Eberron: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

[Atom Again]

Is the owning of a dog, horse or other animal slavery?

Nope...but are elementals self-aware?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Nope...but are elementals self-aware?

Did you know that during the middle-ages animals were trialed for crimes, such as murder because of that question (goes with the whole clean and unclean animals from the bible)? It is a long and ugly debate. I will say see my soap box and define evil in your game.

 

[Numion]

Do dogs have their own language? Having a language implies suffucient intellect to be sentient.

Another test for sentience is the mirror. Things that recognize themselves in a mirror are supposed to have imagination, which I guess means intelligence. I'm not sure tough.

 

[Felon]

Nothing yet... though before another poster comes in to talk about "magi-tech," I do want to point out that it's been said by Keith Baker these are unique constructs, and not common.

I don't think they're so rare as to be considered unique. From what I've seen Keith say, the spellpunk elements are "rare" in the same sense that flying mounts or raising the dead or finding gems worth 5,000gp is "rare". In other words, it's rare for Joe Blow, but PC's will be able to take them for granted soon enough.

And for that matter, we know that there'll be magewrights--a working class that revolves around creating and maintaining magic-driven devices for the benefit of all those Joe Blows. They can't be that rare.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Another test for sentience is the mirror. Things that recognize themselves in a mirror are supposed to have imagination, which I guess means intelligence. I'm not sure tough.

Hmmm. My cat not only recognizes her reflection, she will meow at my twice reflected (bedroom mirror to bathroom mirror) reflection when she wants attention.

My cat's smarter than me am!

 

[Golem2176]

Another test for sentience is the mirror. Things that recognize themselves in a mirror are supposed to have imagination, which I guess means intelligence. I'm not sure tough.

What about cats?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Do dogs have their own language? Having a language implies suffucient intellect to be sentient.

Now if these were some other form of elemental, such as animals from the elemental planes, like Air Dogs, or Fire Horses, then I feel it falls under the rules of other animals.

You can now buy a translator for them! It was the hot iitem for dog lovers this past holiday season.

http://www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/tra_bow.html

 

[Hand of Evil]

What about cats?

PirateCat seems aware.

But back to the subject: Magi-tech is going to be limited but we should see a number of other items. It is my hope that item creation is very detailed and allows you to re-create or create your own.

 

[s/LaSH]

I see three perspectives on the 'is this slavery' question (reasoning that everything else in this thread has been said better).

- Dominance for us: club the baby seal and take its pelt; the seals lose.
- Dominance for them: feed and medicate the cows, propagate their population over the entire planet, and only at the end kill and eat them; the cows win.
- Dominance by consent: speed limits on the roads; it's very hard to argue that that's a cruel and unusual stricture. We win.

Slavery is what I'd call the 'for us' option, wherein the dominated party is used with no benefits to it. But if you're talking about harnessed elementals... I'm not sure where that fits in. A fire elemental used to stoke a boiler would be perfectly happy heating things up, maybe setting fire to huge heaps of coal; that's its purpose. A fire elemental used to dry up a lake would be utterly miserable.

See where I'm coming from here?

 

[Nifft]

Is the owning of a dog, horse or other animal slavery?

No way. You can't see the despiar in a dog's eye when its spirit breaks, when it truely knows there is no escape. It's a poor substitute at best.

-- N