Skip to content
.. well.. not exactly how I envisioned this.. but here's this and hopefully I'll get the comic done on Friday. I fell behind with Kim's birthday last week and this image needed a nice background... that I wasn't able to get to in time to update:
Question from Hanna
I wonder, is it frowned upon in Cyantia to use the 4-legged mode of locomotion? Especially when in a hurry? We’ve seen Darrik do it before, but I can’t remember if any of the others have.
Answer:
There are many instances of the cubs and adults running on all fours. Syrys did for most of the prequel. Silver and others have in Campus Safari and Darius has more than once earlier in Akaelae.
It’s not frowned upon in the least, but usually not done on the spur of the moment in the case of adults because they like keeping their clothing clean. Running indoors for adults is difficult for obvious reasons, but there is plenty of room for cubs to do it, although slick floors have bested more than one.
As vincent displays above, protective gloves and bands are normally worn for running on all fours outdoors or on training courses. Wolves lack pads on their hands and the gloves help in acting as a replacement for traction and shock absorption.
they love to travel in this way in forests, mountains and uneven ground. their bodies are built for it with a narrower, deeper rib cage than that of a human. Unfortunately, they cannot travel comfortably on all fours over a long distance on flat land. It’s more efficient for them to travel bipedally in these cases.
- tiff
19 thoughts on “07/23/2008 (18 Comments)”
Kyllein
One can understand why wolves and other faculative bipeds have trouble on flat land, yet have no difficulty on uneven or rocky soils. When the Ancients made them from a mix of Human and Wolf DNA, they gave them human-style hips and hip-joints, as well as Human-based arms and to a degree legs and feet.
Put simply, their forelegs are too short. Their arms would have to be longer than their hind legs or they would need to move their shoulder-blades farther down their ribcage to get the desired fore-to-hind leg ratio.
Had this been done, they would have been more capable of quadruped travel on flat land; but at the cost of looking hunch-backed or ape-like.
As they are, they have a great balance of locomotion; “quad” for rough ground and “bi” for the flats.
The thought of “on-demand four legged drive” floats through my mind, here…
Vashra
I have to admit, given what I know of the supposed biology of these creatures, I find it *very* hard to believe they would ever make a habit of quadrapedal motion. You’ve designed them with humanoid structures in the shoulders, kneees, and length of forearm. This means that they would find walking on all fours about as difficult as humans do (try it). If you then try to say “oh no their hips are still structured as a quadraped,” then they’d not be able to walk upright for long periods of time without back pain … so which is it, really? It’s fiction so I suppose you could go so far as to say they magically morph to a truly hybrid form capable of quadraped motion … but you seemed to be trying to stick to what would be physically possible (theoretically).
BlasterMaster555
Maybe they just have good flexibility, ya?
Zealith
I don’t know, I find it pretty easy to tear around the house on all fours, it just depends on how you do it.
BlasterMaster555
Vashra, what if their joints are designed differently than both… purpose built for selectable locomotion? Who says it has to be exactly like this or that?
Also, by the geometry, it looks like they will be hopping more than running in four wheel drive, but with the huge arc available in the rears, there are impressive speeds to gain, ya?
Tiff
All I have to say: http://www.feralchildren.com/en/physical.php
The musculature and skeleton are slightly different in the hips as well and it will be noted that fat cyantian wolves cannot travel well on all fours, neither can those who are arthritic or elderly. Have I ever shown them doing the splits like humans can? Because their legs can’t go in those directions. 😉 They can do the split with one leg in front and one back, but not out to their sides.
The best thing about that site and others I’ve read is the fact that they can move incredibly fast on four legs.
Cerishus
I don’t really know about all the posture stuff, and I couldn’t care less. I just want to say I really like this image of Vincent. He looks like he’s absolutely enjoying himself. Go Vincent! : )
Cerishus
P.S. — I’ve frequently had dreams of running on all fours, tearing across the open plains so fast the scenery was a blur and enjoying it every bit as much as Vincent appears to be.
As a counterpoint though, I’ve also had dreams of flying, both mechanically aided and not. Some of the non aided flights though were more like levitating.
BlasterMaster555
Most of my dreams involve driving fast…
Vashra
Again, it’s *fiction* so the Cyantian creatures may do as their creator pleases but since it’s still up for discussion I’ll say this:
Having gone to feral children dot com, I think the stories there simply make my case for me. The article about Kamala and Amala is very detailed about how difficult the transition from all fours to upright walking is. Kamala (who was 8 when found) was trained to “walk” upright the same way you’d train a dog (by putting food out of her reach). But just like a dog, she reverted to all fours whenever possible (especially when running), and had painful difficulties in joints, muscles, and tendons from trying to walk upright for any length of time.
Even I can drop to all fours (without going onto my knees) and “tear around” for a while. I can see the potential for how it would provide more speed than upright locomotion. But my hips, lower back, the palms of my hands, and especially my neck and shoulders had some complaints to register afterwards.
The body can be conditioned to one or the other, but not to doing both very well. The whole distribution of muscle and tendon strength is different from one way to the other. There would have to be a point where bipedal cyanthians effectively lost the ability (and one would assume the desire) to go onto all fours *easily* and I got the impression this cub was probably past that age. Otherwise they, like dogs, would be “able” to rise to two feet – but would find long term movement that way uncomfortable to damaging.
BlasterMaster555
What if you trained both sets interchangably and equally, instead of letting the bits atrophy by staying on one walk or another.
Hanna
I wuv you Tiff. ^___^ (My very first personalized web comic answer ever!)
Also thanks for answering! It makes sense too… even us humans tend to use our hands to help in very uneven terrain, and the Cyantians are better built for it than us.
Hanna
Blastermaster, I suspect that if you did that, you’d be in pain _all_ the time, since the two postures aren’t interchangeable, really. Plus you’d lose some dexterity of fingers since your forelimbs would need to do shock-absorption and such. Most people can’t type and use the mouse with their feet. 😉
Tiff
My last response on this. 🙂 Ever ride a horse? It hurts. Until your muscles adapt to it. Ride one enough and your walk does alter, but you can still walk. I’m chalking this one up as they’re made to do both, even if it may not be feasible based on our knowledge. 😀
Hanna
Heh, as the Creator of Cyantians, Tiff’s word is law. *tease*
To us humans training to be both bi- and quadrupedal is nearly impossible. To Cyantians it’s more of a matter of choice and whether they want to keep their clothes clean. 😀
BlasterMaster555
Yea, especially when we don’t know the really detailed anatomy of a Cyantian, we can’t assume the function will be the same as a human.
Kibbe
What Tiff says go, as to locomotion, don’t limit your perception to human norm. There are many posabilitys out there that are not properly explored and are generaly ignored by humanity as a whole.
Sorry I have not been able to get that money to you yet Tiff, soon, had a dental emergancy that took precedance, and my two fronth teeth.
Kibbe
fancy pants
I’m finally reading another comic by Tiff.
But every time they go on all fours they seem to be running, and that looks decently doable. walking is different because of the motion, running is front on.off. back on off. lather rinse repeated.
Did I explain that okay?
Eboreg
Cyantians like to run on all fours, humans like to climb trees and swing from the arms. Simple as that.
Meta
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Recent Posts