[Whiskey Mike]

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking here for a while and need to ask you about a particular event that's been bothering me. Can someone please explain what was going on with the huge dog that appears to be a hyena and the primitive looking people that were following it?
I believe it was when Loric was in a Warren and the people were described as having fine black hair and were working for the hound instead of the hound working for the people. I'm about 200 pages into MT and was talking about This scene with a buddy who has read all the novels and he couldn't recall it.
BTW this is a great site for a great series!

[Studlock]

I'm pretty sure we were witnessing the domestication of a Homo Erectus-type species by the Hounds of Darkness. I haven't read the book in a while but that's pretty much it from what I remember.

[amphibian]

The hyena/bear dog thing was a Hound of Darkness (also called Deragoth). As Studlock says, the apes were not quite human, but not Tlan Imass or Eresal. They were something else and probably long dead at the "present moment".

At some point in the distant past (as revealed by Osserc's vision warren thing that Loric stumbled into), the apes were not the masters of the planet. It was the Deragoth who ruled, with their brute strength and actual intelligence allowing them to dominate everything else there.

[Egwene]

Erikson's version of a chicken and egg question! Did humans shape dogs or did contact with dogs shape humans. I thought it an interesting motion at the time that maybe our ancestors getting involved with the forbears of dogs might have shaped the way humans evolved. Maybe our ancestors were watching hyenas/wolves etc. hunting in packs, maybe supporting them, then profiting from the kill as well... After all, many modern large animals scavenge from the prey brought down by pack hunters like wolves or painted dogs etc.