Canid-Folk Thread: Hyenas, Wolves and Foxes Edition

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Personally, I quite liked the "faux-French swashbucklers" take on civilized Lupins, as presented in Dragon Magazine #325, although I wouldn't say I hated the dire wolf-riding tribals that were the "core" of the race.

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As for gnolls... my favorite fluff for them is, hand's down, the Nentir Vale version, which really gave them potential as both bad guys and potential PCs.

I love the idea of a necromancy-backed gnoll empire out there in the desert somewhere that's not evil, but certainly not all sweetness and light. Or gnollish mercenaries who can and do win respect, however grudgingly, for their ferocity, teamwork and loyalty.

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Speaking of gnolls... having read the Bastards & Bloodlines take on half-gnolls, I just gotta know: am I the only one who thinks that if your racial fluff declares that you have "none of the savage yet noble bearing of the half-orc", you got a raw deal?

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I honestly have to know: does anyone out there actually like that stupid fluff 5e slapped on its gnolls?

>>53840879
I kind of liked the aesthetics of the werewolf packs in PF's Carrion Crown AP. It's really rare to see werewolves wearing armor instead of wearing torn up clothes, to the point where I liked a "race" I'm normally not interested in. It's not really feasible in D&D but having sane but brutal werewolf characters that are more like the actual animals and not "I'm evil and kill everything for no reason" is something that appeals if I ever write a setting.

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>>53842578
Part of the problem is that werewolves have all that baggage of being insane, mindlessly violent killing machings to go with them. Hard to make them seem like a race with that hanging over their head.

Hmm... that might be why Pathfinder gave us the Rougarou, who are basically lupins who can turn into normal wolves...

>>53842800
That's kind of what I mean. D&D (and PF by extension) has the traditional flavor of the curse being a /curse/ and not something that you can salvage a person out of. Yet for Carrion Crown not all the packs are CE. I might be wrong but I think one of them is TN (my party never made it that far).

Also Rougarou sounds like something Scooby Doo would say and I just can't take it seriously.

>>53842894
To be fair, that's pretty close to the actual mythology, in which becoming a werewolf made you a baby-eating servant of Satan.

In fact, Rougarou is a real world monster; it's a werewolf from the swampy regions Louisiana, and part of Cajun mythology.

>>53842972
Is it specifically spelled that way? I've always seen it as Lougarou, as it is in the Dresden Files and Dragons Luck.

>>53843021
Seems that R/L is interchangeable for it, probably because it likely descends from the French Loup-Garou.

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>>53840879
HYENAS ARE NOT FUCKING CANIDS YOU STUPID UNEDUCATED FUCKS! STAY FUCKING AWAKE IN BIOLOGY CLASS YOU STUPID FUCK!

>>53845980
hyenas are weasels.

>>53845980
Walruses are more related to dogs than cats are?

...I'm not sure how to process this.

>>53846174
Wrong, look at the phylogeny. Hyenas are members of the family Hyenadae, which belongs to the suborder Feliformia of Order Carnivora.

Both Canines and Weasels belong to the suborder Caniformia, and the families Canidae and Mustelidae respectively.

Hyena are more closely related to Mongoose (Herpestidae) and Cats (Felidae) than they are to dogs. Likewise Dogs are closer to Bears (Ursidae, and fucking seals (Phocidae) than they are Hyenas.

>>53846246
A Walrus is really just a hyperspecialized seal when you get down to it. Plus it makes sense they would be in Carnivora when you take their massive canine-teeth into account. Genetics and Phylogeny can be a really interesting field full of surprises, like how the closest relatives to Cetaceans (whales and dolphins and those fucks) are Suiformes (Pigs and hippos)

>>53846311
mongoose is weasel

>>53846329
Wrong again cockfag!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustelidae

They only look the same due to both arriving to a similar fusiform structure and body plan via convergent evolution. Heck, Mustelidae, the weasel family, are more closely related to skunks (who used to be in Mustelidae before being moved to their own Family, Mephitidae), than they are to Mongoose. The closest relatives to Mongoose are Fossa and Malagassy Civets (Family Eupleridae).

Just becasue two animals looks the same does not mean they are significantly related in anyway, much like with African Golden Moles and True Moles belonging to completely different Orders, or how Hyraxes despite looking like rodents are actually Arteodactylids and are more closely related to Elephants

>>53846398
horses can fuck zebras n make babies