Bromal
BASIC INFORMATION
ANATOMY
Bromals are large and heavy quadrupedal herbivores, that can range in size from 20-30ft long, 10-15 ft in height at the shoulder and 13-18ft at the humps and the same in width. Bromals resemble a mix between a hump-backed camel, a giraffe and an elephant. They have a humped back, short tail, long slim legs, and a long neck that dips down to a broad slopping narrow head. The bodies of their domesticated forms are covered in darker, stockier and woollier hide than their wild counterparts, which is usually light brown but can be grey. Their shoulders and hip joints are more elevated upon their bodies, moving with a slow soft wide-spreading pad for walking on sand, its gait is a pace, moving both legs on a side moving together. The Bromals long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). Males and females are distinguished mainly with the height of their two broad humped bumps between their shoulder blades and lower back (male humps are usually adding 2-3 ft in height, while females have smaller 1-2 ft humps), with long necks sloping downward to the ground. Their heads are long, flat and smoothly sloped down its sides, with forward-facing eyes, with long-horns that protrude around the sides of their heads, behind and below their eyes (2-3 ft in length) sloping down by the tips to indicate females, and curve upward to indicate males. They have heavy eyelashes to protect the eyes from blowing sands, and short trunks (1 ft long) with nostrils that can be squeezed shut. They have horny pads of thick tissue over the sternum, on their chest (the pedestal) and knees to protect it from the searing desert sand when it lies down in the sternal recumbent position. They do not walk on their hooves, on each leg, weight is borne on two large toes spread apart to keep the animal sinking into the sand. Their mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny plants. Their lips split into two sections that move independently. Short bursts of 30-35 miles per hour are possible, but Bromals are excellent plodders. They carry more than 600 lbs for 26 miles in a day, while the more lightly built Bromals can carry up to 300-400lbs for 34 miles if they are worked in the coolness of the night. During catastrophic droughts, herdsmen may lose all of their cattle, sheep and goats while 60-70% of the Bromals survive, owing to the camel's ability to conserve water and tolerate dehydration. In severe heat, a bromal can survive 7-8 days without drinking, but it can go 10 months without drinking at all if it is not working and the forage contains enough moisture. Even salty water can be tolerated, and between drinks, it forages from oases to find food unable to other livestock. They lose only 1.4 litres of fluid intake every day while other livestock loses up to 20-40 litres per day. The body rehydrates within minutes of a long drink, absorbing over 180 litres (45 gallons) in 5-10 minutes. Most pack or herd animals could not tolerate the sudden dilution of blood, because their red blood vessels would burst - a bromals membranes are viscous (that is, sticky and flow-resistant) which permits swelling. A thirsty Bromal can reduce its urine output to one-fifth its normal volume and produce faeces dry enough for herders to use as fuel for fires. Another adaptation is the minimization of sweating. The fine woolly coat insulates the body, reducing heat gain. The Bromal can allow its body temperature to rise to 43 degrees Celsius before sweating at all. This reduces the temperature difference between the Bromal and its environment and thereby reduces heat gain and water loss by as much as two-thirds. Only in the hottest weather must the camel sweat. A shorn bromal must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. It tolerates extreme dehydration and can lose up to 25-30% of its body weight - twice that would be fatal for most mammals (12-14%). When it exhales, water vapour becomes trapped in its nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Bromals eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies hydrated state without the need for drinking. Bromals have also adapted to desert conditions by being able to endure protein deficiency and eat items other livestock would avoid, such as thorns, dry leaves, saltbush, cacti and roots. When food is plentiful, Bromals 'overeat', storing fat in one area on the back and forming two humps. When the fat is depleted, the humps sag to the side or disappear. Storing fat in one place also increases the body's ability to dissipate heat everywhere else.
GROWTH RATE & STAGES
Calves are those that are just born, maturing and spending the first 2 years of their life with their mother and herd, suckled up to the first 26 months, then force weaning and begin growing rapidly after this. They only have short 5-6 inch longhorns by this point. Bucks, after 2 years reach the size of a cow and are very energetic, and like to search and excavate things with their small horns. They will remain Bucks for six years. Brawns, the adult phase of a Bromal is reached at least when they grow to the 15-foot long size and their horns have developed to one foot in length. Males are distinguished by the larger humps that grow upon their backs. Their lifespan is usually lasting around 80-120 years. Females and males reproduce until about 40-50 years old.
ECOLOGY AND HABITATS
Bromals are widespread across the tropics and arid lands of the Aetha'Shar continent, thriving mostly within the Duat'Tera and Vashara Deserts, but are known to migrate into the eastern lands of Ozon'Siiari, the southern sub-continent of Savasha. They are avid survivors, able to adapt in any area that is warm and even inhospitable for many months before migrating to places of rich vegetation to gorge and scour roots and thorny plants. They do enjoy sunning themselves, but this is not a requirement for them, so long as they are able to stay cool and sweat enough. During the wet season, they enjoy travelling to water sources and soaking and cleaning themselves in mud and water. When not corralled, bromals form stable groups of females accompanied by one mature male bull. Females breed by 8-10 years old. Males do not compete for females they are 10-12 years old. Males compete for dominance by circling each other with their heads held high and goring the feet or clashing with the head of the opponent and attempting to topple it. After one withdraws from the bout, the winner may roll and rub secretions onto the ground from a gland on the back of its head. The dominant male breed with all the females in each stable group. After gestation for 18-24 months, one or two calves is born, usually during the rainy season.
DIETARY NEEDS AND HABITS
Bromals eat a vast array of plants not accessible to other herbivores and ranch animals, able to eat thorny plants, dry leaves, dead bushes, cacti and hardy roots that they can dig out with their tusks. They are used to control the weeds and grasses that grow across more fertile regions of Savasha and Ozon'Siiari, and the river delta of Ankh'hera.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DOMESTICATION
Bromals are harder to domesticate than other domesticated animals, like cattle, camels or goats, but patience is rewarded by a worthwhile and lifelong companion. After domesticated, Bromals are corraled into separate spaces and split into functional sub-species of their kind - usually kept separate due to the ingrained and developed mentalities their herders instil within them.
WORKING BROMALS
These bromals, referred to as Ploughdons, are bred for strength and resilience under the hot sun, these are mostly used for ploughing fields, digging roots from hardy soils & sand when a harnessed plough is attached to their fronts. But mainly they are used for pulling heavy burdens such as stone blocks, heavy caravans, and also when working in teams, are able to pull down and demolish heavy stone structures or trees. They are normally only seen within the civilised areas of Ankh'hera & Ozon'Siiari, as they have developed farmlands, whereas Savasha is mainly wild or bullied mounts of the Gnolls. Specific Bromals are used on the rare instance of fires or wild brush fires to store water and use their spouts to jettison the water on the burning regions, but these are usually isolated and competitive bromal bulls.RIDING BROMALS
These Bromals, referred to as Humpbacks, is bred for their stamina and long-ventured journeys across arid deserts and territories. As pack animals, they are a vital means of transportation for passengers and cargo. While not as fast as a horse or camel, their ability to carry heavy goods or drawing wagons of caravan trains across vast distances without the need for food or water for substantial periods of time makes them a worthwhile mount to track across the deserts of Aetha'Shar. They are more tolerable for riders than elephants, but an experienced rider of either camels or elephants will note that they are not as smart nor as friendly as elephants, but are more playful and mischievous than camels. Some of the larger caravans have teams of over 40 bromal using 4 in tandem to pull massive fortress-like wagons across the desert.WAR BROMALS
These Bromals, referred to as War-Dromans, though naturally stubborn & competitive creatures - do not naturally work alongside other males, and have to be domesticated and trained to work alongside other Bromal bulls and be conditioned to loud and sudden noises. They are trained to follow specific commands by the call of a war horn, and not to charge into a stampede away from sudden loud noises or threatening creatures. They are made to work together and protect one another, much like they protect females from one another. They are usually adorned in specialised spiked piecemeal plate armour and shields and riding seats that can host up to two-three warriors on their backs and sustain their weight - one rider set by the comfy seat of their neck, and others transported on a chariot-like platform between their two humps where a driver and archer resides.USES, PRODUCTS & EXPLOITATION
Bromals are primarily used as beasts of burden by the numerous inhabitants of the continent of Aetha'Shar, and for long-distance trade & transportation across the desert and wildlands. Utilised primarily by the Tabaxi of Ankh'hera, the Dragonborn & Kobolds of Ozon'Siiari, and the nomadic hunting tribes of the Hyanan Gnolls. They are able to carry large amounts of passengers and cargo for long periods of time without issue or complaint. They were greatly utilised by early nomadic tribes for their hair and hides to fashion tents, clothing and bedding in particular patterns and dyed to make decorative accessories and carpets. They are known to be slaughtered for their meat at times, but bulls or mothers meat is tough and sinewy, but could be consumed in times of desperation. Although in dire or eccentric occasions, it has been known for herders to allow the slaughtering of younger bromal bucks for leaner and tastier meat, this was a delicacy as they are hard to raise and breed than other domestic creatures. During particularly harsh expeditions, bromals have been gutted and hollowed out to be used as makeshift tents and for those suffering from heatstroke and dehydration to gut the bromals and cut into their livers and stomachs to obtain the stored gallons of water and semi-digested food held within their huge stomach-like bladders. Their milk can be used as a food source and is considered a staple food among desert nomads, but its sour flavour and exposure to the heat mean that they should preferably be milked at night and consumed shortly afterwards - the Anhk'herans have a love of Bromal milk and have usually flavoured them with spices and even made an alcoholic spirit with Bromal milk they call "Chal", or "Shubat" when fermented. They are also used to make great cheese wheels, butter and yoghurts, but with greater difficulty than other dairy animals - but store it in surplus during the rainy season and pulverise dry curds and add water for consumption, or throughout the various stages of curd-making; these dairy products lack the distinct flavour that may be found from Halfling dairy. The most profitable trade can be founded among bromal ivory, which is utilised across the deserts for its commodity as a luxury item for import and trade across Aetha'Shar, most particularly to port cities for exports into the islands of the Cimerus Sea and the Bronzimm Concord. Early within the history of Aetha'Shar, the first to create platforms to mount upon the backs of the Bromal and use them as mobile homes to defend themselves within the deserts were the old Tabaxi nomads of Ankh'hera & Feral Tieflings of ancient Mekrozadh. As these early nomadic herders, they held many places and campsites across the desert where they built supports for the Bromals to be able to unload the house platforms onto raised arms and could roam in the area freely. This was done during the mating seasons for the Bromal which was when the rainy season began, and the nomadic communities would meet up and members would join different communities to keep their bloodlines spread out. But during the era in which Mekrozadh still existed, before its legendary disappearance, they were known to resurrect Bromals into undeath and use their hollowed-out skeletons as additional housing and mobile prison cells to trap and kidnap nomads to experiment their heretical magics and soul-stripping necromancy.
AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE
Bromals are rather intelligent compared to other mammals and can be rather easily trained and have been by the desert nomads for thousands of years since the Mekrozadh Magocracy of the Arcane Era.
