Oreg

The oreg are shorter at the shoulder than the fubarnii, but longer and bulkier animals. Their front legs are short and firm-footed, their back legs much longer and incredibly muscular. Their large and strong beaks are mostly good for browsing vegetation, and they have quite rounded bodies and stubby tails.

The kopa exhibit a number of features not found in the sempa or jenta: kopa grow large spikes on each shoulder, which are extremely tough and very dangerous weapons. They also have thick and hardened brow-ridges of bone to protect them from impacts to the head, and their back is covered by an armour formed out of thick bony ridges.

The sempa are generally quite docile animals, and pretty useless to anyone. Oreg meat is tough to the point of being almost inedible, and they produce no other significantly useful by-products. The kopa are another matter, and they are some of the most bad-tempered, stubborn, pointlessly aggressive creatures a fubarnii could ever have the misfortune to come across. Oregs are mostly herbivorous in the wild, but will eat carrion if they chance upon it.

Each kopa will generally have 2 to 5 sempa, and along with their jenta they will roam around in small family groups. When two families meet, it is common for the kopa to joust, using their large hind legs to launch themselves at each other, grappling almost in mid-air at times. These contests can result in serious injury and even death. The defeated kopa will generally lose one of his sempa to the victor.

The sempa tend to back away along with the jenta in times of trouble; kopa rarely flee from anything, giving them a solid reputation for stubbornness. Capturing an oreg is a very risky business and many a fubarnii has died in the process. It is not only fubarnii who can regret taking on an oreg, though, as they will almost always fight rather than back down (even against a devanu or grishak!), and their shoulder-spikes can cause very severe damage or even on occasion kill even large predators. That is not to say the oreg would usually win such a fight – it would be immensely rare for one to survive tussling with a devanu – but the cost of killing one can be surprisingly and painfully high.

Despite the seemingly useless nature of these beasts, fubarnii across the Empire have found a reason to capture oregs and even breed them: pit-fighting. Oregs are bred for the toughest and most muscular kopa, and then sent into the pit to battle it out – as, of course, it is in their nature to do. Establishments can be found in many towns and cities offering the chance to see the breathtaking if cruel spectacle; as long as a businessman is prepared to go to the bother of capturing a few oregs or finding breeders prepared to go to a new fighting-pit: digging out a pit and adding fences is easy, as is creating some viewing platforms and possibly a betting stand to make a little extra for the owner.

Despite the dangers inherent to the capture and breeding of oregs, breeders continue their trade as the best kopa for breeding fetch large sums.