Lore24 Mar 30: Ortanar

Ortanar are gigantic lizardlike creatures which can grow big enough to house an entire city on their back. They have six, eight, or twelve legs, depending on their size, growing new pairs as they grow larger. Their skin starts out as green and scaly, but as they mature it becomes more and more like stone. Mature adults have backs that are indistinguishable from hilly terrain, complete with boulders and even fertile earth.

Nomad tribes often settle on the backs of the larger ortanar specimens, usually trying to forge a mutually beneficial relationship with the ortanar, as angering such a beast is not a good idea if you are living on its back.

The diet of the ortanar is gigantic plants, which are sadly becoming more and more rare due to the increasing desertification of most settled areas, necessitating the ortanar to travel longer and longer distances between meals. Some nomads, however have managed to manufacture special ortanar feed from various plants cultivated on the backs of the ortanar themselves. Whether these efforts are enough to save the species from extinction is to be seen.

Image from The Wandering Village

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