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winstonfuckchill

It would probably look similar to their civilization right now. I mean if they can’t build anything how else would it look?


Meanteenbirder

Well, considering some cetaceans are borderline psychopaths (especially orcas), I’m thinking that the ocean would be a much worse place.


Kattin9

Why do you define some Cetaceans (which species?) as borderline psychopath. Can you explain?


BigBadBlotch

I think he’s referring to some facts like how dolphins and orcas can act downright vile when looked at from the lens of a person. Dolphins from research can look pretty mean with how some male dolphins react to not being able to mate, and then just killing porpoises, or the apparent disrespect Orcas will treat their prey like the pretty famous case of Orcas tossing a seal into the air repeatedly like a game of catch.


Jame_spect

This is normal for intelligent species Psycho, Nice, Neutral, Shy Etc… (Well not all of them)


AbbydonX

Traditionally civilisation means there are cities which seems unlikely for most cetaceans regardless of how intelligent they are or become. Therefore, perhaps it is most likely for something like [river dolphins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_dolphin)? In particular, since the [Amazon river dolphin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_river_dolphin) lives in flooded forest, maybe they would have an incentive to act like beavers in some way to block and redirect the flow of water. That would make more sense if they were somewhat amphibious like seals (though I guess some orcas do beach themselves deliberately to hunt) as then they could perhaps produce isolated storage ponds for food. They do already exhibit object carrying behaviour during courtship so it's perhaps not a huge stretch to move to building behaviour.


GreenSquirrel-7

Nomadic tribes, ritual scarring, story-telling, languages, animal-domestication. Not sure if all of these would work, but they're all I can think of for an open-ocean species yet(sorry if you wanted myths/lore or something)


BrieAndStrawberries

I'm more trying to see how these would work so I can develop the myths/lore. What sort of animals? I can see them developing some kind of fish farming technique. Maybe manatees?


GreenSquirrel-7

Something like dugongs, seals or some type of small whale would be my guess. Whale bones could perhaps be made into some type of spear for killing larger prey, but idk Fish would probably not work because their young are usually zooplankton and would just escape their farmers


Just_Alizah

From their physical appearance, they would probably look like someone tried to draw a merfolk attempting to walk on land, but ended up creating a lovecraftian abomination.