NarniaMUCK

In the Narnia MUCK universe, how do meals work in terms of herbivores being near carnivores at feeding times? Not in terms of fearing being hunted, of course, but ... would talking unicorns or horses tend to be sickened or put off witnessing a wolf hunt, kill and devour prey? Or would the talking herbivores tend to not feel bothered at all, knowing its just a 'dumb animal' and therefore not something they would feel squicked by ICly?

Good question. My answer would be: it probably varies some from Beast to Beast (in the same way that watching people eating meat squicks some vegetarian humans in the Real World while others have no problem with it). Here's the general idea, though:

As you rightly guessed, the Talking Beasts have no fear of being hunted, because Talking Beasts would never ever hunt other Talking Beasts. Along the same lines, then, I don't think the herbivores would view it as anything like cannibalism or genocide. Herbivores eat plants because that's what their stomachs can handle, rather than because they have a moral feeling against eating meat. That doesn't mean blood won't make some of them a bit queasy or uncomfortable, but for most of them, I don't think the reaction would be incredibly extreme.

That said, I've seen it often RP'd it's somewhat impolite for carnivores/omnivores to eat (especially raw) meat in front of herbivores. At parties they sometimes will eat cooked meat while the herbivores eat vegetables. The books seem to give some precedent for Talking Beasts eating cooked meat, and food for both groups is always provided at big events. But carnivores generally try to avoid ripping into a carcass in front of their herbivore brethren.

Specific to my character and her herdmates, its my understanding, in my early dips into the RP pool as a Un'aireken unicorn, that the Un'aireken unicorn and the Ulfden wolves are friendly neighbors who hang out with each other frequently. I'm just considering the practical considerations, if a wolf hangs out among the Un'aireken for an extended time, would they wander off when their tummy starts gurgling or do the Un'aireken just get comfortable with them hunting, and likewise if a Un'aireken herd member were hanging out in Ulfden territory for an extended period, would the whole pack stop hunting around one visitor or do the unicorns just become de-sensitized to the Ulfden hunting?

I realize there will be individuals, and I'm not sure if there are other talking predator/prey groups with similar friendly relations that could make it so regular, but I would think there would probably be a common cultural understanding between Ulfden and Un'aireken members one way or the other that would be the norm between them if they interact and intermingle as often as my early, limited perception indicates they do.

Ulfden and Un'aireken generally, out of a sense of respect for private business and such, stay out of each other's immediate territories (the dale and meadow for Un'aireken, the area outside the den for Ulfden) unless there is pressing need. In the more 'neutral' areas, the polite thing to do is to move elsewhere for meals - the carnivores, after all, find plants just as unappetizing as the herbivores find meat. There are inevitable 'breaches,' of course - a wolf carrying a kill back to the den through the Gathering Circle where a unicorn's grazing, for instance - but there is a general understanding of this between both herd and pack. It's a necessity, but they're both conscious of the other's stance, and so try not to make a big deal out of it either way.

Right. I think the general consensus among us Ulfden wolves is that it is impolite to hunt or eat fresh kills in front of the Unicorns or other herbivores. That being said, we aren't too particularly bothered if a Unicorn is grazing in the middle of a conversation with us. Plants are unappetizing to wolves, but I don't think we have the same kind of "eww, gross" reaction to plant eating as Unicorns do to us eating raw meat, if that makes sense.

It's also worth pointing out that while Ulfden and Un'aireken have remained allies, they are not always friends. They are very different beasts with different motivations, and so misunderstandings and friction are inevitable. While they are both, on the whole, honourable, unicorns tend to be virtuous and affable, whereas wolves tend to be hierarchical and suspicious. Petraverd can probably give you an earful about how maddening Ulfden is at times, although there are some true friendships too.

The rules surrounding hunting and eating in front of herbivores are partly in place to keep the alliance on good terms.

I thank everyone for the responses. Its not so much to stir argument or debate, as the popular and encouraged option of creating a character backgrounded into a group (Lapis being foaled into the unicorn herd, for instance, and background-explained as having always been with the herd) is the character should know and understand things like this that I, as a new player, have no notion of. This particular question came to the surface, for instance, when as a point of idle conversation (previous conversation topics having ended, and Lapis purposefully /not/ wanting to revisit a recent unpleasant incident for a predator character she was speaking with by even asking whether she felt better) I randomly had Lapis ask a predator (Glora the cat, specifically) how her lunch was. It was correctly pointed out that might not necessarily be something an herbivore would want to know of a carnivore, at least the details of what her lunch might have been.

OOCly, I've been jibing with other unicorn players about "prey spam" ... NPC bots such as mice, rabbits, butterflies, etc. zipping in and around and through rooms we were RPing in, and I wondered about folding this somewhat into RP, especially given another unicorn player incorporating a MUCK program-induced injury while roaming to forage for the herd, as wondering whether unicorns might actually ask predators to clear out non-talking tunneling animals such as moles, that otherwise their underground nests might cause injury to unicorns if they are left unchecked.

There are un-numerable varieties of such nuances I would like to keep straight, but I know trying to put everything into INFO files or guides for new players would make them even more overwhelming than they are. That's why its so great so many are happy to answer such newbish questions.

Yeah, that friction might have something to do with me . Normally the wolves will not have a problem with the unicorns eating in front of them because, as it was said, it just doesn't seem as nauseating. Their are only a couple different situations I can thing of that wolves, at least those who are part of the pack, would eat in front of herbivores and they are both ooc reasons. Sometimes you'll get a lot of NPC spam and to keep them from spamming the room, a carnivore might just eat it and treat it as ooc. Another situation is if an rp is currently in progress and you do not interrupt it, but a carnivore is about to faint from hunger, they may oocly ask to eat something and treat that as ooc too. Now, both these situations can be played up ICly and it is fun to do at times, but they are the two primary reasons a carnivore would eat in front of a herbivore and both would be considered ooc.

Lapis wrote:Specific to my character and her herdmates, its my understanding, in my early dips into the RP pool as a Un'aireken unicorn...

Wait, you've already met Sardonyx? Wow, things went way faster for you.

Ruby wrote:

Lapis wrote:Specific to my character and her herdmates, its my understanding, in my early dips into the RP pool as a Un'aireken unicorn...

Wait, you've already met Sardonyx? Wow, things went way faster for you.

Nope ... thus far, the only unicorns I've gotten to RP with are Petraverd, Trianna, Quartz and Peridot. Hope to RP with Ruby before long! I've gotten some RP with Eirwyn and Glyn of the Ulfden wolves, and a few other characters.