Ankhar Archer

Ankhar Archer

A Steppe Orc archer riding an Ankhar. Ankhar, much like turtles, are hatched from eggs in muddy bogs. Ankhar move slowly, but their skin is thick and hard to pierce. Orcs riding these beasts tend to hang over one side of the saddle and use their mount as a living shield.

More comparable to a sauntering battle­-tower than mounted cavalry, the Orcs of the Fist that are skilled enough to both shoot and ride are assigned to ankhar patrol during their opening years of adulthood. While these youngsters rarely see battle in their first year or two, as life on patrol is usually extremely unexciting, many of these Orcs are involved in running “play battles” with other patrollers from nearby tribes.

While these play-­battles may last for days without any of the patrollers being injured, eventually one of the Archers will be a moment too slow to duck behind the scaly shell of their ankhar mount. When the loser eventually picks themselves up out of the grass, they usually find themselves sorely injured with their ankhar and supplies stolen. Later, they face the ultimate humiliation of explaining to their tribal elders how they lost their mount in the first place.