Re: Shadow Cats on Bodmin Moor

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_yeats.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 23:54:43 GMT


Trotsky and Richard Develyn:
> > That's why I said 'population'. A *single* cat released from a zoo or
> >something, yes, fair enough.
>
> I think 'population' is a bit vague.

True, but it carries strong connotations of 'more than one', and perhaps of 'breeding population'.

> There probably is a population of big cats on Bodmin

Is that 'a population of big cats' in the sense of 'at least half a dozen panthers'?

> but, according to this
> chap on TV anyway, the chances of two of them fancying one another is quite
> small. They'll probably die out in time.

If they did exist, there would certainly be issues with the population density, and hence the likelihood of them bumping into each other at 'appropriate' times, due to the relative rarity of herds of wildebeest on british muirs.

> In Glorantha, presumably, there must be loads of
> different breeds (if that's the right word - are they bred anywhere?) of
> shadow cat, and unless the 'shadow' is some sort of darkness rune related
> thing I imagine you get them all sorts of different colours and patterns.

I picture 'em all being on the dark side, but certainly varying in exact hue from mid-grey to dark-black., and with all sorts of patterns. Apparently not all 'alynx' are 'shadowcats' though, which has the faint whiff of a naff retcon to me, but one will have to wait and see exactly what Anaxial has to say on the matter before making such a judgement.

In a manner which is quite startling unlikely in terms of RW genetics, it has been alleged in my game that the smaller, more domesticated shadowcats (SIZ 1-2 fellahs pouncing around the grain barns) have been known to interbreed with housecats. It may be unlikely in Official Glorantha as well, since it's not clear that housecats as such actually exist. (Though this would be highly odd, IMO.)

Cheers,
Alex.


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