Irkys Stenu
The irkys stenu (brown devil) is a very aggressive species of madroujin (wolf-drake), suborder of rayrmadoujin: it has four legs, no wings and resembles a large wolf (see Douji). They live on Doujatan hills.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Irkys stenun are large, four-legged reptiles, resembling quadrupedal mammals, like wolves.
An adult specimen has a height of about 1.5 meters and can weigh several hundred kilos.
Their powerful muscles enable them to reach very high speed, up to 80 km/h during chasing, in a very short time.
They have claws and keep them sharp by scratching trees or even rock formations. Scholars cannot say they did an extensive study on this topic, but stenun's claws seem to be sharp enough to cut through bones.
The most prominent feature of these doujin species is the exoskeleton: a thick, hard, bony plate covers its whole body, except for the belly. From this characteristic, the animal also derives its name, since irkys means brown, which is the plate's colour. It provides a tremendous amount of defence: anything lighter than a polehammer cannot damage it, and even then, break it seems almost impossible, let alone severely wound the animal.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Zitar succeded in taming stenun around year 700. Since they are so much aggressive, they are extensively used on the battlefield: they are unleashed at the beginning of the battle against the enemy army and, if they are enough, usually do all the work by themselves. Their tactic is to quickly close the distance, leap on the enemies, kill as many of them as possible in a matter of seconds with claws or sheer force and leap back in a safe position if outnumbered; then they repeat the process until nothing moves anymore.
Sometimes somebody argues against the use of irkys stenun in battle since there is no way to stop them until everyone is dead: there is no surrendering, nor escape.
To face, and hopefully kill, these devils one must be prepared. The good news is that taming them is really difficult and maintaining them expensive, so there are usually only a few of them on the battlefield. The bad news is that they seem to be invincible at first.
The worst thing of all is trying to kill them with ranged weapons: they close the distance immediately and slaughter archers or ballistae technicians or whatever. Bad equipment against them includes swords and hammers: cutting the bony plate is impossible and hammering at it is too slow to kill the beast before it kills a whole regiment.
The best tactic so far seems to be a wall of spikes, spears and the like: a similar formation prevents the animal to leap in the middle and forces it to close slowly the distance. Moreover, the stenu needs to be in melee short-range to use its claws, while the pointy sticks keep it farther. To actually kill it, a regiment can use such long-reach weapons to wound it on the belly while keeping formation to stay safe, and then to wait for it to bleed to death. This tactic has three drawbacks: first, the animal becomes fiercer when injured but not exhausted; second, it can take a long time until it faints; third, the whole regiment is kept busy fighting it, since they must ensure to be in a circle, to protect with pikes also flanks and rear.
Another tactic is to choose a brave hero, equip him with a knife, a sword or, even better, a hammer, and ask him to try mounting the beast. If he reaches the head, he can blind the stenu or break its skull, since there the plate is less thick. This is a very fast tactic, but the douji is usually not pleased by having humanoids crawling on its back and tries to unseat them by leaping everywhere: the momentum is often enough to pull the hero against a horrible death.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
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