Fantasy physics and real world biology

I have written before that I have a preference for pre-modern science in my fantasy settings, mostly because very few settings do aside from Exalted and RuneQuest. My homebrew in progress has an animistic cosmology, morally ambiguous law/chaos conflict, spontaneous generation, four humors, diseases caused by evil spirits, and no binary distinction between magic and mundane skillsets. In contrast, D&D and its derivatives are the poster child for gratuitous biology explanations.



That said, I do have a certain fondness for speculative biology. In this case applying real world biological constraints to fantasy creatures. A number of fantasy creatures have anatomy that isn't practical for survival, assuming an earthly environment. I know Chaos may do a lot of freaky things, but I would like maybe some of the less surreal creatures to loosely obey thermodynamics and game theory no matter how hypocritical that reads.

The Greek hippocentaur*, for example, would have great difficulties balancing, eating and reproducing. A hippocentaur which evolved in reality would look dramatically different (see image inset right). So a more energy efficient--if not realistic--hippocentaur would have a much smaller, thinner horse half and much more muscular front legs. (*Hippocentaur means "horse centaur," where centaur is used generically to refer to creatures with a similar body plan.)

© JayRock