Lexicon:Modern/Vennek

Vennek
Stage	Modern CLT
Pronunciation	/ˈven.nek/
Part of speech	Noun
Etymology	from Middle venēkē, from Proto venek
Related words	Neska, Svaekoil, Dorath

Vennek — the household guard beast. Dog-sized, heavily built through the shoulder, and social in family groups.

Notes

Sloping in the back with the forequarters carrying most of the weight, and a jaw out of all proportion to the rest of it. What it lacks in speed it makes up in the fact that whatever it closes on does not get away. Lives in family groups with a settled order among them, generally led by an older female, and a household that keeps three or four has a functioning clan rather than three or four animals. They call to one another constantly, and the alarm call carries a good distance and is unmistakable. Kept everywhere. In the agricultural rings they guard herds and turn back the smaller frontier animals. In yards and households they kill Svaekoil, which they do without hesitation, in coordination, and with an enthusiasm nobody has ever explained. On caravans they work in packs and sleep between the wagons and the dark. Raised from the young they bond hard and permanently to one household, and a Vennek that has chosen a family is difficult to persuade of anything else. Fiercely affectionate with those it knows and entirely unimpressed by anyone else. Engineered pre-Fall as a counter-weapon to the Svaekoil. The build, the pack coordination, the carrying alarm call and the drive are all designed, as is the bond to a household — you want it to stay at the farm. The Svaekoil was released to kill people and the Vennek was built to kill Svaekoil; both wars ended nine centuries ago and the animals are still at it in the yards.

A low bony ridge runs across the shoulders, which is unusual in an engineered animal and was almost certainly taken from the native stock the Vennek was built to fight alongside.