Dor'daan

Dor'daan are small doglike goats (perhaps goatlike) dogs native to the rockier temperate areas of Lor. They're generally brown or grey coated.

Dor'daan, for the most part, look like dogs. They have ears that hang down, like a beagle's or shih tzu's. They've a sleek or coarse (depending on time of year) coat of brown or gray, sometimes white. But, their legs are built like a cloven cliffdweller, such as a goat or klipspringer - with hooves to match. They're small, about 2 feet at the absolute largest but tending more towards 1.5 feet in length. In height, most of their height comes from their legs, but they hit about 1.5 feet again.

It should also be noted that Dor'daan are of a variety of creature with innate magical talent. Around 1/10 has the ability, and the ability is used for enhanced barks to scare off or scare up predators and prey alike. Or to soften landings with wind currents. Or to swap sexes for a day.

Dor'daan generally live in rocky cliffside areas, but do on occassion live in hilly grasslands. They don't make home in a particular den or niche, usually and instead roam a general zone for food and temporary shelter in event of inclement weather.

Dor'daan are generally the bane of urbanites. Given the creature's proclivity for kicking things in the head for food, there have been fierce efforts to try and keep them out of urban areas. They don't make for good pets either, as they tend to be hostile to anything taller than them.

Dor'daan thrive on a primarily meat based diet, with room for some starch-based vegetables.

Dor'daan follow a pack hierarchy, with a “tracker/finder” leading the pack towards the best prey and meals. They engage in coordinated attacks in order to bring down their prey, usually by way of applying the momentum of several creatures at once in order to send their quarry flying off a cliff so they can feast on the broken body at the bottom. Otherwise, they move as a group except when luring other stalking predators to their doom. Foreign packs sometimes enter into territorial disputes, but generally these end with a bunch of bristled fur and loud barks. Dor'daan generally fall in with the packs they were born into and don't leave. Packs tend to be around 10 large.

Dor'daan have a two-sex reproductive cycle, although much like primates spend much of their time doing the do and seeking as many partners as possible. They have a gestation period of about 3 months and a “childhood” of about 1 year.

The Dor'daan is not a domesticated animal in the slightest. In the event that a L'manel bonds with one, they become markedly more intelligent and loyal to their bonded companion, but they still don't listen the way a domesticated animal would.

Pre-underground Lorath once thought areas where Dor'daan lived to be protected by a great and powerful beast that kills indiscriminately and makes the vallesy quake with its roar. Of course, when they found out that it was just a very small creature making a big boom, everybody had a good laugh about it. And then realized that these small critters are incredibly dangerous if one is not careful.

* This space serves for any observations or notes that are not relevent within the setting but may be useful to GMs or players.