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I was thinking about a speech an NPC needs to do and was going to use the phrase "Dead like the Dodo" but as Dodo's are viable animal companions (and therefore I run the risk of a dodo walking past as he says it - which whilst comic would have ruined the speech) and it occurred to me that there really aren't any 'extinct' species in Pathfinder.
Dinosaurs roam the land, Dodo's have owners, every other druid has a white tiger...
I suppose I could use "Dead as a Beholder" as they have been extinct for a few years now. ;) Or dead as the Azlanti... Dead as a Runelord? *cough*
Are there any animals/creatures/monsters you have made up for your games to be extinct?
They may have added it since, but initially gnome Druids didn't exist in 4th Ed. Both gnome and Druid independently. My friend's character completely ceased to be.
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There are some extinct nations:
The Jambala Jaeg clan of the Mwangi Expanse.
Nation of Rastel
The race that created the Orv, known as the Vault Keepers
They may have added it since, but initially gnome Druids didn't exist in 4th Ed. Both gnome and Druid independently. My friend's character completely ceased to be.
So, a Garden Gnome, essentially?
Interesting concept I might have to visit.
In my campaign gnomes are extinct, so that'd be the comparison. Their homeland was overrun in the war between the elemental-oriented primordial dragons and the gods. It's currently the area known as the Broken Lands, which is home to dinosaur-riding voodoo orcs.
I would say, keep a few things in mind when you consider things:
A) It is your world, if you want dodos extinct, they will be. With the possible exceptions of undead, and planar dodos, in which case, the latter are extinct on your plane.
B) Extinction is a word that is freely banded about, perhaps a little too much, since it's usually applied when one thinks a species has died off. The problem that our real world scientist has discovered, is there is a chance, in some other part of the world, that creature may be a alive and well. I've actually thought about introducing endangered species as a invader species in another land where they have no natural predators, but that is an idea for another time...
C) If the character is trying to hide the presence of a race of species, this may be a way to do so, by claiming "Fortunetly, all those nasty drow have gone extinct since then..." or some such.
But all these are merely suggestions, for you to take as ye will.
"When I pull this lever, you'll be as dead as the dodo!"
"Yeah? But I have a dodo companion; it's stood right here."
"EXACTLY."
This made me chuckle.
This is exactly why there are no living dinosaurs in my world. Having things set in the age of megafauna is one thing. Humans were around during their reign after all. Having dinosaurs is quite another.
There's not only the ridiculously vast period of time that separates them but to exist as part of a functioning ecosystem you can't just paste things together like that. To have dinos you need all the other things that support them. Which is a different set of factors from what you need to support large mammals. If both were artificially introduced into the same environment competition and natural selection would drive most of one or the other to extinction. That's exactly why the dodos are extinct. A foreign species was introduced and upset the balance.
Also going back to the issue of time. Even if some dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct they would have gone through 65+ MILLION years of evolution. They wouldn't resemble any of the species we're familiar with. Maybe they'd look like dragons. ;)
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Perhaps a riff more inkeeping with the setting "As gone as Aroden" perhaps?
This is exactly why there are no living dinosaurs in my world. Having things set in the age of megafauna is one thing. Humans were around during their reign after all. Having dinosaurs is quite another.
There's not only the ridiculously vast period of time that separates them but to exist as part of a functioning ecosystem you can't just paste things together like that. To have dinos you need all the other things that support them. Which is a different set of factors from what you need to support large mammals. If both were artificially introduced into the same environment competition and natural selection would drive most of one or the other to extinction. That's exactly why the dodos are extinct. A foreign species was introduced and upset the balance.
Also going back to the issue of time. Even if some dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct they would have gone through 65+ MILLION years of evolution. They wouldn't resemble any of the species we're familiar with. Maybe they'd look like dragons. ;)
Except this is a fantasy world, and there's no reason they came about before the humanoid races, or that they are even from that world. There's also nothing saying there can't be a "Australia" of the world where either the characters, or the dinos live.
We are talking about a world that has many different sentinent species there, and if ye go with the gods creating the animals and such, then I can easily imagine (as I would do it myself) "Hmm, not enough dino, heres more..."
Except this is a fantasy world, and there's no reason they came about before the humanoid races, or that they are even from that world. There's also nothing saying there can't be a "Australia" of the world where either the characters, or the dinos live.
We are talking about a world that has many different sentinent species there, and if ye go with the gods creating the animals and such, then I can easily imagine (as I would do it myself) "Hmm, not enough dino, heres more..."
True enough. It's just in my world I like to have things make sense to me. While a lot can be explained with magic I prefer to keep fundamental laws of physics and biology in place. Aside from outsiders and the outer planes that is. They don't have to make sense. :p
As for the glut of sapient species that's also something I also avoid by consolidating many of the different races together. There's a lot that can be done with just different cultures and ethnicities. I mean do redcaps need to be a separate race or can they just be a different sort of gnomish sect? Anyways! That's just my world and getting off topic. >.<
Tangents can be fun!
I don't have dinosaurs in my games either. After all, the last dinosaur (or dragon? It's kind of unclear) was hunted by humans while it tried to hide half sticking out of a cloud. Apparently they were kind of dopey. Decreased oxygen or something.
I did allow a player to take a dinosaur mount once, but that was a definite case of god did it. Besides, they lost interest in it when they realised most doors aren't built to dino scale.
"As dead as the Last Azlanti" is the term I'd use for an extinct species.
GM says "as dead as a dodo"
Player "but dodos aren't extinct!"
GM "you see bolts of lightning suddenly descend from the sky, and get a feeling like a million dodos suddenly cried out, and were silenced" you were saying?
Player "never mind"
Maybe use old TSR trademarked monsters that cannot appear in Pathfinder for copyright reasons. They're extinct as far as the PF game goes.
Maybe use old TSR trademarked monsters that cannot appear in Pathfinder for copyright reasons. They're extinct as far as the PF game goes.
I think that's kind of a fun idea. ^_^
"As dead as an old TSR trademarked monster that cannot appear in Pathfinder for copyright reasons."
It's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?
Dead as a BearOwl.
As dead as a displacer beast? sure