THE
WOOLLY
BOAR |
Appearance. The Woolly
Boar, or Snow Hog, is a stocky pig covered in long coarse hair that protects
them in the tundra of northern Sarvonia. You can tell the
gender of a mature animal by the colour of its hair:
If the coat is white, it is a sow, but if it is black, it
is a mature boar and you should leave immediately, or
risk harm to yourself from his long tusks. All young pigs are coloured the same,
white, and it's the male hormone that causes the colour change. The body of the
male pig will never get over seven
palmspans, but even a beast
that small packs a lot of power. It can weigh between seven and 18
hebs, so it may look small
but its girth is quite immense. The Boar's feet are large, and the bottoms of their
hooves are sharp and bumpy to grip the icy terrain with more confidence. The
head of the Snow Hog looks like any other pig's head, except the ears are much
smaller as to stop heat loss, and the snout is much longer, so the animal can
root around even beneath the deeper snow drifts in its territory. This is also
the primary reason why Woolly Boars have such long,
sharp, menacing tusks. The tusk alone can reach lengths of four
and a half palmspans, and it is slightly curved down for the use
of breaking through frozen water for a drink, and digging for frozen roots and
grasses.
Although the tusks are mainly for feeding, the boars have no problem using them
in self-defense against their main predator, the
Mari or
Ashmarian Wolf, which preys on the slow, lumbering herbivore. The wolf is
very effective in the snow, and although most times the hunt ends with a feeding
frenzy, sometimes the fight ends on the tip of a Boar tusk.
Special Abilities.
None, save fact that a fat, slow beast like this can survive in the frozen
world, even against such adversaries as the Mari.
The tusk of the Hog, if harvested, is worth a lot, for it
is said that it is an item which brings the wearer good
luck in all things, but especially with defending
one-self from unprovoked attacks.
This idea comes from the Myth of the stranded Kuglimz woman who fought off an
entire pack of Maris with the use of only a
pair of Woolly Boar tusks she found in the cave she was hiding in. She had
apparently walked off into the woods and got caught in a terrible, freak
snowstorm. She decided it would be best to wait it out before walking back to
her village, but a passing group of wolves had the same idea, and they found her
in the cave they had chosen to hole up in. As the fable goes,
the woman defended herself and killed seven wolves
before the rest of the pack fled, and she slept soundly for the rest of the
blizzard.
Territory. The Woolly
Boar can be found anywhere north of the Tandala
Highlands, throughout the northern part of Sarvonia. There they are evenly
distributed among the plains and forests, where they take up residence when even
they cannot handle the cold. No one knows why they first migrated there, but
some say they were over hunted by man and forced across the mountains into the
freezing cold temperatures. Others say that the Dragon's
Maw keeps them from crossing the pass into the warmer climate, for a Boar would
be a nice meal for a hungry dragon. Either way, not a
single Woolly Boar has been sighted in the province of Nermeran
or any place south of that.
Habitat/Behaviour.
This pig acts like any other pig, spending its
days looking for food and lolling around. The beast must, however, enter the
forests at night, where a group huddles together for warmth, or it would surely
freeze to death with the lack of the sun's heat. The habitat of the beast is
almost anywhere that has food available, if only under a few feet of snow and
ice.
When attacked, all the females and young pigs make for the relative safety of
forest, while the big, burly males form an arrow shaped rear guard, and any wolf
that overtakes the V are surrounded and spitted by the deadly tusks
if the situation allows. But the pigs have
done this trick too many times, and the wolves therefore often
try to split the pack, sending one half to chase the pigs
towards the other half, where it feasts on the defenseless young, while avoiding
the smaller tusked females.
Diet. The staple of
the Snow Hog's diet is the Alth'ho Grass, which can be
found by scratching through the surface of the snow and pulling the frozen plant
out of the tundra. There are other plants devoured by the animal but these
plants are less common in Northern Sarvonia, like the
Yahrle herb for instance, and the roots of any tree
they come across. The pig is classified as an herbivore,
but in worst case scenarios, this hairy hog has been
known to commit infanticide, but only in very existential
conditions, just before starvation occurs.
Mating. Snow sows are
humorously said to be always pregnant. A mature female can have as many as 40
young a year, coming in four broods a year, with one litter per season. The
reason that they give birth so often to so many young lies in the jaws of the
Mari. It alone consumes almost as many piglets
as are born, and with the deadly cold the population of pigs is kept steadily
low.
Information provided
by Ralhag
|