Okay! So I've claimed the name 'Virtue' for an undead hunter once Cata hits the shelves and will be taming sins as pets.
Here are some of the ideas I had for sins initially, but I'm totally open to any other suggestions on'em! And please note I'll probably base a lot of my decisions off of Dante's
Divine Comedy because I've been rereading it recently for another project and he has quite a few interesting takes on what some sins are represented by.
Okay let's hit it!
Lust:
The dragonhawk struck me as the most Lustful of all the WoW pet possibilities; I totally agree with Veph's final assessment on this one. They are elegant and (due to their associations with blood elves) also come across as a bit arrogant and stuck up, at least to me. An added bonus for me is that in Dante's Purgatorio, the Lustful are punished by fire, which is the dragonhawk's attribute.
I also considered Wolves for this, because in Dante's Inferno the she-wolf is supposed to be a representation of the grossest form of Lust, but none of the models really cut it for me.
Gluttony:
Ultimately for me, Gluttony is a corehound. When I first read Dante's Inferno, I was more than a little intimidated by the circle of hell dedicated to the gluttonous, in which Cerberus ran around and tore sinners apart, cut them up with his claws, etc, while they wallowed in unmentionable Gross Things. However a few runner ups for me include crocolisks (something about those gigantic mouths and rows of razor sharp teeth just does it for me), seagulls, which I see dumpster diving and begging for food constantly around here, or boars, which will eat practically anything.
I know there was some serious discussion about bears vs boars for this in Veph's old thread, but I still think boars would fit this particular sin well. Even if they're not fat piggies, but tough battle boars, the fact remains they still eat pretty much any type of food. Bears fit too, but I'm not so fond of bears outside my spirit beast version.
Envy:
I pretty much agreed with Veph on this one straight off the bat. A serpent, green with envy...it's too perfect to not fit. I imagine Envy is the type of sin that would be cunning too, because it's the sort of thing that starts off subtle and gets progressively nastier as it goes. I might start with a lower level one at first and eventually let it 'evolve' (I sorta see these not so much as pets that Virtue would be taming, but rather entities of this particular sin, almost like shape shifters with a preferred form...I could see Envy starting off as a regular green serpent and getting spikier and more alien as its nature grows stronger, for example).
Greed/Avarice:
A lot of people seemed to peg Hyenas for this one, but it just didn't fit for me. True, hyenas are known to scavenge from other animals, but so are all the other animals out there. People think of lions as noble and such, but they're just as likely to steal food from hyenas too. It's just a dog-eat-dog world out there.
Ravens fit the bill more for this one, at least to me. They are very clever creatures, but ARE known to be natural hoarders, and will bury away shinies and food just to save them for later. They've even been known to try and outsmart other ravens by pretending to hide things in one place while really not doing it. If that's not greed, I don't know what is.
Sloth:
The obvious answer to this one was 'turtle,' and I picked a dreary gray-looking one just to compliment the lazy quality of the sin. However I also figured moths could be a good pick too. At first this was sort of a joke (
Lunesta, anybody? ) but in retrospect it does kinda make sense. Moths are frequently active at night, and with a move like 'serenity dust' it's appropriate I guess. Also could use a sporebat; they always look so lazy and dreamy to me, drifting around Zangamarsh, and I'd love to give one a shot.
Wrath:
Possibly my most favorite one to look for. There are many furious-looking pets out there XP I looked for either very metallic or very angry red/brown/orange color schemes, or black, all of which feel very...angry to me. Wasps are known to unhesitatingly attack anything that messes with their hive without a second thought. Ravagers just scream 'angry' to me, especially with the spiky alien presence. The hyena and the devil-dog come across to me as being extremely dangerous, but often viewed as 'ugly' by the masses (I think they're both adorable though). Devilsaurs will stomp you without a second's thought, and raptors can be positively vicious. I figured they all fit.
Pride:
I loved Veph's idea that a prideful pet would look opinionated and self-important, and the tallstrider strut definitely works for that. I picked Mazz though, since I'm more fond of his color coordination than the purple one. I figured the bright, flashy colors of some of the new parrots coming out in Cata would fit the bill too, with that "I'm so amazing, LOOK AT ME" attitude even if the colors are sometimes obnoxiously bright. I figured cats might go well here too, but really wasn't sure on a skin for them.
And that's all for me! Feedback would be most welcome
As for you Zedxrgal, I have a few suggestions (although none as to what pet would go with which virtue).
In Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso, a golden eagle
was frequently used to represent heavenly or good qualities. This might be a nice pet to get on the roster (or some other form of eagle).
while browsing, I also came across these, which look appropriately virtue-y even though I dunno what exactly they could be for yet:
And other pet families could fit specific virtues too (beetles or shale spiders could be Diligence because they're hardworking, for example). Spirit Beasts could probably fit anything. Wolves or Dogs could fit into Kindness, which is sometimes also Loyalty. Etc etc.
G'luck
~VelkynKarma
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