Can you share your knowledge?

Fugitive Energy · May 2, 2018

Hi, zanzjan or any other member here with knowledge! Pleased to meet you. I am looking forward to learning a lot from you all. Is there a thread somewhere, that, deals with ostrich-like birds being used as mounts in a fantasy setting? Would the stability of these birds become an issue for their riders?

My second question is, are there different kinds of economies and monetary systems of exchange, excluding the well-used system of bartering?

Thank you, so much, for your thoughts!

Fugitive Energy · May 2, 2018

Hi, everyone! Pleased to meet you. I am looking forward to learning a lot from you all. Is there a thread somewhere, that, deals with ostrich-like birds being used as mounts in a fantasy setting? Would the stability of these birds become an issue for their riders?

My second question is, are there different kinds of economies and monetary systems of exchange, excluding the well-used system of bartering?

Thank you, so much, for your thoughts!

Blinkk · May 2, 2018

The absolute dork in me wants to drop this here and then run off into the distance.

Ok ok ok, but I won't run away because that's mean.

Final Fantasy uses these creatures as a mode of transportation. Chocobos are pretty much an icon for this game. There's so much fan art that it's worth mentioning. As I wrack my brain for more fantasy stories that use large birds, I'm coming up blank. I've read quite a few alternative modes of transportation, but I can't really remember giant birds.

My guess is that it would be like a motorcycle. Once you get used to where to place your momentum at the right time, you can ride lots of stuff. People ride waves, skateboards, camels, I mean, humans are pretty good at balancing on things. People ride dragons in fantasy stories and the audience doesn't blink. Sure, it's possible that your characters could ride a giant ostrich without a stability issue.

Brightdreamer · May 2, 2018

I can't help noticing that you've posted these same questions before, at least twice before, in other forums... it's generally considered iffy form to duplicate posts on AW, though of all the places you've tried, this is the most likely place to get an answser.

As Blinkk mentioned, if you want people to ride birds, let them ride birds. IRL, ostriches strike me as less-than-ideal mounts, but this isn't real life, and you can adjust your avian transportation accordingly. Suspension of disbelief works when you don't draw undue attention to the impossibility - I believe in dragons more when the author doesn't stand there pointing out the anatomical and evolutionary flaws in a six-limbed airborne flamethrower.

As for the second question... it's your world. There are lots of ways humans have come up with to value items and create wealth.

Helix · May 2, 2018

Ostrich-riding you say?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.008d3997a681

Tocotin · May 2, 2018

The ostrich-like bird called hawkstrider is the blood elves' racial mount in World of Warcraft.

Enlightened · May 2, 2018

Ostrich, Emu, and Rhea.... Each of these might support human riders, if the riders are not too big for each bird. I think they rode ostriches in the movie Swiss Family Robinson for races.

Bartering is known as in-kind exchange. The other is work for money. I had 6 economics classes, and we never covered any other than these two.

Helix · May 2, 2018

Enlightened said:
Ostrich, Emu, and Rhea.... Each of these might support human riders, if the riders are not too big for each bird. I think they rode ostriches in the movie Swiss Family Robinson for races.

Nah. Emus only weight about 40kg and rheas are even smaller. Ostriches are Very Big Birds. Emus are only Quite Big Birds. And rheas are really quite small (when compared to the previous two.)

Enlightened · May 2, 2018

Helix said:
Nah. Emus only weight about 40kg and rheas are even smaller. Ostriches are Very Big Birds. Emus are only Quite Big Birds. And rheas are really quite small (when compared to the previous two.)

No? Why not? You are thinking of adults only. Toddlers or dwarves may be able to ride them. Nothing specified adults only. : )

Emus can grow to 140 pounds (65 KG).... https://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/322194/emu4.pdf

Helix · May 2, 2018

Enlightened said:
No? Why not? You are thinking of adults only. Toddlers or dwarves may be able to ride them. Nothing specified adults only. : )

Emus can grow to 140 pounds (65 KG).... https://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/322194/emu4.pdf

Even at 65 kg, an emu would be hard-pressed to carry a person. Ostrich-riding is a thing; emu-riding not so much. Good luck with sticking a toddler on an emu.

I'd imagine that if you had a sufficiently small elf, they could ride a kakapo.

ETA: Just had a look in the CSIRO bird guide, which I have to hand because I'm updating my year list. They put emus at 26 -- 45 kg, and I'd trust the CSIRO guide over Vic Parks. At least no one suggested cassowaries.

Brightdreamer · May 2, 2018

Helix said:
Even at 65 kg, an emu would be hard-pressed to carry a person. Ostrich-riding is a thing; emu-riding not so much. Good luck with sticking a toddler on an emu.

I'd imagine that if you had a sufficiently small elf, they could ride a kakapo.

A really sufficiently small elf could ride a chicken, too.

Though if one were to resurrect elephant birds or giant moas... maybe a nice terror bird...

Enlightened · May 2, 2018

Emu's are vicious. I recommend no adult even try to get near one. They kick first, ask questions never. ; )

Regardless, it is possible to ride an emu and a rhea (for really small people).

Helix · May 2, 2018

Brightdreamer said:
A really sufficiently small elf could ride a chicken, too.

Though if one were to resurrect elephant birds or giant moas... maybe a nice terror bird...

Or Dromornis (formerly Bullockornis) aka the Demon Duck of Doom!

be frank · May 2, 2018

Enlightened said:
Emu's are vicious. I recommend no adult even try to get near one. They kick first, ask questions never. ; )

Regardless, it is possible to ride an emu and a rhea (for really small people).

Yeeeeah, no offence, but I'm putting my faith in the Australian bird-watching zoologist on this one.

Enlightened · May 2, 2018

be frank said:
Yeeeeah, no offence, but I'm putting my faith in the Australian bird-watching zoologist on this one.

None taken. No one specified riders had to be adults or normal-size people.

Blinkk · May 2, 2018

Helix said:
At least no one suggested cassowaries.

I have never heard of this bird, and so I googled and stumbled across this blog. This is a sentence:
It’s well known that cassowaries can be dangerous, and indeed together with ostriches [UPDATE: and chickens] they are the only birds known to have definitely killed humans

And they have claws on their feet AND wings. My writer mind is going crazy. Want to use...

Helix · May 2, 2018

Enlightened said:
Emu's are vicious. I recommend no adult even try to get near one. They kick first, ask questions never. ; )

Regardless, it is possible to ride an emu and a rhea (for really small people).

They're not particularly vicious. They're quite curious and are terrible sandwich thieves, but they are generally not kick-first-ask-questions later sort of birds. Cassowaries, on the other hand...But even then, unless you get between a male and his chicks, they're more likely to go about their business and ignore you. I do recommend a quick retreat, though, just in case, especially in areas where they are accustomed to being fed.

Enlightened · May 2, 2018

I think it was the Wild Boyz (American TV show) that went into an Emu enclosure. This thing charged and kicked to force them out of the enclosure. This particular emu was highly aggressive. I think I saw an emu live once, at a zoo in America. That was way too many years ago though. It was too far away to be irritated.

Bacchus · May 3, 2018

Fugitive Energy said:
Hi, everyone! Pleased to meet you. I am looking forward to learning a lot from you all. Is there a thread somewhere, that, deals with ostrich-like birds being used as mounts in a fantasy setting? Would the stability of these birds become an issue for their riders?

My second question is, are there different kinds of economies and monetary systems of exchange, excluding the well-used system of bartering?

Thank you, so much, for your thoughts!

Not exactly a bird, but your description brings the tauntaun in the opening scene of The Empire Strikes Back - it's more dinosaur like, but didn't birds evolve from dinosaurs? (didn't we all; some faster than others

)

And with regarding to alternative monetary systems, one is evolving before your very eyes. For millennia we have used tokens of credit (coins), moved onto promises of credit (notes and cheques), and finally moved on to crypto-currencies and digital payments with contact-less debit cards and the likes of Apple Pay

It's not a huge leap of faith to have people chipped with an RFID chip to authorise payments with a simple wave of the hand and perhaps a remote retinal scan to underline identity.

My cat is chipped. She doesn't use it to make payments but it opens the cat-flap for her and only her.

Helix · May 3, 2018

Enlightened said:
I think it was the Wild Boyz (American TV show) that went into an Emu enclosure. This thing charged and kicked to force them out of the enclosure. This particular emu was highly aggressive. I think I saw an emu live once, at a zoo in America. That was way too many years ago though. It was too far away to be irritated.

Trapped in a cage on a tv show under stressful conditions is different from in the wild.

I just looked up Wildboyz. So let me change my statement.

Trapped in a cage on a tv show under stressful conditions with absolute idiots is different from in the wild.

I've managed to not get kicked by an emu on any encounter, but I have had to put away the sangers.

Fugitive Energy, I don't expect you thought your simple questions would devolve into a discussion about emus and the relative aggression levels of ratites. But that's writers for you!

Fugitive Energy · May 3, 2018

Brightdreamer said:
I can't help noticing that you've posted these same questions before, at least twice before, in other forums... it's generally considered iffy form to duplicate posts on AW, though of all the places you've tried, this is the most likely place to get an answser.

As Blinkk mentioned, if you want people to ride birds, let them ride birds. IRL, ostriches strike me as less-than-ideal mounts, but this isn't real life, and you can adjust your avian transportation accordingly. Suspension of disbelief works when you don't draw undue attention to the impossibility - I believe in dragons more when the author doesn't stand there pointing out the anatomical and evolutionary flaws in a six-limbed airborne flamethrower.

As for the second question... it's your world. There are lots of ways humans have come up with to value items and create wealth.

Thank you, so much, everyone, for your informative answers. Brightdreamer, I didn't mean to duplicate my questions so many times. I thought that I must have placed them in an inactive area. I will remember not to do that.

Fugitive Energy · May 3, 2018

Thank you, Helix. I don't mind the in-depth discussion on emus, I have gotten a ton of great ideas from your posts.

Fugitive Energy · May 3, 2018

Blinkk said:
The absolute dork in me wants to drop this here and then run off into the distance.

Ok ok ok, but I won't run away because that's mean. Final Fantasy uses these creatures as a mode of transportation. Chocobos are pretty much an icon for this game. There's so much fan art that it's worth mentioning. As I wrack my brain for more fantasy stories that use large birds, I'm coming up blank. I've read quite a few alternative modes of transportation, but I can't really remember giant birds.

My guess is that it would be like a motorcycle. Once you get used to where to place your momentum at the right time, you can ride lots of stuff. People ride waves, skateboards, camels, I mean, humans are pretty good at balancing on things. People ride dragons in fantasy stories and the audience doesn't blink. Sure, it's possible that your characters could ride a giant ostrich without a stability issue.

Thanks, Blinkk. I wanted an animal for my natives to ride but, thought that horse-like creatures were over-done. Next on my list were reptiles, but, those are common too. Hence, I settled on the ratite family of birds.

Enlightened · May 3, 2018

Helix said:
Trapped in a cage on a tv show under stressful conditions is different from in the wild.

I just looked up Wildboyz. So let me change my statement.

Trapped in a cage on a tv show under stressful conditions with absolute idiots is different from in the wild.

I've managed to not get kicked by an emu on any encounter, but I have had to put away the sangers.

Fugitive Energy, I don't expect you thought your simple questions would devolve into a discussion about emus and the relative aggression levels of ratites. But that's writers for you!

Wasn't a cage. It was a fenced enclosure. Lots of room for the emu not to engage. This emu chased them down.

Sonsofthepharaohs · May 3, 2018

Blinkk said:
I have never heard of this bird, and so I googled and stumbled across this blog. This is a sentence:
It’s well known that cassowaries can be dangerous, and indeed together with ostriches [UPDATE: and chickens] they are the only birds known to have definitely killed humans

What about bird strikes? Seagulls, geese, hawks, pretty much anything that takes a dislike to a plane. Those kamikaze bastards must have killed dozens of people...

Can you share your knowledge?

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