Mmkay, here's beastie #1 - the Oreg...
A Short Treatise on the Habits and Uses of the OregBy Kyir, of Karuk CollegePhysical Features: The Oreg are shorter at the shoulder than Fubarnii, but longer and bulkier animals. Their front legs are short and firm-footed, their back legs much longer and incredibly muscular. Their large and strong beaks are mostly good for browsing vegetation, and they have quite rounded bodies and stubby tails.
The Kopa exhibits a number of other features not found in the Sempa or Jenta; Kopa grow large “spikes” on each shoulder, which are extremely tough and very dangerous weapons for the beast. They also have thick and hardened brow-ridges of bone to protect them from impacts to the head, and their back is covered in almost “armour” formed out of thick bony ridges.
Behaviour: The Sempa are generally quite docile animals, and pretty useless to anyone; Oreg meat is almost inedibly tough, and they produce no other significantly useful by-products. The Kopa look rather different as has been noted, and behave similarly differently; Oreg Kopa are some of the most bad-tempered, stubborn, pointlessly aggressive creatures a Fubarnii could ever have the misfortune to come across. Both types are mostly herbivorous in the wild, but will eat carrion at times if they find it.
Each Kopa will generally have 2-5 Sempa, and along with their Jenta they will roam around in small family groups. When two families meet, it is common for the Kopa to “joust” with their large shoulder-spikes, using their large hind legs to launch themselves at each other, grappling almost in mid-air at times. They can do serious injury to one another or even cause death in these contests. The defeated Kopa will generally lose one of his Sempa to the victor.
The Sempa tend to back away along with their Jenta in times of trouble; Kopa rarely flee from anything, giving them a solid reputation for stubborn-ness. Capturing an Oreg is a very risky business and many a Fubarnii has died in the process at times. It is not only Fubarnii who can regret taking on an Oreg, though; they will almost always fight rather than back down even against a Devanu or Grishak, and their shoulder-spikes can do very severe damage or even on occasion kill even these large predators. That is not to say the Oreg would usually win such a fight – it would be immensely rare for one to survive tussling with a Devanu – but the cost of killing one can be surprisingly and painfully high.
Domestication: Despite the seemingly useless nature of these beasts, Fubarnii across the Empire have found a reason to capture Oreg and even breed them; pit-fighting. Oreg are bred for the toughest and most muscular Kopa, and then sent into the pit to battle it out – as, of course, it is in their nature to do. Establishments can be found in many towns and cities offering the chance to see the breathtaking if cruel spectacle; as long as a businessman is prepared to go to the bother of capturing a few Oreg or finding breeders prepared to go to a new fighting-pit, digging out a pit and adding fences is easy, as is creating some viewing platforms and possibly a betting stand to make a little extra for the owner.
Breeding and capturing the Oreg is still dangerous, of course; nevertheless, breeders continue their trade as the best Kopa for breeding will fetch nearly as much as an Enuk Nobilis would (not that a Nobilis would usually be sold on the markets, of course!).
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Picture:The Sempa and Kopa are shown with their heads (heads mostly so you can see the Kopa’s brow-ridge). Next to them and the Fubarnii scale-bar (which is prolly a little high, that’d be a pretty tall Fubarnii) there’s a doodle of an Oreg-fighting establishment; a tower with a viewing gallery inside and a flat-topped outdoor viewing platform next to it. In front is the deep, fenced pit with two badly-drawn Oreg battling it out inside (less well off spectators would stand around the pit fence, whereas better off Fubarnii would watch from higher up, possibly hiring a viewing-glass for a better view).