Reposting Maia and Mox's poll on dæmon forms

[Emily]

Maia and Mox said:

Okay, Just a quick poll cause me and Mox were curious.
Obviously the forms that Daemons take are all unique but I was just wondering what type of animal seems to be the most common settled form. By that I don't mean which species of animal (cat, eagle,dog,lizard etc) but what type of animal group (mammals,reptiles ,insects etc) as ,apart from 2 of his forms ,Mox always apppears as a mammal. (I don't mind, I love him being all furry and cuddly..)
So, just out of interest ,which animal group does your Daemons settled form or most common form come under?
We'll start things off.......

Just redid this as a normal poll for you at Okibi's request - hope you don't mind. We'll be able to see results more clearly, now. ^_^

[Okibi]

I can't post when logged in, which probably means I can't vote when logged in, either. Bah. XD

Anyway, Rookie is either Japoro (an animé critter), or the fox-wolf hybrid. Hm. What would that fit under? Mammal? Mythical Animals?

[maia]

Thanks Emily.After I did my post I couldn't find the poll icon anywhere.Thats either me just having a blonde moment (they can be quite common ) Or I need to invest in some contact lenses....

We're curious to see if most people vote for mammal or not ,because the only reasoning that I have behind that happening is that ,since we ,as humans are technically mammals,most of us choose a form for our daemon that is in some way close to how we are...
Does that make sense?
Any thoughts?

[Okibi]

You should know we don't pick our dæmon's form - or at least we can't chose what he or she settles as. The reason dæmons are so commonly a mammal is because those creatures have the most personality, so they can best represent us. Think about it. It wouldn't make sense for there to be a lot of insect dæmons. For example, a flea pretty much ONLY thinks about finding warmth and sucking blood. Human minds don't quite work like that. =P

[maia Mox]

I agree. It would be pretty strange to have a earthworm daemon or something!
I don't mean that we would conciously try to influence our daemon to take a particular type of form, just that it might be a subconcious thing on the part of both daemon and human. I think birds ,lizards ,anime and mythical creatures have as much personality as mammals.I love it when Mox is a robin, though its not too common now, but I don't think he''ll settle as one ,as hes generally a red panda most of the time now or an Irish Wolfhound if I feel nervous.

[Aleandra]

I don't think birds insects or other daemons have less personality than mammal. It could be true in some cases in the real world, but intelligence is still not truly comprehended, and some insects or molluscs are smarter than you would think.
To me the form isn't based on the real animal's intelligence, but more it's behavior, or or other cases it is based on symbolism.

[maia]

I don't a daemons form is based on the animals intelligence either. Its more to do with the behaviour ,as you say and also the associations with that particular animal. An owl isn't particularly wise, but surely that archetypal image of the "wise old owl" must have something to do with a daemon settling as that form, as well as all the other subtleties about that particular animal that reflect the human.

[Okibi]

Yes, the behavior of the creature a dæmon becomes is important, but it's not the only thing. Its temperament must be taken into account as well (and, yeah, symbolism is a must). There are obviously a lot less insect dæmons than bird or mammals ones, and I still believe it's because bugs have less personality and simpler minds than other living things. Whereas mammals have a wide range of thought and things much like emotions, insects have been described as "little computers." They simply do what their instincts tell them, as if they were a running program. A person cannot easily (if at all) be defined by an ant dæmon, because what do ants live for? The queen of their colony. Nobody lives just to please their boss at every waking moment, or at least I'd hope not. =P

Insects only rely on instinct, and people and mammals (mostly) aren't like that. We sometimes act purely on intuition, but we also have reasoning and common sense. Animals will use reasoning as well.

I think this excerpt I found describes what I mean:

"It is at this point that we must begin "bending our minds" away from human emotionalism, so that we can consider the insects' inherited instinctual drives in a detached, analytical manner.

Nowadays many people, including no-nonsense biologists, are beginning to admit that higher animals such as chimpanzees, porpoises, and even dogs and cats have degrees of insight, and maybe even emotions, though of profoundly different nature than what we humans experience. However, no genuine scientist has made the case for any insect ever displaying emotions or insight. The point Fabre wished to make with his story was that insects do not think; insects behave strictly according to instinct.

It's quite as if insects were little machines with computers instead of brains. The insect experiences a stimulus, such as noticing that a bee's crop is filled with nectar, and its automatic response is to squeeze the bee in a certain way and lick the bee's tongue. This response is as automatic as the process of hitting the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys on your keyboard causing your computer to hot boot (and your losing all the info in your RAM, so don't do it right now!). Nature programmed Fabre's wasp to lick the bee's tongue because mother wasps need the honey's energy for themselves. There's nothing personal, nothing evil, nothing sneaky about the behavior. It's all programmed right there in the wasp's genetic code.

To further make his point, Fabre describes another of his classic experiments. One wasp species always drags its demobilized victims to the nest by tugging on the prey's antennae. When Fabre snipped off the preys' antennae, the wasp couldn't figure out to grab another part of the prey's body -- a mouthpart or front leg, for instance. The wasp was programmed to pull its paralyzed prey by the antennae, and it simply didn't have the intelligence to do anything other than what its instinct told it to do."

[Aleandra]

Of course i'm not saying that insects are smarter than mammals, i'm just disagreeing when you say that bird or reptiles have less personality.

But i still maintain the fact that intelligence, even animal one, is not fully understood yet.

[Okibi]

Well, I never directly said that birds and reptiles have "less personality" than mammals... and I wouldn't say that either. Sorry. I know I wasn't being scientifically correct. =/ I didn't really mean JUST mammals when I said "mammals." I was thinking of the birds and reptiles, too.

[Kiba]

Shei is an artic wolf. but that would be awsome if shei could take the form of one of those giant wolf forest spirits from Princess Monoke ;D. wow that would be kind of awsome. but i am content with what shei is and would not have it another way.

[StephXZed]

Zedith is almost always a black wolf-dog or a mammal in general. He is NEVER something not a mammal. it kinda surprising... I never noticed that.

Maybe that's a personality trait in itself?

[SNL_Ali]

Always a bird. I've been trying to convince him to try being something other than a swan goose, but he refuses. Maybe later I can convince him to be something else.....

And yes--having your daemon be a mammal I think is a personality trait. But I could be wrong....

(Nice to meet you by the way)

[maia]

Kiba said:

Shei is an artic wolf. but that would be awsome if shei could take the form of one of those giant wolf forest spirits from Princess Monoke ;D. wow that would be kind of awsome. but i am content with what shei is and would not have it another way.

Mox became a huge wolf like the ones from Princess Mononoke once. Its the only anime character hei's ever become.

[Ollie/Pan]

i is a MAMMAL! says pan!