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Cattle:Wild | Musky Ox | Hârnic | Ivinian | Shorkein

Ivinian Cattle
Salters and Hide workers
Cattle and peasantry
HMIII Rules
Market Value

Ivinian Cattle

Ivinian cattle are medium to large framed beef cattle with a very deep and broad body. Their color is white to cream with a pink muzzle and pale hooves. They have a short, broad head and heavily muscled loins and haunches. Ivinian cattle grow very fast.

Ivinian cattle trace their ancestry back to mainland Lythia and are believed to be descended from musky ox.

Ivinian cattle can range up to 10 KM in a day, although they usually do not stray far from a good source of food. If lost, Ivinian cows always return to their herd or die trying.

Heifers get sick easily, especially during calving; high losses to the herd are common if conditions are not just right.

Ivinian cattle are bred primarily for their perfectly white hides and meat, although milk and cheese product figure prominently as well. They are predominantly found in Ivinia and Shorkein. Ivinian cattle require a lot of fodder and fresh water to remain healthy. The best herds are located in flood plains and on the verge of swamps. Ivinian cattle do not deal well with high heat, humidity or drought.

The leather from these hides is highly prized because of its natural color and that it tans well.

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Salters and Hide workers

Working hides requires a lot of salt. Salters and mercantylers both trade in salt-dried hides, although most mercantylers prefer to deal with fully tanned hides because they last longer, and require less care. Officially only a manor lord can allow the sale of a cattle hide, unofficially if a serf has a hide to sell it is no secret.

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Cattle and peasantry

Even beef cattle breeds are used by the peasantry for their warmth in winter, manure on the fields and milk they regularly provide. If the peasantry must slaughter a cow, it is because they can no longer afford to pay the manor lord for the right to let it forage or because it is sick or too old. One quarter of the meat will go to the hide worker who slaughters the beast and tans the hide. Another quarter (at least) will go to the manor lord; leaving the family with a lot of a lot of sweetmeats and organs to preserve (smoke).

Peasantry will cull their herds in proportion to those culled from the manor lord's own herd, relying on the village reeve and master herder to determine which beasts are best suited to culling. Manor lords will always buy young cattle deemed either too expensive for the peasantry to keep or perfect for oxen training. Often feed rights (allowing the peasants cattle to eat for free that year) are traded for the calf rather than actual coin.

Cows live in the same houses as the peasants. The stable is often right off the kitchen, providing more warmth than the home's fire. Any manure deposited in the home is the peasant's; who often puts it on their fields. Any manure deposited outside the home is the manor lord's. Families trade the manure collected in return for minor rights (nut right or berry right) from the manor lord through his reeve. Manure is often collected by children and left with the reeve to be dried and put on the fields when they are fallow.

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HMIII Rules

Ivinian Cattle
Habitat Plains
Height 180-190 CM
Weight 600 KG
Diet Vegetarian
Life span 8-12 years
Group 3-25
Price  
Attributes
35 Str 10 Eye 04 Int 20 End
15 Sta 18 Hrg 05 Aur 28 Mov
11 Agl 16 Sml 10 Wil    
Skills
50 Initiative 60 Awareness
55 Dodge 55 Horn 7p
44 Trample 6B 52 Stealth
40 Bite 1P 40 Swimming
Armor
B4 E3 P1 F3 (except eyes)
Strike Locations
01-12 Head
13-20 Neck
21-30 • Fore Leg
31-60 • Flank (thorax)
61-75 Abdomen
76-90 • Quarter (hip)
91-98 • Hind Leg
99-00 Tail
• Odd = Left, Even = Right

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Market Value

Item d Source
Meat 1d/lb. Manor/Market
Sweet Meats 1d/lb. Manor/Market
Pelt 4d Manor/Market
Vellum 1f Hide worker
Eyes 1f/ea. Manor/Market
Hooves/Horns 1f/set Manor/Market
Leather 7d Hide worker
Hide 5d Hide worker
Milk/Butter 1d/pt. Manor/Market
Cheese 1d/lb. Manor/Market

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