Today is the last of our Animal Friday series where we give you some animal character options that you can use in your games.

First we gave you man’s mighty steed, then we gave you man’s valiant hound and last week we gave you man’s ferocious foe. This week, us humans become the predator.

This week we give you our third animal: the noble stag!

Much like last week’s bear, the stag won’t often be seen in Middelburg outside a butcher’s, so you will have to travel deep into the woods to find this majestic creature.

One thing that is immediately apparent is how close the stag’s profile is to that of the horse from a few weeks ago. That is not just a coincidence because horses and deer share a few similarities. There is a very game-y, mechanic-y reason for this. If you remember three weeks ago with the horse character sheet, horses aren’t quite what they seem in The Runed Age. Rather than making horses by breeding small ponies selectively like we did in the real world, the humans of The Runed Age selectively bred goats to make their horses, meaning the horses in Middelburg, and elsewhere in the world, have horses, tufts of hair on their chin and are remarkable climbers.

However, not all cultures went the way of the goat for their mounted animal needs. The Tolians and some Uttosian cultures instead ride domesticated stags. Among the Tolians, the reindeer is the most coveted mount, but they domesticate and ride many kinds of stags. So, if you are playing an Uttosian, a Tolian, or perhaps a northern Westerner or Cael that grew up close to the Tolian borders, you might well be more experienced riding a stag than a horse. If that is the case, feel free to amaze the people of Middelburg by bringing a stag into the city. You will surely be the talk of the town. Just make sure no one thinks you’re bringing the stag to slaughter!

That’s it for the animal kingdom. Yes, there are plenty of animals still out there, but none that you will meet in Middelburg or its surroundings that need a character sheet for the game.

Next week we start a new series that will take you back 2000 years to a time of myths, legends, heroes and when monsters still walked the lands!

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