The Borean Oliphaunt

 

A lateral-view portrait of "Lyle", an adult bull from the Cronos Weave, with notable anatomical traits labeled.

The Borean oliphaunt (Oliphauntus macrocentarus) is a giant Homocentauroid of the order Simicentaurea, a clade of ovoviviparous, roughly primate-adjacent Euathyrmatherians that generally exhibit high intelligence averages. Simicentaureans are usually arboreal or semi-arboreal organisms that live in forested areas and spend at least part of their time climbing trees. The Borean oliphaunt's family, the Oliphauntidae, has completely abstained from such a way of life, however, surviving in the wide open landscapes by becoming too big for most predators to tackle, rivaling an African bush elephant in size. Indeed, it is one of the largest animals in the northern hemisphere, and occupies a very proboscidean-like niche in the Borean savannah and weaves that it calls home. On top of all of that, the oliphaunt is one of the smartest animals on the planet, with an intellect that is roughly equivalent to archaic hominins. This makes it one of the few genera of animals here to evolve true sapience besides those within the clade Astutocentaurini, though it lives very conservatively by comparison; it doesn't wear clothes or use fire, and it doesn't live in a village. With that being said, it does have an observable culture and language, which has lead the species to be listed as an indigenous people by our researchers. Its sheer intellect has also allowed it to become a cosmopolitan species, as it lives not only in the savannahs and weaving steppes, but also in the tropical dry forests, shrublands, and even the edges of the deserts.

The Borean oliphaunt is a hindgut-fermenting generalist herbivore with omnivorous tendencies, and its thick, powerful beak and grinding keratin dental pads allow it to eat a broad variety of plant and non-plant foods, ranging from the leaves on the tops of tree-like angiodactyls to various species of star grass, and also meat in the form of tumeofauna. They live primarily in Borea's savannahs, though due to their intelligence and adaptability they can also be found in the steppes and shrublands. A close cousin, the small-eared oliphaunt (Oliphauntus cryodontus) lives further north in the temperate forests and taiga, where it is better suited to survive the winter season. The Borean oliphaunt has a centauroid body plan and is a facultative quadruped that alternates between hexapedal and quadrupedal gaits. When reared up, it stands at a staggering height of 6 meters tall from head to toe, making it dwarf most land animals. Despite this, it is a surprisingly lightweight creature, with a partially pneumaticized skeleton and six air-filled lungs making it only slightly heavier than an Asian elephant. Nonetheless, its body has adapted to bear such an enormous size. It is so large that it has forgone the ability to detach its zooids, which are now fused together by skin and muscle to better support its tremendous bulk. Its skin is also nearly hairless, since its large body size is sufficient enough to retain heat in its relatively warm environment. To shed extra heat during especially hot days, it possesses enlarged auripods full of blood vessels that are close to the surface. In bulls, these auripods also double as display structures, bearing vibrant blue and red color patterns used to both intimidate rivals and woo potential mates. Its middle and rear locomotor limbs have lost all dexterity, becoming pillar-like elephantine limbs with reduced toes, and the dewlegs of the upper and lower abdominal zooids are virtually absent. The front locomotors, however, retain dexterous and opposable digits, and are used primarily for grabbing food and fashioning/using crude tools. The upper thoracic zooid also bears a smaller pair of arms called "luggage arms", which are used for carving into wood and carrying objects when the larger forelimbs are already occupied.

Oliphaunts are a highly social species that lives in tightly knit patriarchal family units, founded and led by an elder male called a "herdfather". A typical herd is comprised mostly of mature cows and their offspring, while a smaller portion is composed of subadult bulls. Mature bulls will affiliate with a herd as well but will largely live separately to act as reconnaissance. The herd members form inseparable bonds with one another, and constantly cooperate and care for one another in the search for food, water, resources, and even in raising children. Unlike many other Athyrmatherian herbivores, however, this altruism is motivated not only by instinct, but also a genuine emotional connection between family members. Oliphaunts are very noisy creatures that communicate using a broad array of vocalizations that they produce with organs within their spiracles. Long-distance communication between herd members is facilitated by the emission of infrasound frequencies that are inaudible for most other creatures. When excited, enraged, or distressed, they emit a loud, deepened contrabass-like roar from their thoracic spiracles. They also communicate using non-verbal gesticulation, using both their primary and luggage arms to perform uncannily hominid-like gestures. Mothers and their calfs even engage in a "hugging" behavior, similar to primates and humans. The average lifespan of a Borean oliphaunt is anywhere between 70 to 100 Earth years, and both bulls and cows reach sexual maturity at 15 to 20 years of age. When they become fertile, bull oliphaunts go through a period of musth, and become more aggressive and sexually charged due to the increased levels of testosterone in their bodies. During this period, bulls will compete with one another for mates, starting with an intimidation display in which they roar and pound on the ground with their fists while flashing their brightly colored ears. What follows this display is a ground-shaking fight in which the competing bulls charging at one another in a flurry of swinging fists, gnashing beaks and jabbing chin tusks. When the loser yields, the winner proceeds to mate with the receptive cow, who then gives birth to a composite neonate calf after a gestation period of 17 months. Even though they are easily some of the most closely knit and family-oriented animals on the whole planet, Borean oliphaunts are not monogamous, and the bull only spends about a week and a half with his mate before becoming a bachelor once again. During the winter dry season, northern populations of Borean oliphaunt travel south to shrublands that remain fairly warm year-round. During this period, the northern migrant oliphaunts often mingle with southern Borean oliphaunt populations, and it isn't uncommon for some of the latter to actually be accepted into the migrant herd and follow them back north during spring.

Borean oliphaunts are remarkably intelligent, so much so that they are considered sapient by most researchers. A majority of studies estimate that their intelligence ranks between that of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. They are cognitive and self-aware and are observed to recognize themselves in reflections. Not only do they have a remarkable long-term memory, but they also have a capacity for abstract thought and causal reasoning, as they are able to memorize scenarios, individuals, and even patterns and symbols and quickly ascertain cause and effect. This high intelligence also makes them extremely adaptable, and they are able to quickly adjust to new situations and learn new skills from each other. They also have a simple understanding of medicine, and will self-medicate by eating certain species of plant to treat or provide relief from illnesses. Most profoundly of all, oliphaunts are known to possess a sense of empathy and emotion that extends not only to family members, but also unrelated individuals and creatures of other species. They are capable of grief, and when a herd member passes away, they mourn their fallen companion and engage in a death ritual, gently laying debris such as branches and grass blades on top of the body and marking the grave with an engraved tree trunk. Even after the ritual is completed, herd members will periodically return to the spot where the individual died, seemingly out of remembrance. The death of an especially beloved member of the family can be emotionally devastating to a herd, lowering the morale of most of its members. Mothers who lose their children have been known to isolate themselves from the rest of the herd out of despair, with some of the the closest herd mates trying to console her in response. They also perform acts of altruism towards animals of other species and have been documented to raise orphaned young animals until they are ready to live on their own.

Their capacity for intelligence, emotion and empathy doesn't mean they are completely benign, however. Much like us, the Astutocentaurus, and practically every other known sapient species in the galaxy, the Borean oliphaunts are capable of great and terrible violence if pushed too far. Though they are normally gentle giants, they are known to actively seek revenge for an unjust death; If a younger herd member is killed by a predator, it is not uncommon for either the mother, an adult sibling, or even just a close friend to track down the culprit with the intent to kill. Pound by pound, a Borean oliphaunt has the greatest upper body strength of any animal on the planet, and when they don't have any hand-crafted weapons at their disposal, they can be rather brutal and ruthless hand-to-hand combatants. When under threat, fully grown individuals have been observed to rip smaller aggressors in half with their bare hands, and others have been witnessed using their powerfully muscled gnathopods to bite the heads off of their comparatively small foes. According to some historical documents from Astutocentaurus libraries, they have also been known to declare war. About 1,000 local years ago, invaders from across the sea settled in the savannah, and tried to hunt both the oliphaunts and the native Shovelfolk people for food and sport. In response to this senseless genocide, the oliphaunts formed armies and decimated the settlements of the invaders, killing and devouring their oppressors as vengeful recompense.

Like many sapient species, the borean oliphaunts have a high capacity for language, craftsmanship, and artistry. They have spoken languages, which are similar in phonetic complexity and meaning to those spoken by the Astutocentaurus. Their languages, however, are spoken by deep, rumbling voices. By using giant boulders as anvils and their powerful beaks and curved claws as carving instruments, they are known to craft crude yet effective tools and weaponry out of objects such as branches and stones. Borean oliphaunts make very liberal use of this ability, and have used this skill to create spears made of sharpened sticks, daggers from the severed flank spines of tarasques, hammer-like instruments fashioned from the clonal trunk segments of "trees", and handleless axes made of rocks that have been chipped into smooth, blade-like edges. Though they are naturally herbivores, the advent of tool use has enabled them to expand their diet into facultative omnivory. They occasionally use their sharpened sticks to forage for food in more foliage-rich areas, using them to skewer small reptilians (Saurophysans and Tagmatasaurians) that clamber in the brush, and more assertive individuals tend to steal fresh kills from predators. This has proven to be a rather useful development, as it supplements their diets with salts that are vital for fueling their enormous brains. In a similar vein to primates, they also alter their surroundings to accomodate their needs; when they find a large and flat enough boulder, they will establish a sort of makeshift "workshop" around it, marking the area with felled logs and gathering rocks and branches in organized piles for later use to be made into tools. These oliphaunt workshops are scattered across the savannah, and do not belong to a specific owner. Each one is used and maintained by any oliphaunt herd that is nearest to them at any given time. They also build roads of sorts, clearing paths for migration routes, and they have been known to build temporary shelters to sleep in using logs and branches. They are also major ecosystem engineers and have been observed to engage in rudimentary agriculture and ornamental horticulture; when eating the fleshy fruit of umbrynoid trees, they will often remove the pit and then bury it with the knowledge that the seed will grow into a new tree in the future. Several tracts of dry forest across the savannah seem to be direct results of this agriculture, as the trees that make up these areas often grow in neat, evenly spaced rows. As for their horticultural practices, they are directly responsible for the creation of the vast flowery "Oliphaunt Gardens" that make up parts of the Western Weave and the Cronos Weave. They have evidently been doing this for many millions of years, as there are several different species of animal that evolved specifically to inhabit these areas.

Oliphaunts are not only craftsmen and tool users, but also natural artists that express themselves through creation of images. When an oliphaunt herd spends an extended amount of time in one area, some herd members will carve/etch minimalistic illustrations onto tree trunks and large rocks, many of which can be recognized as depictions of familiar landscapes, plants and animals as well as past events such as migrations, battles for mates and attacks from predators. They even draw self-portraits or portraits of herd mates. They also have early religions; Some of these art pieces appear to portray wholly imaginary beings, which have been interpreted by some anthropologists to be depictions of archaic deities or monsters from a sort of belief system. An even more mysterious sort of oliphaunt art takes the form of convoluted, intricate branching patterns. These patterns vary wildly in style, aesthetic and appearance, and seem to be specific to different Borean oliphaunt herds and populations. Similar patterns are also also carved into the tree trunk "headstones" of oliphaunt graves, though the headstone versions of these etchings are nowhere near as complex as those that are engraved upon stones. It was long thought that these patterns were merely a form of abstract oliphaunt art, though more recent studies seem to suggest that there is much more to these designs than meets the eye. Upon further examination, it appears that each different "style" of pattern has its own consistent format as well as recurring patterns that can be considered "glyphs". This has lead some liguists to speculate that these odd fractaline etchings are actually a language family of non-linear writing systems in which the interconnected glyphs represent words or phrases in a sentence. Interestingly, they also have the ability to recognize intelligence in other animals, and have been documented trying to use their gestures and rumbles to communicate with other Homocentaurid species and, occasionally, human researchers. They notably have a very positive relationship with the region's indigenous people, the Shovelfolk, often assisting them in building their homes, acting as village guardians and even trading some of their own culture with theirs. As a result, a large portion of the latter's belief system is heavily influenced by the Borean oliphaunts. The study of oliphaunt culture is still a relatively young field, but in due time, it is entirely possible that we may find comradery among these mighty giants just as we have with the Astutocentaurus.