Talk:Succubus/@comment-71.184.143.100-20150727204515/@comment-26097222-20150813070953

Party -- I see it as a matter of power:weight ratio. It's one of the reasons I believe succubi to be strong enough to physically overpower an adult human. How much wing surface anything -- from hummingbirds to 747s -- needs to become airborne is a function of thrust versus mass. Streamlining reduces the overall thrust requirement, but anything can fly with enough power. A succubus with human level strength wouldn't be able to glide, let alone fly, without magical assistance. But if they're a lot stronger than a human, they might be able to fly. I don't have an equation handy for it, but I do know they exist -- it's part of how aerospace engineers design aircraft wings. A succubus in flight might well resemble a hummingbird, which also has wings that are disproportionate to its size. Which muscle group the wings are tied into matters too. Assuming that the muscles of a succubus are strong in the same propertions relative to each other as the muscles of a human, the hips are the best place to put wings on a female -- no other muscle group in the body is stronger than the legs. Granted, depending on exactly how much stronger a monster is than a human, it might not matter. But it IS the logical placement. So what we're left with is either they fly with magic and just use the wings to steer, or they're much stronger than a human and can get away with flapping wings with a smaller surface area. Or both.