Vermillion Ratsteed

Origins:

Formed from various failed experiments to create intelligent plagues that target their Drow adversaries, the Mordkadian Locust Plaguecourts accidently enhanced the rats with giantic growth and better senses, which made them still far from useless mutants to breed.

Reproduction:

Due to their mutations the ratsteed used to lack any form of reproductive capabilities, untill the Vermillion queen was created. Nowadays a herd of about two hundered ratsteed are born every year from the various queens that are allowed to breed with the strongest ratsteed, with the exeption of Abyssfur that seem to completely lack any mating interests.

Physique:

One can easily explain a ratsteed as the exact thing as their unoriginal naming. It's a rat with aproximately the same size and functions of a horse steed. Except it's a bit smaller, with surperior agility and senses like hearing and smell, yet with worse eyes during daylight rays.
The ratsteeds are also far smaller on birth, to the point of small puppies. Puppies with razors on their fingers and a tail which easily make whip seem pleasant in regard to the damage it's swing could cause.
The tail is almost never used in combat though, as it's the key of their near divine mobility and balance, where they can easily climb steep and slippery buildings and jump through rooftops.

Habits:

Just like other vermin, the ratsteeds have only survival imprinted in their being. They're quite clever creatures and thus habits may often differ from individual to individual, though the most common ones they share are burrowing, storing food, cleaning themselves and standing on their hindlegs to smell an area for tricks or treats.

Diet:

The Ratsteed is anything but a picky eater and will feast on almost anything that gets in their path. Be it crops, fruit, meat or even dead cadavers of different species, smaller rats and even acts of cannibalism can occur.
However cannibalistic in nature, their Morkadian handlers punish such behaviour and are striving to remove their problematic eating habits.

Uses:

For the Morkadians, this once failed subject have found many uses within their lost kingdom. Much thanks to the ease in breeding the creatures, in how swiftly they grow up in compare to normal horses they serve as far more expendable in a country at constant war.
War, the main reason as to why the Morkadian army is so fond of the unnatural and grotesque creatures. The ratsteeds were found usefull in nightly raids, especially in guerilla strikes their speed, stealth and fear of death makes them the perfect mounts for skilled sharpshooters. They can easily manouver around most predators, which also count airborne ones as they rush in packs to make it harder to focus on a single target.
Recently the ratstallions have found far more usages than war though, both as livestock to aid farmers plow their fields and as a source of food since the lean, fine meat while verminious is still not much more than pure muscle and protein.
The ratstallions have even gone so far as to become pets, due to the new decree signed by Dr. Morlove Locus that the animals shan't be part of any new plague experiments.

Types:

Common Mudtail

As the name suggest, this mudcoloured ratsteed is as average as they come.

Albino Bloodeyes

Larger, meaner and far more scared of the sun, the Albino Bloodeyes may be a terror to face at night, due to it's cruel protuding teeth, knifelike claws and size of a small horse, with beautiful snow white fur and sinister red eyes glowing in the dark.
Although savage and efficent in large groups, the Albino Bloodeyes have a severe lack of morale and often turn tails and run at the first sign of defeat.

Rare Shadowtail

Smaller and even more spineless than it's fellow kin, the rare Shadowtail mutation string is still the second most valued one due to it's agility, speed and skill of stealth.
A crew of sixteen Shadowtails could easily infiltrate a city during the night, both through the streets, sewers and rooftops and easily outrun hounds and horses. Thus they are often utilized for saboutage or scouting operations, but also work great in the field to harass enemy units with their mobility and manouverability.

Voidborne Abyssfur

Born around one on every thousand Ratsteeds, the Voidborne Abyssfur is far from as ratlike as their other strains.
Fearless and cruel, with the size of a horse and the strength of a direwolf, but the agility and stealth capabilities of their smaller Shadowtail kin. The Abyssfur's are the ones to be paired up with a Ratknight on the day of their birth as they work together to build up a sense of trust and friendship.
To make the Abyssfur even more dangerous, they are also highly capable of creative intellectual feats and can command their lesser kin in action to an extent. They also live far longer than your average ratsteed and are capable to harness weaker forms of abyssal magic.

Origin/Ancestry

Mutation

Geographic Distribution

• Locust Plaguecourts