Grand Hunt

About

Other Names

Olistaif (Waejir)

The Grand Hunt is an annual event in Waejir, which occurs around the last full silver moon of Autumn. These hunts are a spectacle for those not involved, and a five to ten day and night excursion for those participating. Noble land owners with large pastures may engage in a hunt for wild rabbuc to start new herds within their lands, or to boost the health of a ailing stock with new blood.

The Hunt

Hunting Party

Such hunts generally take the form of a handful of nobles on horseback assisted by a great number of slaves, peasants, vocanei, and professional huntsmen on foot.

Method

Using staves, clubs, nets, and lassos they drive herds of wild rabbuc to a natural trap like a box canyon, bend in a river, or other natural cul-de-sac. If a sufficient natural barrier cannot be found, one will be constructed from branches, bushes, and other materials.

Capture

Surrounded and without escape, as many breeding adults as possible are captured live and taken back to the pasture lands for domestication. The captured animals are usually hobbled with short ropes about the legs to prevent flight and escape from the pastures until they are broken by the herders to fit in with the domestic herds. Yearlings are usually butchered for meat and leather.

Rabbuc when cornered and unable to escape by bounding away, will fight, by striking out with the hooves, and long bony ridges along the backside of their forelimbs. Many injuries, and some fatalities, can result from drivers getting too close to a animal that has yet to submit.

History

Waejir has a long history with the current social order, while this practice was done on an as needed basis in the past, it has become a tradition in late autumn after the harvest, and slaughter of herd animals for preserving over the winter season. Once farms culled their herds down to the healthiest animals any deficit would need to be replaced. By taking them in the fall, it ensured new born kids in the spring were born in a domestic herd, and less wild or prone to escape and wandering.

Legend

In 329 WR according to legend a spectacular hunt took place in which a High Noble Prince pursued a silver rabbuc across the length of Waejir from the coastal plateau all the way to the mountains in the west. It is said that the site of capture was a deep mountain canyon which contained exposed veins of pure silver in the rock walls. The place is a known silver mine which is still producing to date, some 325 years after the discovery. While the High Nobles claim ownership of all precious metals and gems mined in Waejir, that particular mine is operated by the predominant noble family in that region Braesuchet - Silvercliff.