#safevore notes

[undignifiend]

Some Kinda Ogre People Who've Been On My Mind Since Forever (Some Worldbuilding Notes)

(The same general idea of these folks has followed me throughout my life, with a few changes over time, and I still can't settle on a name I like just yet. I want to try and sum them up in a way that is conducive to fine-tuning them in ways I like, and will also keep my portrayal of them consistent when I finally jump back into art and writing for them. Includes vore and safevore notes because of course.)

BIOLOGY

SIZE, SHAPE, and BASIC CHARACTERISTICS

Adults stand at a range of heights, most commonly between 12 and 16 feet tall, but with outliers. Proportionally, they have longer arms and shorter legs than your standard human. They can run on all fours, or bipedally, and climb with ease.

They possess horns, fangs, and talon-like claws. Their skin/hide and flesh are gray to taupe and every shade in between (up to and including black and white), and they often possess darker or paler markings, stripes, or mottled patterns.

Their blood is as black as ink, and has very faint iridescent/violet qualities under certain lighting. Blushing/exertion makes their faces/ears darker instead of redder.

Their feet are partially adapted to help them climb, with longer toes, and the ‘big toe’ acting as more of a thumb. Their foot structure is still robust enough to withstand a flat-out run or charge, especially on all fours, but they’re better sprinters and leapers than marathoners. They find stubbing a toe to be every bit as devastating as we do.

Their grip strength is stupid. They're natural climbers, and can fall asleep clinging to rock walls. God help you if one grabs you in a fight. 

SENSES

Their sclera tends to be dark, often black, but ranging through dark blue, red, or violet hues. Their irises can be nearly any color. Their pupils are slitted, and they also possess a tapetum lucidum that reflects a coppery colored light in the dark, improving their night vision. They don’t need a lot of light to see, are comfortable underground, and tend to find cloudless days overpowering. Their color sight is comparable to ours, and varies. Some are more adept at detecting subtle nuances between close colors, and some are colorblind. Regardless, their vision tends to be very sharp, and they’re highly adept at detecting motion, even from great distances (at night or on cloudy days).

Full sun is unpleasant for them - they have to rely on their other senses, or wear eye-shading headgear to be effective. Flash grenades piss them off (and blind them until their retinas regenerate). Some can learn to enjoy fireworks, but most quickly get tired of the after-images overlapping everything else in their vision.

They can operate without sight, but they are far more comfortable doing so underground, or in enclosed spaces, where their hearing can better make sense of their environment. (They can emit a subtle clicking from their throat to enhance this. And also tend to use it out during the day if they have no protective eye-gear.) And while they tend to feel at home in caves and caverns, they typically only rest there during the day, and venture out at night. Generally nocturnal, but like humans, will stay up at odd hours.

It's rare for one to be unable to recover from damage to their eyes. But sometimes it happens. Blind ones rely all the more on that clicking to echolocate.

Their sense of smell is also fucking stupid. They can identify a bunch of shit about you just from getting a whiff: Whether or not you have any sickness or deficiencies, whether or not you're injured, your relative age, your recent diet, hormonal fluctuations, current stress levels - a whole slew of crap. Some of that also counts for plants, too, which can help indirectly tell them about the local weather, stresses on local wildlife, polluting chemicals, and other environmental conditions to look out for.

REGENERATION

They can regenerate lost limbs and organs if given enough time and energy. Their “scars” don’t work the same way ours do. After an injury clots and seals, a translucent skin develops over it, and dark branches appear beneath as their blood vessels and capillaries supply the regenerating flesh.

Regenerating a finger can take about a week. A limb, or an important organ, about a month to fully recover, provided they have enough rest, and enough to eat.

Their lifespans are extensive, and while they do not age in quite the same way that most other lifeforms do, "imperfections" in their regeneration can collect over time. Some of these don't hinder them in any way, and some of them do.

Some of them like to tattoo along a former injury to commemorate it.

DIET / VORE SHENANIGANS

Biologically, they’re omnivorous opportunists, can survive on either plant or animal matter, and have a preference for cooking. While their immune systems are aggressive, and they usually recover from illness and infections without medical assistance if given adequate hydration and rest, their stomach acids are relatively weak. Scavenging a rotting carcass is possible for them, but not often viewed as worth a day or two of sickness.

While their acids are weaker, their stomachs also rely heavily on churning and grinding, and devoting more time for breakdown before everything moves on to the intestines. This is why cooking/fermenting/otherwise treating their food goes a long way toward making their lives easier - it cuts that time down dramatically. Citrus fruits and teas helpful for digestion are also popular among most of their cultures. 

Their stomachs are prime, uniquely hospitable real estate for all manner of parasites. This is another reason most of them favor cooking.

Their stomachs are extremely tough to withstand their grinding process (and any sharp edges caused by bone breaks), but grinding tough material frequently aches, and often releases endorphins that counter some of the pain. 

In a pinch, they can just swallow their meals quickly, raw or cooked, and digest on the move, but for a couple hours after they eat a big meal, they don't tend to enjoy vigorous activity. Outsiders sometimes get the impression that they are both gluttonous and lazy, for the sheer amount that they can pack away in one sitting, and the stupor they can fall into afterward if they let themselves relax enough.

However, they are highly adaptable. Those who prefer (or perhaps only have access to) uncooked food, over time, can train their stomachs to release higher concentrations of acid. These individuals tend to have more practice fighting through the food coma, too, and tend to recover from it faster.

Their fangs are more for fighting and intimidation displays. Occasionally, for catching prey, but that's mostly regarded as a fancy/immature trick to show off.

Their stomach is a highly complex organ, and fulfills several roles, sometimes simultaneously:

The stomach also regenerates a sophisticated and sensitive innermost lining that recognizes environmental cues, such as excess carbon dioxide, or the movement and rhythms of a living creature, and delivers oxygen from the circulatory system, while absorbing carbon dioxide. Skin contact with the lining exchanges nutrients and cellular information about sickness and injury the “guest” may have. In return, the lining communicates with the "host’s" body to help grant the guest what they need to overcome whatever danger they are in, from a rash to poison to broken bones. (The bones need to be set properly first though. Otherwise, they’ll heal at an accelerated pace, but the healed bone would be shaped wrong.) Through this process, and ‘disguised’ donated cells from the host, the guest can heal as efficiently as the host can, and with sufficient time (often broken up into separate sessions), can even regenerate from wounds they would not have healed from on their own.

Their stomachs make some noise while preparing to stretch. Some secreted chemicals in there (and in their saliva) during this time have a soothing, analgesic effect for the “guest”.

It has a calming effect on the host. Easier to think rationally, harder to get or stay angry. Though, not impossible, especially when protective instincts are involved.

They can digest and host at the same time, but how this goes generally depends on whether eating or hosting happened first.

If they host someone and then eat a big meal that they intend to digest, the stomach will prioritize the safety of the guest, and won’t grind away the lining. The pH will hover at around 5 or 6, comparable to the acidity of tomato juice or milk. The guest then takes over the grinding processes by moving around in all the food. It feels incredible to the host, who is accustomed to digestion usually being a somewhat painful process. With nothing but (relatively) gentle, warm movements inside, it’s an addictively soothing alternative. Comparable to a really good bubble bath, but from inside them.

If they eat a big meal before swallowing a live guest, they will likely hurt the guest. (Especially after the half-hour mark from when they started their meal, when the lining tends to be almost completely gone.) The stomach will recognize live movement and increased carbon dioxide, and stop its grinding processes, but neutralizing the acid already there will take time, and regenerating the lining will take time - possibly too long to save the guest if the guest isn’t coughed up soon. 

On that note, swallowing someone when the lining is gone (or mostly gone) will inflict intense nausea on the host - they’d have to fight hard not to throw up. If the captor manages to keep their captive down, the captive will suffocate to death and the digestive processes will start up again once the stomach no longer senses any living contents. Even a partially regenerated lining will help protect the captive by providing some oxygen - possibly enough to save them, but it’s a dangerous gamble. Swallowed air can help in the meantime, or extend the torture.

This is not a popular torture tactic or execution method. The torture is mutual. That said, some individuals can keep live food down casually, to the point where they don’t feel nauseated anymore. This usually means they’ve had a lot of dedicated practice, and is regarded as either an unthinkable cruelty or a vicious party trick, depending on the individuals and local inter-species politics.

Best to wait at least three hours after the host has had their latest solid meal, when the lining has mostly recovered.

Their bodies can instinctively recognize potential guests that they form close emotional bonds with. They tend to develop a specific craving for them, and the protective response from the lining tends to be all the more intense for bonded guests in particular, with it swelling to more of a cushion-like state as it works toward ensuring that they have what they need to survive in there. Movement inside feels all the more pleasant to the host in this state, as the swelling comes with a different sort of ache, and though it is far milder than the grinding-ache, massaging the lining in this state brings a sense of euphoric comfort and can further intensify their emotional attachment. Smelling sickness or blood from a bonded guest tends to give a potential host intense cravings, instinctively wanting to improve the guest's survival odds. If they can resist putting their bonded in their stomach, they're going to bury them in a nest of supplies. And chase off anyone they perceive as a bother.

Eating food near a bonded guest will cause their instincts to slow the digestive grinding and dilute the acids, to the point of possibly giving them indigestion for the sake of keeping the lining intact, in case hosting is on the table. They'll get a distinct craving for pressure and movement inside, and they will have to either put up with the discomfort until they slowly finish digesting, go someplace where they can't sense their bonded, or just host their bonded. 

Those new to the experience might make the mistake of gorging themselves in hopes that a large amount of food will be an adequate substitute. But none of those euphoric chemical exchanges are happening, and the food digests slowly, so they end up bloated and miserable for a while. 

For potential hosts who have to eat near a bonded human who doesn't care for the experience of being hosted, more easily digestible liquid diets tend to be preferred. This way, they'll still get bellyaches, but they won't be as intense, and they'll recover quicker. Whenever they can, they tend to eat in private, or just among their own kind, and pass it off as a "cultural thing" if they want to ease tension. It's less of a disaster than "I like you so much I want you for dessert."

COMBAT

Most of their own unarmed combat methods (against each other) rely heavily on grappling, rolling, jumping on an opponent, twisting them, using their combined weight and limbs as leverage to throw/roll/otherwise bring them down and pin them. Also a lot of biting and head-butting with horns at close quarters to stun. (Or fling, in cases of ramming charges. Due to the kind of force those ramming charges pack, their neck and back muscles are dense enough to make neck-breaks very difficult.) It’s usually very loud, with lots of tearing up the ground and smashing into things. They are also not opposed to using weapons of all sorts.

Where ranged combat is concerned, they are very adept at throwing large rocks unaided. But slings, for greater speed and distance, are also favored. As are javelins. Bows of their size are a bit rarer, but send spear-sized arrows great distances, and punch with the force of a ballista.

A human caught up in fighting one of these guys is likely in for a very bad day. Or night, rather. When up against humans, they tend to prefer attacking at night just because we can't see as well in the dark, and to take advantage of how darkness tends to amplify our fears. And to avoid the hassle of being unable to see in so much sunlight.

For a human, fighting this lot means keeping your distance and tactically outwitting them. If they close in, it's almost guaranteed to be over. Use whatever obstacles you can. A human taking one of them down is possible, but rare.

Due to their size, speed, strength, endurance, regenerative abilities, and climbing prowess, they make for highly prized, flexible troops, to whomever can recruit them. They can navigate rocky/mountainous terrain at unrivaled speed on the ground, fortress walls and barricades rarely keep them out for long, and they are highly effective and tenacious combatants. However, they can also be insubordinate and temperamental, and seldom think twice about trusting their own judgment over a commander's (regardless of the commander's species or their respect for them). If they don't like how a campaign or a mission is being handled, they're likely to try and take over their superior's position, for better or worse. Each individual is unique, but as a notable trend, discipline does not come as easily to them as it does to your average human.

INTER-SPECIES RELATIONS

Most of the bigger species will agree on the general opinion that humans are really cute and really tasty, and picking them up, holding, and/or swallowing them is therapeutic. Getting them to respect their human neighbors' boundaries (or to just respect them at all) is a common issue.

Generally, the more time they spend around humans, the more they see them as people. But still very tasty and adorable people.

In cases where there is little to no competition for resources between local, separate groups, these folks tend to regard interacting with humans as entertaining at best and mildly annoying at worst. This scenario runs the greatest risk of these folk adopting humans as pets.

In cases where there is competition between separate groups, humans don't tend to pose much of a threat to them. Interspecies conflicts are generally over swiftly, with humans almost always on the losing side. This tends to leave exclusively human populations wary and mistrustful of the bigger species. 

Diverse communities tend to thrive and defend themselves much better, have broader skill sets, and are far more common and lasting.