Lexicon:Modern/Vaelith

Vaelith
Stage	Modern CLT
Pronunciation	/ˈvaɪ.lɪθ/
Part of speech	Noun
Etymology	from Middle Vaelith
Related words	Dorath, Graesa, Clearhold

Vaelith — the riding animal of the Known World. Faster and lighter than the Dorath, and considerably harder to handle.

Notes

Fifteen or sixteen hands at the shoulder, lean and long-legged, with a narrow angular head and eyes set further forward than a browsing animal’s — it watches what is coming rather than trusting to flight. Two swept-back bony protrusions rise from the skull above the eyes. Along the neck and back runs a ridge of short sharp bony spines, and above each rear hoof grows a curved spur. The front hooves are harder-edged than they look and a rearing Vaelith strikes to cut. Alert to the point of difficulty. It does not flee when cornered; it turns. An experienced rider learns to read the ear, the set of the neck, the change in gait that means the animal has found something first, which makes it a partner in frontier travel rather than transport. An inexperienced one can trigger a defensive response by accident, and that is a dangerous position to be in. Wild Vaelith persist on the frontier and are worse in every respect than the domestic sort. They are still caught and broken, at considerable risk, and the trade is small, well paid, and respected. Breeders who can claim recent wild blood say so, and charge for it. Native to Teraell and not engineered. Domesticated after the fall, since a pre-Fall civilization had no use for a riding animal. The ridge, spurs and hooves are ancient defences against native predators; nine centuries of loose bioweapons have sharpened all of them and worsened the temper.