[DQG] In the Saddle

[davewoodrum]

Re: An Odd Note

Did you know that rhinos are safer to ride than hippos. Heck, white rhinos in zoos commonly bond with their keepers.

Fantasy beasts (and beasts in fantasy) used as mounts and beasts of burden have included:

•Cats
•Dragons
•Foxes
•Frogs and Toads
•Giant Eagles
•Giant Frogs
•Giant Goats
•Griffons
•Hawks and Eagles
•Hippogriffs
•Pegasi
•Ravens and Crows
•Song Birds

One real life animal I forgot was the giant tortoise. Not just the Galapagos Tortoise, but those from the Seychelles as well. ("The AC is fantastic, but his charge is pitiful.")

Rhinos make for great combative mounts. Hippos are really just dangerous creatures all around... despite their size, plant devouring tendencies, and the fact that animated one looks so friendly on Devo's "The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise" video, the creatures are just plain mean, hateful, and all sorts of other bad stuff.
Rhinos on the other hand are just mean when mating... I was at the Knoxville zoo several years ago and there was one grunting (you could almost really see steam shooting from his nostrils) and hoofing at the dirt... another male rhino was facing off.... a nervous zoo handler was ACTUALLY IN THE VALLEY AREA... what an idiot! He looked REAAAALLLL Nervous!
I remember it well... the height of Beavis And Butthead came out in me... without thinking I remember saying something to the degree of "Alright! A Fight! Dude, Somebody's Gonna Get Their A** Kicked!"

 

[Vocenoctum]

....that and I can just see the sceanario... the dog/rabbit thingy is eagerly digging away while the half bored rider is perched on it's back going... "faster, come on... faster! We've not even made it into the ground yet... faster!"

When I was making my Badger Warrior (holy burrowing barbarians batman!) I looked at some of the burrowing animals. Some of the movement rates aren't really bad, but the important thing was that there wasn't really much of a difference between burrowing through stone and burrowing through dirt IIRC>

Not that I could see an entire book dedicated to burrowing mounts, but I'm sure they'd fit in with some other book

 

[tensen]

The gallant paladin rides in in his best armor, sword in hand and screaming "Evil begone!!!" when his swine mount fails to see the ditch and both go sprawling into the creek. Wet, depressed and just plain embarrassed the paladin walks away from the battle defeated mentally.


*ahhh, what an image!*

As an art director are you currently sitting there going through your list of regular artists and thinking of who would do the best version of that?

 

[CCamfield]

Re: Re: Re: Volume 1???

In real life people have tried a number of animals as mounts. Below I present a partial list, featuring those animals I can recall.

<<snip>>

•Elephants (Asian and African Savannah. I don't know about the African Forest Elephant)

Well, the elephants used by the Carthaginians were from North Africa; they were a smaller breed than the "African Savannah" type. I don't know if they were Forest Elephants per se or not.

Thinking about other fantasy mounts... in the Malazan Empire series there are some mysterious people who use giant insects as flying mounts. (Mysterious because they wear insectoid armour and never let anyone see their real appearance.) And although I can't put my finger on any particular book, I'm pretty sure I remember books with more bestial - carnivorous - mounts for evil riders. Of course there are dragons and wyverns and so forth.

A swine mount does sound silly... but a dire boar might be a pretty cool and vicious mount for an evil nature-based villain.

 

[Wolv0rine]

LOL! That rocked!

Bay Of Pigs?

LOL, oh that'd be great... an entire war fought on pig-back. hehehe

 

[mythusmage]

I don't see swine riders as being popular sorts. After all, they would tend to hog the limelight.

Another real life animal that was once used as a beast of burden/riding animal was the quagga. A relative of the zebra. It's now extinct.

Other real life animals folks have tried out as beasts of burden include:

•Antelope
•Deer (includes elk (wapiti), moose (elk) and reindeer (caribou))
•Musk Ox
•Tapir

On the world of Ærth (Dangerous Journeys: Mythus) the Atlantlans ride zebromegas (xaquagl to the Atlantlans). Domesticated plains zebras bred to the size of a destrier.

Ærth also has a number of beasts extinct in the real world, including the great Auroch, which one can be certain have been used at one time or another as beasts of burden. For example, the continent of Vargaard (our North America) has wooly mammoths. Add in a mahout from the Hindic lands, and life on the plains of Vargaard changes forever.

Horses, donkeys, ponies, mules, dogs, camels (dromedaries and bactrians) cattle (in the form of oxen (castrated bulls)), and the Asian Elephant became widely used as beasts of burden because of their reliability and and bidability. That is, they can be readily trained and will perform well; if grudgingly in some cases. Of the above dogs, horses, and the Asian Elephant often form strong emotional bonds with humans, coming to think of us as members of the pack or herd.

That's it for this time. Hope you enjoyed these postings on mounts.

 

[Krug]

Too late to get a copy? ;P even for review?

 

[davewoodrum]

quagga? Thanks mythusmage, I'm gonna have to look this one up... it may be useful on an... uhm, another project we are currently developing at the moment (exciting but secret)....

 

[tensen]

Too late to get a copy? ;P even for review?

Too late to get in on the 10. However, Krug, I believe I have you on our standard list for review copies. But send over an email to me, just in case.

 

[mythusmage]

quagga? Thanks mythusmage, I'm gonna have to look this one up... it may be useful on an... uhm, another project we are currently developing at the moment (exciting but secret)....

A relative of the zebra. Solid brown on the front, shading to stripes on the back. Genetic tests on an old quagga hide has shown that it was a type of zebra, and not a zebra/horse hybrid as some had thought.

Please note that most species Man has tried riding really didn't work out. They were either too intractable to be trained as riding animals, or too uncomfortable a ride. The best riding animals (horses, camels, and elephants) are trainable, large enough to comfortably ride, provide a good seat, and readily bond with humans. Something not true of all the others. For example, the eland is large enough for an adult human to ride, but they're near impossible to handle.

It comes down to, is it a true herd animal? A true herd animal will gather together in herds for mutual protection. A good example of this is the Cape Buffalo. Members of a herd will assist any member in distress, and will cooperate against predators. Gazelles don't do this. Gazelles only gather into groups when a male puts together a harem. And when he's done with getting the ladies pregnant, the harem breaks up. We were able to domesticate cattle because they were able to accept us as surrogate herd leaders. Gazelle can't be domesticated because they have no real herd leaders.

Cats and rhinos (We're now finding out) apparently accept us as surrogate mothers. House cats and lions will share parenting of the young, which could be why house cats look upon us as stand-in parents, but why rhinos bound with people remains a mystery.

So when designing a fantasy riding animal here's a few questions to ask yourself.

Is it a herding animal? Or one that gathers in some form of mutually supporting group?

Do such groups have a leader?

Does the animal bond with people?

Is it large enough to carry the prospective riders comfortably?

Can it be trained well enough to be trustworthy while carrying a rider?

Does it perform well enough as a riding animal to be worth keeping as a riding animal?

Finally, I end this posting with a trivia question. Three species of mammal have been to the south pole. Two of them are humans and dogs. Can you name the third?