croiduire:miscellaneous:rationalising_the_irrational_ad_d_science
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croiduire:miscellaneous:rationalising_the_irrational_ad_d_science [2015/09/17 17:32] – Croi Duire | croiduire:miscellaneous:rationalising_the_irrational_ad_d_science [2018/08/10 02:04] (current) – Croi Duire | ||
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+ | ====== Rationalising the Irrational, AD&D Science ====== | ||
+ | I have adapted and explained several canon creatures and phenomena to provide a self-consistent, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Human Kin ===== | ||
+ | Probably the oldest definition of //men// came from the German root // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Human kin (humankin, mankin) means the former, and the classification includes nyxmeasells, | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The work of preeminent biologist J. Craig Venter, who created a definitive molecular portrait of a diploid human genome, states that, in terms of DNA sequence, all humans are 99.5% similar to any other humans, yet at least 44 percent of an individual' | ||
+ | |||
+ | That doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | One area that deserves further extrapolation is pigmentation. On Earth there are three basic types of melanin. Eumelanin is composed of oligomers or polymers (probably 5, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Pheomelanin is also found in hair and skin in both lighter and darker skinned humans. Chemically, pheomelanin differs from eumelanin in that its oligomer structure incorporates benzothiazine units which are produced instead of DHI and DHICA when the amino acid L-cysteine is present. In general women have more pheomelanin than men, and thus women' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Neuromelanin is the dark pigment present in pigment-bearing neurons of four deep brain nuclei: the substantia nigra; the locus ceruleus ("blue spot" | ||
+ | |||
+ | From these examples it can be reasonably postulated that other related melanins could have evolved. On my worlds chloromelanin is produced in the melanocytes by the oxidation and subsequent polymerisation of threonine. It is most prevalent in the orcish population, and imparts a greenish cast to the skin. Unlike eumelanin and pheomelanin, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the real world eye colour is also produced by eumelanin, with pigmentation dependent on the concentration of melanin in the iris pigment epithelium and iris stroma, and the actual cellular structure of the stroma (and only varies from light brown to black). Blue, green, and grey eye colours result from the Tyndall scattering of light in the stroma absent a large quantity of melanin; they are structural, not pigment, colours. (A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene resulted in the creation of a " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Giant Spiders ===== | ||
+ | Oxygenation--lung capacity and efficiency--is the greatest limitation to insect and arachnid size. On Tamaranth book lungs evolved that over time (aeons) grew thinner and far more complex, with many hundreds, even thousands, of folds; they resemble branchiostegal lungs in several particulars. Bellows are provided by two " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Circulation is closed, instead of open, and a logical evolutionary progression from their smaller cousins and Terran counterparts that have a semi-closed (not truly open, as in one cavity...they have arteries, but not veins) system. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Exoskeletons are not radically different, merely some improvements in the chitin/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Additionally, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Owlbears ===== | ||
+ | Owlbears are monotremes. Their beaks are an example of convergent evolution. The most anterior bone of the upper jaw, the pre-maxilla, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Rocs ===== | ||
+ | The roc is a lie. There are no eagles with 120 foot wingspans (because, aerodynamics...) What does exist (on Tamaranth) is the azhdarchid, which absent a mass extinction event, continued to evolve. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Azhdarchid (Spear-bird; | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Diet: | Predominantly carnivore | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ No. Appearing: | 1 (+20% chance for 1 juvenile) or 2 (+75% chance for 1d2 young) [(note)] | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Move: | 9" ground / 96" flying (Manoeuvre Rating: C) | | ||
+ | ^ Hit Dice: | 10 + 8 | | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ No. of Attacks: | 3 | | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Magic Resistance: | Nil | | ||
+ | ^ Size: | Gargantuan | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ XP Value: | 3000 | | ||
+ | |||
+ | [(note> | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | ^ Age (yrs) ^ HD ^ THAC0 ^ Attacks | ||
+ | ^ Hatchling (0-2) | 1 | Only found in nest; no attacks or defenses | ||
+ | ^ Fledgling (3-5) | 2+4 | 19 | 1-2/ | ||
+ | ^ Juvenile (6-10) | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | )] | ||
+ | |||
+ | With an average 50 foot wingspan, 15 foot neck, and 6 foot beak, the azhdarchid is the largest bird on Tamaranth, and is an apex predator. They have black crests, black beaks, black or dark grey markings, and white necks with distinct breast feathers; their wings and underbellies are a shade of grey that can range from pale, softly-dappled near-white to dark, bluish slate, sometimes mottled with white or lighter grey. Their bodies are thin and compact, and they are amazingly light for their size. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They are extremely long-lived birds, with a life expectancy estimated to be between 150 and 200 years. The oldest known specimen whose age can be reliably verified was 212 at the time of her death. They breed no more often than once every three to five years, and, although they reach sexual maturity at around 10 years, a female seldom lays her first egg before she is 20 and has reached her full, adult size and weight. Courtship begins in the spring and involves sexual displays, nest building, and considerable physical contact, with the male preening and stroking the female, and rubbing against her cloacal opening. Without this assiduous stimulation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | They are categorised as cavity nesters. When a female leaves her mother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | They are predominantly shore birds, usually nesting in high, rugged, sea-side cliffs, and feeding mostly on aquatic mammals, large fish, and squid, but they have also been sighted on lakes and rivers, or in marshes. They are at home in both salt and fresh water. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They hunt in one of two ways. On land or in shallow water they stand motionless, waiting patiently for prey to come within reach, then strike out with lightning speed, moving only their necks and heads, impaling their quarry with their wickedly sharp beaks. Their long, supple, powerful necks convey quite an unexpected advantage of reach. This is the method they use to take salmon after salmon during spawning season. At sea their extremely keen, binocular vision allows them to spot prey from a great distance and to accurately judge its depth underwater. They land on the water and spear their target, striking accurately to a depth of 15 feet. However, their senses of hearing and smell, whilst quite good, are not exceptional; | ||
+ | |||
+ | They prefer to fly by dynamic soaring, using the gradient in wind speed that exists between the sea surface and higher up, or to take advantage of the curtain of wind deflected up from the windward face of a wave--so-called slope soaring. Both methods of flight are fast and efficient, allowing them to conserve energy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Taking off from land is difficult for azhdarchid; they need a long airstrip. They run into a head wind--the stronger the wind, the easier it is for them--or they launch off a cliff edge if the wind is blowing into the cliff. It is much less trouble for them to rise from the water; they are strong swimmers, paddling along smoothly until they get up to speed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They are not migratory, and inhabit a range between roughly the 20th and 50th degrees of latitude. They avoid the tropical regions because of the erratic weather patterns; the stagnant calms and violent thunderstorms make it very hard for them to fly. North of the 50th parallel the weather is too cold for them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{ / | ||
+ | |||
+ | ~~REFNOTES~~ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Galeb Duhr ===== | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Diet: | Scavengers | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ No. Appearing: | 1-4 | | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Move: | 1 | | ||
+ | ^ Hit Dice: | 8-10 | | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ No. of Attacks: | Special | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ Magic Resistance: | 30% | | ||
+ | ^ Size: | Large | | ||
+ | ^ | ||
+ | ^ XP Value: | 1000 | | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Anatomy and Physiology ==== | ||
+ | It is a common misconception that mutations happen " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some authorities((A. G. Cairns-Smith; | ||
+ | |||
+ | The galeb duhr are curious boulder-like creatures with retractable appendages. These intelligent beings are very large and slow-moving. They live in cold mountainous areas, although they have been seen at lower elevation during winter. A typical adult galeb duhr is about 8 feet tall; the largest specimen ever observed was reputedly approximately 12 feet tall. When not moving they look like part of the terrain they live in. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Taxonomists agree that galeb duhr are eukaryotes, but beyond that point of consensus there is room for lively debate. They are generally placed in the Kingdom: Animalia and Phylum: Chordata; some contend they are members of the Subphylum: Tunicata, although other scholars, equally erudite, maintain they belong in their own Kingdom, one shared only with their more primitive, extinct ancestors, for their morphology and physiology have several unique characteristics. In common with most life forms, they are carbon based, but like diatoms they incorporate silicates into cell walls, delicate strands much finer than asbestos, like reinforcing threads woven into a complex carbon tapestry. Upon gross physical examination, | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, if a galeb duhr is cut open, one finds bright red organs embedded in a stony matrix, a structure similar to that of certain tunicates. Whilst the cells of the dermis, skeletal structures, and parts of their digestive systems have cell walls impregnated with silicates, the cells of most of their organs and tissues have only cell membranes, and the systems themselves, although anatomically different, are very similar functionally and histologically to analogous structures found in mammals, birds and reptiles. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the centre of the body is a hollow column of silicate " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Around the superior crest of the galeb duhr, well-protected in fissures in the carapace, are twelve evenly spaced pores or nares, leading to a single, multi-lobed, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nestled within the lung area is a large, four-chambered, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Like snails they move by means of an extremely muscular foot, flexible and powerful, that completely encircles the underside of the body; they can move in any direction without turning around at a speed of approximately 10 yds/min (< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Galeb duhr are the ultimate omnivores. Primarily scavengers, they are able to extract energy and nutrients from virtually any organic material, including organic minerals, and some inorganic ones. Low-growing plants and grasses, leaf mould, insects, worms, mollusks, carrion, even lignite and soft silicates (such as talc, kaolinite, and mica) are all consumed. They tread back and forth over their food, using their foot denticles to break it into small fragments, and then suck it into their crops by means of air pressure, provided by the constriction of the great inferior air sac, through their mouths which are located near the centre of their underbellies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the crop, the only internal organ that incorporates silicates in its structure, the food is softened by a very watery " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once reduced to slurry, it passes into the first stomach, also called the rumen, where specialised microorganisms decompose cellulose and other carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids, acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid. These microbes also synthesize amino acids from non-protein nitrogenous sources, such as urea and ammonia. As these microbes reproduce in the rumen, older generations die and their cells continue on through the digestive tract where the cells themselves are digested, providing another high-quality protein source. The food bolus next passes into the second stomach which secretes proteases and powerful gastric acid, acid so strong that no known pathogen can survive exposure to it; some proteins are fully digested and absorbed in this stomach and others are partially digested before the chyme moves into the intestine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first intestinal segment, the duodenum, where most chemical digestion takes place, is about three times longer than the duodenum of any mammal of comparable body size. The pancreas, equal in length to the duodenum, lays adjacent and distal to it; the liver, not quite as long but between two and three times greater in girth, is proximal. Ducts connect the pancreas and liver to the duodenum at several places, secreting digestive enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver, at each juncture optimising the pH and concentration of specific enzymes and hormones necessary to digest a wide variety of foods. This remarkably efficient system is how even lignite, reduced to fine particles in the crop and gizzard and further broken down by the gastric acids before passing into the basic, enzyme-rich environment of the duodenum, yields easily absorbed fulvic acid and other essential nutrients. All three organs, encased within and supported by the mesentery organ and resting on the spoke bones, curve in a gentle clockwise spiral distal to the more centralised mouth, crop, rumen, and stomach. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Most absorption occurs in the jejunum. Approximately half again as long as the duodenum, it continues the gradual outward spiral of the digestive tract, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The ileum, the final and shortest portion of the intestine, follows the jejunum and ends at the junction where the terminal ileum communicates with the cloaca through the ileocloacal valve. It lays in the broad, shallow digestive groove of the felloe bone, and like the duodenum and jejunum is contained within the mesentery that carries the blood vessels supplying them, lymphatic vessels, and nerve fibres. The ileum is richly colonised with symbiotic bacteria responsible for the synthesis of necessary vitamins, including K and B< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Able to digest and assimilate almost everything they consume, galeb duhr produce very little waste. What little remains passes through the ileocloacal valve into the inferior portion of the cloaca where water is absorbed before the pellet-like faeces are excreted through the common cloacal vent. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Galeb duhr have a single, large, horseshoe-shaped reniculate kidney that partially encircles the neural column just above the crop; it drains into the superior portion of the cloaca through the P-shaped ureter; the loop deters bacteria from travelling up the ureter and causing infection. It functions in almost the same way as mammalian and avian kidneys; the cortex makes up around 60% of the kidney' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Galeb duhr are simultaneous hermaphrodites, | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, galeb duhr are semi-viviparous; | ||
+ | |||
+ | When gestation is nearly complete the egg enters the cloaca and passes through the common vent. The vent is normally closed by two panels externally indistinguishable from the rest of the carapace but considerably thinner. When the cloaca is full, the evacuation reflex causes strong muscular bands to simultaneously pull the vent open whilst pushing out the cloacal contents. Urination and defecation require minimal exertion. However, with a circumference between 25 and 28 inches, the egg fills the cloaca, and laying is sometimes a prolonged process. In the event of extreme muscle fatigue, the panels will close, sometimes spasmodically, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Between several hours to three days after being laid, the egg will hatch and a single semiprecocial, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although independent of its parents for its physical needs within a few weeks, a child remains with its parents, developing intellectually and socially, until reaching sexual maturity at about 20 years, sometimes (in resource-rich territories) much longer, raising a family of its own beside its parents. | ||
croiduire/miscellaneous/rationalising_the_irrational_ad_d_science.txt · Last modified: 2018/08/10 02:04 by Croi Duire