Vae asks...

[sythyry]

The apology do I make now for not replying so well the last of my questions; each and every response that comes to me I shall give a reply today.

And -- what sort of monsters do you and your people suffer from?

Comments

[rowyn]

Teeeny tiny bacteria and even teenier tinier viruses, that colonize our bodies and reproduce inside us, making our bodies sickly and unable to function properly, sometimes killing us and sometimes being fought off by our natural defenses (which are also teeny-tiny and not something we are conscious of employing.) We supplement our defenses against the monsters with medicines and various medical implements. As with Prime vs Monster in World Tree, our weapons are not always sufficient.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The very unpleasant does this sound, to be the host and birthplace of your foe!

[rowyn]

It's pretty unfair! Primes are lucky to have hardly any diseases.

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

Ah, but is it really now? After all, it's a very small number of said little things that actually make us sick; the grand majority are just living their lives, and a great many are actively helpful - we actually couldn't survive at all without some of the helpful kinds. Besides, they were here first.

[rowyn]

Hee! There is that.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

In absolute terms:

A) Even if they are a tiny portion of such microorganisms, there are so mind-bogglingly many different microorganisms that the pathogens are still legion.

B) Most of the ones that ARE pathogens probably weren't here before us, because they have altered themselves in time to thrive on us specifically. There are exceptions, but by and large, diseases - especially viruses - are very specific in their hosts, not unlike how the plagues that afflict the populous species of primes affect one species each.

(General note: Viruses are especially insidious in that not only do they grow inside us, they also use our very own mechanisms of life to do it... which is a large part of why they're so specific.)