Gontha

A Gontha is a flying herbivore that resembles a herd animal with the frame of a yak and the longish neck of a giraffe, but somewhat more squat and covered with woolly fur. Gontha graze in the summer on high altitude pasturage and in the winter on the rich foliage of the Tosplint Tree near the Shadew River. Gontha herds provide meat, milk, and fur for many traditional sky peoples. The creature's long neck has long been accredited in legend as the source of its capacity to fly and enables it to reach leaves from the tall, deciduous trees of the Jaggudorn valleys during the winter. In the summer, the gontha eat high altitude grasses, even from the sides of mountains, with their high-reaching necks. Today gontha are shipped throughout the Pallathantic Region thanks to the Grand Shadew Canal. An adult male gontha stands between 11 and 15 feet high and weights around 2,500 to 3,200 pounds (1130 to 1450 kgs).

Life of Gontha

In the winter, the Gontha eats the leaves of the Tosplint Tree. Sometimes herders and ranchers will also provide hay for them. Their necks are too long for them to forage in the snow. In the late spring and summer, the gontha eat the long grass of the high alpine valleys, sometimes alighting on lower ground so as to forage grass on higher grounds. Despite their seemingly gangly appearance, gontha are quite sure-footed and it is believed they can use their flight ability with very limited effect to recover or balance themselves.

Gontha Flight

A gontha cannot fly at will anytime of the year, but appears to be limited to flight in the late spring and early autumn, when the herd migrates from the Shadew River valley to the high alpine valleys of the Jaggudorns and from thence back to the Shadew River Valley. During these two occasions of flight, the gontha fly in small family groups or large herds of related families. Their flight consists of numerous short stints at low elevations of no more than 80 meters (ca 260 feet) above the surface of the earth. Gontha are especially adapted to the thinner air of high elevation.

Economic Worth

Gontha cows produce a thick, creamy milk and provide a flesh that tastes something like buffalo and deer. Their fur is used to create wool of great warmth and for skysails. Gontha were domesticated by the Jaffgorn Giants millennia before the advent of Salmakhamer and can fly for several days at a time, though they only do this when migrating to new pasturage as they must rest and gorge themselves with food thereafter. Gontha are an important part of the economy of the ancient and modern sky peoples of Jaggudorns. Anciently, they were prized as sources of wealth as food, fur, hides, bones, and sacrifice to the gods. The royal herds of the king were guarded as the king’s treasury. Gontha breed in autumn and birth in late spring or early summer. During the harsh winters of the Jaggudorns, gontha are herded to the great Shadew River Valley where they graze on the leaves of the deciduous Tosplint Trees. They live the other five months of the Asdaran Calendar in the lush foothills of the Jaggudorns. A mother gontha gives birth to one or two calves typically every year. A gontha is almost as intelligent as a buffalo, but more docile. Humans, Uglyami, Mountain Orcs (aka Snow Orcs), and Trolls have practiced gontha herding for well over two millennia. Gontha have only recently been domesticated, so they are not as tame as conventional domestic cattle.

Mustering of the Tuvarions

Main article: Mustering of the Tuvarions

By the fifth century after Salmakhamer, the whole valley of Thrace annually practiced the annual spring Mustering of the Tuvarions in which the reputed sons of the god Tuvar led the warriors in the gathering and droving of the gontha from the shores of the Shadew River. It was at one of these musterings that the warriors gathered for the Invasion of Gavalúkh the Skylord, 833 to 840.

Development of Early Skycraft

See also: Skycraft

The early High Shadevan Tribes and the later Jaggudornish Tribes (the intermediary culture between the Ancient High Gwenyan and the later Sky Tribes) came to rely upon the gontha for sustenance. The High Shadevan Tribes hunted the beasts, but never overcame the their capacity for short-range flight which rendered attempts at herding and captivity useless. Sometime after their immigration into the Great Vale of the Shadew River, the High Gwenyan Tribes developed the technology to herd the beasts. The Jaggudornish Tribes developed the cultivation of woods and fabrics that could be used to create short-ranged, aerial gliders. Now with the aid of the one- and two-man gliders, the Jaggudornish Tribes could herd the Gontha up into the mountain valleys and back down to the Great Vale of the Shadew. The humans could exploit the gontha. The gontha became an enormous, reliable resource for the tribes and they expanded in population, nudging out the decaying High Shadevan Civilization. The development of early sky gliders eventually led through the centuries to the development of huge sky vessels and the emigration and dominance of the Sky Tribes a thousand years later over the other humanlikes of the Jaggudorns.

Gontha Wool

Main article: Gontha Wool

Gontha wool was sought for its softness and warmth. Lighter than other wools, the wool produced from yearling gontha is preferred for the weaving of skysails. It is not as effective as skysails from textiles from tursinkdoos, but cheaper.

Breeds

There are several breeds.

Bosk Gontha

a short-haired, green and brown speckled gontha

Holy Gontha

a golden, long-haired gontha of the deep Jaggudorns, thought to be sacred to the gods

Jaggue Gontha

the grey-haired gontha of the rocky Jaggudorns known for their sure-footedness and very high resistance to cold. Their wool is heavier and less favored for skysails.

Snee Gontha

long white haired gontha with the greatest tolerance for high elevations

Gontha in Art

In the great valleys between the Jaggudorns and the Shadew River, the Gonthais revered with its own divinity. In Thrace, gontha were portrayed stylistically as vertically exaggerated beasts with one or two pairs of wings that represented their ability to fly. In heraldry, they are called camelopards. The flag of Shaddago has two stylized, winged gontha on it.

The flag of the Commonwealth of Shaddago portrays two stylized, winged gontha

Idioms

"Stick out like a gontha in the grass." Something readily obvious to observe. A gontha looks like a giraffe.

See Also

• Jaggudorn Mountains
• Shadew River
• Skycraft
• Sky Tribes
• Skyfaring
• Tosplint Tree