Calcium Fishes

[SanguinePacman]

So, whilst I was making a would be character, I noticed something. Or rather, realized something mildly interesting. Maiar adapt to their surroundings quite easily. Diets varying in many ways, but-- Imagine if say, a Maiar with a most bone based diet. Had a sort of scaling made out of bone. Jutting spikes and ridges out of it's back, fast growing teeth. Etc. Etc. This thought train escalated to another thing, Could Maiar use the chemicals of which they eat to their advantage? For example, low rung Maiar in the depths of the ocean living by underwater valcanoes. Catching prey then charring them as to take in more Carbon, have harder scales and metaphorical living armor. Any thoughts?

 

[Vivamente]

@Plecy I think you'll enjoy this.

 

[SanguinePacman]

@Plecy I think you'll enjoy this.

Click to shrink...

Make sure to tell him that fish don't eat uranium. Just in case.

 

[The Unknown]

Spoiler: Big long explanation

I think that this would not be evolutionary physiology - it would be more 'you are what you eat' physiology.
Of course, evolutionary physiology is named thusly because it is meant to be a streamlined, slightly altered version of normal evolution that happens much quicker and doesn't involve all the mess ups. And I don't think that an animal that consumes a lot of bone gains natural bone armour, or faster growing teeth, etc. In fact, this would be more a hindrance in the sea, as it would make it vastly more difficult to swim.
Faster growing teeth would be a possibility, but it would only occur in the case that faster growing teeth would help the Maier in some way, perhaps because it lives in a hostile environment in which they will often be knocked out, or perhaps because their teeth need to be especially sharp because of a diet of tough materials.

My point is basically that Evolutionary Physiology works similarly to evolution itself. Just because a Maiar eats a lot of bone does not mean that it will grow extra bone, in the same way that just because cows have always eaten plants doesn't mean that they will grow flowers in summer and retreat underground into bulbs for the winter.

This could work, however, in a situation in which bone armour/carbon armour/anything else was very beneficial to the Maiar and also the Maiar ate large quantities of substances that may be useful for this purpose. Otherwise the Maiar would either experience no change - because eating bone/carbon doesn't hinder them in any way - or they would just gain an immunity to the effects of the overdose of such substances.

Besides all this, I think that mollusc-type-maiar are quite possible (in fact, you can make maiar out of most types of sea-life within reason) and this kinda fits the bill here. The kind of maiar that might make use of excess carbon in food, for example, to make armour or grow scales of carbon, would likely be quite slow and most definitely live on the bottom of the ocean. They would probably lose most of their swimming power (either that or the armour would be so thin/sparse that it would be completely useless) and would not really be very interesting to play, in my opinion. But of course, that's for you to decide.

In short - no. Maiar that eat a lot of bone won't necessarily grow extra bone and Maiar that eat a lot of carbon won't necessarily grow carbon armour. Look to nature. Evolutionary physiology is just sped-up evolution.
Only maiar that have a real need for bony scales will actually grow them. They won't just appear because the Maiar is eating a lot of bone. Again, inspiration for what circumstances would create this effect can be found in nature.

This is of course just my view on the matter. I'm not a lore staff, so I can't say for sure. Hopefully this helped!

 

[SanguinePacman]

Spoiler: Big long explanation

I think that this would not be evolutionary physiology - it would be more 'you are what you eat' physiology.
Of course, evolutionary physiology is named thusly because it is meant to be a streamlined, slightly altered version of normal evolution that happens much quicker and doesn't involve all the mess ups. And I don't think that an animal that consumes a lot of bone gains natural bone armour, or faster growing teeth, etc. In fact, this would be more a hindrance in the sea, as it would make it vastly more difficult to swim.
Faster growing teeth would be a possibility, but it would only occur in the case that faster growing teeth would help the Maier in some way, perhaps because it lives in a hostile environment in which they will often be knocked out, or perhaps because their teeth need to be especially sharp because of a diet of tough materials.

My point is basically that Evolutionary Physiology works similarly to evolution itself. Just because a Maiar eats a lot of bone does not mean that it will grow extra bone, in the same way that just because cows have always eaten plants doesn't mean that they will grow flowers in summer and retreat underground into bulbs for the winter.

This could work, however, in a situation in which bone armour/carbon armour/anything else was very beneficial to the Maiar and also the Maiar ate large quantities of substances that may be useful for this purpose. Otherwise the Maiar would either experience no change - because eating bone/carbon doesn't hinder them in any way - or they would just gain an immunity to the effects of the overdose of such substances.

Besides all this, I think that mollusc-type-maiar are quite possible (in fact, you can make maiar out of most types of sea-life within reason) and this kinda fits the bill here. The kind of maiar that might make use of excess carbon in food, for example, to make armour or grow scales of carbon, would likely be quite slow and most definitely live on the bottom of the ocean. They would probably lose most of their swimming power (either that or the armour would be so thin/sparse that it would be completely useless) and would not really be very interesting to play, in my opinion. But of course, that's for you to decide.

In short - no. Maiar that eat a lot of bone won't necessarily grow extra bone and Maiar that eat a lot of carbon won't necessarily grow carbon armour. Look to nature. Evolutionary physiology is just sped-up evolution.
Only maiar that have a real need for bony scales will actually grow them. They won't just appear because the Maiar is eating a lot of bone. Again, inspiration for what circumstances would create this effect can be found in nature.

This is of course just my view on the matter. I'm not a lore staff, so I can't say for sure. Hopefully this helped!

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

I understand what you're going for, then again I wrote this at near midnight yesterday.

I just imagined.. Say a pack of these 'Bone-Maiar' I'm talking about. Diet mostly in calcium and their body using the excess calcium to their benefit. Similar to how when humans eat meat or some other protein packed substance it gets reassigned to muscle mass if exercised properly.

When they have their teeth knocked out while attacking a larger prey. Whales for example. Teeth being knocked out or damaged could regrow back faster than they typically would from calcium stores. The bone ridges are light, so not heavy scale metal armor. But still decent enough to where you couldn't just snap them off with ease. All maiar develop these things with an evolutionary thing in mind (or rather, in gene.) Their own bone structure becomes more tough and leading on to where you said about teeth being knocked out. Maybe they're a violent sort? Fighting amongst themselves like orcs tossed in the ocean.

And to continue on to the Carbon-fish I spoke about previously. You're quite right on that one, perhaps maybe not entirely good swimmers. Maybe they'd be a type of amphibious strain, live near tropical islands with volcanic masses on them. Stronger from heaving their weight around in Carbon scales. Their black color gives them the perfect camouflage for if they wanted to spring a trap of some kind, jump from one of the shaded parts of the shallow water and death grip them within their more Snapping turtle-esqe maw.

In a more smaller response. I'm aware that they wouldn't just grow it out on their own. But the possibility of using the chemicals of which they consume just seems like quite the interesting feature. Of which could lead to more creative ways to use it!

 

[The Unknown]

Spoiler

I understand what you're going for, then again I wrote this at near midnight yesterday.

I just imagined.. Say a pack of these 'Bone-Maiar' I'm talking about. Diet mostly in calcium and their body using the excess calcium to their benefit. Similar to how when humans eat meat or some other protein packed substance it gets reassigned to muscle mass if exercised properly.

When they have their teeth knocked out while attacking a larger prey. Whales for example. Teeth being knocked out or damaged could regrow back faster than they typically would from calcium stores. The bone ridges are light, so not heavy scale metal armor. But still decent enough to where you couldn't just snap them off with ease. All maiar develop these things with an evolutionary thing in mind (or rather, in gene.) Their own bone structure becomes more tough and leading on to where you said about teeth being knocked out. Maybe they're a violent sort? Fighting amongst themselves like orcs tossed in the ocean.

And to continue on to the Carbon-fish I spoke about previously. You're quite right on that one, perhaps maybe not entirely good swimmers. Maybe they'd be a type of amphibious strain, live near tropical islands with volcanic masses on them. Stronger from heaving their weight around in Carbon scales. Their black color gives them the perfect camouflage for if they wanted to spring a trap of some kind, jump from one of the shaded parts of the shallow water and death grip them within their more Snapping turtle-esqe maw.

In a more smaller response. I'm aware that they wouldn't just grow it out on their own. But the possibility of using the chemicals of which they consume just seems like quite the interesting feature. Of which could lead to more creative ways to use it!

Click to shrink...

Yes! This was essentially what I meant. Bone scales would be fine (they clearly exists in nature and so it's definitely possible in some circumstances) but what I'm saying is that just because they eat bone doesn't mean they grow bone scales. Perhaps it would work the other way around - perhaps the maiar in question would begin to grow bony formations for protection and then require a steady source of these building materials in order to keep this up. There might be a problem to do with the digestion of proteins etc there but I'm no expert on that.

Carbon fish... less likely, I feel. Any situation in which carbon scales would be required could be solved with bone scales, without the need to reconfigure the way the creature digests food.

 

[Last_Link]

Any thoughts?

Click to shrink...

Just one...
NERRRRD!

 

[SanguinePacman]

Just one...
NERRRRD!

Click to shrink...

*Pushes up glasses and readjusts pen holders*
Ya wanna tussle, m8?

 

[SanguinePacman]

Yes! This was essentially what I meant. Bone scales would be fine (they clearly exists in nature and so it's definitely possible in some circumstances) but what I'm saying is that just because they eat bone doesn't mean they grow bone scales. Perhaps it would work the other way around - perhaps the maiar in question would begin to grow bony formations for protection and then require a steady source of these building materials in order to keep this up. There might be a problem to do with the digestion of proteins etc there but I'm no expert on that.

Carbon fish... less likely, I feel. Any situation in which carbon scales would be required could be solved with bone scales, without the need to reconfigure the way the creature digests food.

Click to shrink...

And what about heat? I'm not a chemist but maybe there could be some type of thermal application. Or maybe in the maw that I previously mentioned he could have carbon teeth of some sort

*Slams fists down* FUCK fish are complicated.

 

[The Unknown]

And what about heat? I'm not a chemist but maybe there could be some type of thermal application. Or maybe in the maw that I previously mentioned he could have carbon teeth of some sort

*Slams fists down* dance fish are complicated.

Click to shrink...

As far as I'm aware, carbon scales would not be insulating at all (as far as I know it's a pretty good conductor of heat) and carbon teeth would be insanely heavy and basically make the fishy only ever be able to swim downwards. I think that it would be best in general to stick to materials that are already found as tissues or building blocks in the body, and stay away from more basic chemicals.

 

[SanguinePacman]

What about Glass? Could a maiar gather a sort of reflective material over its body? Possibly as camouflage to dismay predators?

 

[The Unknown]

What about Glass? Could a maiar gather a sort of reflective material over its body? Possibly as camouflage to dismay predators?

Click to shrink...

Reflective scales, yes. Transparent scales.. Yes. I would recommend against using any nonorganic materials, though. Glass and rock and pure carbon are less likely than bone etc. Again though, I'm not a Lore staff, so. If you want a definitive answer, it's probably best to open a lore Q and A thread.

 

[SanguinePacman]

Reflective scales, yes. Transparent scales.. Yes. I would recommend against using any nonorganic materials, though. Glass and rock and pure carbon are less likely than bone etc. Again though, I'm not a Lore staff, so. If you want a definitive answer, it's probably best to open a lore Q and A thread.

Click to shrink...

I would but uh-- something tells me they aren't exactly on at the moment. I'm assuming they're off with family or friends for the holidays. Will do though once they become more available!