Tinies vs human sized races. A comparison.

I've been thinking a bit about Tinies and their conflicts with Human sized races and comparing them a little to Humans and their encounters with Giant races..

After some thought I am kinda led to believe that Tinies against hungry Human sized races fair a little better then Human sized races against the giant predators.

Now we all know that Tinies are bottom of the food chain being that they don't eat smaller people like every other race. However given the current track record of Human sized people against Giant predators and Tinies against Human sized people I think in terms of proportion the Tinies are stronger.

Why? First off Unlike the Giant predators the Human sized races don't have the predator sense. Meaning Tinies have an higher chance of escape running from an Hungry Neko then a group of Humans from a Giant Naga. Okay Tinies have killed Human sized people on occasion. And I'm sure the same has happened with Humans against Giant predators on rare occasion but consider this, The Human sized races have potent Weapons, advanced technology that likely can't be built on the scale the Tinies would require.

In short the Tinies are far lower tech yet still accomplish what the Humans do on very rare occasion even with the technology and possibly Magic advantage as well.


That said a few other thoughts crossed my mind, Tinies Assassins, and Do Giant predators even try to eat Tinies? Or they too small for them to give a damn?

Now think about it. A Tiny could infiltrate a well guarded castle far easier then a Human sized person, They could plant poison in the target's food and leave undetected. With a lot of political backstabbing in Negav I'm sure many would have a Tiny or two employed for such tasks.

And onto the question about Tinies and would they actually be prey to the Giant predators? Okay consider this a Tiny is about the size of a small candy bar to a Human, who in turn is about the size of a small candy bar to a Giant predator.. That'd make the Tiny about 10 times smaller then a crumb to a Giant predator, meaning it'd be unlikely that they would be able to taste or even feel the Tiny in their mouth. That all said I'd think most Giant predators wouldn't even bother with Tinies even if cornered and within reach. Me I think the bulk of the Time a Giant eats a Tiny it's either unaware or indirectly, such as catching a Neko who just grabbed a Tiny. The Giant was probably completely unaware they had two people in their mouth not one.

Second thing I thought about is likelihood of Tiny/Giant predator friendships. I think they'd be uncommon but happen. Why? A Tiny isn't even the size of a crumb to a Giant predator, Tinies really hate Nekos, Tinies wouldn't mind seeing some Nekos swallowed, or helping their Giant friends find some Neko's to snack on in exchange for safe travel, etc and not being made a meal of as well.


Giant Naga catches a Tombthumb.
Tomthumb:"Don't eat me! I can make it worth your while!"
Giant Naga: "Haha I doubt it."
Tomthumb:"I know where there is a camp of sleeping Nekos! Thirty of them."
Giant Naga: "Hrmm okay I'm listening. Perhaps we can work something out after all."
Friendship is born.

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First off Unlike the Giant predators the Human sized races don't have the predator sense. Meaning Tinies have an higher chance of escape running from an Hungry Neko then a group of Humans from a Giant Naga

Keep in mind, only a handful of giant species have this. Nagas and Fairies are the main examples. Since it seems to be based on sensing a person's magical field, it's likely that most any suitably skilled magic user could learn some variant of it. Also, it isn't radar. It really just gives them the sense that someone is nearby. If you were to be well-hidden, and keep very still and quiet, it's very likely they won't be able to find you and just move on. All I'm saying is to not exaggerate the pred sense too much. It can be easy to do : )

Personally, I always figured a neko would be harder to escape from, with their crazy-good hearing.

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And I'm sure the same has happened with Humans against Giant predators on rare occasion

The Isolon Fist would like to remind you of their existence =P

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In short the Tinies are far lower tech yet still accomplish what the Humans do on very rare occasion even with the technology and possibly Magic advantage as well.

I dunno. Even humans need very advanced magic, or military-grade hardware just to hurt a giant. I can't see tinies being able to do it at all. Maybe the occasional super-powerful mage, but beyond that, they just don't have the tech. Seems like their main advantage would be their ability to hide and keep out of sight in places no person could ever get to.

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Tiny/giant friendships

Yeah, I just don't see that happening, myself. Tinies are just too small to even be noticed, much less heard or interacted with. I would be surprised if the giants even knew they existed. When someone is that small, you can't even really make out enough features to tell they're intelligent or humanoid. Especially after the giant size-increase a year or so back. Even frenchsnack once admitted that his giantess being friends with tomthumbs was mostly because he misjudged the size-difference until he was too far into his stories to just change it.

I suppose your right on the Tiny/giant friendship part. Course I wouldn't completely discredit the possibility of it happening rarely.

With strong Magic one could enhance their own sight and hearing. For a Giant Predator who's favorite prey happens to be Nekos I'm sure they'd love to have a friend/bait to use to lure them. As to why a Tiny would want such a relationship. I'm sure a Giant friend could easily get a haul of something valuable to the Tiny in such large quantities to motivate them.

Am I saying Tinies don't have to worry about Giants? Not really even if none of the Giants even tried to hunt Tinies they were plenty dangerous via, accidentally sitting on them, sneezing on one, they are by nature unimaginably dangerous without even have to try to be. Purely accidental.

There is definitely a size a cap on this - for example, I have to agree with Cliff that someone like Reya (link to scale) wouldn't know that tinies existed unless someone told her that they did, and even if they did she'd have to hit the 'I believe' button. Even Aidee (who doesn't eat meat, but anyway), who remains the average height of giants before the change I think would have great difficulty in realizing the existence of tinies. It also doesn't help that both of them are resistant to magic.

It should be noted that humans aren't the size of candy bars to giants. Most humans are the size of a giant's index finger, if the giant is of Crisis' size. That has always been the 'unofficially offical' size scale. That's like a snack bar at best.

Also, tinies definitely eat each other. You seem to only think of tinies as human timthumbs, but I tend to lump anything tiny into that group and their are dridders, nagas, and others of that size. Rivwen (a small naga character by FS who eats a neera), for example, is only a couple inches tall - Serimela (a tiny dridder) can't be that tall either, who also does the same thing (admittedly only once, where it was something that she caught).

I don't think a giant would have much a problem actually seeing a tiny if they looked hard enough. If a regular sized human is an index finger to a giant, then a tiny would be like a gnat or maybe smaller to a giant, but certainly not totally unnoticeable. Hearing them is a completely different matter, as that would depends on the giant's capabilities but I imagine it would probably involve the tiny literally having to climb the the giant's ear. Alas though, as humans don't pay much attention to gnats so giant woudn't pay much attention to tinies. There probably have been cases of giants trampling neera settlements without ever even knowing it.

It should also be noted that all nekos are inherently evil, giving tinies a harder time.

Big stupid evil kitties.......

Your avatar proves that pretty well.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Your avatar proves that pretty well.

I know! I've been playing diablo recently but I can't understand something...... everyone knows the prime evil looks like this......




So much evil!