Properties
- beast
- mount
- crew-1
- passengers-0
- saddle-rated
- bonded-vessel-eligible
- hull-points-22
A working riding-animal trained to bridle, saddle, and combat conditioning — the exact species varies by world. Aurelion Ascendancy outriders ride the long-limbed steppe-horse of their core worlds; Zyrrak hunting parties ride the six-legged stalker their elders call ka'thri; Halcyion missionary orders on Tier I planets prefer a sturdy short-legged plains-runner bred for stamina over speed; Frontier ranchers will sell you whatever the colony brought in the founding cargo and call it a horse regardless. What unites them mechanically is training: the animal has been broken to saddle, conditioned not to bolt under gunfire or thunder, and taught to respond to a small vocabulary of voice and rein commands. Stat handles (design doc §11): approximate Hull Points 22 (a hardy beast at this scale; use the GM's preferred beast statblock for biological detail), sustained ground speed roughly 40-60 km/h at a canter and faster in short sprints, crew 1 (rider) with no formal passenger capacity (a child or an unconscious second rider can be lashed to the saddle in extremis), cargo via saddlebags only. Notable features: requires food, water, and rest like any biological creature — long stays in vacuum or hostile atmosphere are not survivable; understands one or two short command words; capable of basic obstacle reasoning the rider does not have to micromanage. A Pilot of the Cavalryman subclass treats this animal as a Bonded Vessel.