Mountain Steed

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Mountain Steeds are a cross-bred species resembling a large squat horse, almost entirely made of stone. They are the result of an active effort to save the dwindling population of battle mounts that came to Oabos with the human invasion. When the humans first began to settle in the Daylight Region, much of their livestock began to quickly die off. The mounts that warriors rode into battle were more resiliant than many of the livestock animals and could survive off smaller rations of feed. This resiliance was put to the test when all other beasts of burden became too ill or weak and the battle mounts were needed to fill many of the same roles. Under the constant stress, they too started to weaken more quickly.
Some success had been found in crosing smaller livestock with local elemental beasts, to create a creature which could better survive in the harsh world they humans found themselves trapped on. While this had worked well with smaller livestock and weaker elemental beasts, there would not have been much use in saving the mounts only for them to end up smaller and weaker. Thus the decision was made to cross breed them with some of the stone-based elemental beasts of the mountains.
More than half of the remaining battle mounts died during the early attempts to cross breed them with elemental beasts. Once a sucessfull process had been established, there were very few of the mounts left and the breeding rarely resulted in more than one or two offspring. These early crosses were more flesh than stone and had a lifespan barely longer than the half starved mounts they were bred from. This lead to further breading this origional crossbreed with more stone beasts. Each generation was born stronger and lived longer. The birth rate was still low, but after five generations the new animals were stable enough to interbreed and maintain their population.

Habitat

Mountain Steeds were origionally bred in the foothills surrounding the giant crater which now houses Chronwhorl, but leter generations moved more and more into the surrounding mountains. This crossbreed is mostly sustained by Oas, but maintains a core of Radiance. As such, they can survive under the Radient Disc but prefer to stay in the mountains where viens of Prismem can be found near the surface and give off low levels of Oas.
Some Mountain Steeds have migrated darkward of the mountain ranges they call home, and tend to grow larger and sturdier in these locations. Steeds found closer to Chronwhorl are smaller varieties. Some are used as mounts for the military, or to move goods in and out of the city. Mountain Steeds that spend to much time in the city will slowly weeken and slow as the stone of their bodies looses flexibility.