King Piamias Elephant

The King Piamias Elephant is the smallest subspecies of elephant in the world. Less than 10.2 feet tall, they have large ears, round bellies, and long tails that may brush the ground as they walk. Females are smaller than their male counterparts and either lack or have shortened tusks. The tip of a King Piamias Elephant’s trunk has a single, prehensile finger, which it uses to collect grasses, leaves, fruits and other plants.
Native to Premura and named after a late dwarven king of the region, King Piamias elephants are an endangered species, and only an estimated 1,500 individuals remain in the wild, mostly found in the more plains like reason to the south. The primary threat to these elephants is habitat loss. As their forests become fragmented due to human encroachment, and medicinal uses for ivory within Premura's culture, populations are no longer able to travel along their traditional migration routes, and subpopulations are no longer able to breed to maintain genetic diversity. These displaced King Piamias elephants, whose food sources have been depleted, are then killed in ensuing conflicts when they trample or feed on villager’s crops. King Piamias Elephants also risk becoming injured by illegal snares set out for smaller animals, and in Premura's Wildlife Rehabilition Centres report, an estimated 20 percent of elephants have been wounded by these traps.
The King Piamias has a unique place in the culture of Premura, originally being one of the many varied species that arrived as a 'blessing from the Spirit World.' They are pure white in coloration, and their skin is able to hold and retain paint for years. Their leather itself is said to never get dirty. King Paimias are very intelligent, often able to hold confident communication skills such as gesturing with their trunk, shaking their heads yes or no, and so on.
King Piamias Elephants are used within Premura as noble mounts more often then not, and there is a particular game that happens every year since the current Empress of Premura is very fond of the creatures. Merchants and breeders from all around will bring the King Piamias Elephants they have aquired for the Empress to pick one and award a massive sum of wealth to the victor. From there the rest of the Elephants are traded around among the people, or butchered.
Because of the Empress' interest in King Piamias Elephants, their price has been inflated ridiculously, to a hearty 400G-900G.