moonvoice | Pathfinders Totem Deck rant

So, I was checking out the Pathfinders Animal Totems deck, as you do, mainly just because I was curious and because you know - eventually I would like to break my own deck out into the market, if I ever get it off the ground (60 pictures and counting) - and I saw this:

23) Mouse/Rat/Shrew/Bilby/Capybara

Um, WTF? The Bilby is NOT, and never HAS BEEN a rodent. It does not belong on a card with other rodents. It never will belong on a card with other rodents. It's energy is in no way rodent-like. At the very least, it should go with Bandicoot, and other members of it's family. Because they ARE similar.

I have a problem with condensing several animals into one card already, but this is just ridiculous. Research might seem hard to comprehend, but it really does help if you at least don't offend the Australians, and the Indigenous Aborigines who would see this, and probably just scoff in disgust. Why not just put Thylacine with the dogs? Why not just put the marsupial mole with mammalian moles? And I know, why not just put whales, sharks, seals and fish together! Because hey, if they swim in the sea, they might as well go together right?

*cough* Bah. On behalf of the Australians that give a shit, and are sick to death of foreigners butchering where our animals stand in the hierarchy and then lumping them with mammals, I am pissed.

*bitchslaps the person who came up with that*

I sent them a comment.
I guess it's fair to say that when it comes to Australian totemism, I know where I - and a lot of others - stand.

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Sounds like a deck o' crap. Oughta leave them a review on Amazon, warn others.

Yeah, it's unfortunate, because I really think they meant well. And I don't think they were 'cashing in', because they've tried to make the deck accessible. I just feel that their research is so lacking, I don't know if I could trust anything they said about the animals.

But I'm one of those anally retentive people who strongly believes that you can learn a lot about an animal's spirit and personality, from their behaviour and physiology. And while science might not tell me the totemistic significance of Splendid Fairy Wren, it will suggest that - because they are all very promiscuous - they aren't going to be teaching me about the values of monogamy in a hurry. :)

why would they combine those animals together anyway? Their personalities and symbolism are so different!

At least, they are to me.

Could be worse. They could've gone with what the Catholic church says and put Capybara with fish.

Exactly! *heartfelt sighs*

They didn't do it with many (or any) of the other animals, but it's a pretty glaring error of judgement.

Beacause Mouse is so very much like Rat.

I can see the deck creator's thought process: 'Hey, they both squeak, have whiskers, and long skinny tails! And aren't rats just really big mice, anyway?'

Yeah I have problems with condensing animals from the same family even. Though I can sort of understand why they'd lump crocodile with alligator, rat with mouse, impala with gazelle, blah blah blah. I don't agree with it though.

it sorta seems ignorant to me.

the researcher in me says that if you publish something then you really ought to make sure you've got it right. take the time to find out for yourself.

yeah i can feel that little anger thing simmering in me!

I have a big anger thing simmering, but yes - I shall share my discontent with everyone. Everyyyyoooooonnnnnnne!

That deck sounds crap to me.

It's craptastic! :)

I will admit that I don't have much totemic knowledge but getting a class wrong seems pretty fundamentally wrong

It's a shame, I'm almost tempted to say something at their LJ community, but I'm sure they're happy in their bubble of actually accomplishing a deck... so I'll just rant here.

I don't see how you could lump all rodents together. *rolls eyes*
I collect divination decks based on animals. While it is a bit New Agey, I was thrilled to find "Wisdom of the Australian Animals" as it touched on many critters I've never seen considered.

Capybara is nothing like rat after all.

Yeah, I collect them too a bit. And books on the matter. The Wisdom of Australian Animals I don't have - it's out of print I think at the moment as well - but a lot of the information for that is online somewhere.

I want to do my own Australian deck. Hence my livejournal Totem of the week project at http://totemoftheweek.livejournal.com/ and my Totem artwork to match it at http://www.wildspeak.com/artwork/art.html

But meh. It's a slow process. Still, I added Bandicoot the other day, which made me happy. :)

I forgot I had even commented on it before, but this was a response to the posting of the animal list-
"
[info]chibithejournal
2005-12-02 02:00 pm UTC (link) Delete
Is the animal list going to be revised at all?
I don't want to sound like I'm bossing or anything so please understand that I say this humbly, but there are a lot of animals in groups on there that do not belong together as species. For example, many cards include marsupials with, for example, mustelids and rodents. And another example is osprey listed under hawk, when it has more in common with eagles. I dunno just maybe some of the groups should be checked over for accuracy sake, unless the grouping was intentional =) and its just a suggestion, so as always its ok to shoot me down XD"

Notice there was no response to it :P IGNORED!!!

Yeah, my 'feedback' to the site has also been ignored. Though I wasn't quite as diplomatic as you were, I also wasn't quite as scathing as I was in this entry.

I am part of the deck, one of the artists at least, and I know several people have raised eyebrows at it. One person came up with the deck and everything about it, no one else was a part of it or was consulted or asked for feedback before the list was thrown up there. Im agitated at a few things at this point in the way its being run and Im close to backing out... I just dont think its going to end up being very proffesional. I would like to make my own deck but I dont have the resources or the 'fame' to market it. Ah well.

Yeah, I wondered how much control the artists had... it's just such a shame. It has so many amazing artists, and so much potential. I mean I look at the pictures and I'm like 'holy spamoly that's amazing!' and then I look at the categories and cringe. But you don't buy a deck just for the artwork, you buy it for the integrity of the information, and that just makes me sad. :/

And a shrew is a fierce little insectivore, also nothing like a rodent. :P

Pathfinders Totem Deck rant

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