Tariq
Sarna News
- HEXTECH Review - Wave 3 Brings More Urban Options To Your Battlefield
- Your BattleTech News Round-Up For March, 2024
- Crashing 'Mechs With Jennifer Brozek, Author Of The Rogue Academy Trilogy
- Getting The Word Out With Rem Alternis, Catalyst Community & Marketing Director
- Bad 'Mechs - Yeoman
- Read more →
| |
| Tariq | |
|---|---|
| (Saurus Tariqus Brashae) | |
| Creature information | |
| Type | Reptile |
| Homeworld | Brasha |
| Environment | Desert |
| Average mass | 510 kg |
| Average length | 275 cm |
| Average height | 200 cm |
A Tariq (plural Tariqim) is a large, bipedal lizard-like creature native to Brasha. These beasts are swift, durable, and most importantly, trainable. This has allowed them to be used as mounts for Beast Mounted Infantry within the Outworlds Alliance and elsewhere.[1][2]
Contents
Description
Appearance
Normally standing just under two meters tall at the shoulder, Tariqim have fleshy deposits near the base of their tails. Much like a camel's humps, these nodules can sustain a Tariq for several days in harsh conditions. A rough, wrinkled brown hide, as well as transparent inner eyelids, also help protect a Tariq from sand, grit, and harsh desert conditions.[1]
Abilities
Much like a Terran ostrich, Tariqim are very fast over ground, with their speed rivaling some BattleMechs and Combat vehicles. Their camel-like durability makes them excellent mounts in environments that lack water.[2]
Tariqim are also highly intelligent. They can be readily trained if removed from their litters before they reach three months old. Older individuals (beyond seven years of age) are renowned for their bad temper, however. When angry, they are able to spit a viscous, smelly pinkish liquid which stains whatever it touches.[1]
Habitat and Diet
Tariqim eat the smaller lizards and waterfowl which inhabit the oases of Brasha's deserts.[1]
History
On Brasha, and elsewhere in the Outworlds Alliance, Tariqim are used as an alternative for horses as a riding mount. They are even used as Beast Mounted Infantry by forces such as the Qum'ran Guard of the Brasha Planetary Militia,[3][4] as well as by local Brasha bandits.[5] Such soldiers form a close bond with their mounts, caring for them like a family member, and mourning their deaths like a comrade in arms.[6]
Tariqim are also kept and tamed by some circuses within the Inner Sphere.[7][8]
Following the Clan Invasion, Clan Snow Raven investigated the economic feasibility of exporting Tariqim more widely across the Inner Sphere.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 182
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Time of War, p. 244
- ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 199
- ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 151
- ↑ Technical Readout: Irregulars, p. 22
- ↑ Technical Readout: 3085, p. 218
- ↑ Technical Readout: 3145 Lyran Commonwealth, p. 28: Rarald Fitzsimmons
- ↑ Technical Readout: Dark Age, p. 40: Rarald Fitzsimmons