Nutrition

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 11:41 pm

I've actually always rather liked Orcs as being literally omnivorous, in that they can eat anything and survive on it.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:25 am

Prak_Anima wrote:I've actually always rather liked Orcs as being literally omnivorous, in that they can eat anything and survive on it.

Then they have much less reason to sweep down in hordes and pillage villages. If they're goatherds rather than goats, there's more incentive to go gourmet shopping in Homlet.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 5:58 am

Most war is, one way or another, about resources. The less resources you need, the less reason there is to fight anyone. The GW Orc is the most fucking stupid thing ever, since it can eat rocks and reproduces by sporification, it doesn't need to fight anyone for anything or even interact with anyone to fulfill its needs.

If you want your race to be violent, they need to have extensive needs. A pure carnivore would need to go far afield to feed itself and come into conflict with those who live in those fields. A total omnivore or photosynthesizer could sit around in a fores glen and never leave or bother anyone. The classic orcish disposition implies a fastidious digestive system, not the ability to live on light and dirt.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:00 am

What if they literally need combat or blood to survive? Maybe their photosynthesis doesn't split water for necessary chemicals, but blood. Or maybe the act of killing is a catalyst for some kind of reaction.

Ok, how about this... They can't survive off of literally anything, but can digest anything. They may not derive a lot of nutrition from dirt, but it won't do them any harm, and Black Lotus Extract is little worse than rotgut vodka is for us. But they have to kill to live. Not just for food, they literally have to savagely murder creatures because the act, and the mental response is a catalyst for a vital internal process. Or maybe they have to be "watered" with blood for a chemosynthetic reaction to provide them with some nutrient.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:06 am

There is a fuck tonne of calories in meat. If they need to eat animals, there is no point in them nominally having the ability to get energy from anything, because eating animals would more than cover their energy needs to begin with.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:11 am

where... in the above post did I imply they can get energy from anything? or did I misuse "digest"?

I'm perfectly fine with orcs simply being able to ingest anything and not suffer ill effects, I don't give a shit whether it nourishes them...

TavishArtair · Post by **TavishArtair** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:24 am

Digestion is the process of extracting nutrients and energy from food.

So yes, you misused it.

We pass a ton of shit through our digestive system that cannot be processed and thus is just thrown away. It doesn't harm us most of the time. And yes, in this case shit is quite literal.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:43 pm

TavishArtair wrote:Digestion is the process of extracting nutrients and energy from food.

Sorry if I'm channeling PhaedrusXY here, but "digestion" is the process of degradation via enzymes. You don't have to extract nutrients or energy at all.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:05 pm

CatharzGodfoot wrote:
TavishArtair wrote:Digestion is the process of extracting nutrients and energy from food.
Sorry if I'm channeling PhaedrusXY here, but "digestion" is the process of degradation via enzymes. You don't have to extract nutrients or energy at all.

To be even more pedantic, it's the breakdown of materials, regardless of how it is done. The hydrochloric acid "digests" all kinds of stuff without being an enzyme. The nutrient absorbing part is "absorption" and sometimes happens without digestion just as digestion sometimes happens without absorption.

However, when people speak casually, they refer to things that pass through you without being absorbed as nutrients as "undigested," even though in most cases it would be technically accurate to say it was "partially digested" - since at the very least it was probably chewed. If you say "can digest anything" that fucking implies "digests and absorbs" because no one actually says the technically correct long form except at proctology conferences. And even then, they usually cut it down.

-Username17

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:26 pm

So even if orcs in the cold mountains could eat pine needles and roots and the bones of wild goats other things like that, they'd still have every other reason to go steal stuff from other people from time to time right?

Particularly if, to the orc, eating the "warmlander" food was considered as great as the ancient world considered pepper and other spices.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:54 pm

TavishArtair et al wrote:Digestion

Ah, ok, yeah... I meant the pedantic "breakdown" version, so, I should say "able to breakdown anything, but not necessary derive sustenance" so if you want to hide your phylactery and get it back later, don't hide it in the orc's stomach. If you want to destroy the phylactery... hell, give it a shot.

TavishArtair · Post by **TavishArtair** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:14 am

I bow to the superior pedantry in this thread.

A Man In Black · Post by **A Man In Black** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:42 am

FrankTrollman wrote:Most war is, one way or another, about resources. The less resources you need, the less reason there is to fight anyone. The GW Orc is the most fucking stupid thing ever, since it can eat rocks and reproduces by sporification, it doesn't need to fight anyone for anything or even interact with anyone to fulfill its needs.

Orks, as in 40K. WHFB Orcs are mammals, reproduce more or less like humans, etc. And orks need to fight because of a psychic imperative. Without some sort of conflict they eventually go crazy and then dormant. That doesn't explain why they come together into armies or how they form any sort of society since they can kill each other for their murder-high, though.