I have wondered why the greyhound was left out of the CGI 'Dogs' article. This is what I have come up with to remedy this situation. Please let me know what you think, it is still an early draft, so I may well change some of the wording before I am completely satisfied.
(Draft removed-finished article hosted by lythia.com)

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

The basic info is good but it could use something to make it more "Hârnic." If they are like their Terran counterparts, they aren't native to the Hârnic Isles. Are they common there or only in certain parts? Maybe they could be relatively common in Melderyn but not seen much outside the kingdom. And if they are seen as exotic, maybe there is some odd belief about them.

Are they related to the wolfhound? Maybe you could say that some Kaldoran noble breeds a highly prized cross between greyhounds and wolfhounds he gets from the lord of Leriel in Orbaal.

As you say, some places restrict ownership to the nobility. You could add that a commoner caught with a greyhound is fined heavily and their dog is "lawed", which means several claws of the forefeet are cut off to prevent the dog from being able to take down deer. I've seen this mentioned in a lot of books and articles about medieval forest laws but don't think it's yet been applied to Hârn.

When you talk about coloring, you could say that white and spotted dogs are preferred, as they can more easily be spotted and recovered if lost in the forest.

While there is nothing wrong with the illustration you are using, I found a couple that look more like the line art in the Hârnic bestiary, here and here.

Overall, good work! If you want, I can put it in a more "official-looking" layout.

Thanks Brent, I'll definitely take you up on this offer once I have reworked it. Your suggestions have given me good pause for thought. I like the clip art illustrations also. Cheers, Steve.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Hmmmm I disagree here. The original to me feels more harnic; the latter feel too 'Victorian'. Get Richard to do a sketch for the absolute dogs b******s; pardon the pun

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

Peter, I can't believe you let that one pass without mention.

Doggone it I've been collared for the crime of pun missing!

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

I do like my original illustration, which is just a doctored photograph. Ideally it would be great to have Richard do the illustration, but I am sure he would, only rightly, want paying. Whilst I do not know his rates, I am not really thinking of incurring costs for this article right now. Presently I need to get back to rewriting it, and then sticking it back up here.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Don't encourage him! It's getting to the point where whenever you write a post on here you have to ask yourself, now is Peter going to be able to rip the piss out of any of this?

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Well put and my first thought as well. And easily done just replace generic wording like "several kingdoms" with specific place-names and you're done. The details you give regarding physical aspects and character are good and invoke the right mental picture.


Good idea - the practice was called "expediating" or "hambling" under forest law if memory serves right.

Overall a good article! I'd like to see another write-up for a dog-species to fill the backside of the page, though ... hint-hint ...

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"Foresight and tenacity."
- Motto of Clan Yaronne

Reading what has been suggested, here is the second draft. I have included several of BBailey's suggestions as I liked them. Brent if you want a credit just let me know.
(Draft removed-finished article hosted on lythia.com)

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

I will write another dog article, which being page 12 would complete the set. Thing is at the moment I can't think what species I should add. Any thoughts? Mischievously, I just thought of the 'Hellhound', perhaps because I used to play AD&D.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

I'd like to see a dog used for the typical blood-sports of the time like bear- or bull baiting. Something like the Old English Bulldog.

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"Foresight and tenacity."
- Motto of Clan Yaronne

(Draft removed - see the finished article on dogs)

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"Foresight and tenacity."
- Motto of Clan Yaronne

Brilliant, when I am happy I have finished the Greyhound we should ask BBailey if he can format these, and then we could get Peter Leitch to stick them up on lythia.com as a download. What do you think?

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

This is the finished Greyhound article. Will hopefully be getting it reformatted to look more 'official'.
(Draft removed-finished article hosted by lythia.com)

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Hopefully the 'Greyhound' article along with Sir Selvos' 'Harnic Bulldog' article will be available for download sometime soon on the Lythia.com website. Together these two articles will make up the 'Dogs' pages 11 and 12.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

I think that's a very good idea!

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"Foresight and tenacity."
- Motto of Clan Yaronne

I asked Brent (BBailey) to reformat the Greyhound article today. If you could get him to do the same with the Bulldog article, that would be great. Then we can ask Peter Leitch to stick them up on Lythia.com

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

The finished article for 'Dogs' pages 11 & 12 has been sent to Peter for hosting on Lythia.com Hope you all enjoy it.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Brandth, if you like, I'd be willing to help underwrite some of the art cost if you had Richard work on some images. He's not all that expensive, actually. You might even get a few more to help with that. But at least count me in. Approach Richard for an estimate, and let me know.

Might as well go all the way and snazz it up to "publication" standards.

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To Christ-God Jesus be the Glory

Shawn, thanks for your offer. I found an image I liked and could use, not as good as what Richard would have crafted, no doubt, but an image I was happy with. Also Brent kindly changed the layout to make it look more 'official', and the document is now up on Lythia.com ready to be downloaded. I hope it finds a place in your 'Bestiary' where it will be referred to from time to time. Thanks.

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"The woods are alive with the smell of his coming!" Ilviran chant.

Hi Brandh. This is awesome stuff worthy of canon! The images are just fine, and in no way detract from the quality of the text. I know from experience that a little financial support helps...but since my discretionary funding dried up since I posted (dang car troubles), I'm glad you didn't follow up on the offer *lol*. I hope to see more of your work. Please keep 'em coming.

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To Christ-God Jesus be the Glory