Tante

First Livestock of the Cradle

Giant creatures roam the hills and valleys of Isekai, their large bodies casting long shadows as the sun sets behind the horizon. Horned beasts, those long of fang and claw, wander and cross paths, but some giants roam and graze, their horns keeping them safe from whatever may hunt them. In the Cradle of Clay, no creature was bigger than the Tante, a horned beast of massive size that even the Clay Giants hesitated to approach.
For millennia, the Tante roamed the open hills of the Cradle of Clay unmatched, with no predator to deter them. But as the Hierarchy of the Giants established the Clay Giants as weaker and they moved to new lands, the Tante found a purpose outside of simply being a menace with horns. With the Tante, the Clay Giants' love for animal husbandry was established as they began the work of creating a breed of creature that would sustain their people, not only in sustenance but with goods that would allow them to pursue their livelihoods.
Through extensive breeding efforts, the Clay Giants created smaller versions of the Tante, which they named the Tatanka. These efforts would allow them to let the Tante roam free while keeping the Tatanka as livestock, but unfortunately, these successes came too late. Disease had begun to decimate the population of Tante as the Clay Giants had yet to develop their vaccines. The final end of the Tante came when the events of the Eldritch War erased many species, including many of the giant beasts that roamed the lands.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Tante were extremely large creatures, with the males reaching lengths up to thirteen feet from head to rump, while the females reach lengths of up to slightly over ten feet. These beasts can reach nearly nine feet tall at the withers, and a weight of over three thousand pounds in males and slightly over two thousand pounds in females. Their size made them one of the absolute largest herbivores in Vóreios, although they were not considered prey animals by any means.
These animals had a shaggy, long winter coat, and a slightly shorter, lighter-weight summer coat that kept the darker colors of winter. As Tante aged, their coats would become lighter, often reaching a grey or white color in those that had lived longest. While their descendants, the Tatanka, cared about camouflage for their young, the Tante's coloring was useless for camouflage, but their size deterred any type of predator.
Tante were known for having thick skulls and large curved horns that allowed them to fight and gore almost any creature that would threaten them. With their large size, horns that could grow up to three and a half feet long, and a speed of up to thirty-five miles an hour, no predators in the Cradle of Clay could mess with the Tante, even in packs.

Additional Information

Animal Husbandry

Tatanka

Bison by RiverFang

Tatanka are large creatures descendant from the giant Tante that once roamed the Cradle of Clay. Breeding efforts of the Clay Giants led to the first Tatanka.

While the Tante provided a great deal of byproducts, their size and dangerous horns made them difficult to keep, even for the largest and strongest of the Clay Giants. Many things about the Tante made them great for the climate and area, as they could ward off predators and required very little upkeep to produce as necessary. Compared to other livestock, Tante were rather self-sufficient and could graze the rolling hills safely when other creatures could not.
It was with these creatures that the Clay Giants' interest in animal husbandry was born. In many ways, the Tante were perfect, but their size was a barrier. The Clay Giants, over many generations, bred the smallest and healthiest of the Tante, slowly building their own herds that had been selected and raised by them. This herd would become the basis for the Tatanka, the smaller descendants of the Tante.
Once these smaller herds of early Tatanka were established, the Tante were left to roam the Cradle of Clay. Every once in a while, another of the smaller Tante were brought in to add to the diversity of the Tatanka herds as they worked to perfect the genetics of their herd that would produce the livestock that the Clay Giants needed to sustain their homeland.

Tante

Buffalo by Lieve Ransijn on Unsplash

A giant creature with a heavy, shaggy coat, the Tante were once one of the largest herbivores to roam across parts of the Northern Continent but sadly became extinct due to the events of the Eldritch War.

EXTINCT

Genetic Descendants

• Tatanka

Lifespan

10 to 20 years

Average Height

7 ft 7 in to 8 ft 6 in at the withers

Average Weight

1500 lbs to 3200 lbs

Average Length

10 ft 6in to 13 ft without the tail

Geographic Distribution

• Cradle of Clay

Related Ethnicities

• Clay Giant Culture

Extinction

As what often happens with nature, oversized herds are often stunted with natural disaster or disease. An unknown disease spread through the herds, decimating their numbers so the once large herds numbering in the thousands often numbered less that a hundred.
These small herds continued roaming the hills of the Cradle of Clay until the horredous events of the Eldritch War decimated the herds even further. Tante were easy prey for Eldritch horrors, leaving essentially none of the herds by the time the gates were closed and the Eldritch War came to a close.

Storybook System Creature Sheet

Name Tante

Form Quadruped

Type Beast

Size Large

Location Cradle of Clay

Tante by Image via Midjourney, created by Riverfang

10

Might

4

Agility

0

Magic

25

Heroism

25

Heroism Points

5

Stealth

10

Observation

Speed

Land 5

Climb 0

Swim 2

Fly 0

Jump 3