I am greatly enjoying the discussion of Teleos.
However, I still disagree about the dinosaurs.
The theory from Elder Secrets that dinosaurs are dragonewts who devolved is just that: A THEORY. A number of other theories/myths exist, in print, which give alternate explanations:
Wyrms Footnotes 14, in the Dragonewt Pantheon article, gives a myth that they are the children of Maran Gor, the Earthshaker.
Greg's current Pelorian material gives them as children of Lodril, because they shake the earth like he does. This is presumably the source of the Maran Gor myth popular in Dragon Pass as well.
Dragon Pass boardgame (might also be in WB&RM, can't be bothered to check) says that they are born from damaged dragon eggs. Dinosaurs which realized their state could go into some kind of magical egg state and emerge as pteronodons, presumably a higher form of life than non-flying dinosaurs.
Borderlands supports the Dragon Pass theory when it talks about trachodons in the River of Cradles.
In Wyrms Footnotes 8, reprinted in Wyrms Footprints, all sea dinosaurs are the children of Tholaina and a captured earth god. If the sea-dinosaurs are not in any way related to dragonewts, why do air and land dinosaurs have to be?
Dinosaurs are associated with dragonewts in many areas, true, but so are demi-birds, and no one wants to suggest that _they_ are dragonewts, too.
There are lots of dragonewts in Kralorela, but no mention anywhere that I know of of any dinosaurs there. Why not?
In Pamaltela, I am sure that most natives associate the dinosaurs with the slarges -- as the slarges are lizard MEN, so the dinosaurs are probably viewed as lizarde ANIMALS. Thus, pteronodons are lizard-birds, pleisoaurs are lizard-fish, trachodons are lizard-frogs, etc. There are no dragonewts anywhere known in Pamaltela, and yet there are all these dinosaurs? Elder Secrets gives a theory about that, true, but again, it is just a theory.
I am sure there is stuff I have missed here, but I think I've made my point. Given all of the above, I see no need whatsoever for _requiring_ that there be dinosaurs on Teleos (miniature or normal-sized).
I could accept the idea of dragonewts not eating -- their lives would be shorter, but they would have so many of them, that the question of advancing to the next stage shouldn't be delayed too much. Perhaps there is no Inhuman King there because none of them has made it that far yet?
Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com
- -----------------------------------------------The Book of Drastic Resolutions
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