Drarin
These gentle beasts have almost an enigmatic quality about them. Those hunting them have reported their shots going straight through them and then them appearing behind them. Or the crystal-like ice shards on their lanterns refracting the sunlight and then blinding the hunters. The Vikarahn have learned over the generations to garner a great deal of respect for these creatures. In their culture, the Drarin are seen as a manifestation of the ancestors. Either way, if you plan to hunt Drarin, you may find the going to be quite tough indeed, or you may merely see this as a challenge to be overcome. Either way, you should respect these creatures.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Drarin are quadrupedal hooved animals with large antlers upon the crown of their head. Along each of the branches of their white almost grey antlers are crystalline like ice shards that glitter in the sunlight and refract the light. They vary in coat colour and antler structure. Some have smaller antlers, while others have larger and more ornate antlers.
Biological Traits
With the ice shard crystals along each of the branches of their antlers, they are able to refract light and create rainbows as well as mirror copies of themselves. This is probably a defense mechanism that they utilize, but the mirror copies are not even real and always follow the movements of the original and once they are struck, they disappear as though they were never there at all. They have large feet with crescent shaped cloven hooves for walking in snow.
Genetics and Reproduction
Drarin mate somewhere around early Endora and the gestation period is around 5 months. During the mating season, males battle for access to the females. Two males will try to lock antlers with one another and try to push each other away. To give birth, females will travel to relatively isolated locations, preferably with as few predators as possible.
Ecology and Habitats
Drarin range across a variety of cold climates and biomes, including tundra, mountains, the arctic, and subarctic. They are well adapted to the cold and for snowy conditions.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Primarily, Drarins eat lichens, though they will also eat the leaves of willows and birches, as well as sedges and grasses. Another curious habit they have is they are known to gnaw on and partially consume shed antlers.
Behaviour
They have a gentle nature, while also not really caring about the presence of people much any longer. A person could walk right into the clear where they are grazing and they would merely look up and go right back to grazing.
Additional Information
Social Structure
They are migratory herd animals, who will mainly follow the females as they migrate.
Domestication
Drarins have long been domesticated for many generations, raised mainly for their meat as well as pelts and wool.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
People in arctic regions depend on Drarins for food, clothing and shelter. Some in Highwind will also utilize them as mounts.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
They range across the northern region of Atlantea, particularly around the Cascade Mountains, as well as the Highwindian Mountains in Highwind and the rest of Highwind. They're also widely found in Arctica.
Colour
Water-Frost
Evolutionary Stage
1
85 to 150 cm at the shoulder.
80 to 182 kg
162 to 214 cm
They range in a variety of colours, sometimes even changing between seasons, from white to grey to light to dark brown.
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