoad wrote:

This reminds me, since Kensha beasts are still giant wolves, would it be theorically possible for sufficiently civilized -and huge- predators like fairies or elves to tame them?

Ehh, wolves is a bit of a generalization. I think they were described as more Jackal-like in randomdude's stories.

They are likely a very mutt-looking canine race. I don't think it would be good for preds to be running around with Kenshas as pets. We do know that Kenshas are notoriously aggressive and viscious...it is likely that they may just be too bad tempered to domesticate.

Ooops. I had Fenja mention that the Jotun tame Kensha because they are bad-ass like that. This training mostly involves punches to the face when the Kensha attempts to bite the owner. Fenja still misses her Kensha "Flat-Face" back home.

New post for new question.

What species of fairy in Melany? She has purple skin instead of human hues, antlers instead of antennae, butterfly wings as opposed to the dragonfly style.

Or does she just happen to have those series of genetic traits?

Maybe she's secretly an offworlder fairy...

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Jætte_Troll wrote:

New post for new question.

What species of fairy in Melany? She has purple skin instead of human hues, antlers instead of antennae, butterfly wings as opposed to the dragonfly style.

Or does she just happen to have those series of genetic traits?

I can swear I've heard of faires like that before, with antlers and butterfly wings. Chances are they have a subspecies all their own.

Jætte_Troll wrote:

New post for new question.

What species of fairy in Melany? She has purple skin instead of human hues, antlers instead of antennae, butterfly wings as opposed to the dragonfly style.

Or does she just happen to have those series of genetic traits?

Melany doesn't have butterfly wings. Aya does though.

While on the topic of fairies...

How do they age? Giant predators age slower due to them being more massive whereas humans age quicker since they're smaller, but fairies never seem to be the same size at any two times. What is the scale of their aging? Do they age like humans or like giants? Or like tinies, who I assume age really fast?