Nebben

Nebben are large, muscular creatures from the Mackdregh grasslands. They were domesticated several thousand years ago by the Mun Djak, who used them to haul oversized containers when they moved their villages. The large but gentle beasts were employed by the first modern western traders to make the long trip to the eastern seaboard. Trade companies and militaries employ them as beasts of burden.

Size

Nebben (sing. and pl. nebben, coll. nebs) are twice as large as oxen, and able to carry the heaviest loads. Two nebben can haul up to six times what a team of oxen are capable of.

all artwork by Shanda Nelson

Appearance

Nebben are browinish-grey, with a long neck, smaller, curved head, three nailed toes and a short tail. Their shoulders are taller than their hind-quarters, they have thick legs and large feet. They are muscular and extremely strong.
Their skin is rough and tough; the large bumps make it more difficult for the grassland cats to grip. Even when the cats do make it past the skin, they must tear through a thick layer of fat to reach muscle and bone. While wild nebben have a multitude of scrapes and scars, due to this padded protection it is rare that they are severely wounded.
When exposed to cooler weather, they grow a thin layer of coarse brown fur, which, combined with the fat, keeps them warm. Once they reach warmer climates, they immediately shed the fur.

Life Cycle

Mating occurs during the lush Strong Heat days. Males vie for every mating attempt, which means a female has several different partners throughout the season. Nebben calves are born in the first days of the Greening. They are small grey bundles of high energy that require a great deal of milk, then grass, to grow. They reach maturity at ten years, at which point they are able to produce young.
Adult nebben mate for forty years, with females producing a calf every six to seven years. Once both males and females reach approximately sixty, they become something like grandparents to the calves. The herds tend to pass babysitting duties on to the older adults, especially during the mating season.
Wild nebben living over a hundred years is not unheard of, and in captivity, they can reach one-hundred-and-fifty.

Males are as involved in raising young as the females. They oftentimes corral the young ones and form a guard circle about them as a way to protect them from the grassland cats. Few of the ferocious felines dare take on a large male nebben.

The nebben 'smile'. They pull their lips up when happy, though they do not expose their teeth. It makes for an odd, intimidating look. They also cry.

Herds

Herds are led by one old male and two old females, all of whom are normally over seventy years of age. In the wild, older nebben can break from their herd to form their own when they reach this age, and any of the younger lot can follow. This happens when the herds grow so large it is difficult to feed all members within a particular area. The newly formed herd stakes out another place in the grasslands. The number of individuals in the herd varies based on food supply; nebben forego mating in years of famine. Anywhere from twenty-five to fifty adults and ten or so calves are common.
The nebben follow the grass. Since the grasslands respawn quickly, they meander from one edge to the other and back again, with plenty to eat. They supplement their diet with berries and young tree bark, and will dig up snails to munch.
The nebben have a rudimentary death ritual, which scholars believe shows they are more intelligent than other beasts of burden, though tests of cognitive ability in other situations have failed to prove a greater mental capacity than what one might expect of grassland megafauna. When a member wanders from the herd and dies, the animals will stamp a small ditch around the corpse. If it is a member others did not like, they will defecate on it then desert the remains. They have been known to drive the grassland cats away from a dead nebben until the herd moves on, after which the carrion eaters can have their fill. When a member is taken by a predator, they will drive it away and perform their death ritual. The grassland cats will often kill, then retreat from the corpse and wait until the nebben are finished with their ditch and leave.
If a predator takes a young one, they will be hunted down and stamped into the ground. Nebben herds have been known to hound grassland cats to death after they have killed a calf.
They have two predators; the grassland cats and the mesa wolves. The mesa wolves, however, tend to scavenge from nebben corpses rather than take down a living animal, which is hard to do without injury and death to their packmates.

Domesticated Nebben

Domesticated nebben are kept in open fields with tall fences, though they have been known to simply walk through wooden barriers. They are docile, and very difficult to provoke outside of mating season. They take well to training and pulling loads. For this reason, caravans and serious traders employ them. If they are over-burdened, however, they will lay down in the middle of the road and refuse to budge until they are unharnessed.
Nebben can be used with the plow, but the expense of keeping a larger animal keeps most farmers from owning them. Large trade companies have several, and during times of war, armies have used their might for all manner of load-bearing tasks, and use their strength to advantage.
Nebben prefer warmer climes. While they can work in colder conditions, they dislike it and have been known to break out of their holding and travel to warmer lands. They prefer flatter terrain as well, so they are usually used to pull loads along the Keldresri Sea, the Lower Trade Route, and around the grasslands adjacent to the Sea of Condioh.
They are primarily used as pack animals and beasts of burden. Their meat is tough and bitter, with a strong musk flavor that is never covered by herbs and spices, so no one raises them for meat. When they pass, the nomads of the Mackdregh grasslands harvest their skin for use in leather armor and tents.
In the past, the Mun Djak used their bones to create altars to their primary sylfaone, Delkardi, but the practice fell out of favor with the arrival of the Jonna Empire, who saw it as an affront to the lightarts.

Nebben can become deeply attached to their owners, to the point that, when the person dies, they pass away within a few days themselves. This became a problem during the Jonna Empire incursion into Mackdregh, because if the local handlers perished, so, too, did their nebben.

Nebben love children, whether they are nebben calves or not. They will lie down and quietly rest as the younger lot climb all over them, yank their ears and tail, and cause mischief. They are especially fond of puppies and goat kids. In the wild, they will accept orphaned young from other herd animals and raise them with their own. These animals tend to stay with the nebben herds until they die.