There's not an example in real life because we know no other sentient species. I'm fairly confident that if we did, we'd consider it cannibalism, or have another term for it and consider it equally vile.


Ahh, ok, there's one exception and I don't doubt that there are more. However, would you agree that most times it is considered cannibalism though? Hmm, exceptions most commonly exist in the case of entities that are considered monstrous and worthy of destruction by their very nature (like vampires and such).

Certainly it is almost unheard of for it to be considered all that different in terms of how horrific it is. Imho, most people agree that there'd be something vile about eating something you could have a conversation with.

More to the point, I don't think the TES universe makes a distinction between one race eating another and one race eating a member of the same race -- well, super-extremists might, but not the average person in the TES universe.

Edit: As for the oddity, it might not be that odd given how common amino acids are, which naturally enough combine into proteins. For all we know most or all life isn't so different from ours. Granted, this would be less interesting that other hypotheticals, but the universe is sometimes a bit boring that way.

It's a little more complicated. Prions are defective proteins. Wiki "prion" for a better explanation. But basically they are on the borderline between what most non-experts would call living versus not-living matter. They aren't alive but they do replicate themselves by causing normal proteins to become defective ones. Because they aren't alive they can't be easily killed, boiled, or cooked. A poison doesn't cause ordinary tissue to turn itself into poison over a period of decades.

Re: the original point, it's perfectly possible for a human to get prion diseases from animals other than humans. But in general it's true that eating something that carries the same diseases you do is a bad plan.

Yeah, I'm not proud of that. ...not crazy about 'testing' the Giant's Toe or the Troll Fat either.

I don't understand why you were sarcastic when it was you who suggested the real-life anology. Nevertheless...

Not really because being sentient or not isn't relevant to this, except in your definition of cannibalism, which frankly, is subjective. The actual definition of cannibalism is pretty much objective.
Brother Verulus is an Imperial. I am a Bosmer. 'Wrong' or not to eat him, it wasn't cannibalism. Unless you want to pull the "it is in the fantasy world", in which I can only agree to disagree.


The entire animal kingdom. They may not be particulary intelligent compared to humans, but they're still sentient beings.

It's pretty obvious, when I'm talking on such a hypothetical level, acting like it's too grounded in the "real world" to be relevant to the TES universe is ridiculous. You make an arbitrary and meaningless distinction here.


As I have stated in this thread, if you bother to read my other posts, this isn't "my" definition. It's a common generalization of the word "cannibal" throughout fantasy and science fiction works (I even gave an example). TES as well doesn't seem to make a distinction between one of the sentient races eating another and eating their own (TES-specific example: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Dance_in_Fire,_Chapter_4 ). So if we want to go by Lore, you a flat-out wrong.

So basically your point from the start was pointless to begin with.


I do read, which is why here's a snip from one of your posts: Personally, I consider it cannibalism if an intelligent being eats another intelligent being. I am not sure if there is a proper name for it.
A generalisation can be meaningless. BUT if it's actually written in TES lore then by all means, I conceed. Though I'll have a little read of that book.

Hardly. It's the same line of reasoning used by authors and others who work in fantasy or science fiction. It's the reason why TES generalizes cannibalism the same way the vast majority of people working in those areas do.

That's how I feel too.
My character is a freaking lizard, why be picky about which kind of mammal he eats?

Same reason commercials with talking food are a bit disturbing.

Have any fantasy or sci-fi games ever addressed the issue of species versus race/ethnicity? A lot of y'all are arguing that elves eating humans eating argonians etc is not cannibalism by various strict definitions. Have fantasy/sci-fi games ever addressed the various races on a cellular level (ie all carbon-based, oxygen breathers would be the same species?)?

I'm asking because a lot of these arguments can be bypassed if all the humanoids are declared to be the same species, but just different races.

At a minimum if two fertile opposite-six members of the same species breed then they should generally produce fertile offspring. Many different settings address this. Certainly just because two species are carbon-based, breath oxygen, and share some other characteristics it doesn't remotely mean they are the same species. (Also note, the above minimum I gave is NOT sufficient to declare two groups the same species).

My recollection of the subject is fuzzy at best, but TES, humans, elves, and khajiit can all be traced back to a single origin. I'm not certain whether argonians can also be linked to the rest.

Then we get into this moral dilemma about cannibalism. They didn't even have fava beans. Or a decent BBQ sauce. My beastform would have liked a BBQ sauce on it. Human form? Yuck!

Well you had to eat a human heart to find out what it's properties are, right? Nice. Tasty? Alchemy. But then you've got that cure disease potion handy which means you don't have to worry about those nasty prions and all that stuff. Wait! You're a werewolf so you don't care, Now we're talking morals? Really. And you've already killed what about 200 people? Or more? And you're not even half-way through the game.

"But they were all bad!" you whine. What about those Thalmor guards who were just doing their jobs? I don't think they looked at themselves as "evil". Or those Stormcloak guards who were just doing their jobs transporting prisoners? Or those Imperial guards doing the same? What about those Giants who were just minding their own business building bonfires and tending their mammoths and making mammoth cheese? They seemed pretty gentle to me unless you insisted on intruding. And all those souls you trapped? And even if you avoided the Dark Brotherhood quests, and the Thieves Guild, what about those Forsworn? They were just trying to get by and live the lives in the manner they chose. Could you leave them alone? No. You just had to walk through their territory, and of course since everyone else who walked through their territory attacked them, they attacked you. So you killed them, and looted their corpses, and looted their camps, and then had to explore their fortress or barrow. How many of you when doing the Mages quest to recover the stolen books avoided the boss fight? Hmmm? Raise your hands. Come on. None of you. Oh. One. Two? So, even when trying to be good you were being evil. Face it. Your "soul" belongs to Sithis anyway.

About the only quest line you could complete without being evil is the Temple of Mara, and perhaps Meridia.

So can humans and chimps, or even humans and dogs.


You don't have to eat a human heart to find out its properties. That's only if you actually want to make Soylent potions.


What silly reasoning. I assume you don't mean for anyone to actually take it seriously.

Duh. You were starting to get the reducto ad absurdium? I watched way too much Monty Python back in the 1970s.

OMFG, I was trying to simplify my example so as not to get into 23 pairs of chromosomes of 220 mil base pairs of 4 nucleotides. I was asking if any game has gotten into the details of specie versus race especially half-elves and half-orcs often exist in RPGs.

I have the flu and this thread is making me sick.
Before I go, options are always good? Though this could go the argument of tourture which is just sick and wrong and should not be in any game imo. (not to get off topic. Im out of here before I barf)

I actually avoid giants unless they insist on chasing me down, but, yeah, I've killed a few for quests.

Yeah, the soul trapping just seems so wrong on all levels, but, yeah, I've enchanted few things.

I approach every 'new' hostile (ie Forsworn) with my weapon sheathed, but, if they don't offer dialogue and attack then only one of us is walking away from that encounter.

Am I the only one who feels a little uneasy about looting the urns in the Nord crypts?

FWIW: I'm only trying to be as good as possible - none of us leave Skyrim as angels.

And you were alive in the 1970s, too?

Not in strict biological terms, but many settings deal with it. TES does too, as they talk about how Mer can't have children with Man.

Is that true for all TES games (Skyrim is my first)? Any mention of like Nords, Imperials, Bretons mixing with one another? Can Bretons mix with Elves? ...Bretons are part elf, right? ...or was it so long ago they can't mix now?

Races of man can have kids together and there are some examples in the game. The Mer can apparently have kids with each other. It is explicitly stated in some of the books that Mer and Men can't have kids together, however (as far as it is known, anyhow). I grant it is stated that the ancestors of the Bretons were elves and humans. It isn't really explained how this works when elsewhere it is stated that humans and elves can't have kids together.

Magic!

Weird.

Its explictly stated in http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Notes_on_Racial_Phylogeny that Men and Mer can intermix. The offspring usually have the racial traits of the mother with some features from the father.

Damn, I have that book, but haven't read it yet.

Weird, I could swear I read that they couldn't in one of the books.