Dinosaurs don't plough

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_sartar.toppoint.de>
Date: Thu Mar 20 10:05:16 1997


David Gadbois:
> Peter Metcalfe paints a pretty mundane picture of the kinds of
> livestock in the Lunar Heartland: Oxen, cows, horses, pigs, goats, and
> emus.(OK, the emus are exotic.) But what about the gazzam, the
> dinosaurs? They were herded in Murharzarm's and Urvairinus' times
> (GRAoY, pp. 14 & 29, thank God for the index.) Are they still extant?
> I can see them getting killed off in the Darkness ice age, but it
> seems like there is a lot of MGF in having domestic triceratops
> lumbering around. Oxen? Who needs them when one of the big guys can
> plow an acre in a minute.

Plow it? You mean condense it to road fastness! Your average gazzam may be useful for clearing land of forest, and its dung may be excellent fertilizer, but I wouldn't let the damn beasts near my fields.

Anyway, I think that dinosaurs were pretty much exterminated in Peloria, as dragon kin during the late 2nd Age persecution of all things draconic.

My upcoming scenario for Free INT features (among other draconic strangenesses) a stampeding herd of brontosaurs, causing a landslide (because of thixotropic clay) and making a nice little creek disappear.

And: If there still are tame triceratops around, don't you think the Lunar Empire would use them instead of siege engines, or as heavy cavalry?

I got the impression that some Orlanthi families (Manirian Orlanthi, i.e. descendants of the refugees from EWF Dragon Pass before the Dragonkill War) retain the secrets of dinosaur control. Think of a certain Arene Thunderqueen (draconic secrets seem to run in _that_ family).

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