Fauna
Across the amber savannas of Originis' single supercontinent, the Sunwake Plains-Ox plows through grass-seas in herds that crest the horizon like a slow tan tide. A tonne of shoulder-humped muscle rides on four broad-hoofed legs; the hide is honey-amber dappled with a ochre dorsal stripe that runs unbroken from poll to tail-tuft, while a creamy belly catches reflected sunlight off the bunchgrass. Spiraling horns sweep half a meter outward from a heavy bony boss, ridged like cooled lava and tipped pale ivory. Eyes sit wide and honey-bright, granting a panoramic field that catches Cael fliers stooping from above. The muzzle is wet, blunt, and fringed with sensitive whiskers; nostrils flare to drink the dust. A hump above the shoulder stores fat against the dry season, and behind it the hide is webbed with old scars from horn-duels. By Pale Sister's full face the herds graze deep into the night, and a hush of rumbling infrasound rolls between bulls along the warm grass.
Valari plains-clans measure wealth in Sunwake herds and reckon a marriage by the gift of breeding cows. Calves born under Pale Sister's full face are tattooed with chord-glyphs and called moonwakes, believed to carry the herd's luck for a generation. Valari elders teach that the first chord-song a child must learn is the rumble-tongue of the ox, because a herder unable to answer a bull's challenge will be trampled before sundown.
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