“If someone tells you that there is only one way to do something, ignore them. There are always many ways to achieve a desired outcome, no matter what it is.” - Saying attributed to the Bone Lord of Ptolodecca.

“They sure raise a lot of them,” muttered Áine as she looked at the rather thriving landscape around her. The party was a day’s travel away from Meergant at that point, headed towards the north-eastern end of the territory, and the coastal terrain had long shifted into gently sloping grasslands and wide open pastures, which were not too commonly seen in Knallzog.

A lot of the land in the dwarven kingdom’s territory was less than suitable for typical agricultural purposes, being of rather poor quality, which was one major reason why the kingdom’s staple food were potatoes and other tubers that were less fussy about the soil quality. Fertile farmable areas typically grew grains that were later processed into alcohol, or used as orchards to grow fruits instead.

On the other hand, the dwarves took advantage of the grasslands and pastures, which were not that suitable for agricultural purposes, and instead used them as grazing grounds for the animals they raised. Typical ranched animals in the kingdom included cows and oxen, the former raised for their milk while the latter mostly used as beasts of burden, unlike the Lichdom where the oxen would be raised for their meat instead.

Other than cows, the other animals most often ranched were endemic to the dwarven kingdom. The most popularly raised creatures were a breed of large sheep. The ewes produced wool and milk in good quantities and were also raised for meat, but they were arguably a byproduct, as the dwarves of Knallzog reared the rams as cavalry mounts instead.

The rams of the local breed were large, easily reaching up to a dwarves’ height at the shoulder, and were blessed with great power and endurance. An adult ram was capable of running for hours on end while carrying an armored dwarf on its back, which was no mean feat in itself, but that was far from the only quality that made the creatures desirable as mounts to the dwarves.

Already of a cantankerous and fierce nature, the rams were fearless and perfectly willing to rush headlong towards whatever foes their riders directed them at, their thick skulls and curled horns serving as a natural battering ram driven by enough force to directly pulverize flesh and crush bones. Not only that, the thick wool of the rams also served as a natural armor that gave them quite a bit of resistance to weapons.

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It was well known amongst the local dwarves that to slaughter one of the sheep for their meat it usually took two to three dwarves to work their way through the dense wool, which was why most of the time, the dwarves did the slaughtering after freshly shearing the sheep instead.

As mounts, the rams could not compare to a horse in speed and maneuverability. They made up for that with their power, sturdiness, endurance, as well as their ability to explode into motion from a standstill, however. When the rams competed with one another during the mating season, they would typically stand one sheep’s length apart from each other, and from that position, suddenly burst forward with enough force to deliver a devastating headbutt against each other.

Other than the sheep, there were occasionally some local breeds of three-horned rhinoceroses being raised as well. Unlike the sheep, however, the rhinoceroses were not really raised for their meat or leather – though those who raised them harvested those off the older beasts nonetheless – but purely for their use in war.

Over the centuries, the dwarves had bred the local rhinos, choosing the largest and fiercest specimens amongst them to serve as the breeding stud to father the next generation. At the present, the rhinos being raised in Knallzog easily stood taller than most humans at the shoulder, with great power in their thick bodies and skin so tough that blades would have difficulty piercing through it.

The dwarves used the beasts to pull their war chariots – fearsome metal wagons that carried seasoned elites on board – and to serve as mounts for their heavy cavalry, or at least the dwarven version of the concept.

Where most of the world typically divided cavalry into light cavalry, typically fast and maneuverable harassers or skirmishers, and heavy cavalry, which usually had heavily armored knights who served as linebreakers and shock troops, the dwarves had their own take on the concept.

Dwarven light cavalry would have been classified as heavy cavalry most everywhere else, as their rams definitely gave them plenty of capability to directly run roughshod through enemy formations and what a dwarf considered as light armor would be considered heavy everywhere else.

As for dwarven heavy cavalry, they practically served a similar role as what war chariots would do elsewhere. A special saddle would be fitted on top of a rhino’s back, with enough room for three dwarves to ride on. One served as the driver and directed the beast’s rampage, while the other two used long polearms and crossbows to engage enemies they passed by in the process.

Although Knallzog had not been involved in any wars for the past century or so, the dwarves always maintained their military readiness at a high level, which led to a continuous breeding and raising of the beasts they used as their mounts in battle. It was typical, since long-lived people like the dwarves generally had a more farsighted perspective on the world at large.

Which was certainly in great contrast to their mostly human neighbors from Posuin, the Holy Kingdom, and Clangeddin, with which they shared borders. The way humans often sacrificed the future for short term gains made for the source of many anecdotes that the other races often used as warnings to their youth.

It was inevitable, given how one’s lifespan would inadvertently affect how one perceives the world. Few were capable of thinking in terms of generations, of things that would only give results long after they passed on.