The story itself

[WyrmMaster]

I am working on the plot for a second story. I will announce the details at a later date.

[Peter Swinkels]

"Kw...?" Seems that "Sandy" still doesn't want his real name to be known. Wonder why...

[cairn destop]

"Kw...?" Seems that "Sandy" still doesn't want his real name to be known. Wonder why...

Perhaps his name is Kweenie, a corruption of Queenie.  I have known several dog owners who have used that name for their sires when it seems a more fitting name for a female dog.  Think of the teasing our wolf cub must have endured with a name that contradicted his gender. 

(Cue Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue")

[Peter Swinkels]

Isn't "Sandy"  a bit of a girl's name too?

Interesting bit about "Sandy's" name being honored, how can that be when he is only a child (perhaps named after some one greatly honored)? Who is banished at that as well...

[AllieFiona]

Apparently, Sandy's mother considers his given name an honored one.  Perhaps it is old fashioned or stodgy.  Maybe the other wolf cubs made fun of it.  Maybe Sandy felt he wanted to have a new identity, or that the old name brought up painful memories associated with their exile.

I once had a friend named Raul, a very respected name in Latin American countries.  (And these days it's considered exotic and fashionable.)  When he was a kid, he was teased endlessly about it; so he changed his name to Ray.

[cairn destop]

Check out the third panel in the strip for this week, Strip No. 257.  It seems the earlier inference that the various morph races are in an uneasy peace and that no morph species trusts anyone from another species is accurate.  I'm thinking this earth is going to have racial conflicts that would make the 1960's look like somebody tiptoeing through the daisies.

How I could remember the name of that sci-fi book I read where there were more than two intelligent and sapient races on one world.  Just before the evil one is defeated, he tells the hero he has only delayed the inevitable.  When two or more intelligent species vie for the same resources, eventually one will survive.  The other races will be exterminated.  It's a line that haunts me when I read stories like this one.

Yeah, hedgehog is reading too much into an entertaining cartoon.

[AllieFiona]

In the computer game there were also references to tensions between the tribes of Morph.  There is much going on that this story arc has not had the time to cover.

[cairn destop]

Today's strip with Sandy asserting himself reminded me of a line I used in one of my fan fiction story.

"There comes a time when you have to let the bird try their wings.  Give them a few short flights alone and they will learn far more than a longer voyage in your shadow."

Methinks we are about to get the same kind of advice from Mamma Bear.  No disrespect to our mother wolf.  There are many parents that have a hard time letting go.  Perhaps that's the true measure of a parent - somebody who knows when and how much to let go.

[AllieFiona]

It is hard.  Especially right after her child has been missing for months.  And she's never met Tycho, and hasn't seen where he lives in relation to the sanctuary.  Any mother would be (at least initially) concerned.  It may take a little convincing.

[Peter Swinkels]

So Sandy is old enough to be an apprentice? How old is Sandy?

[AllieFiona]

I don't really know.  Human and Morph years are not quite the same.  In maturity, I'd guess he's equal to a human about 10 years old.

[Peter Swinkels]

I don't really know.  Human and Morph years are not quite the same.  In maturity, I'd guess he's equal to a human about 10 years old.

It's nice to see that the writers have thought of such as details as the rate at which morphs mature, if details like these are overlooked you just get humans which look like an animal.

After a little searching I found this interesting link: https://ukwct.org.uk/files/education/LifeCycle.pdf It seems that if Sandy were a real wolf instead of a wolf morph, he would be about 1.5 years old.

[AllieFiona]

My take on it is that Morph lifecycles are somewhere in between that of human and native species.  Probably closer to human, as science is finding more and more evidence that neocortex maturity takes a certain amount of time.

[cairn destop]

I don't really know.  Human and Morph years are not quite the same.  In maturity, I'd guess he's equal to a human about 10 years old.

This was one of the things I disliked about the Redwall novels.  A creature could go from babe to adult in one season for the younger characters or they aged several years in one season.  There never was a reliable conversion from seasons to years or back.  It was one reason I made the characters age like humans in my fan fictions.

If this story is following a feudal period, then Sandy would be eligible for an apprenticeship somewhere around his preteen years, 10 - 12.

[Peter Swinkels]

My take on it is that Morph lifecycles are somewhere in between that of human and native species.  Probably closer to human, as science is finding more and more evidence that neocortex maturity takes a certain amount of time.

You mean, that if a morph's maturation rate were based on that of the animal it evolved from, you would get morphs, that still act like  animals rather than humans because without a long childhood, the neocortex cannot develop properly?