Questions tagged [low-fantasy]
For questions focused on worlds where magic exists, but is rare, in a world otherwise abiding to natural laws.
203
questions
5
votes
4
answers
142
views
Is there development of advanced polymers/composite materials?
Background: seeking modern technologies, resources, etc that could potentially be discovered and applied in a fantasy setting where manufacturing processes, while advanced, are more akin to the late ...
- 51
28
votes
14
answers
6k
views
What would prevent the genocide of a legitimately dangerous race?
I’m writing a low magic fantasy story in which there’s a race of creatures called shadow-thralls that were basically bred as a slave race by a wizard thousands of years in the past. In the present day,...
- 299
-1
votes
3
answers
111
views
Why Would Serazor Wield Axes? [closed]
Serazor. These odd dragons in Dracoriri are unusual in that their eyes appear dark, but they act about as intelligent as a primate or bear (yes bears are, in fact, intelligent). With their chiseled ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
2
answers
67
views
Development of Firespines [closed]
The land of Dracori contains many magical creatures. One of these is the Firespline Landfish (also called a Terrakanthes).
The Terrakanthes looks like a chubby lizard, with a ridge of magical spikes ...
- 12.5k
12
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How Would Humanoids Form Their Own Gems?
Sequinoans. This strange race of Amazonians has many unusual traits, but the foremost our scholars are concerned with are their gems. You see, Sequinoans somehow form gems naturally, perfectly smooth ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
5
answers
166
views
How Can a Bug Larvae Hijack a Robot?
When inactive, the robot looks like a Steelstone arch. Steelstone resembles marble only it is virtually indestructible. The knowledge to work Steelstone was lost thousands of years ago.
When the robot ...
- 12.5k
7
votes
5
answers
201
views
Why would a herbivore be armed and aggressive?
In Dracoriri, I plan to have a species of small dragon called a Malidge (by small, we mean about the size of a human). These dragons are red, shiny, and covered in plates instead of scales, a natural ...
- 12.5k
2
votes
3
answers
84
views
An earthlike world is flooded with fantasy flora and fauna. What happens to the ecosystem, and how long does it take to recover? [closed]
Let's assume for the sake of argument that:
It's a 50/50ish split between new prey/predators herbivores/carnivores being introduced. So already a bit imbalanced.
The creatures/flora make sense ...
4
votes
2
answers
106
views
How Can Crashdrake Live In a Pine Forest?
Crashdrakes. These dragons are, for just about any intent or purpose, a cassowary, or in other words they are big, flightless, highly aggressive and yet herbivorous death birds. Seeing that dragons in ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
1
answer
68
views
How Can a Creature With Rock Armor Also Have an Inflating Head?
Globold are darkeye dragons with some rather unusual traits. Their bodies are more or less cylindrical, with a rounded chest and a sloping back, with two small arms and two big legs and a tail like a ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
1
answer
59
views
Canidrakes: Determining Their Niche
Canidrakes are a well-known and relatively common species of darkeyed dragon, which due to convergent evolution and perhaps some magic resemble wolves but are bigger-most Canidrakes are like dire ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
1
answer
55
views
Best Non-Arctic Environment for Chimerake
Chimerake are a species of brighteyed dragon, known for their aggressive and territorial natures. They are like tyrannosaurs, but the size of an Indian rhino, quadrupedal and covered in fluffy fur, ...
- 12.5k
25
votes
17
answers
9k
views
How could people in the medieval times defeat an armored vehicle?
In my setting there is a mad artificer making armored cars for the army. The cars have wooden frames with 10 mm of steel on every side, wooden wheels with metal plates covering them, and are propelled ...
3
votes
1
answer
71
views
Gastric Reversion: How Can It Work?
Scerafin, a species of quadrupedal darkeyed dragon that resemble sharks but live on land, are known for their telescoping necks (range of 3 yards), razor-sharp lance (read: snout horn) and tailfin, ...
- 12.5k
12
votes
8
answers
2k
views
How would an underground society measure time? [duplicate]
I have a very mind-boggling question about time reckoning.
I have a race of Dwarves, that at the very beginning of their history lived only underground and were forbidden to reach the surface. They ...
- 185
13
votes
10
answers
2k
views
Variable Intelligence Among Dragons
In the land of Dracoriri, there are dragons. There weren't always dragons, once humans were the dominant species, but then magic-an unexplained phenomenon-invaded earth alongside creatures from ...
- 12.5k
2
votes
1
answer
165
views
What could someone who is able to add to their muscle mass accomplish?
In my world I have a type of magic user who grows stronger the more they kill animals and people.
Currently I conceptualise this as a sort of pocket dimension muscle, whenever they kill a creature, ...
- 31
6
votes
5
answers
493
views
Explaining Anthropomorphism In Later Development
After 1000 years of dwelling in apocalyptic shelters, some brave souls have begun exploring the surface. (This is how Rhydars were discovered and documented, by the way.) Among the first things these '...
- 12.5k
3
votes
3
answers
75
views
Explaining Symbiosis for Rhydar
If you don't know what a Rhydar is, please see here and here.
So, Rhydar are pretty interesting creatures. Post-apocalypse radiation and magical energy (long story short, this world was apocalyzed-...
- 12.5k
3
votes
4
answers
189
views
How do you prove whether there are four elements?
A person from our world visits a (low magic) fantasy universe. Now, obviously our hero considers our world's science to be more advanced than the pseudo medieval world he finds himself in. But he ...
- 4,395
8
votes
8
answers
290
views
Determining Feasible Mermaid Locomotion Methods (Land Edition)
Lately, I've again pondered how mermaids could move on land. I know certain fish, like frogfish, devilfish, and even batfish, as well as mudskippers, have developed fins that work as feet.
However, I'...
- 12.5k
6
votes
7
answers
799
views
How would a humanoid gain a symbiotic head bulb?
Seedgirls look like ordinary girls but they have a big green bulb on their head. This bulb holds a powder they use to speed and enhance plant growth. My question is how the bulb gets there in the ...
- 12.5k
13
votes
6
answers
3k
views
How Fireproof Could a Fire Creature Be?
Typically in fantasy, creatures that are infused with fire (dragons, pyromancers, fire elementals, fire-infused monsters, you get the drift right?) seem to be completely unharmed by said fire and its ...
- 12.5k
6
votes
4
answers
827
views
Feasibility of Velocisharks
This question is all about how a shark can evolve to have the following traits:
Amphibious
Pack behavior
Dromaeosaurid form (bipedal, scaly, with four talons and a sleek but strong frame-resembling a ...
- 12.5k
2
votes
3
answers
211
views
Strength of Little Mermaids
This is a successor of Little Mermaids: Will They Survive? and concerns the strength a little mermaid has to throw around.
You see, a little mermaid has enhanced strength; the strength of a typical ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
1
answer
106
views
Fire-monster Pouch Development
Kapowch is a kangaroo-like creature infused with Fire magic, which naturally leads to certain problems with its pouch, no matter how you slice it. First of all, even if it’s open like a real kangaroo’...
- 12.5k
1
vote
1
answer
75
views
Rubberizing's Effects on Giant Caterpillars
Giant caterpillars vs. Plops = Giant caterpillars > Plop
It appears, since giant caterpillars lack bones and possibly rigid parts in general, they could serve as a viable Plop predator despite ...
- 12.5k
4
votes
1
answer
213
views
Little Mermaids: Will They Survive?
No, this question is not about creating a subspecies of mermaid that all happen to look and act like a certain Disney princess. Not at all, in fact. You see, mermaids in my setting are capable of ...
- 12.5k
20
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Feasibility of Giant Butterflies as Predators
I have asked multiple questions about giant caterpillars, now it's time to account for their evolutions. Sure, giant flowers could and probably would exist in Alendyias; an Engorger dying in a flowery ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
1
answer
203
views
Determining the Best Wild Anklebiter Predator
The natural sequel to Making a Predator For Wild Anklebiters, which was inconclusive. You see, Wild Anklebiters are chimeric monsters-being equal parts flower, worm, and leech-with a rather ...
- 12.5k
4
votes
2
answers
56
views
Explaining Chasers as a Evolutionary Stage of a Caterpillar
I recently discovered Chasers (described here) are basically impossible as a form of giant caterpillar, since caterpillars are a larval stage and need to store energy for metamorphosis. However, if ...
- 12.5k
6
votes
1
answer
210
views
Feasibility of Giant Caterpillar Archetypes
Note: This question is not about the feasibility of giant caterpillars. That is covered by the addition of magic. However, evolution and natural selection still apply to magical beings (and I love ...
- 12.5k
5
votes
3
answers
117
views
How Could Giant Caterpillars Come to Prey On Leafmaw?
Leafmaw are terrible monsters. Evolved from hydras or octopi (which developed to live on land), they possess the Mimicry enchantment, but unlike Octoplop, lack the ability to mimic anything but bushes....
- 12.5k
2
votes
2
answers
127
views
Explaining Flight for Mermaids
Alright, so after deciding mermaids would be an all-female species, I realized I had to put some work into reworking Sirens. Originally, the Greeks conceived of half-woman, half-bird creatures they ...
- 12.5k
2
votes
1
answer
76
views
Thunderbird Questions: Insulator
Introduction:
I posted a while ago about a lightning dragon and one of the answers was really interesting. The answer, in this case, is from Mr Adrian Colomitchi, it was very detailed, but I still ...
- 2,664
7
votes
5
answers
785
views
How could an animal produce miraculous saliva?
Many species arise from evolution, but as in many fantasy works the creatures are created by gods, titans or something similar, so I think this gives a certain freedom to create creatures with ...
- 2,664
7
votes
2
answers
223
views
Determining Predator/Prey Relationship for Plop and Chompers
Yes, I know I've created two different questions that resulted in a Plop or Chomper predator, respectively. However, given that Plops and Chompers are among the most common monsters in Alendyias, it ...
- 12.5k
4
votes
1
answer
79
views
Convection Cells in the Atmosphere of a Jupiter-Sized Planet
Background
The setting for a story I am creating is an earth-like planet near jovian surface area, existing in a universe where the force of gravity is appreciably weaker than in our own, such that a ...
- 265
0
votes
0
answers
79
views
Light Gas for Large Flyers [duplicate]
I'm kind of on a journey in search of how to scientifically explain fantastic creatures in a way that doesn't rely on magic, because I think that makes things more interesting. Currently my biggest ...
- 2,664
26
votes
9
answers
3k
views
The green and the dragons
In several fantasy works they have the iconic dragons, giant reptile creatures and that commonly breathe fire. In some works these creatures were tamed and trained to serve as military weapons in wars,...
- 2,664
7
votes
5
answers
245
views
Transportation in a fantasy world without wood
In my low-fantasy world wood is a very limited resource because all forests are haunted. Cutting a tree often means drawing the wrath of the creatures living in the woods, resulting in some very ...
- 787
2
votes
1
answer
113
views
Four-legged Flying Animals
Pegasus, griffins, dragons, sphinxes, hippogriffs... I think all of them
these fantastic creatures are very fascinating and challenging when it comes to explaining how they fly without relying on ...
- 2,664
5
votes
4
answers
276
views
How Would Monsters Adapt to Respawning Adventurers? [closed]
Monsters are creatures mutated by Chaos Energy, which is the driving force behind "magic" in my setting. However, humans were also changed by Chaos Energy; mysterious beings called Kanyeri ...
- 12.5k
5
votes
2
answers
210
views
Pegasus Flight Problem
I've been searching here at the WBSE (I hope this acronym is correct and doesn't offend anyone) for answers on how a pegasus could be scientifically correct and I found these post: Anatomically ...
- 2,664
5
votes
3
answers
499
views
Flammable Dragon Oil
I was seeing in this post an answer about an organic way for a carnivorous dragon to produce fire. It is said that the dragon produces a synthesized oil from the diet that, in conjunction with the ...
- 2,664
12
votes
3
answers
312
views
What Benefits Could Tongue-eating Lice Have For Mermaids
Well, after asking Would mermaids be affected by tongue-eating lice evolving alongside them?, I realized they would be a worthy addition to a more monstrous subspecies of mermaid. There's only one ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
2
answers
131
views
Explaining Falscale
Falscale are large bugs that parasitize dragons in a most unusual way. You see, they take off a dragon's scales and take their place. There are two ways this could work:
A Falscale takes off a dragon ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
2
answers
103
views
Gravity operated railroads in a low tech fantasy world?
I'm working on a low tech setting for a fantasy story. I'd like to see how far I can get operating within the laws of physics (no magic, gunpowder, or steam-powered devices) but still produce ...
- 197
2
votes
3
answers
180
views
What Uses Will Chompers Have In Medieval Society?
This overdue question concerns Chompers, which are adequately explained in this link. As a general rule, humanity either eliminates species or finds a use for them, and so I have to wonder what humans ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
8
answers
262
views
Breaking the Laws of Thermodynamics without Invoking Magic or the Divine
Title pretty much says it all honestly. I wanna design a character for my fantasy story with abilities that are not only shown to break the laws of thermodynamics (the first and second laws ...
- 337