Giant Arboreal Sloth

The Giant Arboreal Sloth is a large arboreal creature of the Eastern forests and jungles. It is covered in long grey hair, in which dwells a form of algae that tinges the fur green, serving as a form of camouflage. The algae in turn supports a miniature ecosystem of insects eating both it and each other, which do not seem to bother the sloths in the least.

The Giant Arboreal Sloth is a slow-moving arboreal herbivore, inching along hanging from the branches of trees. It strips leaves with its long climbing claws, eating them and digesting them slowly, descending to defecate only once every week or so. These claws can be used for defence, though the sloth prefers to menace rather than attack. The claws also maintain their grip on branches after death, meaning hunters attacking from the ground often cannot retrieve their prey.

Sloths are considered a useful and easy prey animal by many creatures of the East, including Tree Pards, Strix, Great Owls, larger groups of Hatra, and humans, who value the meat and leather the sloth provides. A few humans are more sympathetic, such as the Tribe of the Steadfast Step which lives in symbiosis with the creatures.

Sloths vary greatly in size, those in the southern jungles amongst the largest trees growing to nearly the size of mammoths, while those further north are typically slightly larger than a grown human. The savants of Halta have determined that Giant Arboreal Sloths never develop into san- or ata-beasts, a claim disputed by the animals' spirit, the Sloth Avatar.