I hate cat-people, dog-people, lion-people, etc

[Tobold Hornblower]

Oooh, Doug! Why do you taunt us with your "Sticks and Stones"? You know they won't work here. Damn, some bone breaking is just what's needed in this thread.

 

[woodelf]

I'd just like to pass the hat of d02 furrfu.

But I'd like to expand the hate, to encompass all settings that have a bajillion humanoid races that all developed "naturally" on the same world.

I'm working on something to solve this, of course...

-- N

In my old homebrew, there was evolution, and there was divine provenence--and they interacted. So, faeries arrived at sentience naturally--heck, there very existence was a spontaneous natural happening. ("Natural" in a world with magic, of course.) Some of the older races evolved naturally, just like humans in our own world: dragons, kobolds, maybe a couple others. Of course, animals of any kind (including these) were all descended from the creations of the earliest civilization, which occurred when there was only plant life on the planet, and their most powerful wizards/scientists/engineers had literally invented animal life. Most of the "standard PC races", however, were the creations of gods--just like they believed. When the gods discovered the world, they began populating it with beings designed to worship them. Thus, the goblins, giants, elves, dwarves, and several others just spontaneously came into being. However, the gods had all pretty much followed the same blueprints--why change what works?--and so these various races were, to varying degrees, inter-fertile. [Think of it as "hey, she created some elves out of mud to worship her--that's pretty cool. I think i'll create some people out of mud to worship me, but i'll put them underground and call them dwarves".] So, humans, trolls, and many of the "goblinoids", as well as the numerous subraces of elves, dwarves, and halflings all came from evolution and cross-breeding. Add a little magic, and even more wacky things can occur: gnomes were a side-effect of a titanic battle between giants and dwarves [i don't remember if i came up with that before or after reading Dragonlance].

There's more detail to the above, and more stuff on other races, plus some races (illithid, dracon) coming from other dimensions or worlds. But, the short version is that, for my purposes, only a handful (i think maybe as few as 4, if you count all faeries as one group) of sentient races evolved naturally, even with all the magic, while all the rest were created, imported, or immigrated.

 

[woodelf]

Yaks a big deal in the fertile crescent, Middle East and Arabic mythology? That's a new one, since they're only native (and as far as I know, haven't ever been imported) to a region that's hundreds of miles away.

One: Doh! Somehow, my sleepy brain conflated yaks and ox and ibex, and got them all mixed up. Probably threw in some of the heavier gazelle-family herd animals that *are* raised as domestic and semi-domestic animils in the Middle East area--things like the addax & oryx.
Two: The yak-men in Al Qadim are from a far-off-to-the-NE cold mountainous area. IOW, they got the geographical relationship between them and the main area the same as that between the native lands of yaks and arabs in the real world.
Three: There *are* yaks, domestic at least, in Afghanistan--so i'm not completely off my rocker. Just mostly. Shouldn't've lumped in the fertile crescent, arabia, and Afghanistan so blithely--they *do* form a continuity of cultures, each one blending into its neighbors to a certain degree, but they're too distinct for how i stated it.
Four: Now that i'm awake, and mostly know what i'm saying, i'll go out on a limb here: there was a lot of trade in the historic Middle East. That yaks were known, at least through stories, is likely. That folklore, if any existed, about "yak-men" would likewise have been known is possible. OK, end speculation, and back to fuzzy recollection:
Five: While Josh is absolutely right that it is very unlikely to be from anywhere like the Middle East, i *do* still have a vague recollection of reading a story in class, years ago, that had yak-like bogeymen. So, i stand by my claim that it might very well come from real-world mythology, but you should pretty much ignore my conjectures on which mythology, and do your own, presumably-reliable, research. [Hmmm... now that i think about it, maybe i'll put re-reading my books of Himalayan folklore on the 'to do' list.]

 

[Kesh]

Sigh.

There used to be a difference between "furries" and "plushies". Furries liked the artwork. Plushies dressed up and... well, you know.

This is quite incorrect. I wouldn't have said anything, but you've repeated the statement a few times.

"Plushies" are just that: people who like plush (ie. stuffed toy) animals. Note that they may simply be furries who happen to collect plush toys, or they may do Not-Grandma-Approved things to them.

"Fursuiters" are the ones who dress up in the mascot costumes. And, again, only a portion of them do it for naughty reasons.

And then "furries" are people who happen to enjoy anthro animals, in general. Either collecting Disney movies, artwork, chatting online or writing/reading stories. None of which require sex or unusual behavior.

There can be overlap in the groups, some people spilling into lots of the groups. That does not mean that these people are all sex-crazed deviant maniacs.

 

[Desdichado]

Wow, this thread's still open?

woodelf; yeah, the deal is, yaks really are only very hairy cattle, practically speaking (yaks are capable of cross-breeding with cattle) so the concept of yakmen, tweaked just a bit, could certainly pop up just about anywhere. But specifically yakmen outside of Tibet or Nepal could only be in the most immediately contiquous areas of Central Asia, I'd think.

Like you say, Afghanistan would probably qualify, especially in some of the mountain ranges of the area. My geography is a bit hazy but aren't the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush right around there as well?

 

[Psychic Warrior]

So that rythmic, rumbly baritone sound that comes out of my throat when I'm really happy is...?

If it only comes out when you are happy it probably is not purring. Purring is not only done when the animal is happy or content. in fact quite sick animals will purr. No one knows why some animals purr but one thing is certain - humans don't. You have an affectation that you have convinced yourself is 'real' purring.

Or you have a chest cold (tips hat to Squirrel Nutkin).

 

[Gez]

Purring is for cats like smiling is for humans. It can express happyness, pleasure, contentment -- or submission, fear, stress.

You should also look if the cat yawns. They never yawn when stressed. A cat that yawns in your presence feels safe and knows you're not a threat.

Purring + yawning == genuine warm smile.