Shattered Kingdoms

I am tired and sick, sick and tired of people telling me that griffons do "not have hands" when they are used in an emote.

To quote dictionary.com, this first definition of a talon is,

"a claw, esp. of a bird of prey." It is not entire digit or the device they graft on to. Birds of prey, I remind you, have opposable digits for perching and grabbing their prey.

Again from dictionary.com, the third definition of a hand is,

"a terminal prehensile part, as the chela of a crustacean, or, in falconry, the foot of a falcon." The foot of falcon. 'foot' is of course used because birds have two limbs ("legs") and then their wings. As griffons are quadrupeds, it could either called a foot, or a hand- but never a talon. The talon is the claw.

So please, to the association of angsty nubs and know-it-alls who have thought much less than I have about this issue, and yet still say to me, or to eachother, "griffons don't have hands" when they see an emote implying such:

Please die horribly.

(/rant)

I have no idea who you are, but I like you already.... sadly you playing a Griffon however makes me want to drown you.... but no ones perfect.

'cept me.

Griffons in SK do not have bird feet. They do have cat feet. Which are not prehensile.

They have the front legs of raptors, the back legs of a cat.

Griffons do not have hands. They have claws and talons but no hands.

Centaurs do not have feet. They have hooves but no feet.

Get used to it, get over it or I'll send bits and pieces of you to Krintek.

You also spelled marshmallow incorrectly.


Yeah, no. They don't have hands. I'm sorry.

They do not have hands.

Birds of prey have the same syndactylic feet that any perching bird has - that doesn't change the standard term that English has developed for referring to those things at the ends of all birds' legs, which is... yes, 'feet.' I don't disagree with you from a structural standpoint, but linguistically you should be prepared for momentary confusion when coming at people with 'griffon hands.' The inertia of Common Usage is a powerful thing.

However, if people are then stepping out of character to complain about this - repeatedly - I also agree that it seems like unnecessary and disruptive hairsplitting.
Also, association of angsty nubs and know-it-alls who have thought much less than I have about this issue is the best turn of phrase I've seen on here in a while now. I don't want to egg you on too much here, though; this isn't GD, so let's please leave it at that.

If the front talons of griffons evolved through natural selection, then since they are seemingly capable of walking upright, their front talons would likely have lost their "perching" mobility to be better suited for grasping and fine manipulation. Given that weapons tend to be stronger and more versatile than claws, natural selection would likely favor a more hand-like talon over those better for fighting if most griffons have access to weaponry.

However, since griffons did not evolve naturally, they are stuck with two feet where their arms should be.