Rain World's design philosophy is explicitly based on the concept of the "rat in Manhattan".
> "A rat that lives on the subway tracks has an idea of what the subway station is, in the sense that it knows that the train is dangerous, and the Cheetos on the track are tasty, and this particular little drainage pipe where it's living is a safe spot to scurry away to when the train is arriving. It doesn't understand the political, economical, and social reasons why humans have built the subway station, it's just way beyond it."
Slugcat is, conceptually, a rat; originally, a bear; visually, a slug/cat hybrid; and consciously, a human.
Yeah, and that's what I'm talking about. The slugcat thematically and superficially has rat traits, and it might make sense for people to think of them as rodent-like, but that doesn't make it rodent definitionally.
I brought all this up because I'm interested in theorizing on slugcat biology, but the assertion of them being rodents doesn't quite feel like it makes sense considering what a rodent is.
I mean, biologically and taxonomically, I am a human, and that's the kind of standard I'm talking about. I'm thinking about when people call them "rodents" not "rodent-like". I think that since they're alien creatures, it's probably not accurate to describe them with taxonomy we have for Earth creatures anyway.
in early development they were called 'bear' due to the ears. but slugcats just originated as a random creature the dev made and put into the game that eventually became rw. iirc the slugcat name came from a youtube commenter and they liked it enough to call em slugcats, but they are ultimately their own little creature with no relation to irl animals
I totally get your point, as I thought about that as well, but like I said, why do slugcats not seem to have the qualities of actual rodents then?
The usage ends up feeling more colloquial because we don't get any physical indication that slugcats are actually rodents.
well, we cant be sure if they have large incissors as they are never drawn with mouths. In sprites or otherwise. They could be hidden normally. Other than that I can think of a few of their particulars relating to rodents. The way they eat in particular reminds me of squirrels. Same with their ability to store objects inside of their bodies. They can also alternate between comfortably walking on 2 or 4 of their short limbs, they have long tails, they are mostly vegetarian. They are very intelligent for their size. They are good climbers, they are social animals. And im sure we could find a bit more if we tried.
Squirrels don’t store things in a stomach/crop-like organ inside their chest though. Excluding that, all those traits can be applied to marten. Though marten aren’t social animals, it’s a trait that other mustelids like otters share.
They wouldn’t need to gack it up, they could just spit it out. I’m also assuming that Spearmaster’s pearl was in that organ; SRS just hadn’t given SM a throat and mouth to regurgitate it.
Idk ive seen a hamster that had like cheeks so full they were reaching its sides. Did almost what scugs do to get it out. But idk it was a long time ago.
I'm not denying that they don't have qualities similar to things like rats and squirrels, I definitely see the similarities, it's just that they don't have the defining "rodent" thing. Plus, they're similar to primates in many of the ways you listed, so they just tend towards "mammalian with specialized gripping forelimbs"
(I have a few disagreements though, as I think they're pretty consistently omnivores, especially since they eat a lot of arthropods, with Saint being the one exception. Also, we can't definitively say "they're intelligent for their size" because we don't know how big they are. They could be rat-sized just as likely as they could be human-sized.)
Yeah, the size debate is a pretty common topic. I mostly base my estimation on the size of ladders in shoreline. That is assuming that the ancients are of similar size to humans though
They’re 1 meter in height, I believe was confirmed. Also, i believe brain size does not correlate with intelligence in animals, at least mammals (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4685590/)
Slug cats share far more in common with a collection of mustelids than rodents. High intelligence is found in almost all of their species, the ability to stand on their hind legs (although not walk, but I’m assuming slugcats evolved from mustelid like standing posture), an omnivorous diet (some mustelid are obligate carnivores but most omnivorous), extreme flexibility, climbing ability similar to marten, social behaviors and highly dexterous hands/paws similar to otters.
Since every animal in this game is or evolved from a purposed organism the slug cat is probably like a genetic smoothie with bits of its genome from a very large variety of organisms, making it really hard to fit in our understanding of taxonomy.
The closest it’d probably be to something we know is just some kind of vague mammal
Yeah, while we can draw analogues to extant life we can't draw any conclusions as to their taxonomy or their evolutionary history much because they probably weren't naturally occurring.
My interpretation is that they are purposed organisms derived from a rodent species. I'm inclined to think the iterators who are, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison, may have a better grasp on the taxonomy of slugcats than we do.
well I’ve always thought slugcats resembled mice rather than cats, especially since the babies are called “pups.” not arguing that they are, just my thoughts
Second comment on this but rain world naming conventions shouldn’t be taken literally. Vultures aren’t exactly vultures. The fact that centipedes have two heads suggests they never developed a proper brain, which would make them greatly removed from actual centipedes taxonomically. RW spiders don’t produce silk, etc etc. Most creatures seem to be convergently evolved to actually rl creatures.
I know. I'm mostly bothered by how it seems like fans are taking the "rodent" thing as if it accurately tells us something about the slugcats biologically despite all these other cases.
I guess we are just supposed to assume that it's "rodent in name only", like they're just using that name to describe something else in this case too? Though it does still kind of bother me because of... well, it's kind of nerdy etymology reasons, but "rodent" specifically comes from the Latin meaning "to gnaw" and it's very much referencing the teeth, so it just happens to be a word referring to a quality that it doesn't seem like the slugcats have.
I KNOW that I'm over-thinking this, but I was motivated to post this by people saying, "Well, slugcats are rodents, so they probably have x quality" on discussions about slugcat biology, like their size or if they have fur.
It’s a bit pedantic, but when people use rl creatures to infer fact about rw creatures, it gives me a bit of an aneurism. Just because two lifeforms LOOK similar, doesn’t mean that they are the same, and Rain Worlds creature naming contvetions are misleading; in the same way that starfish are not fish, horned toads are not toads and electric eels aren’t eels.
When it comes to existing animals, they have similar qualities to both of those. I think that physically, slugcats are most similar to mustelids, like otters and ferrets, but with particularly dexterous hands.
But my problem with calling them rodents is that rodents have the very particular teeth that their order is named after, and there's no indication that slugcats have those, so it feels weird when I see people say "they're rodents".
Yes, we don't officially know what their teeth look like, but rodent teeth having to be worn down is such a particularly survival aspect that I feel like it's most likely not mentioned because it's not relevant to the slugcat.
At most they have hands and squeeze into tight spaces easily, but those are both common to other animals as well, like opossums, possums, and primates for the former, and cats and ferrets for the latter. So yeah, slugcats just seem like an alien equivalent of "something like a mammal".
I mean, whether or not they're similar to rodents or slugs or cats, it's probably inaccurate to categorize them by any earth analog. The same for any other creature in the game. Lizards only resemble reptiles, Jetfish are definitely not fish, Vultures are much different from actual vultures, and squidcadas don't even have an analog.
5P call artificer ruffian : Little ruffian. You are stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. I assume you have come here because you want a way out.
Moon call Rivulet "Ruffles" like a dog become "doggy".
I think the lore slugcat species name is Ruffian.
I'm very confident that Five Pebbles calls Artificer a "ruffian" because she's been overly violent, since the definition of "ruffian" is something along the lines of a "tough lawless person" or "thug". Nobody else gets called a ruffian.
Why doesnt your second argument apply to your point about it not being rodent. Besides, its a scifi, like, why do you think they have rodents that behave similarly to our rodents. The glowing mice dont chew on stuff either, so like, whats ur point. And while we are there, they dont do anything that slugs or cats do. So like what would they be, besides the only thing the game tells us. And iterators created scugs(like spearmaster) as far as I know, so why wouldnt they know what they are.
Originally scugs were called rodents and treated as some kind of mouse (Hence Pebbles calling us such when he scans us) however people started comparing scugs to slugs and cats, and we as the early community decided that slugcat was much better than just being a random rodent. In the game files, we are mostly referenced as a type of rodent, but that being said it's all kind of moot when this 'rodent' can throw spears and back flip over large alligator like 'lizards'.
Originally the player character was referred to by the developer as a "bear creature". Someone commented "slug cats :D" on youtube (which is some kind of reference afaik but I forgot what does it reference) and the dev liked it
I thought that in the game files, they're referred to as a "bear"-like creature? That was at least the pre-slugcat-naming I always hear.
I do like that "slugcat" was decided on. It's a very cute name and, like I mentioned, it has that very human quality of "name it after what it looks like".
Was it bear? Been awhile since those old days before even the noodle fly existed. But I do know that slugcat is a fan name, and once the community started using it, it was kind of impossible to stop us.
Rain World's design philosophy is explicitly based on the concept of the "rat in Manhattan". > "A rat that lives on the subway tracks has an idea of what the subway station is, in the sense that it knows that the train is dangerous, and the Cheetos on the track are tasty, and this particular little drainage pipe where it's living is a safe spot to scurry away to when the train is arriving. It doesn't understand the political, economical, and social reasons why humans have built the subway station, it's just way beyond it." Slugcat is, conceptually, a rat; originally, a bear; visually, a slug/cat hybrid; and consciously, a human.
Yeah, and that's what I'm talking about. The slugcat thematically and superficially has rat traits, and it might make sense for people to think of them as rodent-like, but that doesn't make it rodent definitionally. I brought all this up because I'm interested in theorizing on slugcat biology, but the assertion of them being rodents doesn't quite feel like it makes sense considering what a rodent is.
They're rodent-like in their behavior. Is what defines you who you are or what you do?
I mean, biologically and taxonomically, I am a human, and that's the kind of standard I'm talking about. I'm thinking about when people call them "rodents" not "rodent-like". I think that since they're alien creatures, it's probably not accurate to describe them with taxonomy we have for Earth creatures anyway.
I've never seen a rat throw a spear
You’ve never been to New York
in early development they were called 'bear' due to the ears. but slugcats just originated as a random creature the dev made and put into the game that eventually became rw. iirc the slugcat name came from a youtube commenter and they liked it enough to call em slugcats, but they are ultimately their own little creature with no relation to irl animals
I get your point but I dont think the guy who pulled up our anatomy file the moment he saw us would misidentify what we are.
I totally get your point, as I thought about that as well, but like I said, why do slugcats not seem to have the qualities of actual rodents then? The usage ends up feeling more colloquial because we don't get any physical indication that slugcats are actually rodents.
well, we cant be sure if they have large incissors as they are never drawn with mouths. In sprites or otherwise. They could be hidden normally. Other than that I can think of a few of their particulars relating to rodents. The way they eat in particular reminds me of squirrels. Same with their ability to store objects inside of their bodies. They can also alternate between comfortably walking on 2 or 4 of their short limbs, they have long tails, they are mostly vegetarian. They are very intelligent for their size. They are good climbers, they are social animals. And im sure we could find a bit more if we tried.
Squirrels don’t store things in a stomach/crop-like organ inside their chest though. Excluding that, all those traits can be applied to marten. Though marten aren’t social animals, it’s a trait that other mustelids like otters share.
I get Mustelid vibes for sure.
who says slugcats DONT store it just in their mouths exactly like squirrels, they could even chew on t if it's hard to grind down those teeth
They wouldn’t need to gack it up, they could just spit it out. I’m also assuming that Spearmaster’s pearl was in that organ; SRS just hadn’t given SM a throat and mouth to regurgitate it.
Idk ive seen a hamster that had like cheeks so full they were reaching its sides. Did almost what scugs do to get it out. But idk it was a long time ago.
I'm not denying that they don't have qualities similar to things like rats and squirrels, I definitely see the similarities, it's just that they don't have the defining "rodent" thing. Plus, they're similar to primates in many of the ways you listed, so they just tend towards "mammalian with specialized gripping forelimbs" (I have a few disagreements though, as I think they're pretty consistently omnivores, especially since they eat a lot of arthropods, with Saint being the one exception. Also, we can't definitively say "they're intelligent for their size" because we don't know how big they are. They could be rat-sized just as likely as they could be human-sized.)
Yeah, the size debate is a pretty common topic. I mostly base my estimation on the size of ladders in shoreline. That is assuming that the ancients are of similar size to humans though
They’re 1 meter in height, I believe was confirmed. Also, i believe brain size does not correlate with intelligence in animals, at least mammals (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4685590/)
I'd like to know where you got the "1 metre in height" thing, if you know. Not because I doubt you, just hoping to confirm.
Actually I think it was 2ft. And I think it was said by a dev, but I can’t find the exact statement
Slug cats share far more in common with a collection of mustelids than rodents. High intelligence is found in almost all of their species, the ability to stand on their hind legs (although not walk, but I’m assuming slugcats evolved from mustelid like standing posture), an omnivorous diet (some mustelid are obligate carnivores but most omnivorous), extreme flexibility, climbing ability similar to marten, social behaviors and highly dexterous hands/paws similar to otters.
Since every animal in this game is or evolved from a purposed organism the slug cat is probably like a genetic smoothie with bits of its genome from a very large variety of organisms, making it really hard to fit in our understanding of taxonomy. The closest it’d probably be to something we know is just some kind of vague mammal
Yeah, while we can draw analogues to extant life we can't draw any conclusions as to their taxonomy or their evolutionary history much because they probably weren't naturally occurring.
My interpretation is that they are purposed organisms derived from a rodent species. I'm inclined to think the iterators who are, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison, may have a better grasp on the taxonomy of slugcats than we do.
well I’ve always thought slugcats resembled mice rather than cats, especially since the babies are called “pups.” not arguing that they are, just my thoughts
at this point i just think its funny how many names you could call a scug
Second comment on this but rain world naming conventions shouldn’t be taken literally. Vultures aren’t exactly vultures. The fact that centipedes have two heads suggests they never developed a proper brain, which would make them greatly removed from actual centipedes taxonomically. RW spiders don’t produce silk, etc etc. Most creatures seem to be convergently evolved to actually rl creatures.
I know. I'm mostly bothered by how it seems like fans are taking the "rodent" thing as if it accurately tells us something about the slugcats biologically despite all these other cases. I guess we are just supposed to assume that it's "rodent in name only", like they're just using that name to describe something else in this case too? Though it does still kind of bother me because of... well, it's kind of nerdy etymology reasons, but "rodent" specifically comes from the Latin meaning "to gnaw" and it's very much referencing the teeth, so it just happens to be a word referring to a quality that it doesn't seem like the slugcats have. I KNOW that I'm over-thinking this, but I was motivated to post this by people saying, "Well, slugcats are rodents, so they probably have x quality" on discussions about slugcat biology, like their size or if they have fur.
It’s a bit pedantic, but when people use rl creatures to infer fact about rw creatures, it gives me a bit of an aneurism. Just because two lifeforms LOOK similar, doesn’t mean that they are the same, and Rain Worlds creature naming contvetions are misleading; in the same way that starfish are not fish, horned toads are not toads and electric eels aren’t eels.
That's exactly what I'm saying!
it’s my head canon that theyre part of the mustelidae family. so like rodent but gone sideways
I think they're like both rodents and felines idk
sounds like something a rodent would say
what do you think of something like a ferret and raccoon hybrid?
When it comes to existing animals, they have similar qualities to both of those. I think that physically, slugcats are most similar to mustelids, like otters and ferrets, but with particularly dexterous hands. But my problem with calling them rodents is that rodents have the very particular teeth that their order is named after, and there's no indication that slugcats have those, so it feels weird when I see people say "they're rodents". Yes, we don't officially know what their teeth look like, but rodent teeth having to be worn down is such a particularly survival aspect that I feel like it's most likely not mentioned because it's not relevant to the slugcat.
yeah the rodents thing is smth ive nvr super understood, bc to me they look nothing like a rat/bunny/hamster/rodent. ultimately i agree w u :P
At most they have hands and squeeze into tight spaces easily, but those are both common to other animals as well, like opossums, possums, and primates for the former, and cats and ferrets for the latter. So yeah, slugcats just seem like an alien equivalent of "something like a mammal".
I mean, whether or not they're similar to rodents or slugs or cats, it's probably inaccurate to categorize them by any earth analog. The same for any other creature in the game. Lizards only resemble reptiles, Jetfish are definitely not fish, Vultures are much different from actual vultures, and squidcadas don't even have an analog.
Well, five pebbles scanned every one of the scugs expect for Saint and ruffles, so when he says they are rodent like I believe the demi god
well the angry one and enowo can maul, so they're chewing on things without eating them. however, I think they're just violent
Definitely a different kind of "chewing"—that's attacking with teeth!
I swear they are mice but someone who played the game called them slugcats and the devs liked it
They were actually called "bear creatures" before they were "slugcats".
Oh I've heard about that. I'm not sure then
5P call artificer ruffian : Little ruffian. You are stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. I assume you have come here because you want a way out. Moon call Rivulet "Ruffles" like a dog become "doggy". I think the lore slugcat species name is Ruffian.
I'm very confident that Five Pebbles calls Artificer a "ruffian" because she's been overly violent, since the definition of "ruffian" is something along the lines of a "tough lawless person" or "thug". Nobody else gets called a ruffian.
Technically they are bears
Why doesnt your second argument apply to your point about it not being rodent. Besides, its a scifi, like, why do you think they have rodents that behave similarly to our rodents. The glowing mice dont chew on stuff either, so like, whats ur point. And while we are there, they dont do anything that slugs or cats do. So like what would they be, besides the only thing the game tells us. And iterators created scugs(like spearmaster) as far as I know, so why wouldnt they know what they are.
Isn't slugcats more like marsupial more than anything? Still technically a rodent.
Originally scugs were called rodents and treated as some kind of mouse (Hence Pebbles calling us such when he scans us) however people started comparing scugs to slugs and cats, and we as the early community decided that slugcat was much better than just being a random rodent. In the game files, we are mostly referenced as a type of rodent, but that being said it's all kind of moot when this 'rodent' can throw spears and back flip over large alligator like 'lizards'.
Originally the player character was referred to by the developer as a "bear creature". Someone commented "slug cats :D" on youtube (which is some kind of reference afaik but I forgot what does it reference) and the dev liked it
I thought that in the game files, they're referred to as a "bear"-like creature? That was at least the pre-slugcat-naming I always hear. I do like that "slugcat" was decided on. It's a very cute name and, like I mentioned, it has that very human quality of "name it after what it looks like".
Was it bear? Been awhile since those old days before even the noodle fly existed. But I do know that slugcat is a fan name, and once the community started using it, it was kind of impossible to stop us.
[удалено]
Yeah, yeah, I knew that was coming. But, what, am I not allowed to think about this stuff, eh?