Siege Elephant

The Siege Elephant is no beast of burden, it is a fortress with tusks. Bred in the hotter provinces of Sanya, these giants are armored in platebound hides, their very skin reinforced with runes hammered into the iron that straps across their sides. Upon their backs rise timber towers, bristling with archers or ballistae, so that each beast strides like a moving citadel through the battlefield. Their charge is terror incarnate: drums thunder, and the ground quakes as they crash through palisades and stone gates alike, tusks shattering wood and bone. Few lines hold against them. Yet their use is not without peril. Even chained and guided by mahouts skilled in spell and steel, these elephants carry tempers as volatile as wildfire. More than one commander has seen their own walls crushed when a panicked siege beast turned back upon its masters.