Gnu

Gnu are a species of ungulate which roam the savannahs and plains of the Southeastern Threshold, from Harbourhead to the far edges of the Great Grass Sea.

They are dark grey-brown animals, in some ways similar to Cattle, though their forequarters are visibly more developed and muscled than their hindquarters. They have shaggy tails, beards, and manes, as well as curved horns and cloven hooves.

Gnu travel in large, loose herds, migrating across their range according to seasonal patterns of weather and rainfall. They are herbivores, who graze on the short grasses and shrubs of the Southeast. They are fast-moving and wary creatures, flight being their standard response to the threat of predators (such as Lions, Claw Striders, Soaring Mantises, or humans).

Gnu compete with a number of other herbivores, such as the Guar and Cattle, and gnu bulls may act aggressively to drive them away from fertile feeding grounds. Other herbivores are paid little heed, such as Yeddim and Dazzling Horses who feed on the taller plants and grasses the gnu ignore: these creatures will often intermingle their herds as they graze.

Gnu have not been domesticated, but are common prey for hunters in their range. Their meat is considered coarse and hard, eschewed by those who can obtain superior flesh such as that of beef Cattle, but their hides can be used to produce tough, durable leather of good quality. In regions where the cult of Ahlat holds great sway, populations will often embark on massive culls of gnu to clear space for cattle grazing.

The god of the gnu is Gukhan, who began his career as directional chief of ungulates in the South. Long before the Primordials were overthrown, gnu were the most numerous of grazing animals across the South, and Gukhan wielded some influence... it was Gukhan's much-sought promotion to head the All-Creation Committee of Hoofed Oversight which opened the way for Ahlat to take his old post as directional overseer for hoofed creatures, which began the Bull God's rise to his current post of prominence.

Gukhan still remains, in a technical sense, Ahlat's superior within the Celestial Bureaucracy, but the Bull God's manipulations to expand his powerbase into the Bureau of Humanity rather than ahead in the Bureau of Nature allowed him to outmaneuver the Hoofed Oversight Committee entirely... when complaints are raised against the dominance of Ahlat's Cattle over other Southern ungulates (a state of affairs directly perpetrated by Ahlat's machinations), the Bull God writes a flowery order to his office that the situation be corrected... an order that, due to lack of manpower and budget, none of his subordinates will ever act upon. To bring censure against the Southern God of War for such matters, given his allies and influence in Yu-shan, is a risk few on the Committee are willing to take.