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I see yer point but I wasn't thinking about a true crossbreed between a human and a lion, that would be disturbing... I was thinking more along the lines of what some people do in certain stories, by this I mean genetic modifications. Do you know what I mean? I've heard and seen about characters modifying their bodies so they can look more like animals. But that's not all, if they go through with it they also can gain some of the characteristics of the animal they change into. For example, if they look like a bull or an ox, they become very strong. If they look like a rabbit, they become quick footed and so on.
I was wondering if a Lion looking person would be a cool idea or not so much.

That I can understand and agree to.
It's done in Fullmetal Alchemist. People have been crossed with animals to create chimeras.

You'd need to watch the series (it's rather...gruesome in places) to understand how it's done. It's called transmutation and it's a form of alchemy in that world.

Actually I have seen quite a few episodes of full metal alchemist, it's kindof what I had in mind when I was talking about transmutation razz .
mhm altering the outside would take away the whole bioligical function problem, I guess I was just thinking of the FMA way of combining humans and animals sweatdrop

I wasn't saying that such creatures should ever be the product of a person and something. It relates to what Drizzt was saying some time ago about "could something like this happen?"

He mentioned dragon vampires and the likes. The topic is "crossbreeds", something that is crossed with something else evidently. If centaurs and the likes are their own species, then they're effectively NOT crossbreeds.

I don't see merfolk like how they appear in The Little Mermaid. I see them very differently.

I think this is a great idea! Cross breeding has been used in a number of popular novels, the Harry Potter series being one of them.

I see merpeople almost just like they are discribed by JKRowling. Isn't it funny how we can imagine things and then read about them, and discuss it with someone else, and have that person perciving a completely different perspective than you?

Yes Fire_Phieonix, it's both funny and cool cuz sometimes you get to see some interesting perceptions, like the ones Mel brought from Magic The Gathering. That is why it's my favorite card game (cuz they're perceptions are usually more realistic). 3nodding
I'm gonna check out that thread right after this one! wink

Okay, I gotta call some shenanigans, because this is something about this sub-forum that has been bugging me ever since the Elves thread got going.

Realistic according to who?

They're fictional, mythical creatures that never actually existed. Real world genetics, real world biologies, real world science need not necessarily apply. That is completely and entirely up to the writer. If someone wants to write that merfolk were the product of cross-breeding, that's their creative choice. If someone wanted to write that centaurs were the result of the great kitchen god Zorgblag getting hammered, dropping his great and mighty meatcleaver of bouncing (+1) down from the heavens on to a horse and a man and being too drunk to put them back together properly, that's their (probably unpublished) choice, too.

People around here seem to be arguing about these creatures as if they're real and have to have a single, uniform concept. That's something that I don't buy. There is no reason that one person's definition of elves, merfolk, centaurs, dragons, or whatever has to shoehorn into someone else's completely uniformly. And for that matter, they don't even have to exist in worlds where things work the same as they do here. For a fantasy guild, we seem to be taking a rather dim view of things like magic, of late and it kind of distresses me.

Basically, I'm saying that we seem to be limiting ourselves to imagining worlds that still work like our own. And I know for a fact that the people around here have bigger imaginations than that. I've seen it. It was one of the reasons I came to this guild and it's one of the reasons that I participate here on a daily basis when I often don't even check most of my other guilds. Not only that, but there seems to be a lot of "agreeing to disagree" about things over which there is nothing to disagree about. Phrases are popping up like "I see them as being like this" or "you're entitled to your theory." What theory are we even talking about, here? Yours? Mine? The one sitting in a box by the door?

So, consider this a challenge, I guess. Rather than arguing the scientific aspects of all these individual creatures, rather than telling each other what form they would take in your own personal pieces of fiction, how about discussing the underlying ideas. What is a crossbreed, conceptually? Is it something that bridges two worlds? Or is it something that exists partially in two worlds? Perhaps it is something that exists in those strange in-between places where both worlds exist. Why are the common things common? Why are the uncommon things uncommon? What are their origins in myth and where are they trending, conceptually, today? That sort of thing. Not whether or not a mermaid's skin would dry out in the air and whether she would have hair.

Rant over for now.

Berz.