Land Of Giants
Ash and Ruin Creature Feature
This is the forth and final entry of a set intended to reveal some of the world defining creatures of the world of Ash and Ruin. This one presents a menagerie of the most defining giants of the Treadlands. The Gret Reka Gor is a gigantic bird with a lance-like beak; A warrior god of the skies that rules over the coasts of the Treadland. The mighty Kalth is a giant cat, apex of the plains. The monstrous Ogul is a manlike creature of enormous size and elephantine skin that has begun to master simple tools and fire. The Treadlands are truly a land of giants. These few are more than enough to keep all but the Vret - the human residents of the Treadlands, far from its shores.
The Gret Reka Gor
A mature Gret Reka Gor towers two fold when standing next to a Vret. The patterns of it’s feathers differ from one to the next, with the female favoring whites and grays and the males featuring pinks, greens, and yellows. Each sport a plume of yellow like a crown.
The Gret Reka Gor is a versatile hunter. It can land in shallow water or on dry ground withits elongated legs, where it thrusts its beak into larger prey using its craning neck, tugging and twisting to remove digestible bits. It can also subsist on smaller prey by swallowing it whole like its seagull cousins. On occasion, it spears prey from flight, folding its neck to absorb the shock, resting the prey just above its chest as it takes flight. This is typically the behavior of a hunting male bringing food back to its nesting partner and brood.
For whatever reason, the Gret Reka Gor are prone to treat manned ships as feasting platters. Should a ship approach the coasts of the Treadlands, there is a good chance that one of these terrors will land upon the deck. They might even roost upon the vessel after picking it clean. It is this very habit that has very likely protected the Treadlands from foreign incursion.
The Kalth
Akin to lions in posture and frame, with elongated fangs, oversized body, and a thick hide, the mighty kalth is the apex predator of the Treadlands. A kalth will stalk the plains alone, searching for prey throughout the day and resting in a burrow or bluff at night. When coupled and rearing young, the male kalth will hunt day and night, often to the point of exhaustion.
The kalth has been a threat to the Vret since histories told. Keeping the children close to the group, keeping prey animals in abundance, and hunting the beast in some frequency allows for some cohabitation. Kalth hunts are a daring activity that can earn honor for a Vret, as well as meat, claw, and hide for their tribe.
The Kalth is both revered and treasured by the Vret for many reasons. Chief among them, perhaps, is their thick, pale, hide. While the beast lives, its hide has been known to deny cuts from the strongest warriors, or arrows from the most taut bows. Once treated and worked by a skilled tanner, the material rivals steel in its sturdiness, yet bends, breathes, and takes ink clearly. Kalth hide armor seems to seal its own cuts in the heat of the Treadlands sun. For a Vret warrior, there can be no greater material protection, and few greater marks of honor.
The Kalth’s hide can be treated to create exceptional armor that only the most honored Vret may wear.
The Ogul
Ogul are manlike creatures of enormous size and strength with thick elephantine hides, heavy jaws and a hunched posture. They occupy the eastern reaches of the Treadlands, beyond the mountains that border the domain of the Vret. The Ogul are not civilized by any standard. Though, they do seem to have a sophisticated mind capable of creating simple weapons and constructing totems of their own. Most impressively, using materials abundant in their territories, the Ogul create explosives and use them to devastating effect.
Ogul can be found as individuals or in coupled families with young. If the Ogul are anything, they are fiercely territorial, and will kill any non-Ogul indiscriminately. Each Ogul sets up their own large territory, marking it with totems and protecting it with traps, snares, and alarms. The central Ogen lake of their territory appears to be a neutral ground for Ogul, who will carry its waters to their own territory. Otherwise, an Ogul will attack any Ogul it does not intend to couple with.
While the Ogul most often settle in the more fertile stretches near the great Ogen Lake, many will claim as their own a place in the vast Treadlands beyond. Their expansion occasionally imposes upon Vret territories, with their explosive traps maiming hunters and caravans. They will also hunt and eat mankind without qualms. They seem to have a basic language of guttural grunts and clanking teeth. Unfortunately, none have learned to speak or comprehend it, making the Ogul a threat however it is encountered.
That’s it for this creature feature series. There are already many more explored in the world of Ash and Ruin, and more yet to come. Intrigued? Face your own tribulations with The Crucible Edition.
