Size Matters

Started a new thread for this, so Sean Okotami's Meiramis thread wouldn't go off-topic.

Atlas wrote:

A nice race of mermaids, meirami mermaid sounds well, good job .(finally a race who has not the human directly in the menu, i was starting to despair)
Nice to know that not all the races are directly predators and that there are some ones with the possibility to "befriend" more easily.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

Bolded for emphasis, because I've been thinking about this point a bit lately. Although surely there will always be room in Felarya for more giant predators...

Couldn't it use a little more diversity, just for the sake of 'realism'? Mid-sized predators (in between "prey-size" and "giant-sized"), Small predators, Non-Predatory species, etc.

I really don't want people to think that I'm complaining, but so far, there really isn't a lot of representation of the above in Felarya- we have a lot of creatures who tend towards either the "Giant Pred" scale or "Human" scale, with very few in-between or outside of those.

Edit: Wasn't as long as I thought it would be.

Every day of our lives, we witness, touch, affect, and even destroy dozens and even hundreds of other lives... without even realizing it.

Something that has been nagging in the back of my mind for a while is that most stories are broken up into either the Human Perspective or Giant Predator perspective; it's fine if it's because those are the primary focus of the story... but I am wondering if everyone realizes the potential for perspectives in other scales.

When we describe Felarya as being of "infinite size", we are usually using the words in terms of sheer distance, when it has the potential to be so much more. Felarya is a world that consists of an infinite number of 3-dimensional physical "worlds" layered on top of one another.

To a Human, Crisis is a Giant Predator, a threat because she is tremendous in size and eats humans. A creature the size of a Leviathan Mermaid or larger is the equivalent of a force of nature or a natural disaster, capable of wiping a village off the face of Felarya with the same ease as a flood or hurricane.

To a Neera, a <i>Human</i> is a giant, posing the same proportional threat a giant does to a human. Nekos are giant predators, stronger, faster, and sometimes with powerful magic... just like a Naga or Dridder is to a Human. A Giant Naga is the equivalent of a natural disaster to a Neera village, while a behemoth-sized creature like a Leviathan Mermaid or larger is the equivalent of a disaster on a global scale, easily capable of devastating a significant portion of the "world" the Neeras live in.

And the scale continues in both directions; Neeras and Tinies undoubtedly hunt smaller creatures, and perhaps even tame or hunt creatures of a larger scale than them- an insect that is the size of a large cat or dog to a human might very well be the size of an elephant in relation to a Neera or Tiny.

There are mid-sized creatures as well, like the Razias... creatures in the 20-50 foot range seem to be woefully underrepresented. Again, I'm not really complaining so much as hoping people aren't missing all of the potential here; A tree might be giant to a Human, but it must seem <i>endless</i> to a creature the size of a Tiny or Neera- the equivalent of Mount Everest!

I understand your point, when we describe something we are using the human' scale.
So depending on the point view something we can look huge can be immense for another races

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

I understand your point, when we describe something we are using the human' scale.
So depending on the point view something we can look huge can be immense for another races

Right. Fairies would have a unique advantage in this aspect, because they can exist in whatever "world" they want in terms of scale, and even travel between them.

It brings to mind the first part of Gulliver's Travels, where Gulliver encounters the 6 in. tall people of Lilliput and Blefuscu.

While we, as Humans would envision Neeras as weak, the Neeras would envision us as strong and an obstacle to be overcome, similar to the way Humans view Giant Nagas. The matter of size differences has been used in tales for a very long time, to portray an epic hero or even the average person overcoming an enemy much larger and more powerful than themselves.

Whether it is Gulliver's Travels, or David and Goliath, or a knight slaying a dragon single-handedly, or Odysseus tricking the cyclops Polyphemus, or Reepicheep against the Telmarines in Prince Caspian... it is not that people who live and operate on a smaller scale can not defeat an enemy who lives and operates on a larger scale; they simply must develop different methods to do so.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

While we, as Humans would envision Neeras as weak, the Neeras would envision us as strong and an obstacle to be overcome, similar to the way Humans view Giant Nagas. The matter of size differences has been used in tales for a very long time, to portray an epic hero or even the average person overcoming an enemy much larger and more powerful than themselves.

Whether it is Gulliver's Travels, or David and Goliath, or a knight slaying a dragon single-handedly, or Odysseus tricking the cyclops Polyphemus, or Reepicheep against the Telmarines in Prince Caspian... it is not that people who live and operate on a smaller scale can not defeat an enemy who lives and operates on a larger scale; they simply must develop different methods to do so.

Size doesn't matter it's how you use it.
Many people thinks the predators of Felarya are invincible because the humans looks so small next to them. In my opinino a Predator knows how to use her size in relation with her environment. She can cover more space faster than a human, so a human trying to overun will be tired quickly.

In Felarya the humans come from worlds where there is few or giant intelligent specie or they are the dominant races. When they see a giant predators they are very surprise and don't know how to react. Because they think a lot with their concept of size.

The logic "bigger is better" can be very dangerous in the sense because seeing a big explosion in human'scale not necessary mean a predators will see it as a human.

If we ask for many predators what they mean by "big" many of the humans will think as big will look ridiculous.

By example a planet size object can be considered as a normal stone. An planet side object for predators can be considered as infinite for a human's view.

I wouldn't go that far, Gwada. Albiet, something to that scale of a Predator would likely be huge (Like Saturn or Jupiter Big), it would not be infinite.

And a Predator will still have trouble in some areas that a human can cross faster: Being smaller often leads to faster travel as obstacles are less frequent.

Malahite wrote:

I wouldn't go that far, Gwada. Albiet, something to that scale of a Predator would likely be huge (Like Saturn or Jupiter Big), it would not be infinite.

And a Predator will still have trouble in some areas that a human can cross faster: Being smaller often leads to faster travel as obstacles are less frequent.

Yeah you're right but we are still in the human'size concept.
But by example how a neera or a tiny would see "Jupiter or Saturn" in their size concept they would think it's infinitely huge.

Malahite wrote:

And a Predator will still have trouble in some areas that a human can cross faster: Being smaller often leads to faster travel as obstacles are less frequent.

More to the point: The smaller you are in relation to whatever it is that's chasing you, the less likely you are to encounter obstacles large enough to hinder you compared to the predator, and the more likely you are to encounter places that you can get into but the predator can't.

At least, not without using magic or the like.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

More to the point: The smaller you are in relation to whatever it is that's chasing you, the less likely you are to encounter obstacles large enough to hinder you compared to the predator, and the more likely you are to encounter places that you can get into but the predator can't.

It's the reason mice don't like wide and uncovered area.

The prey has easily the advantage of the ground.

But the advantage has the predator is the fact she has a better view of the ground allowing a better analyze in order to trap her prey.

Due to their size's difference they both has an advantage the other doesn't have.

Damn, it looks easier at the first time but predators are very skilled

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

It's the reason mice don't like wide and uncovered area.

The prey has easily the advantage of the ground.

But the advantage has the predator is the fact she has a better view of the ground allowing a better analyze in order to trap her prey.

Due to their size's difference they both has an advantage the other doesn't have.

Damn, it looks easier at the first time but predators are very skilled

Well, it might be skill, but perhaps not. Felaryan predators have a great deal going for them.

In nature, nearly 90% of all a predator's (assuming it's not specialized in hunting specific kinds of prey) hunts will end in failure. Ninety percent.

Felarya's predators have a much higher success rate, which their "predator sense" probably plays a great role in. Being able to sense prey accurately and at a distance is a huge advantage. And they all seem to have it.