Kevin's Watch

Lord Zombiac wrote:Dogs are highly useful creatures. They can be guards, pack animals, they can pull sleds, they corral livestock.

They communicate with human beings on a higher level than other animals, even apes, who can use sign language-- dogs understand us.

I plan on writing a novella or short story in fantasy written from a dog's point of view.

I will anthropomorphize the dog as little as possible.

As far as I know, this will be a first in fantasy fiction.

All fantasy, (including my own) noticeably lacks in dogs.

Did you write the story? It sounds interesting. All of my favorite stories from ages 8 through 11 were dog stories. The Chronicles of the Black Company featured Toadkiller Dog, which I loved, until he turned out to be a very, very bad dog.

Nekrimah wrote:No cats either.

Didn't Kasreyn of the Gyre have domesticated cat-people as guards? That doesn't count, though. I bet the Giants have giant dogs in their homeland.

Shuram wrote:

Lord Zombiac wrote:Dogs are highly useful creatures. They can be guards, pack animals, they can pull sleds, they corral livestock.

They communicate with human beings on a higher level than other animals, even apes, who can use sign language-- dogs understand us.

I plan on writing a novella or short story in fantasy written from a dog's point of view.

I will anthropomorphize the dog as little as possible.

As far as I know, this will be a first in fantasy fiction.

All fantasy, (including my own) noticeably lacks in dogs.

Did you write the story? It sounds interesting. All of my favorite stories from ages 8 through 11 were dog stories. The Chronicles of the Black Company featured Toadkiller Dog, which I loved, until he turned out to be a very, very bad dog.

There's "City" by Clifford Simak, which admittedly in Science Fiction.

Nekrimah wrote:No cats either.

Didn't Kasreyn of the Gyre have domesticated cat-people as guards? That doesn't count, though. I bet the Giants have giant dogs in their homeland.

Lol. Did Kasreyn really create new things or just distort and combine existing creatures?

shadowbinding shoe wrote: Lol. Did Kasreyn really create new things or just distort and combine existing creatures?

Heh...yea it was my impression that, kinda like Foul, he played Magic Gene-Mod Games...in fact that's how rudolph got here. He was too nice and got tossed into a Waste Disposal Circle that was glitchy.

Vraith wrote:

shadowbinding shoe wrote: Lol. Did Kasreyn really create new things or just distort and combine existing creatures?

Heh...yea it was my impression that, kinda like Foul, he played Magic Gene-Mod Games...in fact that's how rudolph got here. He was too nice and got tossed into a Waste Disposal Circle that was glitchy.

Are you talking about a character named rudolph in the books I have forgotten about, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, or rudolph the KW user?

What I suspect was a joke has gone over my poor little head.

Holsety wrote:

Vraith wrote:

shadowbinding shoe wrote: Lol. Did Kasreyn really create new things or just distort and combine existing creatures?

Heh...yea it was my impression that, kinda like Foul, he played Magic Gene-Mod Games...in fact that's how rudolph got here. He was too nice and got tossed into a Waste Disposal Circle that was glitchy.

Are you talking about a character named rudolph in the books I have forgotten about, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, or rudolph the KW user?

What I suspect was a joke has gone over my poor little head.

heh...I had no idea there were so many possible rudolph choices...I was talking the reindeer, cuz how else does it get a glowing red nose and talk? [I don't know rudolph the watcher. I don't think it's possible s/he was Magically gene-modified, regular old scientific modification seems highly unlikely, but i wouldn't bet my life.

Maybe, the kresh are just Corrupted dogs. And like the ur-viles, they got ticked at their "lesser kindred", and killed them off. LF does use them for a lot of stuff...

In LF'sB, at the Andelainian Wraith attack thing, when the Unfettered on rushes in, my copy specifically says dogs...

Looking up, he saw a stream of small animals pur into the bowl-rabbits, badgers, weasels, moles, foxes, a few dogs.

Another sighting of dogs. When Manethrall Gay/Rue tells the Council about Foul's army in TIW she mentions dogs among the creatures affected by the Illearth Stone.

Nekrimah wrote:No cats either.

Fire-Lions...whether they are actually lions in the shape of fire, or that is just a clever metaphor...the people of the Land know what lions are.

As far as the whole discussion of domesticated dogs and cats go, I wonder if SRD is maybe just not a cat- or dog-person IRL. I can't recall off the top of my head if there were any dogs or cats in MN or Gap Cycle. But since he does not write what he doesn't need, if IRL he does not see any *need* for dogs, or cats, it wouldn't make any sense for them to make their way into a story.

But back to the Land, after the RoD, you would think that dogs could have played a significant role as hunting assistants while the exiled people tried to cling to life in the mountains or wherever it was they got scattered to, yet on the other hand, maybe the strict laws of survival ofter RoD explains why men lost their relationship with the four-legged friends; they just couldn't provide for them.