How would you define non fatal?

[Squiddicus]

This is one I've been wrestling with since I'm writing a vorefic where a character dies, but his soul lingers in the pred, fully aware.

But I'll weigh in and say "fatal" is the cessation of biological functions (e.g. heart and brain, or whatever else makes thing go) in living beings or the destruction of what gives a robot, golem, or other sufficiently sentient animate object/construct its "soul" (e.g. Memory drive, heart spark, soul gem, or whatever else).

Reformation or resurrection is independent of fatality here, since it either undoes the damage, or otherwise makes it a minor deal. It's no different for when a prey lingers as a ghost. Still died, didn't they?

As a side note, regeneration is only fatal if the damage was too extreme to repair. Not regenerating memories or personality is another sort of death entirely.

EDIT: typos

[Noxyoursox]

I personally consider any vore where the prey dies to be fatal, even if they get reformed afterward. The death still happened, the prey (and reader/viewer) got to experience that. In a more realistic scenario the prey would probably be traumatized by the experience, even if all the physical damage was undone.

I also agree with those above that this is a case where using multiple tags may be necessary for clarity's sake. People can search for what they want and blacklist what they don't but only if things are thoroughly tagged.

[qawsedkre]

Going by comments on the forum, I can tell that there is a great divide between people who like fatal and those who don't.

So, when I post something where only some of the prey gets digested, I don't really know how to tag it. Should I just add both the fatal and non-fatal tags or is there a third one I'm missing.
I'm asking this to avoid baiting non-fatal people into reading something that will disgust them.

[baranxlr]

I'd go with fatal to be safe

[IddlerItaler]

So, when I post something where only some of the prey gets digested, I don't really know how to tag it.

Does "some of the prey" mean you have a prey who gets partially digested, or that you have multiple preys of which only some get digested? Former scenario I would tag as non-fatal, so long as the prey remains alive the whole time, but I would still add tags like digestion and partial digestion so people are aware of those possible triggers. Also graphic digestion depending on how far it goes. Latter scenario, where there's multiple preys with different fates, is always trickier to tag; my first instinct would be to have both fatal and non-fatal as tags, as well as digestion-related ones.

[FishnorFowl]

One of my fandoms has a genderfluid chracter and that got me wondering how you think something like that should be tagged
For example, let’s assume that in the drawing you did of such a chracter as a pred, they’re a man/woman in that image, however, the chracter isn’t always a man/woman, so would you just tag them as nonbinary pred, or would you tag them as, for example, nonbinary pred and male pred, since in this example he was a man in your image?

[hax]

Tagging is really informal on this site, I'm always mentally juggling and weighing how my audience searches for stuff vs how I want to present a character.

[Achenar]

I'd tag it based on what gender they are at the time. When someone who's genderfluid is male, they're male - being fluid doesn't change that. But it might be good to tag with the character's name (which people might be aware of the fluidity of) and/or tag as "genderfluid pred" or similar.

[FishnorFowl]

Was wondering how you think something should be tagged if your plan is for the prey to be ok in the end but you’re unsure if it should be because it was endosoma or if it was because they reformed

[HedoroMonogatari]

Implied non-fatal?

[IddlerItaler]

"Ambiguous fate" imo, with maybe "implied digestion", "implied endo" and "implied reformation"

"Implied survival" is the most clear and unambiguous here, though only two pieces use that tag so far.

[theonlymatt]

If the prey is up and walking and more or less unharmed at the end that's non fatal. Anything less than that and you start having more room for discussion.

[ArcaneSigil]

Non-Fatal: Anything you can walk away from after the fact. In the case of vore, you either take a full journey through the predator's digestive tract with either very minor acid burns or none at all... or you simply "poof" into your bed or the nearest "safe place".

[narcissist]

I agree with Gramzon on this topic

Endo: prey is released unharmed. Non-fatal digestion: Prey is reformed without any lasting damage, can be weakened and tired but not permanently scarred. Fatal Digestion: prey dies, is not brought back in any way.

You can of course find stuff in between...

If the prey isn't digested at all I feel one should always use endo to classify it, as people who really like just endo typically are sensitive to any digestion theme, so endo should keep em safer, while non fatal is just for those more sensitive to permanent death who enjoy a less dark digestion theme and/or appreciate the continuity and scenarios it brings.

I have digestion and fatal blacklisted, as I find the termination/dissolution of the prey a turn-off.
Endosoma is a tag that I return to often, but not everything non-fatal gets tagged as endo, which I feel brings its own vibe to the table.
To me, Endosoma is the implication of both parties being safe and enjoying the act, while non-fatal can encompass a whole lot more as long as the prey makes it out alive (or is implied to).

Tags have always been a nebulous endeavor, however, and I applaud your effort to open the conversation on this topic.

[nicktaken]

How about the easiest and most logical option of separating three outcomes? Non-fatal as actually non-fatal, fatal with finality as fatal, and digestion with reformation as a separate third option, because it doesn't fall into one or the other.

a very human answer.
stuck in the belief of being unique in a way.

Archies just can't relate I guess.

[willofwii]

One of my fandoms has a genderfluid chracter and that got me wondering how you think something like that should be tagged
For example, let’s assume that in the drawing you did of such a chracter as a pred, they’re a man/woman in that image, however, the chracter isn’t always a man/woman, so would you just tag them as nonbinary pred, or would you tag them as, for example, nonbinary pred and male pred, since in this example he was a man in your image?

You just tag it as genderfluid. There is a genderfluid tag. You can also tag it genderfluid/[prey’s gender]. So for example genderfluid/m, genderfluid/f, genderfluid/h ect.

[willofwii]

As Shirou Emiya once famously said. “People die when you kill them.”

And he was right, if you kill someone, that means that you caused their death. Your story can’t be non-fatal if there is a fatality, i.e. a death in the story. It especially can’t be non-fatal vore if the death is due to vore. Reformation, resurrection, or even the permanent removal of a character from a narrative do not matter to whether a fatality has occurred. If someone dies, a person is dead, there was a fatality, it is fatal.

Likewise, jumping to the end of a story doesn’t change everything else that happened in the middle of the story. Likewise the beginning and end of a story aren’t the only parts that matter, they are just another part of a story.

[IddlerItaler]

Likewise, jumping to the end of a story doesn’t change everything else that happened in the middle of the story. Likewise the beginning and end of a story aren’t the only parts that matter, they are just another part of a story.

Also worth noting is that many drawings on the gallery don't have a before or after to their story, but are rather one-offs showing just a snapshot of a vore scene. If a one-off piece shows a prey being healthy and in no danger inside the predator, that's reasonable to call it non-fatal or implied non-fatal, sometimes endosoma which is a nicer subset of non-fatal. If a one-off piece shows a prey in the process of digesting, that's reasonable to tag it as fatal or implied fatal. Anything inbetween or with conflicting signals could use neither tag or "ambiguous fate".

Looking at such scenes and asking: "Does the prey have the ability to respawn?", "Can the predator cast resurrect?", "Is there a cloning machine with a copy of the prey at the ready?", "Are gods real and will they give the prey another shot at life?" might overcomplicate what is one of the most common and basic tags in the gallery on par with oral vore and anal vore. And if I complained that oral vore has to feature a mawshot or licking for the tag to count, I'd be called nitpicky.

[BlackWidow552]

There are some interesting view points in this thread, some of which I hadn't even thought about. It is refreshing to see interesting and different viewpoints on what would normally be a simple yes/no answer.

At first I was in the camp that if the person was resurrected or transformed back into a living body then it was non-fatal, but after reading through here I'm not so sure now, and I like that, it means I have to think about what the situation really is.

After some thought I think I'll have to go with if the body is consumed/digested then it is technically fatal as the body actually died. Even if the person is reformed, their old body is still deceased and gone, which is where the reformation or resurrected tag would have to be used.

I guess the only true non-fatal would be if the person was swallowed and then manages to get out unharmed either by themselves or with the help of the pred that swallowed them, or as others have said made the journey all the way through unscathed. That I would call as safe/Non fatal.

Where I get stuck is if the pred devours a persons soul or lifeforce, but their body still lives and is inhabited by say a child spirit born from the act of devouring the original spirit. I guess that too would also be fatal as the original spirit was technically consumed utterly and their essence used to create a new soul for the now empty body. Or am I getting too theological?

[IddlerItaler]

I guess the only true non-fatal would be if the person was swallowed and then manages to get out unharmed either by themselves or with the help of the pred that swallowed them, or as others have said made the journey all the way through unscathed. That I would call as safe/Non fatal.

A bit of an outlier, but I read a story which I consider the closest to 100% non-fatal digestion and reformation. It involved the prey being broken down through a warding spell rather than the predator's acids, feeling themselves getting turned into nutrients and waste but remaining conscious and aware throughout, and then getting expelled and reforming once the predator left. I won't spoil which, but it's in the gallery of one of the commenters in this thread.

Where I get stuck is if the pred devours a persons soul or lifeforce, but their body still lives and is inhabited by say a child spirit born from the act of devouring the original spirit. I guess that too would also be fatal as the original spirit was technically consumed utterly and their essence used to create a new soul for the now empty body. Or am I getting too theological?

Not an expert on soul vore, but I can see different approaches:

* Count the dormant soul-less body as a corpse and thus a fatality.

* Count the act of a soul leaving the body as a fatality. Based on the "Giving up the ghost" phrase, and on people dying in cartoons being sometimes represented as a spirit leaving their unconscious body.

* Treat the soul as the actual prey and ignore the body's fate. Does the soul get digested and broken down to the point of no return, or is it stored away forever while remaining conscious? Former could be fatal soul vore, latter non-fatal soul vore.

* Treat it like you would rebirth or transformative reformation, which also involves the prey not being quite the same once it's over.

* The triggers approach. "Would this piece set off people for whom the prey dying is a trigger? If yes, better to add fatal as a warning label."

* Just treat it as a grey area and use neither tag or "semi-fatal" perhaps.

Regardless of the approach, it's good to put more tags to give better context as the_Wolf advised. Maybe "personality death" and "personality change", "soul transfer", "soul transformation" or "soul replacement". And obviously "soul vore".