Andrew Janssen wrote: > This may be quibbling excessively, but your description of a cockatrice > is more like a basilisk. Since a cockatrice is traditionally created by > taking an egg laid by a cockerel and then having a toad incubate the egg > on a dung heap, there should be at least some reference in the > creature's description to its chicken ancestry. I debated describing the creature's two limbs as "like plucked chicken wings," but felt that was too strong a link to the "cockatrices are magical chickens" theory. I'll go back and add it. > I've always thought of > a cockatrice as looking like a rooster, but with metallic, sharp-edged > scales instead of feathers, and a serpent's tail with a sting instead of > a rooster's tail. > > A basilisk, on the other hand, is just a big ugly lizard whose gaze > happens to be petrifying. > > However, a lot of sources do in fact equate the basilisk with the > cockatrice, for some reason. What sources _don't_ equate the two? > I also have to say that I don't really agree with the theory that all > magical creatures are an 'essential' form of a base creature. If we > adopt that theory, we'd have to address whether every 'base' creature > has a 'magical' equivalent, or if it's possible for mutiple species of > 'magical' creature to share a common 'base' creature. On top of that, > you have the problem of explaining why some magical creatures occur > naturally and breed true (dragons & unicorns) Do we know that unicorns breed true on Celandra? > while others are sterile > monstrosities created by the intervention of outside forces (cockatrices > & chimeras) Do we know that cockatrices are sterile on Celandra? > Now, it could be that some magical creatures are either exalted versions > of a base creature (like unicorns & horses) or perverted versions of a > base creature (like cockatrices & roosters), but this is not necessarily > true of *all* magical creatures. I'm thinking particularly of dragons, > in this case. Well, we know that dragons originally came from the Dreaming. That immediately creates the distinction of: magical creatures originating in the Dreaming vs. magical creatures originating in the physical world. It's possible that all six-limbed vertebrates originally came from the dreaming, and others are adaptations. Or those creatures that breed true came from the dreaming while those who don't are adaptations. Why are you assuming that the magical creatures on Celandra are the same as those from our legends? The legends are so varied that it's impossible to create coherant creatures out of them. Using a particular name is suggestive of a creature so that people have a general idea what you're talking about, but the description is what's really important. If the languages of Qaiyore were well described I'd have taken a stab at giving the creatures local names, (like Lurelia (Hippogriff)), but since they weren't I just used translations. > One thing more on magical creatures: they're probably not all that > common. That's what I've been assuming. For whatever reason, magical creatures are almost nonexistent on Orasaren. They are, however, relatively common in Junder. (Still meaning that most people have never seen one, but everyone _knows_ someone who's seen one.) Of the creatures I listed, I picture cockatrices, unicorns, and lashbrush in Junder. Hippogriffs live in Tanimbar, and gryphons live further north. > If we assume that Qaiyore is similar in most important respects > to Elyria, magical creatures will be most common in areas that have > either been constantly exposed to moderate levels of magical energy for > a long time or that have been exposed to extremely high levels of magic > in rather less time. It strikes me that cause may be magic having gone wrong, not the use of magic itself. > On Qaiyore, you'd probably see a lot of magical creatures on Mir, > because of the Sorcerors and the proximity to the Dreaming Gate there. Unless the Sorcerers know how to "clean up" mistakes, and, even so, the most common magical creature on Mir might be human mages. > The Shadowlands where the Floating City flew would also probably have a > lot of magical creatures, and Rian a'Avaerand's destruction by a spell > gone horribly wrong is probably responsible for most of the sea monsters > of Celandra. Jefferson (Exquaestio) http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/Exq_Main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
