A Beastman Came Upon A Beast - d8 superstitions around who can be eaten

Coming from a couple of angles, the question of who can eat who has become a live one in building the world of a new campaign.

I have long been poking around in a maximalist interpretation of 'who is people' - and while running session zero for my latest game we got a flag for 'no cannibalism' which immediately made me ask about how do animal-folk view this and where are we on the scale from child-safe Rupert Bear to Grimms Faerie Tales where all sorts of people went into the pot at various points.

There are plenty of canon animal-folk (Tortle, Tabaxi, Aarackocra, Owlins, Harengons, Kenku, Lizardfolk, Kenku, Giff, Hadozee, Grung, Minotaurs, Loxodon and Locathah) and the possibility of Awakened animals running about the place.

Blend this in with animist religions where everything, even objects and places can possess a distinct spiritual essence, how does one draw a line?

I also love this take on how we get more elves - "An elf who wishes to produce offspring selects an ordinary animal and begins teaching it" from David J. Prokopetz. I have taken that as a corner stone of my menagerie world setting - with many sub-species, race-oids, and kin at various points along a continuum from "food" through "an animal that can talk" to "tax-paying subject of the crown".

In our world we are used to being at the top of the food pyramid but in standard fantasy world most sentients are a few rungs down with big magical predators like manticores and dragons about the place.

I would have taken my yard-stick as classic fairy tales - the Big Bad Wolf will eat you and anyone he comes across. There are many things in the forest that are man-eaters and might eat you depending on how hungry they are - Shere Khan of the Jungle Book would fit well. Similarly, the classic tales of a rabbit being caught by a wolf and winning their freedom through cunning shows the same 'law of the jungle' approach to things.

So my immediate thought is that there would be some sort of ritual greetings "Hail Brother Bear" style in most cases that functions a bit like "Parlay" in Pirates of the Carribean - it buys you a couple of moments to convince whoever you are facing not to eat you, but that is it.

This then makes the beast / monster split relatively clear - monsters will kill and consume sentients knowingly, beasts are unaware they are doing so.

d8 Rituals and Supersitions of the menagerie world
1. - Carry the common blessed charm that signals when in the presence of something souled. Often a tiny bell, sometimes a ribbon, usually attached to a walking stick or bow for when others are encountered in the wilderness
2. - When travelling away from your home, avoid dishes that look anything like the locals until you see them eat it first. Avoid fish among the fish-lings, don't pull out your jerky in front of the minotaurs, nor your ham in hogman lands.
3. - If you ask a creature in elvish if it can understand you, it has to respond yes if it can. Anything that talks can speak at least some elvish. If it cannot talk and gives no sign of understanding, it may be good for the pot.
4. - Carrion eaters are treated suspiciously, as it is often hard for them to prove that the person they came upon was definitely dead before they tucked in. It has led in some cases to a counter-vailing push of some vulture-folk and others becoming expert medics and making a point of trying to save others. Their help is not always wanted.
5. - Most farms have a cadre of awakened animals about. Some are completely operated by animal-folk, treat all the creatures you run into with respect until you know who is who.
6. - Should anything put up an especially fierce struggle or display unusual cunning escaping you, tradition says you should let it go.
7. - Should anyone turn up hungry at your door or campfire or be found on the road, they should be aided where possible.
8. - Animal-lings in general are a lot more fatalistic about the possibility of a misunderstanding having them end up getting eaten, how delicious they are perceived to be informs how twitchy they are - the slugmen are generally relaxed except around avians and hedgehogfolk; rabbitlings and harengon remain highly strung around strangers, carnivorous stock like wolves and big cats tend to be relaxed as everyone knows they taste bad. Those animal-folk perceived as carnivorous tend to adopt hightened ritual politeness to set others at their ease.

All of this covers *eating* people only, killing others in battle, for their stuff, or for territorial reasons may or may not be frowned up depending on which gods you follow.