8,347
edits
Horse of a Different Color: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
(update links) |
No edit summary |
||
Line 282:
* Do the Thestrals from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' count? Technically they're pegasi—carnivorous, borderline undead pegasi...
* In Julian May's ''[[Saga of the Exiles]]'', the mount of choice for the Tanu dwelling in Earth's prehistoric past is the chaliko- short for chalicothere. Chalicotheres are extinct relatives of horses, rhinos, and tapirs. (Unfortunately they're also generally pretty slope-backed and have a gait that really wouldn't work well at all on a riding animal. Oh well.)
* In ''[[John Carter of Mars]]'' series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the thoats (much like horse, but with somewhat longer neck, large mouth, eight legs, and long tail) and zitidars (resembles a mastodon, six-legged, mostly used as beasts of burden or to drag chariots).
* In [[Neal Stephenson|Neal Stephenson's]] ''Diamond Age'', the upper-class transport of choice is the Chevaline, which is a kind of robot horsey with a vestigial knob for a tail.
* In ''[[Dune]]'' the Fremen ride the sandworms of Arrakis. Great-worms and lesser-worms are used in teams to pull a chariot.
Line 289:
* The Weber/Ringo collaboration that is the ''[[Prince Roger]]'' series has a species referred to variously as 'flar'ta' and 'pagee', described as a hexapedal triceratops, almost. They are herbivorous, and mostly placid, although there is a related species ('flar'ke' or 'pagithar') which is far more aggressive (the analogy drawn is to Cape buffalo). The flar'ta fills much the same role as an elephant- pack animal, mount and occasionally war beast. There are also the ''civan'' that are used as cavalry mounts. They are described as horse-ostriches, and are two-legged, omnivorous, scaly and have a vicious strek about two miles wide.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In ''[[True History]]'' by Lucian, the king of the Moon rides on a vulture-horse.
* Taylor Anderson's ''[[Destroyermen]]'' trilogy has domesticated elephant-sized dinosaurs which the U.S. destroyer crews, not knowing the "brontosaurus" was actually an apatosaurus, think of as miniature brontosaurs and call "brontosarries."
* In "The Atlantean Age", a setting book for [[Hero System|Fantasy Hero]], the Tellat Empire fields units mounted on "battledons"—take a rhino, make it 50% bigger, and add extra horns, claws, and bad attitude. Meanwhile the Hazarians look almost normal with their knights in plate armor riding giant wolves.
* The ''[[Planet of Adventure]]'' series by [[Jack Vance]] has "leap-horses" as the native substitute quadruped. They have heads resembling a horned tapir and exaggeratedly long necks as shown [http://membres.multimania.fr/jackvance/covers/tschai1v.jpg here]. As their name implies their motion is more of a bounding motion that a horse-like gait. All in all riding one sounds like a fast-track to lower back problems.
Line 298:
* Gargants in Jim Butcher's [[Codex Alera]] series, are mentioned in the first book, but, aside from being the size of a freakin' minivan, not described until the second. [[Word of God]] says they are related to giant ground sloths (which went extinct sometime around the end of the Ice Age in real life).
** In books five and six, we see Canea, the Canim homeland, and their riding beasts the "taurga" [singular "taurg"], creatures that are depicted as fairly bull-like (with some rabbit-ish features), extremely large (they're cavalry for wolf-warriors that can reach 9 or 10 feet in height, with proportional weight), incredibly ill-tempered, and enthusiastically omnivorous.
* The ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' series has featured some pretty bizarre mounts, including the hiphippohippus (think: rhino slimmed down for agility) ridden by Aahz in "Myth-ter Right", or the many-legged armored beast (think: glyptodont with millipede feet) used by the Ta-hoe team's rider in ''Myth Directions''.
* Asides from the above mentioned Skybaxes of ''[[Dinotopia]]'', dinosaurs are also frequently seen being used as mounts.
* The ''[[Dying Earth]]'' setting of [[Jack Vance]] featured "oasts", huge humanlike primates whose riders sat on their shoulders. On at least one occasion, the hero Guyal was chased by a mounted troop on these creepy things.
=== [[MMORPGs]] ===
Line 313:
=== Tabletop Games ===
* Other than the aforementioned Podog, in ''[[Gamma World]]'' there also is the Hopper (A giant mutant jackalope who is as dumb as a brick), the Centisteed (A horse with a whole lot of legs, as well as bug-eyes and antennae) and the incredibly odd Pineto (Think a cactus plant merged with a horse, and you'll get the idea)
* Common in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Some of the odder ones include Giant Bees and enormous [[Wall Crawl]]ing lizards popular among the subterranean drow. Or you could ride on a soarwhale, basically a living blimp...whale... If it's got the strength score to carry you, you can hypothetically train it for riding (or in the case of intelligent creatures, ask it politely).
** Halflings in some settings use large breeds of dog (Saint Bernards, mastiffs, and the like) as riding mounts.
** The brixashulty is basically a mountain goat domesticated as an all-purpose livestock animal by halflings. Mundane, yes, but it's fun to see the look on everyone's faces when your "halfling riding goat" singlehandedly (singlehoofedly?) ''splatters'' half the enemy in a single critical bull rush.
** Taking a page from Tolkien, Goblins commonly partner with Worgs, a race of evil, intelligent wolves.
** "Axebeaks" (''Phorusrhacos'', more or less) have featured in several editions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
*** (''[[Pathfinder]]'' seems to have shrugged and openly presented them essentially as predatory chocobos.) White Wolf's ''Scarred Lands'' setting had "tent birds," a desert-dwelling variant with supernaturally heat-resistant feathers that could use its huge - albeit still flightless - wings [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|to shelter itself and its hatchlings (or its rider)]].
** There's a Beholder Abomination called "Director" created by hive mothers to serve as warriors. They breed specialized mounts, such as giant centipedes.
** Illithids sometimes ride inside a cyst in a purple worm's mouth.
** One obscure tribal culture in the [[Mystara]] rides giant ''pelicans''. Perhaps not cool, but handy if you're carrying cargo.
** In ''[[Dark Sun]]'', people ride a lot of weird stuff; common mounts are erdlu (big ostrich), crodlu (ostrich/kangaroo -like lizard), kank (honey-making insects the size of a good ox), inix (lizard big enough to carry a small howdah) and mekillot (lizard bigger than elephant, with equally volatile attitude, but stupid
** In [[Forgotten Realms]] these are all over the place. Drow ride wall-climbing lizards, duergar ride spiders, Far Hills dwarves ride giant bats, sea elves ride giant seahorses, some humans ride hippogriffs or griffons, Shadovar ride vaserabs (lean and mean pterosaurs). Then there are more rare variants, such as dire volwes. On the Great Glacier, one tribe has remorhaz cavalry. Unique cases cover just about everything capable of carrying a humanoid.
** In [[Eberron]], the Kingdom of Breland is famous for their ''[[Everything's Worse with Bears|Bear Cavalry]]''. Halflings in [[Eberron]] ride two kinds of bipedal dinosaurs, called fastieths and clawfoots.<ref>Fastieths are basically ornithomimids. Clawfoots are ''velociraptors''.</ref>
Line 327 ⟶ 328:
** The third-party D&D setting book ''Nyambe: African Adventures'' follows the lead of the ''[[Saga of the Exiles]]'' and includes chalicothere mounts. Here, however, it's clearly stated that they require special saddles.
* Likewise, ''[[Rifts]]'' features just about everything, from [[Cool Horse]]s to Dinosaurs to giant beetle-like monsters to bears and even giant chickens (Fun Fact: Cossacks refuse to ride the giant chickens). Plus [[Mechanical Horse|Robot and Cybernetic horses]]. ''Magic'' robot horses, too. Some species, such as Psi-Ponies and Blood Lizards, can even be chosen as player characters.
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has tons of these: cyber-horses, boars, cyber-boars, giant lizards, daemons that look like weird worms,
** In addition, the chief source of meat in the Imperium is the Grox - a large, moderately ill-tempered lizard-like creature prone to stampeding anyone who doesn't get a hint and leave its pasture. It's more often used as pack-beast, however.
** Just the beasts Rough Riders use: Krieg Steed (hairless genetically modified horse), Mukaali (reptilish camel-emu thing), Ucernox (triceratops-rhino-like beast that proved too mean-spirited for use in agriculture, and tough enough to be a mount even for the Ogryn), Aethexe (foul-tempered predatory reptile), Venumex (wiry venomous raptor), Marru (winged feline), Ursir (six-legged alien bear). Noticed how many of them [[Moody Mount|fall in range from "irritable" to "vicious"]]?
*** The Savlar Chem-Dogs are an [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard regiment]] taken from the inmates of a [[Polluted Wasteland|toxic nightmare]] of a prison planet. Their Chem-Riders tend to saddle up bizarre, vile-looking mutant critters, Emperor knows what, there isn't even name given for them.
*** [[Only War]] supplement ''Hammer of the Emperor'' even has mechanics for building new mount species.
** Space Wolves sometimes ride Fenrisian Wolves.
** The Kroot ride raptor-like Knarloc, sometimes Great Knarloc and Krootox (knuckle-walking devolved Kroot the size of a rhinoceros). In the latter two cases the mount also carries on its shoulders a heavy gun (or a huge crossbow with explosive arrows).
** The Orks have squiggoths - much like squigs (that are made mostly of toothy maw and viciousness), but large enough to ride... in a howdah.
** As usual it's overshadowed in the [[Rule of Cool|
* In ''Warzone'', some human soldiers ride on horse-sized bipedal dinosaurs/lizards in the jungles of Venus.
Line 413 ⟶ 417:
* During the 18th century the Swedish military supposedly experimented with moose cavalry. Compared to horses a moose has better stamina and is far better equipped at traversing difficult terrain. Also they're really big and scary, especially to Johnny Foreigner who often had never even heard of a moose. The Swedes were able to ride and train them as horses in all respects but one: Moose are pretty damn headstrong animals and no-one was ever able to persuade them to stop running away from pikes, bayonets, muskets, and cannons.
* The [[wikipedia:U.S. Camel Corps|U.S. Camel Corps]], proving that, yet again, [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]. Essentially, since the Southwestern United States is a big desert, they decided to experiment with using camels to help the troops operate in the region. The camels were well-suited to the environment, but they did not get along with horses at all, and got along with soldiers even less. The whole project was disbanded around the time of [[The American Civil War]], and the last confirmed sighting of a live wild camel in the United States was in 1941.
** There are camels in Australia (both dromedaries and bactrians) for similar reasons. They were imported for use in the 19th century, then abandoned as automobiles came in. The freed beasties are thriving,
* Some people have managed to ride [[Everything's Better with Llamas|llamas]] (or better said, to be tolerated by them), but all serious attempts to turn them into real riding animals have ended in failure. On the one hand, they are too light and weak compared to a horse or a camel (hence why most pictures of "llama riders" you'll ever find show children). On the other, they simply hate to have living beings on their back. Also, they can spit. [[Squick|And turn their necks 180º back]]...
* [http://www.badassoftheweek.com/voytek.html Private Wojtek (pronounced Voytek) the Soldier Bear], who served in the Polish 22nd Transport Artillery Supply Company during [[World War II]]. To quote from the article:
Line 421 ⟶ 425:
** Not to mention the fact that their skin is much looser than a horse, so that no matter how tightly the saddle is fastened, the rider will be swaying from side to side as the animal walks.
* American bison have been saddle-trained on occasion, although it's likely mostly an entertainment/recreational thing, ie circuses
* Dogs are used for pulling light carts or, particularly, sleds. (e.g. sled dogs such as Huskies) for both recreation and working purposes. Dog carts were once common due to dogs being cheaper to care for then horses but were outlawed in some areas due to [[Animal Wrongs Group|somewhat misplaced animal welfare concerns]].
* Zebras have been trained to pull carriages or let people ride them before, but it is
* Reindeer [[Eskimos Aren't Real|(yes they exist)]] are the only deer that can be said to be domesticated. They can be ridden or trained to pull carriages.
* Yaks.
| |||