Cannibalism/Eating of Intelligent Creatures

I pose a question.

How would other Humanoid races view one Humanoid eating another?

Lets say Human eating the corpse of Elf or Gnome?

It is certainly not cannibalism. But I would think most intelligent PC/NPC races would find it horrifying.

Is it because humanoid races on average have an intelligence score to communicate/have culture/dream? Or is it because certain humanoid races looks so similar? Would it be less horrifying to watch a Tengu devour a corpse of a Kitsune? Would different races have different outlooks to such a practice?

At what point is the boundary crossed? Is it tied to a creature's intelligence score?

>Is it because humanoid races on average have an intelligence score to communicate/have culture/dream? Or is it because certain humanoid races looks so similar?

This right here. I'd think if there were any humanoid creatures in real life, normal people wouldn't even brandish the thought. I think it's because we all share commonality is what makes it the saving grace.

> Would it be less horrifying to watch a Tengu devour a corpse of a Kitsune?

Fuck no.

>Would different races have different outlooks to such a practice?

Yes of course.

>At what point is the boundary crossed? Is it tied to a creature's intelligence score?

Again, I think of this in similar terms to murder. Even if there is a race of sentient chicken people, it would still feel fucked up to cook and eat the fuckers because you're still killing an intelligent person. Albeit with feathers.

Y'know I think the farther you break away from the humanoid form, the easier it'd be for someone to kill said creature, regardless of intellect.

I used the Tengu example since sometimes Tengu are shown to be scavengers to reflect their crow inspiration.

Such are their Carrion Sense ability allows them to track dead or dying creatures and Carrion Feeder implies they have a greater resistance to eating dead stuff.

Has WotC or Paizo ever touch on this subject?
Besides the obligatory "lol God of Cannibalism" or "crazy hillbilly/cultist cannibals"

I would eat an elf. Just sayin'.

Unless the peoples in question are also cannibals, they would likely be strongly disgusted by the eating of other humanoids, much for the same reason that eating their own would disgust them, since it would carry all the same downsides.

Quirky exceptions notwithstanding. You might still have some warriors who think that eating the heart of your slain enemy gives you their strength, or whatever, or some crazy cannibal cult who eats everything they come across, or some backwaters tribe who eats the old during famines as a policy, etc., though these should fade as society progresses and you get the civilizing effect.

Of course, this assumes the fantastical racism in your setting isn't so extreme that these different humanoid races don't even see the (or some?) other races as humanoids. In that case though, I feel like these races eating each other would be a fairly small problem relative to how they would be killing each other upon contact anyway. Well, I suppose that dynamic wouldn't always result in everyone killing each other. You could have fun shit like slaves as well, which your slavers might then eat. That could be an... interesting situation.

Most people are horrified at the idea of eating dolphins.

I think.

I wonder how people on Veeky Forums think cannibalism is bad but would defend necromancy as not inherently evil.

Tell that to east Asia

>Asians
>people

They're oversized insects cloaked in the guise of man; how else do you explain their industrious and eusocial tendencies?

But it's still not okay to eat their corpses, right?

Of course; insects they may be, they're still technically sapient and humanoid.

>Would it be less horrifying to watch a Tengu devour a corpse of a Kitsune?
I'm inclined to say it would be about as horrifying as a person eating a person. However, I think seeing a humanoid eat a sapient non-humanoid would be less horrifying, perhaps a rakshasa eating a flumph.

I think any creatures where we can identify system of languages and universal signals we don't like to eat, because communication = intelligence.

That's why people don't particularly care for eating smart animals even if the forms aren't similar to us.

I remember AD&D books saying that evil demihumans have no qualms about killing and eating other humanoids, and probably will unless they are matched in force.

You can't eat a decomposed corpse you dummy, cannibalism is restricted to freshly killed bodies.

You're right.
Waste not, want not.

I don't thinking watching a tengu eat someone would horrify me. They look like big crows and it's hilarious to me.

I generally have gnolls willing to eat anything meat, simply because it's meat, it's there, it's not poisonous, and we're fucking hungry.
More extreme pragmatism than malicious intent, though.

I have a counterquestion:
Beaks + nipples is a no go. Would it disgust you to watch a tengu feeding her chicks with regurgitation? What about other adult relatives, or group members?

Why not farm elves for their meat? If there's money in it, it'll happen.

SAPIENT.

IF IT IS INTELLIGENT THEN IT IS SAPIENT.

ALL LIVING THINGS ARE SENTIENT.

SENTIENT ONLY MEANS IT CAN RESPOND TO PAINFUL STIMULI.

WORMS ARE FUCKING SENTIENT YOU TWAT.

Like, carpet munching eat an elf? Or bone munching eat an elf?

I see nothing wrong with annibalism if it's not about killing your kin for meat. If someone died of reasons that do not contaminate their meat you shpould not just burry/burn perfectly fine proteine.

I once played a drow ranger mercenary who eat pretty much anything he killed, except other elves, becsuse he still though cannibalism is "wrong", yet he didn't mind if his non-elf teammates were to eat him if he die in battle, although he warned them that "considering how superior are we elves to you lesser races in every other regard I imagine we should also taste so delicious everything else would taste like shit after you tried an elf meat"

Thanks buddy. I though I was gonna have to be the one to get all autistic over this.
I'd definitely have tengu and gnolls and shit eat other sapients, but treat it like eating dogs.
Most don't want to eat elf if there's any alternative, and certainly not their elf.

Would you eat an orc if they were pigs walking on two legs and a source of delicious pork?

Would you eat orcs if there were no pigs and they were the ONLY source of delicious pork?

No, that's fucked up and there are plenty of other kinds of delicious meat to eat. And if this is some world where all normal domesticated food animals are humanoid fantasy people... then I'd like out of your weird vore magical realm, please.

>It is certainly not cannibalism.
Even if we remain in the strictest biological definition of cannibalism, there are interfertile species, for example humans and elves are capable of producing offspring, and on top of that the offspring is fertile, at that point we might as well speak of elves and humans being subspecies of Homo sapiens, however most fantasy settings avoid a taxonomic classification of the races (still, it is telling that they speak of races and not species...), and even ouright giving a damn about reproduction, so humans can mate and hybridize with tons of different things, like celestials which are basically metaphysical Good given form and self-awareness...

>At what point is the boundary crossed? Is it tied to a creature's intelligence score?
Look, the Book of Vile Darkness pragmatically (re-)defines cannibalism as eating intelligent (i.e. sapient) creatures. That's pretty much it as far as my games are concerned.

If you draw the line there, it means a human eating the flesh or drinking the blood of a dragon counts as cannibalism too.

If you really really have a problem with that, you can go for a stricter definition and draw the line at sapient beings of the same creature type, for example humanoids eating their fellow humanoids.

>Would different races have different outlooks to such a practice?
If, say, orcs in your setting don't mind eating their own kind, they definitely won't be particularly offended by eating other sapient beings.

And you should add cultures too, because historically there have been human cultures that eat the deceased of their own family or community (endocannibalism) or even eat strangers they attack (exocannibalism).

You know, I wouldn't be against being brought back to life, even if as a skeleton. The only thing that's itchy-bitchy is negative energy being used in process, but sufficiently involved necromancer could fix that as well, I suppose...

pork is actually the lowest tier meat available.
Chicken is delicious, but I wouldn't kill a harpy for it.

Cannibalism, as a concept, is always taboo, but for wildly fluctuating reasons. In the end, it boils down to the construction of your particular society. In early agrarian societies, you're fine to eat other beings, because food is scarce and it may become a necessity. This lasts up until about the industrial revolution, when you're still allowed to eat other beings, but you need to be more sneaky about it because you don't have the ol' "lol cold weather killed everything, gotta eat something" excuse. At this point, it's something done by individuals in the upper classes as an exercise of power, or by degenerates who can't control their base instincts. As we get close to modern society, it becomes more taboo due to the omnipresence of video surveillance. The only way for myself to eat someone in our current society is a combination of perfect stranger dying in my house, and magical christmasland allowing me time to prepare the corpse. Then, as we get further into the future, soylent green becomes a thing, and suddenly eating beings isn't taboo, as long as they're packaged nicely.

With humanoid races? The issue is the face. If the being has a humanoid face, people are going to have a fundamental problem eating it, because they can project "humanness" onto the inhuman being through the face. It's difficult to respect what you eat, unless you have a rigid social hierarchy, or are knowingly doing something immoral, so that's something important you have to balance.

I would love to prepare a fancy meal for a group of people. I'd spend hours simmering and sauteing until I could bring transcendent slabs of roast goodness to the masses. I'd invite everyone in the town over for a snack, and people would sing songs about the legacy of my cooksmithery. But, they wouldn't know I actually prepared humans for them until it's too late. Little kids, priests, vegans, literally every piece of food would have some part of a human in it.

>spoiler
calm down Dr Lecter

Come on user, haven't you always wondered what people taste like? I'm sure they're delicious if you cook them well enough. I mean, I don't want to kill anyone, but if I happened to find a fresh corpse no one would miss, that I know was in good health, I'd be a happy camper if you know what I mean.

Meh. I'd eat anything that would eat me.

And if those people have no problem eating octopi, they are huge hypocrites.

>even if

You're talking as if intelligent feathered people aren't a thing.

Not him but wouldn't it be just another meat? I don't think it'd be worth the hassle of having to eat a human to find out.

I ate bear recently. It was meh. I don't think human meat would be anything special either.

...

Allegedly human tastes a bit like a mixture of lamb and pork with a bit of sweetness
sounds pretty good to me

>Not him but wouldn't it be just another meat?
Yes and no. It is meat, but it's the ultimate meat. It's something that requires dedication and precision to acquire, something symbolic of strength and power throughout all human history, and it's literally the first step to transcending the arbitrary confines of our corporeal form.

Also, because I'm not allowed to have it, it makes me want it 100x more.

There's a journalist who actually prepared and ate a donated human leg if I recall correctly. I'd have to google the story though.

I made it a non issue for an alien race I created. They eat their dead because it contains the souls of their loved ones. By eating the souls of the dead they remain connected to them forever, and believe they can commune with them more easily in drug fueled rituals. Eating the dead of other races is restricted to well respected individuals, like a great warrior or poet, but it's generally hard to get a hold of bodies for that.

Eating the living is cruel, and stupid too since the living soul will escape if flesh eaten while still living.

I would be interested in reading about that.

Or, y'know, mermaids for their bones...

Would role playing a cannibal/corpse eater be a That Guy move?

Depends on whether or not you do it erotically

Plus, you'll just be hungry again in a hour.