Brambleboars

"Kill it clean or don’t bother at all. An angry one’ll tear through your whole party before its blood even cools."

The Brambleboar is a massive, land-rooted beast known for its ferocity, brutal tusks, and near-impenetrable hide. Found in the thick brushlands, overgrown glades, and broken heathlands of Everwealth, this four-tusked monster has become both a terror to travelers and a high-risk prize for seasoned hunters. Weighing between 700 and 800 pounds, Brambleboars are known to charge without hesitation, often goring foes with their barbed twin-tusk pairs or trampling them beneath their massive hooves. They are solitary, territorial creatures that treat any intrusion as a challenge to be answered with violence.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Brambleboars are low-slung, barrel-chested creatures with thick, wiry hair matted in mud, blood, and bramble burrs. Their most distinct features are their four tusks: two lower and two upper, each curving outward like hooked scythes and covered in natural barbs. These tusks can shred armor, disembowel prey, or uproot small trees. Their hide is leathery and nearly armor-grade, capable of turning aside blades and shrugging off arrowheads entirely unless fired at close range or into a weak point (such as the underbelly or eyes). Their eyes are small, black, and set deep beneath a bony ridge. Their breath often smells of root and rot.

Genetics and Reproduction

Brambleboars are naturally occurring megafauna, likely descended from pre-Schism boar stock warped by generations of magickal saturation. They reproduce seasonally, with a single dominant male guarding a mating territory of several miles. Mating pairs only come together briefly during the storm months, after which the male drives off the sow to raise the young alone. Litters average 3-4 piglets, but only one or two typically survive to adulthood due to infighting and predator activity.

Growth Rate & Stages

• Piglet (0-6 months): Small, striped, capable of rudimentary charge and tusk flicks.

• Juvenile (6 months-2 years): Gains first tusk pair, begins testing territory.

• Adult (2+ years): Fully tusked, territorial, aggressively dominant.

Ecology and Habitats

Brambleboars favor overgrown thickets, broken stone glades, and dense woodland clearings where ambush and escape paths are abundant. They bed in deep mud dens or beneath thorn-thick hedgerows, leaving behind torn roots and gored tree trunks as signs of their domain. Their presence reshapes ecosystems, as few predators dare challenge them and other large herbivores are driven off or trampled. They are often blamed for ruined trails and toppled fences near frontier towns.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Omnivorous, Brambleboars feed on roots, tubers, carrion, bark, and small animals. They frequently root up entire patches of forest floor in search of fungi and insect nests. When desperate, they will charge other predators off their kills, consuming half-rotted meat with no ill effect. Their tusks are also used to strip bark and dig into stone for mineral salts.

Biological Cycle

Brambleboars do not hibernate but become more sluggish in deep winter, sheltering beneath brambles or collapsed stone walls. During spring, they become aggressively active, especially males, who engage in territorial battles that often end in death or crippling injury. Their tusks are known to regrow slowly but continuously, curling inward over time if not broken through combat.

Behaviour

Highly territorial and stubborn, Brambleboars respond to sound and scent with aggression. They will charge anything unfamiliar, including horses, carts, firelight, or even thunder. They do not bluff-charge. If a Brambleboar lowers its head, it intends to kill. Lone boars will patrol the same routes for years, and their "runs" become infamous among hunters. They are considered one of the most dangerous non-magickal beasts in Everwealth. However, their meat, when harvested properly and bled from a clean kill, is some of the richest and most sustaining in the kingdom, often enough to feed entire villages if properly butchered.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Brambleboars have exceptional hearing and can detect ground vibrations from great distances. Their sense of smell is powerful enough to pick out individual scents from a mixed trail, and they are known to follow blood for miles. Their eyesight is limited, but sufficient in low light.

Scientific Name

Sus ferox quadricornis.

Origin/Ancestry

Descended from ancient forest boars twisted by magicks of the land and generations of surviving in cursed, overgrown wilds.

Conservation Status

Common but feared. Brambleboars are not endangered, though their aggressive nature and difficult harvesting make them hunted only by experts or the desperate. Local lords may place bounties on older, bloodier individuals known to attack settlements. However, their meat, tusks, and hide are extremely valuable when properly handled.