Question about Antlers

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    • Question about Antlers

      A while back I realized there was no mention of Gecko or other Lizard Janah being able to shed and regrow their tails so I assumed that was an ability the Lizard Janah no longer has but another shedding question came to mind, deer shedding their antlers I have this scene planned in a story where a Male Roe Deer Janah loses his antlers in a fight and his family soothes him saying he'll soon grow another pair...Like I'm assuming male deer shed their antlers annually like they do in real life right?
    • That's a great question! Janah with antlers would go through the whole antler growth cycles from shedding to growing velveted antlers, to the messy, even gory shedding of that velvet to the shedding again. There are fun story opportunities there. Deer don't always shed both antlers at the same time so there's the whole embarrassment and annoyance of only having one antler for a week or two. In areas where cervid type jenu are not common, someone might confuse a male who recently shed his antlers with a female because he doesn't have antlers. That ignorant janah might have assumed that horns and antlers are the same thing and horns mean male and a lack of them would mean female.

      (Doe goats on on earth naturally grow tiny horns unless they're naturally polled. Some cattle naturally have horns, some don't.)

      As for geckos and some lizard that shed their tails, assume this also happens in Shard. There is no tail regeneration listed as an animal ability because growing back one's tail over time doesn't have a lot of effect on the game play the way other animal abilities might. I think Scottie will agree with me on this. There are only special circumstances where it would have an effect. One might assume that if it were lost, not having a tail might cause temporary balance issues but in a matter of days, the effected janah would adjust. This is great stuff for story details.

      There are some amphibians that can grow back limbs such as the axolotl and I would assume this ability is kept in Shard. Once again, its not going to have much effect on game play because it takes so long to grow back a severed limb. This regeneration isn't like the healing factor that the X-man Wolverine possesses and you could assume it would take months if not years for a lost axolotl limb to fully regrow.

      Those are my thoughts on the matter. I'm sure my partners here at Shard Studios have more to add on the subject.
    • Mulefoot's exactly correct here... And it's fun to address this simply because, for the most part, most average folks don't really think about the differences in antlers versus horns when it comes to the way they grow, their consistency, and whether they shed or not... In general, and for the most part as far as I know,...antler get shed (yearly) and grow back, whereas horns (like the horns of bovines) do not... It's always good to double-check the breed of your character if you want to bring that kind of thing into play in some way, and then double-check with your GM to make sure they're OK with that aspect (the shedding for instance) affecting the storyline in some way... Both antlers AND horns get bigger and longer as their owner gets older, with tiny stubs as a child... But antlers grow from one shed to another as well, getting incrementally bigger every single year when they grow back... What this might mean in the game is that there would be no social stigma for using shed antlers as decorative or functional elements in a piece of art or utilitarian tool-work, but there certainly would be with the use of horns, because those would, for the most part, come from the dead (or at least represent a major loss to a living horned person).

      As far as the regeneration of lost limbs or tails (among the sub-set of Sarpah races that can do that), I totally agree with Mulefoot on that as well, and it's always a good idea to both do research to make sure it applies to your character, and the "OK" that with your GM before trying to get that kind of event some attention "in-game"... Even for those creatures whose bodies are "made" for that sort of thing, it's STILL a somewhat traumatic experience for most everyone involved, ESPECIALLY the creature losing that part (even though it's better than perishing under the circumstance of loss, and even though it might eventually grow back)... Dealing with that kind of event "in game" should take into account that fact that, when it comes to the detachable tails, they detach the way they do with these two factors: (1). Their physiology allows the tail to detach easily (and can wiggle around as it does afterwards) when grabbed or caught, to save the life of the tail's owner by potentially distracting their predator while they get away... and (2). That same physiology doesn't account for the tail getting horribly bashed or cut through in areas NOT designed by evolution to separate fairly easily...

      When it comes to what all of this might mean in-game, it indicates that battle damage done to a tail, limb, or even set of antlers that could regenerate might have a large chance of causing deformities or abnormalities during its delicate time of regrowth... How long might re-growth take? The best way to figure it out would be to look it up for your particular species, and then extend the time in relation to the longer lifespan you character has compared to our smaller, shorter-lived Earth version. What it would certainly NOT be is, as Mulefoot indicated, anything like the "cinema-quick" healing and regeneration powers of movie super-heroes such as Wolverine (and certainly NOT like the crazy-fast Deadpool limb regrowth paradigm). It's gonna take a long while, it's gonna suck (you should suffer one or more Drawbacks based on the GM's whim, such as balance loss and such, as Mulefoot mentioned, possible mental issues, possible social stigma, etc), it will be quite painful at first (and perhaps even during certain stages of the regeneration), and there's all kinds of chances for blood-loss at first and even a variety of juicy infections along the way...

      Do you want to bring any of this into your game? That's totally up to you and your GM... ^^
    • Teenage Mutant Sarpah wrote:

      That note about antlers being OK to use for stuff got me thinking if Janah like Sheep, Lllamas, Alpacas etc sheer themselves and make clothes and blankets and stuff with their own wool
      Yes! I'm sure that kind of things is quite acceptable, since they are essentially "producing" their own product for the sake of selling to others. It's basically no different than humans who will buy real hair from folks who sell/donate it for use in wig-making...

      Likewise, Paksin might sell or use their own feathers for the sake of making decorative elements for jewelry and clothing.