|
Post by Aquos on Oct 17, 2015 11:19:37 GMT
In this thread we'll discuss how various mythological and Fantasy ideas and concepts would work in real life, this could range from things like for a example creature's, to things like places, objects, and spells. We'll discuss how they'd work in real life using science (and wikipedia). Any mythology is welcome ! Let's start with the creature that inspired this thread in the first place : Hell, daoghter of Loki. Hell is a female 'god', part of her body was a beatifull young lady, the other part a rooten shambling corpse. She was believed to rule over 2 of 4 Norse Afterlifes (it's a long story), beeing generous and kind to those who lived a good life, but unforgiving and cruel to the evil doers. She had many brothers and sisters (Loki had a lot of childeren) however i'll only note two here since they are not only among the most famous and important, but also where in the orginal version of this post. Fenrir, a giant wolf with death like daggers and claws like swords and is destined to devour Odin on the day of Ragnarok, and Jormungand, the world serpent who was beleived to circle around the entire world in the sea and was destined to kill Thor on Ragnarok. So how do you think this 'goddes' would function in real life ? Or is there a different creature you'd like to discuss here ? Also remeber i don't know a lot about this type of stuff so i probably won't be able to contribute a lot to this discussion... I will however watch it and give mythological context where needed ! Concepts discussed : Hel (ongoing) Gorgons (ongoing but basics covered) Dragon (ongoing, getting to details) Orcs (Finished ?) NOTE: this thread is based on Atrox 's halloween organisms, he actually inspired this whole thread in a post of his, so i thought i'd give him credit. EDIT: i fixed a copy and paste problem
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Oct 17, 2015 13:42:20 GMT
Perhaps this version of Hel was a burn victim and suffered the same fate as Two-Face?
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Oct 17, 2015 13:44:37 GMT
nah she was born that way
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Oct 17, 2015 13:46:26 GMT
Hmmm... the only other reason I could think for something to look (and I assume smell) half dead and rotted is to ward off predators? And her brothers are a giant wolf and snake? Whadaya think Aquos?
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 16, 2016 15:47:51 GMT
(Sorry for extremely late post but i honestly managed to miss this and then not notice this for all that time, but then again i din't knew a lot about the internet and stuff back then and i didn't bother to look at this thread again. Oh well i guess) first of all AtroxYeah i think that makes sense, and yes her brothers are a giant snake (more of a water snake but yeah) and a pretty big wolf. Although i don't think that matters for this scenario, if i recall correctly i just put that in for context. Maybe we can talk about those guys later ? (assuming this thread can get revived atleast) Well i'd kinda like to survive this thread (or rather get it started properly ). Anyone who'd like to post anything ? Notes : I have the feeling i'm coming of as kind of arrogant by reviving this now... That's really not my intention at all. I'd just like to discuss mythology and stuff.
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Aug 16, 2016 16:32:12 GMT
Perhaps the "brothers being a water snake and a wolf" thing could be solved by them being different castes? One of the creatures I've always found fascinating is the gorgon. Specifically, how it turns people to stone. I feel like maybe they spit a kind of venom that causes paralysis
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 16, 2016 17:35:46 GMT
Hmm maybe, although they're so radically different from eachother that i find it hard to believe. Perhaps we could go with something more symbolic ? Like Loki beeing some alien scientist who took genes from differnet organism and used those to create Hell, Fenrir, and Yormungand ? Although that's probably more 'Science-Fiction' and lthen actuall science...
Maybe Gorogns release a neurogass, wich paralyses people ? I feel like this is closer to, beeing turned to stone by simply looking at it. I could be wrong though (in fact i'm most likely wrong). Also the snakes on their head, maybe their like 'tnetacle' like things with eye symbols and mouth symbols on them ? Used to scare away predetors, simelar to for an example butterfly wings ?
Also i completely rewrote the opening post (to do grammar problems and punctuation problems) and the changed the title to also include Fantasy concepts.
EDIT : I also included a 'concepts discussed ' tab thingie.
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Aug 16, 2016 17:55:34 GMT
Yeah some kind of gas might work. However gas tends to disperse in an open area and even people who aren't "looking" at it would get petrified if it's a dense enough cloud. Perhaps we can reach a compromise at a mist of paralyzing venom?
Yeah the snakes on their heads are most likely false heads of sorts. What if they also had some of that paralyzing venom? So when they bite you, you "turn to stone".
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 16, 2016 18:07:58 GMT
Hmm so gorogns are, venom dispersing humanoid with hunders of head on their heads ? I'm not so sure about the heads biting people though, given that the snake heads are usually depicted as rather short the gorogn would have to extremely close to her prey no ? I don't really see the point of that if they can already spit a mist of venom at their targets. Maybe there is a point though and i'm just not seeing it.
|
|
TheGraveKnight
Spacefaring
The Motivational Army is watching
Posts: 1,170
|
Post by TheGraveKnight on Aug 16, 2016 18:15:49 GMT
I know this is probably REALLY cliche, but what would have to occur for a realistic dragon to evolve?
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 16, 2016 18:20:01 GMT
Realsitic Dragon :Hmm i'm guessing with burning acids like to Bombarding beetle (or however that thing is called).
EDIT :I have no idea however for how they'd fly with such massive body's though.
Also maybe it'd be handy if we put to what scenerio where replying to in front of our reply ?
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Aug 16, 2016 20:30:52 GMT
A lot of people say that dragons would have have special bacteria that produces methane, which is stored in a large gas bladder. Because of the large volume of methane they store, they are able to fly easier. They'd also release the methane through their mouths which they'd ignite somehow. So basically whenever they breathe fire they'd be sacrificing their ability to fly until they produce more methane.
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Aug 16, 2016 20:31:36 GMT
|
|
TheGraveKnight
Spacefaring
The Motivational Army is watching
Posts: 1,170
|
Post by TheGraveKnight on Aug 16, 2016 20:33:33 GMT
I`ve already seen this actually , just as good as I remember it.
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 17, 2016 11:45:05 GMT
So dragons are giant reptiles that have a special organ (?) with bacteria in it that produce methane ? Good. Now i guess we can get to behaverial stuff. In stories (European) dragons are always seen as evil, this is probably just them being evolved to hunt humans and their livestock (i'd imagine they'd eat almost anything they'd see). Their also greedy and constantly collect treasure, i can't really find an explanation for it personally, however when i was a kid i read an interesting explanation for it in this book , that states that the one weak spot dragons have is on their underside, this is why they roll around in their treasury, as various stones and gold pieces stick to them forming a shield protecting their weak spots. I don't really think that's very realistic but it's an interesting explanation none the less.
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Aug 17, 2016 13:17:29 GMT
I heard of an explanation that dragons hoard treasure because they eat it. Like they eat pieces of metal and it gets stuck in their gizzard and when they release methane they grind the pieces of metal together causing a spark which ignites the gas.
|
|
|
Post by Aquos on Aug 17, 2016 13:25:22 GMT
I heard of an explanation that dragons hoard treasure because they eat it. Like they eat pieces of metal and it gets stuck in their gizzard and when they release methane they grind the pieces of metal together causing a spark which ignites the gas. That makes a lot of sense actually ! So they need certain metals in order to ignite their flames, but just collect all shiny things they see (so also things like jewels). This would also explain why they hunt human livestock and humans so much, as they do not only have/are tasty food, but also shiny thingies ! Now onto the next points : dragons are often depicted to live in a wide variety of places, from the coldest of mountains, to volcanoes, to underground caves. I'm guessing their just a really invasive species. are there any other points you think we need to tackle ? EDIT : now i'm thinking about it we haven't really tackled how many dragons there are... Some of those are easy and don't require an extra explanation beyond what we already have (e.g wyverns). However what about for an example, Asian dragons ? They're usually depicted as highly intelligent and benevolent to humans and such. They can also fly without wings, somehow. My best guess would be they use a flying membrane between heir legs ? Like Flying squirrels, drakes, and the actually existing flying snake. But apart from that i'm a little stumped what do to with it. Then there also Drakes, who are smaller non-flying versions of dragons. However instead of living bassicly everywhere they only live in extreme environments (e.g fire drake lives in volcano, ice drake lives in cold desert). Then there are also Eastern-European dragons who have multiple heads. Arabic dragons who are just Jinn anyways (bassicly the Arabic vision of spirits if anyone doesn't know, of course extremely oversimplified). And then there are also Meso-American dragons, but i don't know anything about this. Oh and Drakons, who are non-flying non-fire breathing dragons on steroids. And many more dragons that i won't get in to given their obscurity. So should we tackle these to ? Or should we keep to standard European dragons for know, and tackle these later ?
|
|
|
Post by Atrox on Sept 4, 2016 20:21:54 GMT
I heard of an explanation that dragons hoard treasure because they eat it. Like they eat pieces of metal and it gets stuck in their gizzard and when they release methane they grind the pieces of metal together causing a spark which ignites the gas. That makes a lot of sense actually ! So they need certain metals in order to ignite their flames, but just collect all shiny things they see (so also things like jewels). This would also explain why they hunt human livestock and humans so much, as they do not only have/are tasty food, but also shiny thingies ! Now onto the next points : dragons are often depicted to live in a wide variety of places, from the coldest of mountains, to volcanoes, to underground caves. I'm guessing their just a really invasive species. are there any other points you think we need to tackle ? EDIT : now i'm thinking about it we haven't really tackled how many dragons there are... Some of those are easy and don't require an extra explanation beyond what we already have (e.g wyverns). However what about for an example, Asian dragons ? They're usually depicted as highly intelligent and benevolent to humans and such. They can also fly without wings, somehow. My best guess would be they use a flying membrane between heir legs ? Like Flying squirrels, drakes, and the actually existing flying snake. But apart from that i'm a little stumped what do to with it. Then there also Drakes, who are smaller non-flying versions of dragons. However instead of living bassicly everywhere they only live in extreme environments (e.g fire drake lives in volcano, ice drake lives in cold desert). Then there are also Eastern-European dragons who have multiple heads. Arabic dragons who are just Jinn anyways (bassicly the Arabic vision of spirits if anyone doesn't know, of course extremely oversimplified). And then there are also Meso-American dragons, but i don't know anything about this. Oh and Drakons, who are non-flying non-fire breathing dragons on steroids. And many more dragons that i won't get in to given their obscurity. So should we tackle these to ? Or should we keep to standard European dragons for know, and tackle these later ? It's interesting if you think about how all of these could have descended from one ancestral dragon.
|
|
|
Post by Immortal_Dragon on Sept 5, 2016 0:42:28 GMT
Small note here, the spelling of the name of the goddess I've read described here that I'm most familiar with is Hel, with one lowercase, not two. Hell is the afterlife for the wicked in Abrahamic religions.
As for a mythological creature, it'd be interesting to see a chimera, something that looks like a mix and match of different organisms, one of which has venom and the another head can breathe fire. Very complex internal structures I'd imagine so that none of the agents mix internally.
|
|
|
Post by mitobox on Sept 5, 2016 1:54:56 GMT
There's an (outdated, yet) interesting theory regarding reproductive strategies, the r/K selection theory. How it works is that there are two ways to perpetuate your genes, the "r" way (making lots of offspring that you invest little into), and the "K" way (make a few (even one) offspring that you invest heavily in). Examples of the "r" strategy would be mice, butterflies, and sauropod dinosaurs. Meanwhile, the "K" strategy applies to nesting birds, elephants, and, of course, humans.
For the stereotypical warlike savage orc, the r-strategy makes the most sense (as opposed to the K strategy for humans, elves, and baby Thrall). I imagine them normally being organized into packs. A bit like the Brutes from Halo, except maybe not having such a keen eye for infighting at first.
However, there's something else I'll bring up: locusts. For years, scientists wondered what, exactly, they are. It turned out that grasshoppers are just ordinary insects at first. However, when their population size reaches a certain threshold, they switch to their swarming phase, basically turning into locusts before eating every plant they can find.
I image our orc-like race behaving a similar way; they keep to themselves as clans when in low numbers. However, when their population reaches critical mass (known in some circles as a "WAAAGH!"), they become the vicious green hordes we all know and love. Their bloodstreams are thick with aggression hormones until they bring their own population to a more stable level.
Unfortunately, the Neolithic Revolution throws a spiked wrench into this reproductive plan by having them reach critical mass at increasingly short intervals. Millenia are spent on the verge of total societal collapse (especially with shiny new weapons every hundred years).
That is, until they figure out that the stars hold more people to kill.
This leads to a very !!FUN!! Space Stage experience, either as the orcs with your endless stream of fresh blood and complete disregard for the morale system, or as the other poor races desperately holding back these green maniacs. Seriously, someone should make a scenario in Sandbox Mode and put it up for download when the time comes.
(Also, there's tjwhale's eusocial orc idea, which could be just as fun.)
|
|