Ceogh

Singular: ceogh
Plural: ceoghs
Pronunciation: key-ahg

Avg. Height: 219cm/7'2" (at shoulder)
Avg. Weight: 625kg/1,378 lbs.

Habitat: forest
Diet: omnivorous, leaning towards browsing or carrion


A ceogh (Blothdadyria indignans), referred to colloquially as a ceogh deer due to their appearance, is a large quadruped found primarily on the northern half of the mainland, particularly around Ydra, Anishma, and Qlithoth. While roughly deer-shaped, their build is significantly stockier than a normal cervine and the average ceogh has a very meat-heavy diet. Their thick, shaggy fur comes in various shades of mottled brown, leaning towards darker and/or redder shades, with prominent markings; ceoghs have black muzzles, black "socks" on their feet, and pale patches around their eyes. They have subtle mottling of lighter and darker shades on the non-black parts of their coats. Ceoghs have horselike manes and tails that lean towards blacks and dark browns and can grow to be quite long. Both males and females have antlers.

Ceoghs have bad eyesight and will aggressively charge any moving objects they feel are intruding. They are large enough to defend themselves from most predators and often eat what they kill; the average ceogh eats carrion on a regular basis and will graze or strip leaves from trees to provide additional nutrients. A ceogh has a combination of piercing and grinding teeth, much like a swine, but while they are capable of delivering a nasty bite to unwary hands their mouths aren't really designed for combat. They use their tusks to scrape tree bark to mark their territory. While they generally aren't able to see tusk-marks from a distance, this behavior releases the scent of the tree's sap which their noses can pick up from a modest distance; since it fades over time, looking for fresh scrapes is an excellent way to gauge local ceogh activity. Ceoghs also feel for older scrapings by rubbing their bodies against trees.

The average ceogh deer can produce a bellow that can be heard for miles. Bellowing is sometimes used as a dominance display, sometimes to signal to other ceoghs in the area, and is an intimidation tactic used when a ceogh attacks a target. Their salivary glands are particularly robust due to their varied diets and are particularly skewed towards breaking down vegetable matter. Since ceoghs are unable to produce cud, this has the side-effect of making ceoghs prone to drooling and spitting.

Ceoghs are not hugely social and are rarely seen in groups of more than two or three. Males fight with one another for the privelege to mate with females and vice versa, with weaker examples of both sexes being chased off to fend for themselves. Individuals who have damaged or missing tusks are also less likely to reproduce since their advances will be rejected. A single ceogh may mate many times over a season and will be increasingly aggressive during this period. Ceoghs begin their courtship in late winter and birth fawns in midsummer, which are raised by the mother. It takes about eight months for a fawn to grow their first set of antlers. Fawns are left to fend for their own with the coming of a new breeding season and are sexually mature at two years old.

While ceogh meat is more palatable than most carnivores', they are generally not hunted as food animals due to their ferocity and relative scarcity. Their manes and tails are sometimes substituted for horsehair. Ceogh antler can be processed like any other cervid's.

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