The story itself

[AllieFiona]

I wouldn't want to be that poor door guard, that's certain.  Sure was a nice fellow.  I'm thinking that Annabelle will have a good excuse lined up when the time comes.  Hopefully, she will be able to slip into the store room later and put the stone back into place before it is discovered.  She may also have confederates who will take care of this for her.  Who knows how deep the conspiracy is?  That's a story in itself!

[cairn destop]

I wouldn't want to be that poor door guard, that's certain.  Sure was a nice fellow.  I'm thinking that Annabelle will have a good excuse lined up when the time comes.  Hopefully, she will be able to slip into the store room later and put the stone back into place before it is discovered.  She may also have confederates who will take care of this for her.  Who knows how deep the conspiracy is?  That's a story in itself!

That sounds like a good basis for a fan fiction.  Too bad the site doesn't offer anything for such stories.

[WyrmMaster]

That sounds like a good basis for a fan fiction.  Too bad the site doesn't offer anything for such stories.

We don't have a contest for fan fiction right now, but they could change. Previous posted fiction would probably be eligible too.

[JSM3050]

It's The One Ring!!! :lol:

[cairn destop]

Don't know if this belongs in the art section or the story segment.  Take a gander at the second panel.  In this panel, both characters are looking at the reader.  Isn't this shattering the fourth wall?  I thought that was something best avoided.

Regarding the story itself, some interesting information there.  So the morphs are something of a racist lot and interaction between species is more the exception than the rule.  That should make for some strange political alliances.  Am betting trechary is also quite common.

Don't know which science fiction writer said it, but s/he had a point.  There can be but one dominant species on any world.  Where two or more are senchent, (yeah, rotten speller), eventually there will be a war of annihillation.

[WyrmMaster]

Rhene and Elara are looking at each other in panel 2. It's just an odd situation because Elara has turned away from Rhene, and Rhene is trying to get Elara's attention back.

The Morph do tend to keep to their own species, although they do have celebrations were they mix together. Except for the rare inidviduals like Rif and Rhene (foxes in a ferret village) or Elara (a cat in a hare-managed sanctuary), a mixed village of Morphs has not been seen.

[AllieFiona]

Also, small tribes usually are just large extended families.  It is only when the population gets organized enough to become kingdoms or states that populations begin to mix.  I personally think that Morph society is on the verge of transforming to such a society, but hasn't quite reached there yet.  The transition is often traumatic.  (At least in human society.  Maybe Morphs will prove to be a little better at it.)

[JSM3050]

Okay, Rif has impressed me if he's that good of a tracker. Puzzles are one thing and require a bit of thought but tracking also involves some good senses as well. Maybe e's got some wolf in him...?

[AllieFiona]

I think he's a fair to decent tracker. He is a fox, after all.  He has good powers of deduction.  On the other hand, I think we city folks just don't think along those lines.  I also think Sandy (even though he is a wolf) has been kind of sloppy in his flight.  He was obviously careless where he stepped, and didn't bother to hide his tracks.

[WyrmMaster]

Eeah may have been coaching him recently.

[bcates]

Is it not the case that the morphs' diets have evolved somewhat strangely?  Elara apparently eats salmon, which would be peculiar for a normal rabbit.  And as strangely in the opposite direction, Rhene has no inclination to hunt Elara herself.  Exactly how do morph diets work?

[AllieFiona]

Well, for one thing, Elara is a cat.  I have never heard of a cat that didn't like fish.

I think Morph diets have evolved towards being omnivorous in many cases, particularly among natural meat eaters.  That means eating non-meat products like bread and plant life.  On the other hand, I also think that the Vegetarians did not embrace meat in the same way that the meat eaters embraced vegetables.  It is not likely that the rabbits would enjoy the smoked fish that Elara had placed in Rhene's basket.  That is not to say that they wouldn't prepare it in their kitchens for other morphs.  Or perhaps trade for it to keep on hand for the travelers who pass through.

I do strongly believe that the morph would not eat each other.  We saw how Rhene reacted when she suspected that the fox furs came from Morph.  Annabelle assured her the idea was ridiculous.

[bcates]

Well, for one thing, Elara is a cat.  I have never heard of a cat that didn't like fish.

Uh, sorry.  I think it is the way her ears stick up that made me think she was a rabbit.

I do strongly believe that the morph would not eat each other.

This sounds like it is more aesthetic than dietary.  Many people might find it hard to eat monkey or dolphin and not because they are toxic to us.  Or is it more like a revulsion to cannabilism?  If a mixed group of morphs were starving in the snow, would they eat other morphs before eating their own kind?  Or are morph tribal differences only fur deep?

[AllieFiona]

Hmmm.  Since it is a village full of hares, I guess it could have been assumed that Elara was a hare too.  I suppose I didn't make Elara cat-like enough. 

In an interesting fashion comment, it should be noted that hares make ear-holes for their robes, while the rats seen earlier in the comic do not.  Since Elara's Temple of the Orb is located at the hares' village, and the hares act as support providers (I wouldn't say servants) to Elara, they offered her clothing that is aligned with hares' sensibilities.

As far as cannibalism is concerned, I would assume that Morph would have the same aversion to eating other morph that most modern humans have to eating other humans, even though they originated from species that did eat each other.  If they ended up like the Donner party of the 1800s (California pioneers who were reduced to cannibalism when they were trapped in a snowstorm), I think the story would be just as sensational as the human counterpart.  I prefer to think survivors would eat whomever didn't survive, if they decided to turn to cannibalism.  Maybe their anscestral forms would influence them a little.  Maybe.

[bcates]

On Cat Hares:

Yeah, I think that's it.  Take a look at the 10/17 strip and in particular the difference in ear-to-head size of the hares and the same on Elara - Elara's got a much shorter ratio.  Also, in the long distance of the current strip, we can't see Elara's black whiskers and darker fur which set her apart from the hares (see 2/14 and 2/21 for close-ups of the hares - they apparently don't have whiskers or like arctic hares, they are white and too fine to see at this resolution):

On Donner:

There have been sorry times in our species' history when we treated different varieties of home sapiens as less than human and thus subject to barbarous treatment. Given the fairly low level of morph social development (clan/tribal), such behaviors would not be beyond the pall, particularly in extreme environments like starvation.  One hopes that it is not a morph eat morph world.   -_-