Welcome to Gaia! ::

This thread will be one big question and answer thread regarding the game's theme, setting, and other such things. Think of it as an expanded FAQ, questions will be sorted by category.

You are welcome to post questions, suggest categories, or otherwise ask us about those fussy little details - anything you can that will help better flesh out your character, clarify how the world works here, or get a better feel of the setting.

Q: Can my character care for an extinct animal?
A: In some cases, yes. Because of the time period this RPG takes place in, Moreau may experiment on mammals that are now considered extinct such as the thyalcine because they had still existed back then. You can refer to this list of extinct mammals to see what other animals might be considered for experimentation, provided they went extinct after the 1800s. We sometimes make exceptions for animals such as the quagga, which went extinct in the wild around the 1870s -- Moreau is a man with connections, one of his poachers might come across one still alive in an isolated patch of African savanna while hunting for lions and brought it in.

Q: Can my animal escape and stay stuck in the form it's in now before becoming an antherios?
A: Ew, why would you want that? One of the pre-antherios forms is missing its skin, the other is bandaged and stitched up and possibly even covered in open wounds. It would not survive for very long on its own; it would inevitably catch an infection without human care and treatment in the quasitheria and abaddontheria forms. Take, for example, the puma monster that was in the book: It had escaped from Moreau, yes, but it was still covered in open wounds and such things. Even if Moreau hadn't gone after it, it still would not have lived for very long because of the fact it had untreated open wounds that were very prone to catching infections - and we all know that nasty diseases tend to lurk in the jungle.

Q: What's with the animal's naming scheme? Codename? Serial number?
A: Antheria will be given a serial number, as well as a Greek or Latin codename and a more personalized "pet"/human name. The stray dog, for example, has the serial number D-1, the codename Herophilos, and the human name of Rowan. The serial number and codename are chosen by Moreau, the assistant is given the option to choose the human name for the antherios. The Greek codenames are often names of historical physicians, but sometimes Latin names are given instead (usually a word describing a quality of the animal, be it physical or psychological). I would honestly prefer that the human names given to the animals be British in origin (especially those fancy, foppish names - names like Bennington and Edgeworth, for example) or Biblical names, another popular source for names in the late 1800s - or just names from your assistant character's country of origin. It would make no sense for a British man in the late 1800s to give his animal a Japanese name like "Sakura." That's just plain tacky.

Q: What if my animal started off as a tiger or leopard or something similar with stripes or spots? Will it have those markings, or any markings at all, in its final antherios form?
A: Yes, as the skin grows back without fur it will still retain the animal's original markings over their backs and shoulders (rarely do the markings show up on the face again, because in most cases the animal's face is so dramatically changed that the skin cells' 'memory' of the markings is gone). They will be somewhat faint, darker than the rest of the skin but hard to notice from a distance. Imagine them being somewhat like freckles in coloration.

Q: What about sea mammals such as dolphins and whales? They're smart, wouldn't Moreau really want to work on them?
A: Hmm, I'm gonna have to say that Moreau will just do land-based mammals only for now. Not only are his facilities not set up to care for water-based creatures, but the transition from going to land from water might do a number on the dolphin and maybe even disagree with the animal's physiology - walking, especially, is going to make life hard on it. While it's true that a dolphin/whale's flippers have finger-bones in them that could be turned into arms and hands with some effort, but they don't have any leg bones that could be used as a template to work on like land-based animals. Its legs would have to be built from scratch in order to walk, and frankly, it's all too much trouble for Moreau to go through if the animal ends up dying.

Q: How big or small can the animals Moreau works on be? What are the size limits?
A: The minimum size is 50-60 pounds (roughly the size of a toddler), and the maximum size for an animal is 1000 pounds (and that's really pushing it). Moreau doesn't have tables large or strong enough for the really big animals, and he doesn't consider anything small to be of a good enough size to become a human.
8/27/06 addenum: Due to an upcoming plot, lower size brackets are going to be removed to broaden the scope of available animals.

Roleplay

Q: Does roleplaying have to be done in present-tense?
A: It's preferred, since it makes the pose seem a little more open-ended for interpretation and reaction. I understand some people may prefer past-tense, and you're free to do that, we're not going to chase you with pitchforks for writing in past tense.

Q: *walks up to you and asks you a question*
A: Don't do informal RP with the asterisks. We use formal RP here, see the rules in the main thread.

Q: Are journals required?
A: No, they are now optional/encouraged. See here!

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