The big first try

Torek Ozzot

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The big first try

« on: 24 May 2001, 20:36:00 »

Ok here it is my first shot at a full bestiary entree. I'm gonna keep this format for my entrees, so if there's any headings you'd like to see added let me know! (If any of my facts were wrong, or if you'd like to see a change in something, don't hold back on the newbe!)

NAME: Ashmarian Wolf

Description/background: The Ashmarian wolf, also known as the "mari", (MAR-E) is one of the most sleek and beautiful predators that ever graced the snow and ice. Their fur is soft and sleek, yet retains quite a lot of heat, or in this case, keeps out quite a lot of cold. Females have grayish to black fur on their backs and sides, and are snowy white on their underbelly. Males on the other hand are almost always completely white, except for patches of gray on the face and paws. The paws themselves are webbed; acting like snowshoes, and letting the wolf reach high speed even in deep snow, and slippery ice. Very rarely does this wondrous creature have to use its speed however, as it prefers to hunt it's pray by stealth. Moving silently in the snow, this wolf can see movement up to 150 feet away. That’s in the dead of night, when the mover is camouflaged in its surroundings. Even more amazing is the mari's sense of smell. Ashmarian wolves have such strong sense of smell that they now when to enter their caves at night before it snows! They can actually smell the change in the air and predict if the snow will make it to hard to hunt. In fact villages in Northern Sarvonia often spy on packs of these wolves, to see what the weather will be like the next day! They have strong jaws, and large pointed teeth, in a criss cross pattern like the teeth on a saw blade. Lager maris have even been known to bite through their own legs in a single bite, when caught in a hunter's trap. The most defining feature about the Ashmarian wolf, is definitely its eyes. One can easily get lost in the yellow, gold eyes of this majestic creature. Some more fanatic lovers of the mari even go so far as to say that they shine of the same intellect as humans or elves do…

Habitat/Behavior: Ashmarian Wolves live up north. They like it were it's cold, because that’s where they have the most advantage. In a warmer climate they may have some trouble living, but almost anywhere in Northern Sarvonia, you will find them at the top of the food chain. Packs of these hunters can be found from along the Readmeade River, to the Shaded Forest, all the way up to the Imlith Mountains. Some cases have been found of packs of wolves being seen in the northern parts of Southern Sarvonia around Dragons Maw and the Northern peak, but the only conferment wolf pack in this region can be found in the Tandala Highlands. There are even a few brave maris that inhabit the isle of Denilou, though no one knows how they got out that far. The mari lives and dies with the its pack. The pack will always have a leader, and usually it's a female. During the day the Hunters, both male and female, sleep, while the others take the young out to play and to teach them skills they will need to live. At night the hunters do just that, while the young ones rest. They are very picking when it comes to where they live. I say "live" because, unlike most wolf packs maris live their whole life in the spot that they choose, they don’t wander from place to place. Because of this they are very, very territorial, even more so then other wolves, and unless you are seen as a friend, you will be chased from a maris land. Most often this is in an inclosed area with several small caves, or dens, but cases were old trees, and even abandoned houses are used as a home are not unheard of.

Diet/predators: Maris are on top of their food chain in more northern parts of the world. They pray on any thing that may enter their territory, ranging from rats, to deer, to even humans (only hunters foolish enough to try and take on a pack of wild maris) There is even one tale of a pack of maris killing a Giant spider that made a home near there own. There are few things that can challenge them in their native, frozen homeland, and there are very few mari that leave there.

Mating: Ashmarian wolves follow a strict mating season, and never sway from it at all. The season starts with the pack picking mates, each male picks 2-3 females (Which is rather strange as maris seem to be female dominated) and they hunt for those females that he chooses during the pregnancy, witch takes place a few months latter. They give birth to small litters of 4-6 cubs, 2 of which usually die, or are deemed too weak and left for death. The others are then taken care of by their mothers until they are old enough to see. After that time they are given up to the whole pack, and each is responsible for every cub, not just there own. This takes place every 3-4 years, just when the cubs are old enough to start hunting.

Statistics (full Grown)
Small Average large
Weight (male) 40-45lbs 60-75lbs 90-105lbs
Weight (female 30-40lbs 50-65lbs 75-90lbs
Height 1.5feet 2-2.5feet 3-3.5feet
(on all 4's)

Landspeed 20-30 km/h
Water speed 5-10km/h
Temperature tolerance -55c - 20c
Range of sight above average
Range of hearing average
Range of smell amazing

And there you have it! Not bad for a nights work, if i do say so myself. The only problem I had was finding all the different measurements that this world uses. some one help me out with that and then I'm set. (I know length is the "PED" but how long is a ped? I need the ones for speed weight and temp.)

Edited by: Torek Ozzot at: 5/24/01 3:40:46 am


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #1 on: 25 May 2001, 02:18:00 »

Very good indeed, Torek! Also good ideas on how to divide the entry etc. Well, if we do decriptions with such details, maybe we should also add some more specific information for role players e.g. like: hit points, special attacks, agility etc. I'm not an expert here, but this surely would be appreciated, if not in the near future, but later on perhaps. This way it would be easier for role players to rely on the Santharian bestiary for own games.

We also should finally set up some measurement tables, this would make things easier. A ped for example is the length of one step or 1 meter. And yes, we should also have our own words for km/h and celsius, feet and lbs and decide how long a Santharian day is in fact and where this all derives from. Will try to work on these things this weekend and make a Compendium entry. We'll see.

Ok, Ashmarian Wolf would be ready for the site, maybe you could add the proposed RPG adjustments if you have some experience there. Do you plan to add another wolf type now, so that we have some more variety in wolf things?


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Winlok

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #2 on: 25 May 2001, 10:50:00 »

The first thing that popped out at me was distance...a ped = to a metre etc. Anyways what I propose would be to fashion all measurements, in the form of peds, etc. In the historical section, maintaining that was how things were measured then. as in B.s. Then using lbs and feet and everyday measurements in stories more recent as in A.b. That way you would make a sytem that more redaers could relate to.

btw: my sister has a young boy that howls a lot, could we use him? As another type of wolf


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #3 on: 25 May 2001, 13:13:00 »

about the new wolf type...

And yup, sounds reasonable, Winlok. If I get it right we then have the following currently used measurements in Santharia and in English speaking countries (according to my dictionary):

Linear Measures
inch
foot
yard
mile

Square Measures
square inch
square inch
square yard
square rod
rood
acre
square male

Weights
grain
ounce
pound
stone
quarter
hundredweight
ton

Liquid Measures
gill
pint
quart
gallon
barrel

Are these right? Any thing wrong/missing? Please correct me or add some thing you are missing, then I can find Santharian equivalents...


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Torek Ozzot

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #4 on: 25 May 2001, 14:22:00 »

If you'd like me too I can work on other wolf types, or another animal. And yes all the measurements are right, but they're all old school American. Up here in Canada we use the metric system. Also, if you'd like me too, I'll go over some of the characters and do up some stats for em' I'm into rpgs and stuff like that so it should be fun.


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Winlok

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #5 on: 25 May 2001, 14:44:00 »

I think in most cases, stone, quarter, and hundred weight are skipped. Because we go from pounds to tons.

A barrel is also generally referred to as a quarter keg, a gallon keg, etc. With no real distinction as to it's real measure. I have never really heard of a gill, but after some research. (My dictionary which is very vague usually has a gill and its meaning, but my thesaurus which is one of the better ones has nothing about a gill) So it comes from the French, meaning a quarter pint, but in English it is usually a cup.

Square Measures
square inch
square inch
square yard
square rod
rood
acre
square male

These measurements are okay if you were to measure area.

Unused fact: there is a ton used in metric measurements but it is spelled tonne.<---notice the French influence here

Linear Measures
inch
foot
yard
mile

Square Measures
square inch
square inch
square yard
square rod
rood<---rod
acre
square male<---mile

Weights
grain= not used often but referrs to a single unit. For example not a cob of corn, but a kernel
ounce
pound

ton

Liquid Measures
pint
quart
gallon
barrel=varies

Everything that Torek said is correct, although personally I hate metric, although if I grew up measuring everything in metric units, then it would probably be esaier. Thats for another generation though.

Edited by: Winlok at: 5/24/01 9:48:16 pm


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Greybark

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #6 on: 25 May 2001, 20:10:00 »

I agree that using metric make more sense, in the real world. However, in writing fantasy, we try to preserve a bit of the sense of the archaic....a yard being the length of the king's pace, and an inch the length of his thumb, rather than using a metre which is 1/1millionth of the circumference of the earth or something like that.

Also don't forget leagues, furlongs, and spans....:)


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #7 on: 26 May 2001, 11:04:00 »

Leagues, furlongs, and spans? Can you tell me any details? How long is a league, a span etc.


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Gean Firefeet

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #8 on: 27 May 2001, 05:00:00 »

I can fill you in on league, it was used by the ancient Greec and Romans (if I'm correct) do denote the length of a stadium, used for example for their Olympic games. A league was the distance the chariots (see Ben Hur) had to go from one end to the other of the stadium. I guess I can somewhere find the precise length, but I thought it was over 100 meters.


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Greybark

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Re: The big first try

« Reply #9 on: 31 May 2001, 20:37:00 »

Furlongs and leagues used by Tolkien, but not sure of length. Span I think is the width of a spread-out hand.