Posts tagged unicorn

Wild horses generally don’t live in forests.  They live on wide open expanses of land.  This is because they rely a lot on running, and they need to do that without tripping on the dense undergrowth and dodging trees.  So why is the forest a favorite habitat for unicorns?

If dragons are so enormous, how do they ever feed themselves?  Look at the largest carnivorous dinosaurs for inspiration: those things can’t live on humans alone.  There’s also an upper limit to how large a carnivore can be.  You might want to look into that.  If they eat bears or elephants, how are the local bear and elephant populations affected?  How are the things the bears eat affected?  If they’re really reptiles, how do they live in a cave all day and still maintain their body heat?

You can’t just make a fantasy creature and have no way for the local ecosystem to support it.  If dragons eat humans, then they obviously need to eat, and it’s unlikely that they only eat humans.  On the other hand, the creature itself would affect the ecosystem.  If they’re predators, they would affect everything that they eat.  They would also affect all of the other predators that have to compete for food with them.  If they’re herbivores, then there would be things hunting them.  If they’re large enough, they might impact the environment in other ways.

I rarely ever see a fantasy creature depicted that goes beyond “oh look it’s cool and magical and the protagonists need it for purpose x” and actually explains how the thing would feasibly survive.  I would go as far as to say there has to be a valid evolutionary reason for the creature to develop magic (how are healing tears going to help a unicorn?).

The follower of the day is lackingstealth.