The Core Hound thread over in Show and Tell reminds me of something I've been wondering about for a while. How do you all view your two-headed pets, the Core Hound and the Chimera. Do you see them as two seperate beings joined by one body? Or as one functioning animal that has two heads just like we have two eyes but they "see" as one or two ears but they "hear" as one. For me it's the latter. I see both Marama, my Core Hound, and Leigonnaire, my baby hunter's Chimera, as individuals whose two heads function as one. It's just something that has been rattling around in my head for a while and the thread on Core Hounds made me even more curious.
And since I'll use any excuse to post screenshots, here are some of a few past and present chimeras. I no longer have one on my main hunter, Sesamee, but nevertheless Nuramoc is stunning. I'm really liking Legionaire on my baby hunter. His wild counterpart is Brumeran, the gorgeous blue and white Chimera wandering the snowy hills of Winterspring. Which just happens to be one of my favorite zones.
I've always viewed my two-headed pets as just one individual creature. Sometimes I almost forget that there are two heads. I can certainly see the appeal of the dual personality aspect, I guess for me it's just not something that resonates with me.
Hee, I actually thought I'd be in the minority with that, I've thought about this same subject before. It seems natural to give a two-headed creature a split personality, or even two names (one for each head), but I just completely ignore the fact that there are two heads.
I see them, based on a few medical and life stories ive seen on tv of people who have seperate heads but are conjoined from the chest down and also some influences from mythical creatures, as two personalities.
Chimeras in particular due to the lack of fighting amongst their heads feel to me like they are more unionised and work well together, using their energy towards something that will benefit eachother rather then feud between eachother over petty little things. They seem the friendliest and calmest out of the three multi-head creatures hunters can tame and are quite at home just wandering around aimlessly taking in the sights or lying down somewhere high to watch things pass on and contemplate their thoughts quietly.
Core Hounds, based upon the core hound pup, i feel start out aggressive to eachothers heads young and are stubborn and unwilling to take things lying down. Very energetic and set in their own ways but when they grow to adulthood they take that tenacity and stubbornness and apply it to causing chaos upon lesser beings, revelling in the destruction they cause.
Hydras are hydras. They cant ever agree on anything, they're always bickering and not one of their heads is willing to cave in to the other two. They fight with eachother over petty things like who gets to take the first drink or bite out of their prey or which foot to place first when they decide to walk, and even just to begin walking. But they're very aggressive because of the constant bickering and will travel in an adrenaline rush towards an intruder and take their fury out on them only for the bickering routine to begin over again over what to do with the body. Usually one wants to eat it, one wants to leave it there, one wants to toss it around like a toy.
Personally, I think it can be both. I view them as both, depending on the mob or what pet.
My kurken core hound named Bucket is basically the corpse of an ice core hound being possessed by my spirit wolf, so in that case, it's one being. If I had another corehound, or a chimera, they might be two or one, depends on what I feel is more fitting to them...
Hydras however, are totally not the same :U (At least WoW ones. I can still see a hydra with a bajillion heads still being one entity)
~Signature made by Serenith~~Signature made by Serenith~
I'm pretty much on the same boat as everyone else here. Core hounds and chimeras for me seem like singular personality mostly due to the fact that there's not much interaction between the heads. They always seem to have a single motion they follow - a single thought. The fact that hydra heads look at each other and interact makes them seem more separate and individualistic.
It's extremely interesting to me how such small things convey messages to us subconsciously!
Xakaal wrote:I see them, based on a few medical and life stories ive seen on tv of people who have seperate heads but are conjoined from the chest down and also some influences from mythical creatures, as two personalities.
Chimeras in particular due to the lack of fighting amongst their heads feel to me like they are more unionised and work well together, using their energy towards something that will benefit eachother rather then feud between eachother over petty little things. They seem the friendliest and calmest out of the three multi-head creatures hunters can tame and are quite at home just wandering around aimlessly taking in the sights or lying down somewhere high to watch things pass on and contemplate their thoughts quietly.
Core Hounds, based upon the core hound pup, i feel start out aggressive to eachothers heads young and are stubborn and unwilling to take things lying down. Very energetic and set in their own ways but when they grow to adulthood they take that tenacity and stubbornness and apply it to causing chaos upon lesser beings, revelling in the destruction they cause.
Hydras are hydras. They cant ever agree on anything, they're always bickering and not one of their heads is willing to cave in to the other two. They fight with eachother over petty things like who gets to take the first drink or bite out of their prey or which foot to place first when they decide to walk, and even just to begin walking. But they're very aggressive because of the constant bickering and will travel in an adrenaline rush towards an intruder and take their fury out on them only for the bickering routine to begin over again over what to do with the body. Usually one wants to eat it, one wants to leave it there, one wants to toss it around like a toy.
I actually see this topic two different ways, based on the species.
For core hounds and the two-headed Outland vultures (poor Outland vultures, people always forget about you), I see them as one individual. With the vultures I suppose they are mutated from the Azeroth version due to fel magic which caused them to grow an extra head and a total of three tails. Core hounds just seem like natural two headed creatures. Many core hounds are named and have just one name. Core Hounds however do attack one head at a time, so I can see where a duel personality can come in but with my core hounds I just don't think this way.
Chimaeras I've always seen them as two individuals merged into one body. Mostly based on the mythology of the chimaera where she was composed of the parts of multiple animals. Although she had a male lion head the chimaera was a female. Chimaeras in WoW just don't seen natural creatures to me. Unlike core hounds and the two-headed vultures where both heads are mirror copies of each other, chimaeras are not. With both chimaera models each head has different number of horns. With the vanilla model as well look at where the tail splits. Each tail is different. You can easily see this here with the beige skin picture on Petopia. Chimaeras, despite looking different, do act very similar, attacking as one unit.
Hydras are diffidently individuals with multiple personalities. Their heads fight with each other all the time, unlike other multiple headed creatures in WoW.
Last edited by Wassa on Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
A rare visitor to this forum now that I don't play WoW anymore, but forever a Petopian.
Homg i totally forgot about the two headed vultures.. i get a different feel per individual. Emberwing who's always in my heart 'Kenneth' which means in the 'name meaning' translator i was browsing through for childrens names means 'born of fire' and he is pure royalty. He has an air to him that tells others that he is regal, beautiful, powerful. A nobleman in a birds body. Torgos and Trachela, they're obviously, mates, as they are descripted as being in-game and they have a very close relationship with eachother.
.. and i totally got sidetracked there. Err, the two-headed vultures in general i feel are as one individual. They're like twins. Being scavangers they arent picky and they know that they arent allowed to be as such if they want to survive. They work well together, working in a symbiotic relationship in mind and reflexes, attacking as one single unit at an intruder.
I love me some vultures. Cant believe i forgot about them. I love 'Kenneth' and Torgos/Trachela. Sorry my beauties for forgetting yooooou <33333
I personally think of each head having its own personality.
The animations for the various multiheaded creatures reinforces this interpretation, especially the corehound puppy mini-pet.
From what I understand about actual real-life conjoined twins each one controls one side of the body, and as such they have to work together to walk, run, etc.
Of course, as they share the same body, and act as one, in general they are the same creature.
So I guess the answer is both separate and the same.
I tamed a two headed vulture. When I went to name it, I remembered a two headed vulture from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I looked up the name to see if it was fitting. The cartoon is Transylvania 6-5000, and it turns out each head on the vulture has it's own name, Agatha and Emily. Well, it does make sense, two brains.. So I named my bird AgathaEmily (it wouldn't let me put in a space). They are sweeties! I'm new here so I don't know if you allow links on the forum, you can search YouTube for "Bugs Bunny in Transylvania 6-5000" if you'd like to see the cartoon.
Apart from the ever bickering Hydras I see them all to have a unionised mind or at least an understanding and co-operation with each other. They all look as if they have two separate brains and therefore minds but they learn to synchronise as it is essential to their survival. They realise it's the same stomach the food's going to so stop fighting over that and they learn that (especially in the case of Core Hounds) that alternating attacks between heads deal more damage, yet they have enough synchronisation to walk in a straight line.
Multiple headed things always boggles my own singular mind, it's difficult to fathom what it's like to have two minds in one body.
Looking at those Chimera screenies make me miss my Gemini, Nuromoc, very much. But I do have a Core Hound still, and Core Hounds and Chimeras work in harmony while Hydras, those that I've seen, are discordant.
I never noticed the fighting the hydra heads did until ya'll mentioned it. INTERESTING!!!!!
I always viewed Nykwil (pvp main pet- Nuromoc) as one being. He even had a girlfriend, Rarity (unused white rare). I had to let her go due to needing the stable slot. :/
But, that is seriously interesting, guys. Ya'll make my head spin.
I see them as two minds with one body. For example my hunters corehound was named RuffnTuff after the twins from How To Train Your Dragon. They constantly fought and bickered but were two different brains. I liked them more that way.
I see them as one being, however I think if we had the ability to add in spaces to a pets name then I would be more inclined to think of them as two separate beings. I just can't think of Koren not being a two headed lava dog who thinks his Hunter is a bit crazy. Blackfrost...is a bit easier to split up but I don't really see a reason to do so.
However if we get hydras now that'd be another story...
Hey look, they announce Illidan returning in some form and suddenly I'm back. Hmmmm I wonder if there's a connection.
I personally think all the two headed things in game BESIDES Ogres and Hydras are the same being as I don't think they are smart enough to have split personalitys. I've never pictured corehounds,Chimeras and the vultures to be like that ( when I mean that I mean like primeape levels here so pretty smart I don't call basic instints smart that's just nature etc) Ogres well not being very fast witted are as smart as alot of other WoW races (gnolls,quillboars etc) and theres no argument to them being the same person (they allways have a name for each head) and Hydras the way they act just screams them having their own personality for each head but Corhounds, Chimeras and vultures no I think they are just the same animal they just happen to have two heads.