Lucky Lashet's Six Rules - Lore from Qadaroth

[Thradok]

Lucky Lashet’s Six Rules

I bought my first draaven last week. I learned an important lesson that day: draaven are not meant to be ridden. It might seem like a good idea at the time – believe me, it isn’t. I found out the hard way. So seeing as you’re so keen on making a name for yourself as a trader in this forsaken land, I figured I’d share a few of my hard-learned lessons with you. That way you might have a few less broken bones, and a few more coins to your name.

If you’ve spent any time at the beast-markets in Mazan-Ur you’ll have heard Phatus One-Hand listing his Six Rules of Animal Husbandry while he tries to sell you a blind sand-hawk, or a lame draaven, or one of those horrible lizards that like to lay their eggs in your hair. So you can consider these my Six Rules of Not Breaking Your Leg When You’re Thirty Miles From the Nearest Oasis. Much more useful, and I won’t even try to sell you any lizards either.

So. Rule Number One: Draaven are not meant to be ridden. Self-explanatory, no? You’d think so, but there’s always some idiot who’ll try to find a way to clamber up onto a draaven’s back and ride the damn thing. And by “any idiot”, I mean me. It’s the legs, you see. Just look at them – taller than a man, with twice as much muscle. You can’t blame me for thinking that a draaven would make a nice, fast mount. I realized how wrong I was somewhere between being thrown from its back and smashing my face on the floor. I lost a tooth – look, you can see the gap right here. Anyway, don’t try to ride them. They don’t like it. And a man only has so many teeth.

Rule Number Two: Draaven are not guard animals. Yes, another obvious point. What can I say? I like to test my theories. Actually, you can blame my brother for this one. We have a long-standing bet, you see. He claims that the Ragged Crown is just a rock formation on the Bleak Scarp. I reckon it’s a ruined fort from before the Great Dying. If you look at it when the sun is rising from behind the Scarp, you can see the battlements clear as day. Rock formation? Please. My brother is a bigger idiot than I am. Sorry. Where was I? Right – guard animals. My brother suggested we set our draaven to watch over our camp while we climbed the Scarp. Complete waste of time. When we got back to our camp, one of the draaven had been eaten by swarm-scales and the other had run away. It tangled its horns in our tent as it fled and took that along with it – you could see bits and pieces of our belongings scattered across the scrub for a mile or two. Not the most comfortable of nights, let me tell you. What about the Ragged Crown? You’ll have to find that out for yourself, I’m afraid. A man has to have some secrets, after all.

Moving on. Rule Number Three: Draaven do not like things on their backs. You could probably have figured this out for yourself, especially if you’ve tried riding one. But the same applies to cargo, packs and the like. You have to hang all your goods in bags from the draaven’s sides. Don’t put your valuables on the creature’s back. It will either dislodge and break them, or it will run away. Good luck trying to catch up. Which brings me nicely to rule four.

Rule Number Four: Draaven are faster than you. Really. Don’t even bother. Just buy another tent.

Rule Number Five: Draaven horns are not for decoration. You might think that, as an herbivore, a draaven would be skittish, cowardly, and prone to running away. Well, you’d be right, but that’s not the point. There are two times when a draaven is dangerous. Firstly, when it’s protecting its young. And secondly, when it has nowhere else to run to. I’ve seen draaven mothers tear entire corrals apart to reach their calves. I once saw an Ixcari mercenary beat a young draaven for some reason. The calf let out such a clamor that its mother heard from halfway across the oasis and came running as only a draaven can. The things the mother did to that mercenary... doesn’t bear thinking about. So be nice to the little ones. And don’t corner the older ones anywhere – they really don’t like it.

My final rule is not really a rule at all actually. But calling them Five Rules and a Weird Observation doesn’t sound quite as good, so you’ll have to forgive me. Anyway. Rule Number Six: Draaven were not always like this. Just look at those faces. Can you think of any other desert creatures that look like their lips have been torn off their skulls? It’s not natural, I tell you. And my grandfather agreed. He died when I was young, but he was a boy in the years following the Great Dying. And his grandfather claimed the draaven from before the Great Dying were different. Smaller, less skittish. And with these long snouts that could wiggle around like some of those creepy monkeys from Nupoanqa. Somehow the Great Dying changed them. Filled their minds with fear, warped their bodies, made them monstrous and strange. My grandfather reckoned that the Great Dying wounded the world in some way we can’t properly understand, and the draaven are a part of that somehow. I don’t know. He was a crazy old man.

So there you have it: six rules to a happy and successful life as a draaven trader. Treat them kindly, calmly, and don’t over-burden them – in return they’ll give you many years of loyal service. Treat your draaven poorly and you probably won’t live to tell the tale. Not everyone is as lucky as me, after all.

[Thradok]

This week we have lore from Mark Hope, Lead Writer here at Forsaken Studios, about the draaven. This should answer some questions brought up in the discussion

[Chance]

Vastly amusing Thrad! How about the secret sellers guide? Sell the mother draaven to the unwary traveller on his way out of town. That evening the mother comes back to her child, and you can resell the draaven to the next unlucky traveller. If you are doing your job you would convince the buyer to leave all their expensive goods on the draaven's harness as the draven will protect your goods with those massively dangerous horns, then now only might you get the draaven, but some spare equipment as well.

[muh]

I like! With all this Quadroth candy I really start to reconsider my "home faction". :P

[Thradok]

Vastly amusing Thrad!

Hey, wasn't me, I just post the stuff!

[DarthPies]

Very nice way of telling us what they are and still keeping some mystery and be entertaining. Good work mark.

[Chance]

Hey, wasn't me, I just post the stuff!

Whoops! I mean very amusing work Mark!

[Serpensio]

Oh ho, we get answers now!

So, they're called Draaven, and they are herbivores changed at the time of the great dying.
They are skittish and extremely fast, strong, pack animals which hate being ridden. They are also very dangerous if not treated properly. Also most presumably, as hinted at in rule 6, they used to have a large proboscis. Interesting.

The Scarp is the name of that rocky area in the background of the picture, and the silhouette that looks like habitations is called The Ragged Crown, and most likely has some sort of secret, or they wouldn't be leading us on about it. (Or maybe they just want to laugh at us as we scramble to explore it only to find nothing but rocks, which, no doubt, would be hilarious. )

Swarmscales are highly dangerous creatures in Qadaroth, and gives me the picture of large, swarming, carnivorous insects.

Nupoanqa has creepy monkeys. (Looking forward to seeing them)


Thanks Mark, for the awesome lore, and answers to questions.


So, more probing questions:
How many generations of selective breeding and intense training would it take to breed and train them into a creature useful in war?
--Being that big, and having such major and dangerous horns, I can see the Draaven being breedable into "warhorse" type animals. Sturdy and Strong, and not so skittish. Actually more likely useful as war elephants, put a platform on their back and shoot arrows and let their antlers wreak havok.

If you can't ride them on their backs, how about a saddle at the base of their necks instead? Wedged between the neck and their humped back? If not that, how about basket/platforms mounted on their sides, for war, and lazy travelers (requires one person on each side to direct efficiently)?

Can you use them to drive wagons?

[Bella_Fein]

Very amusing. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Morbus]

"But calling them Five Rules and a Weird Observation doesn’t sound quite as good, so you’ll have to forgive me."

This is my favorite single line in all of the released lore so far.