Animal Design: Makaki

[annarti]

I finished Silent Harmony! Quick, time to redesign EVERYTHING! Kinda. I decided after finishing it to not do anything this year on SH, but if something came to mind then I'd at least write it down. Yesterday I was thinking about travel distances and such, which got me onto thinking about horses, and basically horses suck. Horsey people are very knowledgeable about horses; I couldn't give a shit about horses. I give up trying to make my horses realistic.

Also, on a side note after seeing a bandicoot digging at Mum's lawn yesterday, I had the idea that most mammals in Tsyllaes should really be marsupials, what with it being based pretty heavily on Australia and all.

I decided to try combining these ideas, starting with real marsupials, the extinct megafauna. Honestly the only one big enough to ride is the giant wombat, which absolutely bloody exist in Tsyllaes now, but not overly convenient as a steed. I looked then at extinct mammals to see if anything else might be useful, and came across the macrauchenia, some weird South American creature which was its own evolutionary branch, unrelated to anything else that currently exists. The closest they've got is the tapir/horse/elephant branch. PERFECT. Also I can find virtually no info about this thing.

Nabbed that as my inspiration, and the makaki was born! Because it's way easier to say than macrauchenia. But yes, this is my not-horse of Tsyllaes. Camels are still around and the dominant steed of Raykin, but horses are gone and makakis take their place.

The top left was the first one I drew with no reference and just from memory from what I was looking up last night, just to see what happened, and it's a horse.

Common Makaki (middle, with the foot on the top right) I then looked up reference, modified it a bit and figured out roughly how its anatomy worked, so that'll be the one the others are all based off of. This one I'm calling the common makaki, the one that lives in the wild and the one everyone thinks of when they think of makakis. Their bodies are the size of a horse but their legs are a fair bit thicker and longer, but they rest sitting down like camels so they're easy to mount. Real Kazinians mount their makakis while they're standing.
I still want them to be marsupials, unless I can find a compelling reason for them not to be, so the mares have a pouch under their belly. Like kangaroos, the opening is super elastic--if you make a circle with your thumbs and forefingers of both hands, that'd be the size of it slack, so the faun can get in and out, but tight enough that it won't fall out when the mother is running. They sit down back end first then front (unlike camels that go down on their front knees first then lower the back) so they can then flop over to the side if they have a foal in the pouch. Domesticated steeds are also trained to hold the sitting position for a few moments to allow their rider to dismount before flopping to the side.
They live mostly in the mountains and hills of Kazin, Llayad and northern Raykin, where they use their snoots to pull leaves off of trees for food, occasionally fruit if they can get it but they're fine off leaves. They're suited to Kazin's open forests and the plains of Llayad, not so good in full desert with their small feet and need for water.

Destrier Makaki (above-right of the common makaki, face top left) Kinda wanted to elongate its legs and neck a bit more, so that's what that one is. Also, with the trunk and relationship to elephants, I experimented with giving it tusks, too. I think I'll keep that feature off most of them, but I will give it to the destrier makaki, bred by Kazinians to be used in battle because of the tusks. Not to mention, mares make awesome pack animals what with the pouch and such.

Draft Makaki (left of the common makaki) Super strong shoulders and shorter neck for pulling wagons and plows, and longer trunks for idk what but it seemed like a good idea at the time. They're a good foot taller at the shoulder than common makakis, big beautiful boys.

Rigaffe Makaki (right of the common makaki) IT'S A GIRAFFE. I'm clever.

Down the bottom we've got two in full pelt, based on camels, which look like idiots when running so that's fun. The one on the left I didn't stretch out enough in the middle and its proportions are all wrong, so the one on the left is more accurate.

As far as colouring goes I'm not yet sure. I'm split between giving them their own patterning and colours or keeping the reasonably traditional horse colouring. Making it up would be more fun, but traditional horse would make more sense. Makakis are replacement horses, and I'm not working in a visual medium, so stuff to make people think 'horse' is useful. I'm going to stick to horse language for describing them--so they have mares, stallions and foals; they gallop, canter and trot; they whinny and snort, but I also want them to trumpet like elephants and honk/grunt like camels just for that little bit of something else. So yeah. Leaning more towards traditional horse patterns. Also means I keep the same patterning on the Own's makakis.

Not pictured but I know they exist:

Llayan Makaki Striped black and white, big ears, possibly a mane idk. They live in the savanah of Llayad with the longest legs of any makaki but the rigaffe.
Tapi Makaki Taken from 'tapir', so it's got stumpy legs and a short neck, bred for its meat. Probably tastes like camel. I've never eaten camel, so there's that. They live wild in the northern Kazinian jungle.
Donki Makaki DONKEY. Or more technically a mule, but I just wanted to call it a donki. It's a crossbreed between a tapi mare and common stallion to make a smaller makaki, less fragile in the legs giving them greater endurance than the common makakis, but because they're much smaller they're cheaper for the average Kazinian. More than half the donkis are sterile, which makes those ones nice and cheap for the poorer Kazinians, and even those which can breed are still significantly cheaper than common makakis and WAY cheaper than draft makakis.
Assiraz Makaki Thoroughbreds, used by the upperclass as riding animals. They're named after Empress Assiraz, not the city/province of Assiraz. They have particularly elegant necks and delicate, skinny legs. Literally their only use is to keep nobility's skirts clean and elevate them above the plebs, so in that regard they're highly practical. For anything much else, they're kinda useless.