Shotalashu - The Steed that Conquered the World

According to Paizo’s Pathfinder Occult Bestiary, “Within the alien beauty of the jungles of Castrovel lie untold dangers, as the planet’s wild flora and fauna vie dramatically for dominance. To maintain order and security in their settlements, Castrovel’s native lashunta required steeds with power, speed, and an instinctive knack for traversing the planet’s thick jungles. No creature met these requirements better than the shotalashu, large reptilian creatures that maintained a relatively high place in their ecosystem’s food chain and yet were strangely receptive to the lashunta’s initial friendly overtures. Once incorporated into lashunta society, the shotalashu and their riders quickly became iconic symbols of lashunta culture.” This is the best description of the relationship and special position that Shotalashu hold among Lashunta. Yet to add to this, I would like to explore their natures a little more deeply.   Shotalashu are large, lizardlike beasts about the size of a riding horse, though with longer neck and tail. They also stand shorter at the shoulder, averaging about four feet high. This gives them a squatter, more catlike body-build that is better built for traversing the jungle, rainforest, brush, and tree-limbs over which the Shotalashu prowl, especially for leaping and climbing, covered in fine but tough scales gray mixed with faintly iridescent green and lavender. They have broad sloping heads with a shape suggestive of a bear’s, which makes sense, since in my version of Castrovel, Shotalashu are omnivorous and eat anything they want, just like bears. They are also highly social animals, living in small packs of three to five, and raise their young through adolescence. So they have the athleticism of panthers, the size and eating habits of grizzlies, and also the sophistication of wolves. They would be top-tier predators in any environment, except Castrovel, where twenty-foot tall Nysshalora reign supreme.   Wild Shotalashu are still threatsome and can cause a lot of damage if they raid thurse-livestock or decide that a ripe catcorn field isn’t being reaped fast enough. In fact, the best deterrent against them are the tame, bonded Shotalashu that Lashunta keep for various purposes, transportation, watch, and even sometimes plowing. Lashunta tend to encourage half-tame packs to associate near treeholds, which they can influence either directly through psychic persuasion or indirectly as their bonded steeds establish dominance.   The Lashunta’s taming of Shotalashu is lost to prehistory, though it heralded their militant, aggressive migration out of northern Asana into the continent’s southern reaches, with Damaya wielding bows and spears aback leaping, clawed Shotalashu teamed with hard-driving, axe-swinging Korasha. Yet it is enshrined in legend, as one of the seminal moments in their culture. Though the names change according to place and dialect, it always revolves around a Damaya, who among the Lashunta of the Yaro Valley is named Tess, the First Warrior-Queen, and Shotaviras, the First Shota.