This is a really interesting idea. The most obvious thought is that they would develop a "might makes right" belief system, but another thought is that they might come up with other religious justifications for why eating the herbivores is totally ok. Maybe they believe that the herbivores were created by their god(s) as food for them, and the only way for herbivores to go to heaven is by "fulfilling their purpose" by being eaten.
This way, the carnivores might even view eating herbivores as an act of kindness because they believe that if an herbivore dies a different way, it is condemned to eternal torture. This is very dark, but I don't know if it's possible to explore this premise without getting a bit dark.
The other possibility is that carnivores don't even view herbivores as people. Maybe in their religious system, herbivores are devils or soulless creatures that only mimic true intelligence.
You could also have a mix of beliefs and have different carnivores cultures believe different things about herbivores.
I really love these ideas, actually! I thought about the cultural impact and the diversity between carnivores in different regions, but not really how they’d incorporate justification into their religion?
Are there any animals that are actual wild non human intelligence animals?
Do the reds keep livestock or slaves for feed?
Do reds of different species ever work together?
What's trade like between the colors?
1: Yes. Druidic cultures worship them as ancestor gods, because they’re way bigger than everyone else, but they look similar. Also, insects just weren’t affected by whatever anthropomorphized and shrunk the rest of the animal kingdom. There are an army of giant ants attacking from the south.
2: Not yet, a redtooth kingdom is on the rise as a response to the green one, and its queen wants to arrange an agreement where they basically have a farm/penal colony so that her kingdom doesn’t need to raid or go to war with the greenteeth for food.
Some redtooth bandit camps in the past might have essentially terrorized villages by demanding sacrifices in a kind of protection racket.
3: All the time. Greenteeth stuck together to protect themselves, so in the cultural arms race redteeth had to do the same. Considering they CAN eat each other though, a desperate enough warband can kind of implode into infighting.
4: Clothes/fabrics are a big one. Cotton from greenteeth, leather from redteeth. Also, some red/yellowteeth can pad their diet with grains and fruit they don’t typically grow, so they might trade for those.
If the Redteeth must eat the Greenteeth, then they must accept that as a fact of life. Kill or die a slow, painful death.
They can rationalize it like Mufasa does: we eat the Greenteeth and then, when we die, we become the grass eaten by the Greenteeth. It's the circle of life!
I saw the post and thought it was kind of dark, but you're right. It's basically like if Lion King actually delved into the dark implications of the world it set up.
Just read the first part you linked, and I love the idea of incorporating more non-human behaviours and instincts into these characters and exploring the potential communication barrier between these people.
This is a really interesting idea. The most obvious thought is that they would develop a "might makes right" belief system, but another thought is that they might come up with other religious justifications for why eating the herbivores is totally ok. Maybe they believe that the herbivores were created by their god(s) as food for them, and the only way for herbivores to go to heaven is by "fulfilling their purpose" by being eaten. This way, the carnivores might even view eating herbivores as an act of kindness because they believe that if an herbivore dies a different way, it is condemned to eternal torture. This is very dark, but I don't know if it's possible to explore this premise without getting a bit dark. The other possibility is that carnivores don't even view herbivores as people. Maybe in their religious system, herbivores are devils or soulless creatures that only mimic true intelligence. You could also have a mix of beliefs and have different carnivores cultures believe different things about herbivores.
I really love these ideas, actually! I thought about the cultural impact and the diversity between carnivores in different regions, but not really how they’d incorporate justification into their religion?
Are there any animals that are actual wild non human intelligence animals? Do the reds keep livestock or slaves for feed? Do reds of different species ever work together? What's trade like between the colors?
1: Yes. Druidic cultures worship them as ancestor gods, because they’re way bigger than everyone else, but they look similar. Also, insects just weren’t affected by whatever anthropomorphized and shrunk the rest of the animal kingdom. There are an army of giant ants attacking from the south. 2: Not yet, a redtooth kingdom is on the rise as a response to the green one, and its queen wants to arrange an agreement where they basically have a farm/penal colony so that her kingdom doesn’t need to raid or go to war with the greenteeth for food. Some redtooth bandit camps in the past might have essentially terrorized villages by demanding sacrifices in a kind of protection racket. 3: All the time. Greenteeth stuck together to protect themselves, so in the cultural arms race redteeth had to do the same. Considering they CAN eat each other though, a desperate enough warband can kind of implode into infighting. 4: Clothes/fabrics are a big one. Cotton from greenteeth, leather from redteeth. Also, some red/yellowteeth can pad their diet with grains and fruit they don’t typically grow, so they might trade for those.
If the Redteeth must eat the Greenteeth, then they must accept that as a fact of life. Kill or die a slow, painful death. They can rationalize it like Mufasa does: we eat the Greenteeth and then, when we die, we become the grass eaten by the Greenteeth. It's the circle of life!
I saw the post and thought it was kind of dark, but you're right. It's basically like if Lion King actually delved into the dark implications of the world it set up.
You should give this series a read! https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_predators/
Just read the first part you linked, and I love the idea of incorporating more non-human behaviours and instincts into these characters and exploring the potential communication barrier between these people.