Would it be cannibalism to eat a polymorphed chicken?

[The Thayan Menace]

Campfire Classic

Oh, really? How about this chicken?

-Samir​

 

[DogBackward]

What about the eggs? Could you eat the eggs?

Whatever you might say about the chicken's "essential nature", the eggs are still just chicken eggs. They don't suddenly become human just because the chicken used to be a human.

And before you mention the Dragon-Half Dragon thing, that doesn't work. The reason that a polymorphed dragon makes a half-dragon is specifically mentioned as the fact that they are purely magical in nature.

 

[Tewligan]

This reminds me of a story my dad told me about. The gist of it was that a company made an awesome meat substitute. Everyone loved the flavor it was cheap to produce etc. But they were worried about it because it was synthetic HUMAN. Would more people become cannibals due to the fact that people know humans are tasty? Interesting idea.

Holy crap, I read that story YEARS ago! I read it in a paperback collection of sci-fi stories that, if I recall correctly, had all originally appeared in Playboy, of all things. I'm almost positive the book came out in the mid to late 70's at the earliest. Turns out that some pretty damn good sci-fi/horror went quite well with pictures of nekkid ladies back in the day, I guess.

Aha, my Google-fu is strong! The book was called "Last Train to Limbo", published by Playboy in 1971. I think the story in question was "Splendid Source", by Richard Mathison. You can find the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/LAST-TRAIN-LIMBO-Illustrated-Frankenstein/dp/B000GVY0AE

Damn, that was a good book, the more I think back to it!

 

[joshhg]

Yeah, it'll be cannibalism, but thats not the point. If you're going to resort to canniblism, why bother with the chicken? The human is medium sized, and it tastes just the same.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Whatever you might say about the chicken's "essential nature", the eggs are still just chicken eggs. They don't suddenly become human just because the chicken used to be a human.

Yeah, I'd rule the eggs are just eggs, feathers that fall off are just feathers, chicken is chicken , et cetera.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Bring on the morally ambiguous pork

I would say that the baleful polymorph affects the physical self of the individual, however as it's established as far as cosmology goes that the soul is divisible and separate from the physical body the soul is still X and thus it would be an act of cannibalism for the same race to eat the formerly X chicken. As proven by the fact that ending the effect causes the individual to return to their previous iteration, which could not happen if the soul became that of the creature it was polymorphed into or the body would return but the soul would not and thus not the mental stats, levels, XP, etc.

Evidence in both the human genome and the paleological field indicates that cannibalism was a very common thing for early humans and other hominid species during long periods of time. There is evidence that a resistance to certain forms of prion based disease is the result of extensive cannibalism in paleolithic time periods. And the phenomenon is similarly common among the majority of species of animals. Based on evidence in just the last century it's an almost instictual response to extreme famine. If you're hungry enough, everything is food. So I like to mix cannibalism lightly with just about every humanoid barbaric group in settings regardless of the race, some more than others.

 

[Numion]

I answered probably not. If people who eat it didn't know it was once a human, then no. Just mix em up in the general chicken population and you're good to go. Or better yet, make nuggets. "Can you show us where the human is in this nugget?"

 

[jdrakeh]

Nope. Not using the definition of the word 'cannibalism'. Asking if it is abhorrent is another thing entirely. If a PC knew that the chicken was once a man, I'd argue that the act is abhorrent (though it still isn't cannibalism).

 

[Merkuri]

About the egg debate, remember that the eggs we eat from normal chickens will not actually turn into real chickens. They're not fertilized, and by the time you eat them there's no chance they will be.

So wouldn't eating polymorphed chicken eggs be more like drinking human milk than like eating human infants?

 

[Lord Rasputin]

What about the eggs? Could you eat the eggs?

This puts modern reproductive controversies in a whole new perspective.