Evolution of Wargs

Question

Larger than average lupine species with a rudimentary language, isolated from outside influences. Let's set them in a chillier wooded area where they hunt and live in packs of 20-30. How would the wargs evolve over 2 and a half millennium?

edit: I realize this is quite broad, but I suppose I had to start somewhere, thanks for the input though, I'll work on refining my questions when I find time between school and other activities!

Want to include a link and summary of just what it is you’re talking about? — JDługosz, Aug 20 '16 at 07:10
Are you asking for how they might have evolved to become wargs or how the wargs would evolve? — Skye, Aug 20 '16 at 07:16
Welcome to Worldbuilding, Anglachel, you have sent the hares racing. You can improve your question by giving more details about wargs, their environment, their behaviour, and linguistic capacity. presently there's not enough information to know what changes might occur. By the way, 2.5 millennia is far too short for evolution proper to make much change to any species except under the most extreme conditions. — a4android, Aug 20 '16 at 09:49
Are you asking how the wargs could evolve from some prior form to the form you describe in 2500 years, or are you asking how a creature starting out the way you describe might evolve over the next 2500 years? Those two questions are very different, and it'd help if you can clarify. For the former, you may be interested in How fast could a directed breeding program turn another Earth species intelligent? (note that natural, undirected evolution should always take longer to accomplish a given phenotype change than directed breeding) — user, Aug 20 '16 at 22:08
I mean I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it’s written to an audience that knows what a warg is. — JDługosz, Aug 21 '16 at 01:57

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 20 '16 at 07:21

As always with evolutionary questions, "it depends". 2,500 years isn't time for a great deal of biological evolution, although it allows for a lot of cultural change.

For biological evolution, the question is what external pressures the species is under. Does the climate grow cooler or warmer? Do new prey species move into the area, or old ones become extinct?

For cultural change, we think there needs to be language, and it needs to be sufficiently flexible to express ideas that aren't just about the here and now. If the language becomes capable of that, and there are motivations to use it, things might change fairly quickly. We can only guess at what the minds of sapient wolves might be like: there's an entertaining answer, albeit in a wolf brought up by humans, in the webcomic Freefall.

It's possible for culture to influence biological evolution, which might well speed it up. If, for example, there were varying levels of sapience among a population of wolves, and the high-functioning ones started selecting similar mates, that could breed up their mental capability significantly within the timescale you're talking about. However, this is uncertain; they might also become excessively inbred and die out.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 20 '16 at 16:53

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One excersize I like to do when considering species evolution is to first look at the end result and then consider how they might have "gotten there". For example: The current day species could be your Wargs - which started out (example) as small forest-dwelling rodents.

Now if you're defining Warg as George R.R. Martin describes them you need a pairing Warg and (usually) Human. If your defining Warg as Tolkien describes them then you're talking about a big, evil wolf-type creature. Depending on the type of Warg, evolution of the beast /man pairing or beast by itself can be a pretty interesting story all by itself.

answered Aug 20 '16 at 16:53

Tenacity

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Feedback to help the author improve the question is not an Answer. You need some more points efore you can post comments, alas. – JDługosz Aug 21 '16 at 01:59
Welcome to Worldbuilding, Tenacity, I can see you're trying to provide the OP with tools to devise answers to their own question. Perhaps if you edited your answer to show what the results of your proposed exercises would be like this will help the answer the question. Things can be tricky and complex around, but in time you'll get a hang of the rules. – a4android Aug 21 '16 at 05:43

Evolution of Wargs

2 Answers2