The meaning of "meh" is to indicate disintrest. It is, inherently non-emphatic. Increasing the size of the font attempts to impress emphasis onto something that needs none. There is never a need to emphasize disinterest. You don't care enough. You are disinterested. Attemping to press the point contradicts the purpose making the point.

There is no level to how disinterested you can be, because you don't care. You can't "not care" anymore than not-caring

Yeah but you are a vampire, not a "human" anymore, so I don't really count that as cannibalism.

Also am I missing something, or are so many people spelling "cannibalism" wrong?

Wait. So a "prion" is a toxic agent that is not bacterial, viral or an instance of some kind of congenital (or vertically transmitted) mis-coded dna (Huntington's or some cancer, sickle-cell)? I don't understand. Why is it simply not just a "poison". One that just takes a long time to act? You ate poisoned meat.

I'm not a biologist and there seems a good chance that I'm misunderstanding, or simply not understanding well enough.

This is America, Dude - we don't know English.

Think of it as a mutated protein that mimics good proteins and wreaks havoc when incorporated into cells as the 'good' protein. Maybe kinda' like plugging a 120V appliance into a 220V outlet - it might work OK for a little while, but degrades and/or is destroyed eventually.

Maybe someone can come along with a better anology.

Edited for usage.

I'm not sure most fantasy worlds make a distinction there. Same as if an elf eats an human, it would be considered cannibalism. Though granted, merely drinking human blood isn't considered the same for a vampire most of the time, but the vampires in Skyrim seem to eat non-vampire sentients, not just drink their blood.


Why not call a bacteria a poison? Or a virus a bacteria? Because what they are and how they work are different. An abnormally folded protein that then spreads that abnormal folding to other proteins of the same type is not what poisons do. It's not what a virus, bacteria, or genetic disorder does either. "Poison" isn't some term just used for anything that isn't a bacteria, virus, or genetic disorder. They're as much a "poison" as a virus is, honestly -- which is to say, calling it a poison is not a helpful way to describe it at all.

Edit: In particular, "poison" is not typically used to refer to something that replicates itself in some fashion.

Well im not from New Guinea so maybe the atmosphere makes it taste differ ...

... no lollygaggin'

It was also featured in Red Dead Redemption in the "American Appetites" Quests. Someone goes missing in them thar hills.

Now in Skyrim, if you're in beastform this shouldn't bother you because after all you're a beast then..... mmmmm... long pig.

And I was going to finish the MQ and start doing some good stuff last night, but then looked at my character objectively and realized what a rotten little sh** she's turned into and decided to finish the Dark Brotherhood quests (Hail Sithis!), do all the rotten to the core Daedric Quests.... then redeem herself.

As a matter of ethics, that doesn't make a difference at all.

Ok, so continually eating the meat with "bad" proteins causes the diseases mentioned?

As I understand it, it would only be for eating human meat with "bad" proteins. It doesn't work across species, which is why cannibalism is particularly dangerous as well as distasteful.

I think it only takes one time because as I understand it the mutated proteins replicate themselves and corrupt cells like cancer or a virus. I have a BS so I've had a few science classes, but I'm not a biochemist.

> Ok, so continually eating the meat with "bad" proteins causes the diseases mentioned?

Once is enough. A single prion will de-form other protein molecules, which in turn de-form more protein molecules, and so on.

This is also why there's a take-no-chances approach to dealing with prion-related diseases (like mad cow disease).

The "disease" refers to the symptoms that eventually result as various systems (especially in the brain) start to fail due to the damage being caused by the prion degeneration.

It's just something fun and evil to do.

It's just something to do. I never do it on games, but I can see why you would.
Good thing for keeping evil or neutrel karma in FO3 and FONV.

And in the post apocolyptic world of fallout, does seem likely. Bit less likely to be caused by enviroment in Skyrim.
There must have been some seriously horrific people after the bombs hit in fallout.

And it does happen. In a horriffic nuclear aftermath like fallout, I can see why people would become cannibals.
And when food is short after wars or if it is a tradition.

Generally speaking, it's taboo or not done to eat your own kind. Most animals only eat other animals.
But some eat each other and it's fine for them. Some female spiders eat their mates.
Just depends on your race and traditions and rituals.

Most alpha-predators have an instinctive taboo against eating other predators. Even when such a predator kills another to defend territory, they leave it to the scavengers. A lion will kill a cheetah, for example, but will not eat it. This is because alpha predators build up non-water-soluble toxins at a higher rate than things lower on the food chain. A deer, for example, takes in all the toxins from the plants it eats, and those that it can't remove build up in its cells. If a mountain lion kills and eats that deer, it takes up all the toxins that the deer was unable to eliminate over the entire course of it's life in a single meal. Scavengers are better equipped to deal with these toxins, because that's their niche, but predators do not eat other predators, in general.

Predators who do eat other predators regularly are uniquely adapted to do so, and these usually only happens in fairly harsh climates. Polar Bears, for example, feed largely on seals, who feed largely on fish. Polar Bears livers are remarkably good at storing these toxins, as a result. This is why, if you are in the arctic and kill a Polar Bear do not eat it's liver. It will kill you.

Humans are strong generalists: we can be nearly pure carnivores (see: Inuit) but humans have not been alpha predators for very long, on an evolutionary scale: there's evidence Homo Sapiens was a prey species for a not-insignificant portion of our time on this planet, and our emergence as the global alpha-predator is recent, occurring sometime in the last 50,000 years. Our ability to evolve into the role is limited, and we still have something of a generalist's instincts.

This kind of went on longer than I had intended, but long story short: people are alpha predators (even if our instincts haven't quite caught up with that yet) and an alpha predator shouldn't eat an alpha predator, because they risk a lethal buildup of toxins. This is also why people shouldn't eat dogs or cats, by the way.

Prion diseases work accross-species, so long as the misfolded protein has a purpise in the eater's biology. This is why we get Mad Cow Disease.

Fun fact: If you eat a Prion and it causes the chain effect... you're a dead person walking. There's no cure for it, and it can take years before the symptoms appear. Due to the nature of the disease, i don't think it can be cured without some really fancy advanced technology that we haven't even come close to develpoing.

Good think I'm an Argonian who never eats Argonians and eats humans and elves

I would expect that the body has some defense against prions, but yeah, one that interacts with the same amino acid chain folded properly will cause it to get misfolded. Understanding of prion-based disease and the details of how it works is still very young and incomplete.

Which would be classified as cannibalism is most fantasy or sci-fi settings. Like Halfings in the Dark Sun D&D setting.

I don't even like pork to begin with. Probly tastes foul.

Maybe in YOUR country.

Is it really cannibalism if I'm an elf eating a human? Doesn't sound like it to me.

Again, it's almost universally considered cannibalism in fantasy or sci-fi settings when one sentient species eats another. I can't think of an exception off-hand.

Meh, there are alchemy ingredients called Human Flesh and Human Heart. Guess the best way to know their properties short of looking up internet or blind brewing?

And you can do it in front of Elisif too. I wonder if we actually "eat" them and not "teleport it directly into the stomach"

i was talking about real life

Kzinti do hunt and eat humans when they can. Neither side considers it cannibalism, though the humans do see it as murder and torture.

Of course, that ignores the oddity that its even possible for life forms that evolved in different solar systems over hundreds of millions of years to draw nutrition from each other's flesh.