Hello, all! Your local Necrocrat here to talk about the state of Physiology pages. This might be a bit of long one, but bear with me - if you like or are involved with X Physiology Pages, you'll probably want to be part of this discussion.
Before we get into that, though, I want to clarify the scope and purpose of this post. This post is to discuss Physiology pages on the wiki - what works, what doesn't, and why. This is an open discussion though, so don't look at this as staff handing down edicts to the wiki. If you're interested in Physiology pages and want to be part of shaping policy around them this is the place to do that. That being said, my goal here is to create policy regarding physiology pages which we will apply both going forward and retroactively. These rules would be linked to as a specific subsection of the powers guidelines.
Physiology Definitions[]
I'm sure those of you who've used the wiki for more than a day or two know what Physiology pages are, but it's worth defining for the sake of discussion. Physiologies are powers wherein the user either is or has properties of the subject of the page. For example, under Spider Physiology both Shelob from LotR (who is herself a giant spider) and Peter Parker/Spiderman (who has spider powers) would be valid users of Spider Physiology. We also have Mimicry powers, which are basically interchangeable with Physiologies because a definition wasn't really set up for them in a central place, which is something I'd like to change.
The only major restriction Physiologies have (besides those that are part of the guidelines for powers in general) is that they must not be the 'physiology' of a specific individual. For example, Archangel Physiology is valid, but Michael/Uriel Physiology wouldn't be.
Current Issues[]
I'm going to outline some problems I see with Physiologies that I'd like to see addressed in new policy. Feel free to add to this list, and I'll update the post if we add new ones in the comments.
- Combo Physiologies
- Sometimes these are good, like in cases where you have a new thing that comes from two other Physiologies. For example, Cambion Physiology. But in many cases this is just people slapping the word 'Angelic' or 'Demonic' onto another physiology and saying it's a new page. I think instead we should just say that some characters have two Physiologies. To use an earlier example, Peter Parker is definitely a mutant, and he's definitely got Spider Physiology. But that doesn't mean we should make Spider Mutant Physiology, we should just include him on both pages. We don't need a 'Hybrid Physiology' page for every combination of physiologies found in fiction.
- The reason this is a problem is that it creates a lot of very shallow clutter pages. I think that we should trend towards meatier pages with more content, not having many pages with contents that don't tell you anything that the title didn't already inform the reader of.
- Adjective Salad Physiology
- Often people create new pages where it's just a previous physiology, but with an adjective. Sometimes that adjective is to make it a combo (i.e. Demonic X Physiology). However, most often this is just to denote that a thing is a superior variant of X. Examples adjectives include Transcendent, Superior, Superpowered, Eldritch, Lord, Cosmic, etc.
- This is a problem for the same reason that the Combo Pysiologies are a problem. In some ways it's actually the same issue. I think the solution for it is the same - just make a single 'Eldritch Physiology' page and then list people who have Eldritch Physiology and, say, Dragon Physiology on both pages. I have thoughts on how to handle this one that I'll touch on later in the post.
- Integrated-Power Physiologies
- This is a problem that has been coming up more and more recently. A lot of new pages are just 'X Physiology' plus 'Y power'. For example (and no disrespect meant to any of these pages creators) - Veloci-Mechanical Physiology, Electro-Extraterrestrial Physiology, and the like. These pages don't really add more information, it's just the creator looking at a couple of previous pages and combining them together to make a 'new page' that doesn't really add anything to the wiki.
- Like the previous issues, this creates cluttering pages with little content. All of the actual content is on the pages they are combining, and so it just buries the well-written, well-thought-out pages under mounds of derivative work that adds little to nothing to the wiki.
- Cladistic Physiology
- This is the trickiest one in my opinion, and it requires a little knowledge of taxonomy and biology. I'll use Spider Physiology because it's been a common example in this post. If you look at Spider Physiology, you'll see that it's a Variation of Arachnid Phyiology. Arachnids are a clade that include spiders, but also palpigrades, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and opiliones. So, technically both Spiderman AND Scorpion are users of this. Are these various levels of Physiology actually useful though? Like, what do both Spiderman and Scorpion having Arachnid Physiology actually tell you about their powers?
- Additionally, I have concerns about how clear these powers are to a casual audience. How many of you, without going to the page or looking it up, know what Cnidarian Physiology represents? Or Echinoderm? Herpestid? Xenarthra? That kind of abstruse language might actually be a barrier to better understanding while simultaneously not doing much to explain the power.
- Some of these taxonimcally-oriented physiologies, like Erinaceomorph Physiology, have users that are almost if not entirely one specific group from within that clade (being Hedgehogs). The only other animal in that family are moonrats, and I don't think any of those characters are moonrats/gymnures.
- Taxonomy is also a somewhat rapidly evolving system. For example, technically Erinaceomorpha is no longer used as an order, it's now a family called Erinacedae. So this should actually be Erinaceid Physiology. This is going to be a problem going forward, especially as taxonomists increasingly accepting of a less rigidly tiered phylogenetic tree.
- I don't have a really good proposal for how to deal with this one right now. I'd really like to hear some proposals on it. Sometimes it's useful to have things like Canine Physiology (because Dog and Wolf Physiology in fiction aren't THAT different really, so this makes sense) but then other times it's not as useful (like Erinaceomorph Physiology). We could say something like "Nothing above Genus on the Linnaean tree" but then those Linnaean tiers seem to get less useful by the day.
Possible Solutions/New Policy Proposal[]
So, what are some possible policies we could put in place to fix these issues? I have a few ideas, and I'd very much like to hear feedback on them. Also, these are proposals only - if someone has a better solution to propose, I would love to hear them. If people absolutely hate these (and have good reasoning to back up why they shouldn't be!) then that'll be taken into consideration. That being said - if you don't like these please explain why and what's wrong with them. Those problems above are creating a huge amount of bloat, so there is cause for these to be handled. Ideally you'd present an alternative, but criticism doesn't necessitate an alternative proposal.
Same as before, I'll update this list based on where the discussion goes.
1) Standardize Mimicry and Physiology[]
This isn't really to address the problems above, and I think this one is probably going to be pretty uncontroversial. However, I'd like to standardize Physiologies as powers that are for users who are/are like creatures of biological entities, and Mimicries as powers for users who are/are like inanimate things or things that are not themselves entire creatures.
Mimicries would include inanimate objects (candles, brooms, furniture), materials/physical effect (i.e. stone, fire, black holes), and parts of creatures (hand, foot, eye). Physiologies would cover animals, plants, fungi, and creatures in general. Physiologies would also include sentient (not sapient) entities that aren't strictly 'alive' or even 'creatures' (undead, spirits, robots/constructs, etc.). We'd also stop using other words for this like 'Imitation' - things are either PHysiologies, or they are Mimicries. The rule I'm proposing would be written as something like:
"A power for a user who is/imitates a thing that would be an intelligent actor on it's own is a Physiology, while powers representing being/imitating something that would not be an independently intelligent actor is a Mimicry"
2) Physiologies/Mimicries should represent a single entity to be imitated[]
No more combos, except where that combo represents a specific type of entity that is named and established in fiction like Nephalim, Cambions, etc. No more Undead Dragon. However, something like Dracolich Physiology would be acceptable because it is named and established in two or more pieces of fiction. This policy would read something like:
"Physiologies which are combinations of other physiologies must be specifically named (i.e. Nephalim, Cambion) and be established in at least two separate fictional canons"
We'd still retain pages like Gestalt and Hybrid Physiology, we just wouldn't list every single possible combination of those things.
3) No Adjective Physiologies[]
This would mean no more powers like Superior Dragon or Superpowered Alien Physiology. These can still be represented, but in a perhaps more elegant way than just making a billion permutations of one physiology. I think that instead we should actually define these adjectives as Trait pages which apply specifically for Physiologies. For example, I saw that we have Armored Dragon Physiology. Instead we could have "Trait:Armored Physiology" and then elaborate on that concept and therein list some Physiologies the trait commonly applies to. We could do the same with Superior, Alpha, etc.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know it's a really long post, but this is an issue that's been around and not dealt with for a really long time.