Summitstrider

Summitstriders are large, white, mountain rams that are notoriously difficult to kill. These animals are able to climb nearly-vertical rockfaces at great speed to escape predators. They can be found in the highest peaks of The Ironpeak Mountains and Icewraith Expanse.
While the city-dwelling Dwarves in the three capitals may go their entire lives without ever seeing a mountain ram, these creatures represent the hardy Mountain Dwarves' strength, resilience, and fellowship with the stars.

Heraldry

The Summitstone Mining Company's banner proudly features a Summitstrider before a blue background spangled with white stars. Their Mining Settlements and Mountain Strongholds are often embellished with Summitstrider statues, tapestries, and paintings.

Sacred Symbology

When a young Dwarven boy leaves the mountain stronghold he grew up in to experience the wider world and learn to be a man, he is taken on a Sacred Summitstrider Hunt with other adolescents his age and a group of elders to guide them. These are often large expeditions that take weeks of planning and are dependent on seasonal conditions in the mountains. At night around the campfire, the young Dwarves learn under the night's bright stars that they have responsibilities beyond themselves and that they are part of a grand cosmos known as The Dream.

Gifts of The Hunt

There is no trade market for Summitstrider meat, hides, or horns. The Mountain Dwarves do not hunt these animals outside of the Sacred Summitstrider Hunts. As the animals are considered close to the heavens and the stars above, the horns and hides collected during the expedition are crafted into Summitstrider Trumpets and Star Cloaks that are gifted by the elders to the young men in commemoration of their first hunt.

Predators

The Frostfang is a mountain lynx gifted with great speed, dexterity, flexibility, and balance. They are the apex predators of the mountaintops but are unable to chase their prey through the steepest of the summit rocks.

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Summitstriders are found in The Ironfang Mountains & Icewraith Expanse. Check out the related articles:

The Summitstone Mining Company by Midjourney

Summitstrider by Midjourney