Guild Wars 2

Clearly they’re feline, but which one part of?

Charrs can have faces which can be similar to lions and tigers, but one thing – only regular cats can have any of fur pattern. Tigers always red with black stripes, lion look same and only cats with thousands of their different breed can be so different.

So what is charr closest relative?

None. They exist in a world that doesn’t have the same evolutionary tree that ours does. For all we know, they were simply created by something and have no relatives.

… Charr.

They’re charr. They are their own species. They’re not related to any of the common cat species. They’re cat-like. Lore suggests they’re a creation of Melandru.
_

Kodan thought suggests they developed their distinctive horns as a means to defend their necks.

Charr have an opening there, but especially with the pointed horns, it’s defendable from four different obvious places (six-seven in reality) with one of the four resulting in a bit of goring.

It’s a primitive adaption that none-the-less persists.

The charr’s humanesque upright build with the strength to facilitate the option to go on all fours “beastmode” renders it redundant.

Sure looks cool though. Most charr today don’t point their horns. It’s not necessary. Some do though. Just makes them that much more fearsome.

The More You Know ™

While the rules of evolution in Tyria are not like those in our world. My guess would be that if the Charr evolved, it’d be from something similar to sabretooth cats like Smilodon.
http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/smilodon.jpg

Head looks a lot like a female charr but the rest doesn’t. Structurally a charr has more in common with a gorilla than anything in Felidae.

Beng cat-like doesn’t have to have to mean that charr evolved from any type of cat at all. It just means that what they did evolve from (if anything) took the niche that cats tend to take in RL. e.g.: The Fossa of Madagascar is related to the mongoose but has taken the niche that cats tend to take everywhere else.

Dustfinger.9510:

Beng cat-like doesn’t have to have to mean that charr evolved from any type of cat at all. It just means that what they did evolve from (if anything) took the niche that cats tend to take in RL. e.g.: The Fossa of Madagascar is related to the mongoose but has taken the niche that cats tend to take everywhere else.

Every predator in the world is morphologically divided into one of three branches: Feliform, Caniform and Primate. Genetically they are all of disparate species, but they zoologists group them on branches according to the somewhat outdated notions of morphology. This descended from the notion during the early years of genetics that creatures with similar physical characteristics must have similar genetic ones creating those characteristics. We now know that isn’t the case, and wildly divergent species can have similar physical characteristics based off very different genetic profiles.

For instance, Hyenas are caniform predators, originally believed to be related to the wild dogs of Africa, and yet we know now that they share many more genetic traits in common with felines than canines. Still, the canine muzzle, the general body shape, and the pack structural behavior all lead scientists to believe this was a canine.

Generally speaking, the feliforms contain mustelids (weasels, ferrets, badgers, otters and stoats), mephids (skunks), mongooses (no, the plural is not mongeese), as well as a smattering of others, in addition to felines.

Caniform predators include bears, procyonids (raccoons), and dogs, primarily, with only a handful of other families that are constantly being reshuffled as we learn more about their genetics.

Primates, of course, include the great apes, chimps, lemurs and humans.

Also, I said predators, not carnivores. I realize most of the species I talked about aren’t strictly carnivorous. But they are all predatory. They hunt.

So where are the Charr? Feliform, certainly. But where do they exist on a genetic bias? That is neither known, nor knowable, as it is outside the scope of the game, and therefore never likely to be commented on officially.

Oh, and this wasn’t a disagreement with Dustfinger, but and expounding on his point.

That was good info Drakkon. It displayed how the example of the fossa isn’t unusual in the slightest. And it was a more indepth understanding of the principle than I actually knew about.

I feel dumb, I always thought the plural for mongoose was mongeese LOL

Apparition.1576:

I feel dumb, I always thought the plural for mongoose was mongeese LOL

Also, we need more meese around here. :P
I’ve always enjoyed thinking the moose plural is meese.

Dustfinger.9510:

That was good info Drakkon. It displayed how the example of the fossa isn’t unusual in the slightest. And it was a more indepth understanding of the principle than I actually knew about.

I’m a modern Renaissance Man. I know a fair bit about a wide variety of subjects, but I don’t claim to be master of any. Zoology, Astrophysics, Political Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Psychology, not to mention Philosophy (and what Renaissance Man would be complete without that?) are pretty important to me. I do get a few facts wrong every so often. Can’t be right all the time. So… Glad to be of help.

Drakkon.4782:

I’m a modern Renaissance Man. I know a fair bit about a wide variety of subjects, but I don’t claim to be master of any. Zoology, Astrophysics, Political Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Psychology, not to mention Philosophy (and what Renaissance Man would be complete without that?) are pretty important to me. I do get a few facts wrong every so often. Can’t be right all the time. So… Glad to be of help.

“In another life under different circumstances, I wonder if we could have been the greatest of friends”. XP ( I kid of course. I have nothing against you )

Clearly Cat/Cows.

Charrs originally come from Thundera. A small band of Thunderians were asleep in a capsule traveling the universe when their ship crashed in Tyria. Those Thunderians woke up, made babies, and became known as Charr.

CAA.9653:

Charrs originally come from Thundera. A small band of Thunderians were asleep in a capsule traveling the universe when their ship crashed in Tyria. Those Thunderians woke up, made babies, and became known as Charr.

Imaginative, but I think the Charr are to Thundercats what the Centauri are to Humans.

Apparition.1576:

I feel dumb, I always thought the plural for mongoose was mongeese LOL

Polygoose.

Drakkon.4782:

Every predator in the world is morphologically divided into one of three branches: Feliform, Caniform and Primate.

What about predatory birds? Or reptiles, fish, insects, etc… As terrifyingly awesome as it would be to have a lion-shaped eagle flying through the air, I am kind of glad eagles do not fall into one of those branches :P But I assume you are mostly talking about the mammalian order carnivora!

Sorry to be pedantic, I just gotta stick up for the “lesser classes,” dang mammals always getting all the attention.

Anyway, I do wish we had more information about their origins, that’s the kind of lore I love. But I agree that if they evolved, they and their ancestors likely occupied the same position big cats have in our world.
Or who knows, maybe we’re all just part of the same multiverse and Melandru thought saber-toothed cats looked neat and whisked some of them off earth, threw nature magic at them, and they became charr. Fantasy, man!

Serra.8069:

Drakkon.4782:

Every predator in the world is morphologically divided into one of three branches: Feliform, Caniform and Primate.

What about predatory birds? Or reptiles, fish, insects, etc…

Yes, I didn’t state “mammalian” predators. Since we weren’t discussing birds, reptiles, fish, insects or anything else like that, and all the examples were mammals, I kind of expected people to catch on.

To expound, fish are almost all predatory to some degree, with very few dedicated plant eaters, mostly because there are few plants, except in the shallows, in abundance for fish to survive upon. Most of the plants are in the form of plankton, and a lot of fish eat plankton. Plankton themselves can be either plant or animal and are unnecessary to classify further in this discussion because they are A) too small to care about, and they only eat other plankton, so they aren’t specialized enough to matter.

Cartilaginous predators are sharks. Just sharks. Skates and rays are still sharks. Highly specialized in their body shape, but still just sharks. All other fish are bony fish, and they don’t subdivide from there into more than their taxonomic species.

Birds are differentiated by beak style. Horn bills, hook bills and straight beaks. Horn bills typically are non-predatory fruit eaters. They consume berries and fruit, and sometimes nuts. They are usually called Birds of Paradise because they aren’t terribly aggressive, though they can be territorial.

Birds of prey are divides into hook and straight beaks. Eagles, hawks, and some sea birds have hook bills, useful for tearing flesh to expose the tissues and organs, and for pulling out said lumpy structures. They predominantly eat larger more mobile prey like snakes, rabbits, foxes, and small pets, or scavenge the dead carcasses of said creatures.

Straight bills involve most other birds, and include ravens and crows, and the wide variety of small birds that eat both seed and snails, slugs, words, beetles and other insects. These beaks are designed with the same intent as a surgeon’s scalpel. They go in, excise the tissue they want, and retract out the same hole without snagging.

Insects don’t have predatory classifications because only multi-stage insects aren’t typically meat eaters, and even that varies a little. Butterflies and moths start a caterpillars and worms, which eat plants or drink plant fluids to grow until they’re large enough to metamorphose into their adult stage, which typically only exists to mate and die, though some may be nectar drinkers, and thus also fill the role of pollinators. The rest are predatory and don’t differentiate style past their exoskeletons.

Reptiles aren’t broken down further than their body types, either. Monitors, ophidians (snakes), and a handful of other classifications exist, but there aren’t any truly herbivorous reptiles. They’re all predatory, so distinction isn’t required. Some iguana species, perhaps, but they’re the result of isolated development, and not because the species as a whole is herbivorous. (A note to anyone wanting to keep one as a pet, meat-eating reptiles have better immune systems than herbivorous ones, so though iguanas are very docile and look pretty, be prepared for them to die suddenly from some infection you didn’t even realize they had. Experience talking here. And wash your hands before and after handling them. That’s for your protection and theirs.)

There, happy now? The main reason that only mammals are interesting enough to classify this way is because most of the initial classification was done by zoologists traveling with big game hunters on safari, and big game hunters don’t hunt beetles. Fish, particularly in the deep sea, are hard to find in a comfortable to study manner. And reptiles are… well, you’d be hard pressed to find anything on the planet more complex than a microbe that doesn’t track it’s genetic structure back to a reptilian ancestor. They haven’t changed much in all this time, so… Yeah, not so interesting. Mammals? Mammals are ever-changing. Much more fun to study.

Oh, also, this thread is about Charr, and Charr are mammals, so… Yeah.

“The charr are carnivorous feline-like humanoids.”

From the Wiki. First sentence on the Physiology section.

I’d also like to mention that I could find no source that stated where they came from beside an allusion that perhaps Melandru created them, like CETheLucid posted.

It is entirely possible they didn’t evolve from anything and were simply created the way they were, thus being a distinct type of “creature.”

Also, I thought tigers were orange with black stripes…..

The odd thing with Charr is the cubs have horns too. Most animals with horns only grow them when they reach adulthood. so really charr cubs ought to be hornless, or at least have very small horns.

What if they have horns as babies even.Imagine the pain of giving birth.The blood.

Flame Legion are insane to discriminate their females.