Kanks?

So... what do you think a kank actually looks like... do you think they're segmented, kinda like ants? Or just kinda.. um... shelly... like a beetle, with pincers..

I'm just trying to figure this out so I can submit a drawing to the MUDjournal, and not have the kank look like ass ;->

[Freman Scum]

Personally I've always thought of them as giant ants.  Ever seen the movie "Honey I shrunk the kids."?  They ride around on an ant for a while, that's pretty much how I see it.

[Freman Scum]

Something like this:

Hahahah, thanks

[Freman Scum]

*grin*

Sure thing.

[lukie]

//www.baobobcomic.com of course. Kanks are cute!

[Gorobei]

According to Bill Nye the science guy, an ant bigger than a couple inches long couldn't be possible; it couldn't support it's own weight with its tiny legs.
I've alway seen kanks as sort of ant-like, but their legs are alot thicker and go straight down under them, instead of being long and going up and to the sides.

[crymerci]

I see kanks as being more like a beetle or even locust...there are references IG to kank shells, I believe.

Ahh well, the drawings done already...

[quote name="Gorobei"]According to Bill Nye the science guy, an ant bigger than a couple inches long couldn't be possible; it couldn't support it's own weight with its tiny legs.[/quote]

There was a discussion about this around... 2001, February on the old GDB. There were a few speculations.

1) Chitin on Zalanthas is strangley strong and light, allowing these more massive bugs to exist.

2) Gravity is less on Zalanthas, allowing these more massive bugs to exist.

3) Everyone on Zalanthas is super small! Thus allowing little little people to ride normal (Or maybe just bigger than normal...) sized bugs. A few people felt this would explain a lot of things, like falls off of Shield Wall, the obvious Bug situation and.. um... some other stuff.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

So, if people on Zalanthas are really tiny, then a full giant would be about the size of a RL toddler? Wouldn't it be funny to find out that a mekillot is actually just a RL horny toad, or something silly like that? The Sea of Silt is just dust kicked up by the ventilation shaft in a forgotten corner of your apartment? Silt Flyers are made out of Legos? HAHAHA! The 'brutally harsh' world of Zalanthas is looking a lot funnier, considering the Great Tektolnes might be the size of a thumbtack!    

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Ok, now that I'm feeling less cracked out, I think it's realistic to think that kanks aren't -exactly- like ants... Wherever it was said that kanks were like ants in the helpfiles, it was just an idea to give you the right sort of idea to what a kank would look like... But it's not like we're straddling giant worker ants all the time, not quite. If so, then where is the queen kank?  Whoever said this:

I've alway seen kanks as sort of ant-like, but their legs are alot thicker and go straight down under them, instead of being long and going up and to the sides.

Was right on the ball. Kanks aren't over-sized ants... They are -similar- to ants. I see them, personally, as being more beetle-like. So really, they are bants. Or possibley aneetles...

[lukie]

There was a discussion about this around... 2001, February on the old GDB. There were a few speculations.

1) Chitin on Zalanthas is strangley strong and light, allowing these more massive bugs to exist.

2) Gravity is less on Zalanthas, allowing these more massive bugs to exist.

3) Everyone on Zalanthas is super small! Thus allowing little little people to ride normal (Or maybe just bigger than normal...) sized bugs. A few people felt this would explain a lot of things, like falls off of Shield Wall, the obvious Bug situation and.. um... some other stuff.

Everybody on Zalanthas cannot be super small. In the help files it specifically states that a Zalanthian inch is, for all common purposes, equal to the English inch. Therefore, the people aren't super small because the measures are equal.

Gravity also cannot be less because people would just get up and walk off when they fell off of Shield Wall. If they were super heavy, that would defeat the purpose of lower gravity. Since we can't pick up kanks, it's safe to assume that they aren't any lighter than normal.

Therefore, the only valid argument is lighter/stronger chitin. I love it when I'm right.[/quote]

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Although I'd have to agree on your anti-tiny people approach, I believe people said gravity is different, not that there was none, or a very tiny bit. Think of the moon... Astronauts still fall on the moon. They just fell slower, correct? A reduced gravity -as many planets have- seems very plausible. It would result in less damage to falling objects, less weight so kanks could stand, and similar things... Not exactly my theory... But still, possible. I love it when I prove other people wrong.  :wink:

Pfft, I don't consider that being proven wrong ;->

They say for all common purposes in the help files. It's just like Earth Humans being comparable to Zalanthan for all common purposes. Are Zalanthan Humans anything like Earth Humans? Certainly not. So maybe the Zalanthan inch is still based off ol' Tek's thumb or something (Don't remember how the inch originated IRL) but Tek's thumb is kinda... well, small.

Now as for the gravity thing, it's possible, but I don't think that explains things nearly as well as the super-small or the stronger-lighter chitin thing.

Then again, it may not be any of these things. It could be that Zalanthan muscle, due to a lack of some minerals in their diets, could have super dense muscles, including insectoids, giving these bugs the strength to hold themselve up under such massive weights.

Kanks could be magickal. I mean, hell, Baobob certainly is.

[Shoka Windrunner]

Okay I got this from the Dark Sun books...the description of a kank.


Kanks are large, docile insects that the people of the Tablelands often use as mounts. A black exoskeleton of chitin covers their segmented bodies. The three body sections are the head, thorax and abdomen. They weigh as much as 400 pounds, grow to a height of 4 feet at the back and as long as 8 feet from head to abdomen. A pair of antennae sprout from the kank's head and kanks are controlled by riders by tapping their sensitive antennae with a rod of some sort. Soldiers are as large as workers, but usually a little heavier. Queens are much larger than workers and soldiers. Around their mouths they have multi-jointed pincers that they use to carry objects, feed themselves and fights. Six lanky legs descend from their thoraxes. Each ends in a single flexible claw that allows them to grip the surfaces they walk on.

Kanks are often used as caravan mounts. Worker kanks are the most common mount, but virtually nobody will ride a queen. They also make decent herd animals, but elves only routinely employ then as such. As kinks can digest almost any sort of organic matter, they can thrive in most terrain types, limited only by their numbers. In addition, these creatures require little attention from a herder. A kinks hive instinctually organizes itself into workers, soldiers and brood queens. Food producing or workers kanks secrete melon-sized globules of green-yellow honey. These are stored in their abdomens and are used to feed the hive's young. When other sources of food are scarce, this honey is also used to feed the rest of the hive. Humans and humanoids can live exclusively on this nectar for up to three weeks before their bodies begin to demand nutrients not included in the kank nectar. This nectar can also be fermented, and when combined with a few other materials, creates broy- one of the most popular drinks in all of the Tyr region. The sweet taste of this nectar is the only thing that attracts herders to these creatures, and domesticated kanks produce more than wild ones. While kank nectar is sweet tasting, only the most desperate scavenger will consume kank flesh. When a kank dies, its body released chemicals that drench the meat with a foul-smelling odor that can make even the hungriest giant sick.

Okay according to this the kank has legs that descend down from their thorax and end in small pincers.  like a beetles legs or a doodle bugs legs but with a body more akin to an ant.

Just about how I always pictured them.

Of course they could look like big lady bugs or something.