Rakshasa wrote:
Slamlander wrote:
Actually, it looks more like the DNA of a cat and a bat, possibly mixed with some polymorph magic.
It is hard to say how those bat wings (though they seem more like mini-dragon wings to me) came to be. But if it was polymorph magic, I do not agree it counts as construct, as you are changing a part of the body rather than crafting something new on to it. Also, the comments about it being due to magical radiation suggest that the creatures have been changed at a fundamental level, possibly over centuries.
Uh . . . mini-dragon wings (as they are usually drawn)
are bat wings. The people who first decided to draw winged dragons had no reptilian wings to serve as models. They usually used bat wings, sometimes bird wings, and (moving east across Eurasia) occasionally used insect wings. Some Chinese dragons float, run, or swim through the air out of sheer willpower and coolness.
In addition, all land vertebrates have genetic design consisting of a spinal column with a head at one end and a tail on the other. Per this design, most organs outside the digestive track possess bilateral symmetry, with one pair of limbs in front of the body cavity and the other behind, linked to the spine and supportive tissues by a "girdle" of bones, and with each limb ending in a "foot" with five digits. Mutations that
delete,
distort, or
merge some of these components can create viable species (that is, the critter can reproduce itself), leading to bats, dolphins, and horses. Mutations or birth defects that completely breach this pattern either never occur naturally or never reproduce.
Hence, there are no mammals with four legs and two wings (griffons), four legs and two arms (centaurs), and no species of snake with heads at either end (the amphisbaena).
The "construct" side of Ellis's species would be the deliberate addition of a set of extra limbs attached behind his shoulder girdle. Without, I note, any obvious bones or muscles to make them move. Ironically, mutating a cat to a level of intelligence that would allow it to be as much of a wise-ass as Ellis is would be more plausible than making those wings work. The wings and the voice, not the intelligence, would be the best explanation of why these familiars are expensive and rare.
Other than that, I agree that a breed of creatures fundamentally biological in nature and operating on an animal or plants nervous systems/power plant should not be described as a "construct." Sewing together a bunch of dead body parts and energizing that with a bolt of lightning and/or magical energy
would be a construct. Whatever it is, it is not breathing air and processing nutrition like an animal, not without magical life-support.