HOME | DD

Description

Domesticated Omniphages are outliers amongst the omniphages of the late ocean age, as they have a complex social structure in which individuals will recognise each other and regularly have reciprocal altruistically interactions.

In particular the Steed breeds, selectively bred to carry Social Gracediggers and lighter weights, are amongst the smartest of all the omniphages alive.

They were always exposed to predators, so they are still very alert, even though they were domesticated long ago, but they are by far not as aggressive as wild thorngrazers.

They roam semi freely during the day to forage, but are corralled together in the evening, to spend the night safely inside stables inside the coastal settlements.

They will defend wounded herd members, unlike their wild relatives, because they have the luxury to afford so, because once they return home, their sophont masters will treat injuries usually with great sucess, so this behaviour was desirable and selected for.

Usually the Domestic Omniphage species, be they Steed breeds and cattle breeds will act amicably towards each other.

Maybe it is because of this, that sometimes they even adopt calves of wild species ( of crabheaded thorngrazers, razorbacks are too different to be seen as herd members), but these wild claves will usually be ousted form the herd, because once they are grown they are far too asocial and aggressive for the herd to tolerate them.

Thus steed breeds are alert, but of gentle disposition and usually very mild mannered, unless seriously threatened or with very young calves.

And they are predominantly herbivorous, but will still eat meat.

They will happily feed on meat scraps or fish if offered by the sea stewards.

Here we see a steed omniphage of the mainland variety approaching an injured bird, likely a young adult who left the place his parents live in, to disperse and find a new territory, but it broke a leg in an unlucky accident while traveling. This bird is the scampering shorebird, a rather inconspicuous ground dwelling sparrowgull living at the coasts of serinarcta, and the ancestor of the scampering meadowbird (and by extension an ancestor of the later mowerbirds) of the hothouse age.

sites.google.com/site/worldofs…

As the Steed approaches the injured bird panicks and starts screeching, clearly afraid of the steed that approaches slowly, methodically and in an unnaturally tense manner.

The steed draws closer, but then suddenly relaxes. It moves its mouth over the neck of the injured bird now, and for a moment it looks like it is going to clamp down on its neck and devour it.

But instead the Steed sniffs at the bird and starts making bird calls, for steed breeds have better vocal abilities than other Thorngrazers, after all the sea stewards selected for more communicative animals, who could make predator warning calls and respond better to commands. Steed breeds vocal abilites and intelligence are not on par with that of certain omniphage descendants of the late hothouse (like this one:sites.google.com/site/worldofs… ), but still very useful to communicate with the sea stewards and friendlys species and to confuse predators.

The bird calms down and answers.

Then the steed gently grabs the bird with its mouth, it could crush the tiny injured bird easily but instead lifts it gently onto its back, an dpositions it in a way so it won´t fall down and trots back to the nearest village. There the sea stewards can treat the injured bird an release it back into the wild once it is healed.

But why doesn´t it eat the bird?

Its because Domestic Omniphages have an especially close relationship with the sapient Azuretailed Chatterraven, who regularly clean them from parasites. And unlike wild Omniphages domestic ones are smart enough to recognize them and reciprocate social interactions.

And not only are scampering Shorebirds anatomically similar to Azuretailed Chatterravens, they even have similar interactions with domesticated Omniphages, they associate with them, they eat the new shoot of grasses they´ve grazed on, and clean them of parasites.

So this is the reason the Steed refrains from consuming this bird.

Even if it is not the case here, nature will always be red in tooth and claw atleast at some time. Were it not this bird, but instead an injured smeerp, molodont or poppit, it would not have been so lucky. The Steed would have unceremoniously crushed it’s neck and devoured it happily munching on the extra calories.

This post is inspired by bird eating horses(yes they do it sometimes):

horseroots.com/why-do-horses-s…

-- This Fanart is based on Serina, a speculative evolution/worldbuilding project, which is the sole intellectual property of of .
You can view his work on sites.google.com/site/worldofs… . --

Description

Domesticated Omniphages are outliers amongst the omniphages of the late ocean age, as they have a complex social structure in which individuals will recognise each other and regularly have reciprocal altruistically interactions.

In particular the Steed breeds, selectively bred to carry Social Gracediggers and lighter weights, are amongst the smartest of all the omniphages alive.

They were always exposed to predators, so they are still very alert, even though they were domesticated long ago, but they are by far not as aggressive as wild thorngrazers.

They roam semi freely during the day to forage, but are corralled together in the evening, to spend the night safely inside stables inside the coastal settlements.

They will defend wounded herd members, unlike their wild relatives, because they have the luxury to afford so, because once they return home, their sophont masters will treat injuries usually with great sucess, so this behaviour was desirable and selected for.

Usually the Domestic Omniphage species, be they Steed breeds and cattle breeds will act amicably towards each other.

Maybe it is because of this, that sometimes they even adopt calves of wild species ( of crabheaded thorngrazers, razorbacks are too different to be seen as herd members), but these wild claves will usually be ousted form the herd, because once they are grown they are far too asocial and aggressive for the herd to tolerate them.

Thus steed breeds are alert, but of gentle disposition and usually very mild mannered, unless seriously threatened or with very young calves.

And they are predominantly herbivorous, but will still eat meat.

They will happily feed on meat scraps or fish if offered by the sea stewards.

Here we see a steed omniphage of the mainland variety approaching an injured bird, likely a young adult who left the place his parents live in, to disperse and find a new territory, but it broke a leg in an unlucky accident while traveling. This bird is the scampering shorebird, a rather inconspicuous ground dwelling sparrowgull living at the coasts of serinarcta, and the ancestor of the scampering meadowbird (and by extension an ancestor of the later mowerbirds) of the hothouse age.

sites.google.com/site/worldofs…

As the Steed approaches the injured bird panicks and starts screeching, clearly afraid of the steed that approaches slowly, methodically and in an unnaturally tense manner.

The steed draws closer, but then suddenly relaxes. It moves its mouth over the neck of the injured bird now, and for a moment it looks like it is going to clamp down on its neck and devour it.

But instead the Steed sniffs at the bird and starts making bird calls, for steed breeds have better vocal abilities than other Thorngrazers, after all the sea stewards selected for more communicative animals, who could make predator warning calls and respond better to commands. Steed breeds vocal abilites and intelligence are not on par with that of certain omniphage descendants of the late hothouse (like this one:sites.google.com/site/worldofs… ), but still very useful to communicate with the sea stewards and friendlys species and to confuse predators.

The bird calms down and answers.

Then the steed gently grabs the bird with its mouth, it could crush the tiny injured bird easily but instead lifts it gently onto its back, an dpositions it in a way so it won´t fall down and trots back to the nearest village. There the sea stewards can treat the injured bird an release it back into the wild once it is healed.

But why doesn´t it eat the bird?

Its because Domestic Omniphages have an especially close relationship with the sapient Azuretailed Chatterraven, who regularly clean them from parasites. And unlike wild Omniphages domestic ones are smart enough to recognize them and reciprocate social interactions.

And not only are scampering Shorebirds anatomically similar to Azuretailed Chatterravens, they even have similar interactions with domesticated Omniphages, they associate with them, they eat the new shoot of grasses they´ve grazed on, and clean them of parasites.

So this is the reason the Steed refrains from consuming this bird.

Even if it is not the case here, nature will always be red in tooth and claw atleast at some time. Were it not this bird, but instead an injured smeerp, molodont or poppit, it would not have been so lucky. The Steed would have unceremoniously crushed it’s neck and devoured it happily munching on the extra calories.

This post is inspired by bird eating horses(yes they do it sometimes):

horseroots.com/why-do-horses-s…

-- This Fanart is based on Serina, a speculative evolution/worldbuilding project, which is the sole intellectual property of of .
You can view his work on sites.google.com/site/worldofs… . --