this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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Worldbuilding

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Admittedly my attempt at this isn't too far from the typical "they just eat fish" solution, but I thought it would be interesting to play with how they acknowledge their respective statuses as predators and prey.

The two species have different but complimentary funeral rites. When a prey animal dies, it is ritually butchered and its meat consumed by a predator. When a predator dies, seeds are buried with the body so their remains fertilize crops that are eaten by members of the prey species. Specific individuals or families are chosen by the deceased in their will to carry out this task, and the relationship is treated like being a godparent.

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[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

It would depend on how technologically advanced their society is.

In a lower-tech world, I imagine something like a feuadlistic society where predators are the ruling class. A large family of predators would look out for and protect a large number of prey along with the land. The more altruistic predators might live primarily on fish and non-meats (assuming fish are not sentient), while others may utilize religious propaganda to identify "criminals" and "heretics" that they would take away to "reform" (and totally not eat, no there's definitely not a bunch of predators that secretly gorge themselves on prey). The ruling predator class would be in a constant state of flux as they compete over the best grazing lands and water supplies, and other natural resources. There may also be groups of nomadic prey that have no predator leaders, who live in rougher or otherwise more desolate areas. Some of the feudal predators may have positive relationships with these groups, while others may see them as a ~~feast~~ threat.

In a more advanced society, predators would likely sustain themselves on non-sentient meat sources, or barring that, artificial protein sources. And there totally wouldn't be a secret cult of predators that still hunt and eat prey in the darkest corners of society, those are just baseless rumors.