MOLE

Description: Short fur, usually brown or black in color it has spade-like forelimbs and a pink, fleshy snout.

Height: 30mm

Length: 113-159mm (average 139 mm.)

Tail: 25-40mm

Hindpaw: 2-3mm

Weight: 72-128g Males are usually larger.

Sign: Spore is less than 1/2” in diameter. Tracks are five-clawed feet with a deep sole and heel impression. Tracks cluster equidistant fore feet from handfeed in a cantering habit.

Breeding: April-September, 4-5 young born alive. They can live up to 10 years, average life expectancy is 2-3 years. Hibernation Savor through Nolus, with occasional wakefulness.

Range: 1-2km

Habitat: Woodland edges, hedgerows, light forests. Anywhere the soil is deep enough to provide good tunneling.

Moles live their lives in a maze of tunnels that run quite deep underground. Tunnels that are visible on the surface tend to be temporary and run only through newly cultivated fields, light sandy or very shallow soils; mostly where prey is located just below the surface. Nests are part of the permanent tunnels, usually consisting of a round hole lined with dry plant material. Moles tunnel just below the surface of the ground, where they hunt for food. Their tunnels make ridges and mounds in fields, gardens, and lawns; quarters for living, nesting, and wintering are in deeper burrows. A single mole can dig about 20 yards (18 m) of tunnel in a day.

Moles eat earthworms, insect larvae and other insects that burrow through the earth. Moles only forage on the surface in times of drought. Most of their food is found either while tunneling or while passing through existing tunnels. Moles are voracious eaters, consuming about half their own weight daily.

The mole is a solitary animal for most of the year, each with their own territory. In early Nuzael males will dig tunnels to increase the size of their territory but also in search of females.

A litter of 3 or 4 naked babies is born in the spring. Fur starts to grow at 14 days, eyes open at 22 days and they are weaned at 2¹/₂ to 3¹/₂ tendays. The young start to leave the nest at 3 tendays and disperse from their mother's range a t3¹/₂-4 tendays. Dispersal takes place above ground and is a time of great danger. Moles are sexually mature in the spring following birth. Most moles don't live beyond 3 years but can live up to 6 years. Their main predators are owls, buzzards, stoats, cats and dogs.

They have acute hearing and a highly developed sense of touch at the ends of their noses and tails; their tiny eyes, covered with skin or buried in fur, are sensitive to changes in light level but provide little visual acuity. Moles have short, powerful legs and extremely broad front feet, which are used as shovels and are equipped with enormous digging claws. They can move backwards almost as rapidly as forwards, and most are good swimmers.

Myth and Lore

The mole is said to know all the secrets of the ground and the earth. It is master of its domain and often used as the symbol for miners and mining. Most miners are relieved to see moles in or around their tunnels; believing the mole’s presence to bring good luck. Regardless of the religion, the mole seems to have a prominent place in the lore, but it is mostly seen as either a Morgathian or a Peonian beast.

Earth quakes, giant sea storms and land slides are blamed upon giant moles that tunnel deep beneath the earth both by Morgathian and tribal lore in Lythia. To Morgathians in particular, the mole represents the symbolic death and rebirth of those who give their soul to Morgath. To others it is seen as the creature that carries your soul to the underworld. To the Peonian religion mole is a wise healer. He is associated with the cures to many diseases. To the Haleans he links ancestors to the present day, often bringing messages to families of dangerous times ahead. The mole is also depicted as Dejekis in hiding - for he is blind and (seemingly) sexless. He travels at night and is common wherever there are settlements.

Moles are believed to destroy cropland, making it infertile wherever they tunnel. They steal plants from beneath and create holes that endanger any cloven hoofed beast’s legs. Surprisingly though, Moles are rarely seen as pests.

Cooking Lore

Moles are cooked in a fashion similar to rabbits, but are less preferred by the peasantry. Their hides are, surprisingly, worth twice that of rabbits. Moles are skinned and cooked in similar fashion to rabbits. Their claws are sometimes used to make bone knives, popular in Morgathian rituals.

Children of Kanday and Chybisa wear various dried mole parts in little bags to ward off intestinal worms and convulsions. In Tharda dried mole nose is used specifically. The very presence of these items is said to be potent, and small amounts are always for sale from midwives.

The meat can be boiled for soups and stews, braised for eating, or baked with other meats in pies or meat dishes. Considered sweat and usually tender, the meat is eaten only by the poor or the very hungry; usually because there is so little of it in a beast - it is often mixed with meats from other animals in the more popular dishes.

Mole Tracks

Common Names

“Dirt Eater”, “Clawed Dog”, “Blind Dog”, “Miner’s Dog”, “Ground Rat”, “Burrower”

Note: Only one type of Mole on the island of Hârn and North Western Lythia, although some 17 types exist on Lythia.

Hunting Moles

Most moles are found by their habitual creation of mole hills; areas where the ground is overturned due to the tunneling just beneath the surface. This is most common in fields and woodland edges during dry weather.

Trapping moles is preferred due to their valuable hide. Traps are best laid along river edges and high banks. Traps should be laced with insect larva or earthworms placed in a top-opened stone or pottery container. Noose or foot traps for moles must be made extra strong as the mole’s teeth and digging claws can snap most snares.

The hide sells well through out Hârn and Lythia; often going for as much as 5d per square foot.

Mole Recipe

Take two moles, skin and guts removed and boil together. Take the liver and cut it small, and grind it to a fine powder; take grated bread and add, and mix with the broth, and mix it with egg yolks; and add powder fort. Boil it and add ginger, sugar, saffron and salt, and make sure it's thick; and garnish with ginger.

Religion of Moles

Long after the world was formed, Morgath dipped his hand into the earth and pulled forth a Mole. The beast fought him and struggled against him not because he was Morgath, but rather because the Mole did not want to be brought out from the earth. When Morgath asked the Mole to serve him, the Mole agreed only if Morgath promised to leave it in the earth.

The bargain struck, Morgath gave it the job of dragging souls of the dead down into the earth. Morgath increased its claws and senses so that the beast could better find its way in the darkness.

Unbeknownst to Morgath, the beast quickly struck a deal with Peoni, promising to bring her all the healing it found in the depths below so that the balance of the gods would be kept. Peoni agreed. With a touch she lightened the color of the beast’s face so that, while dark in life and dark in nature, it would be kind and fair of face so not all that met it would consider it evil upon sight.

References

Crack in the World is loosely based on Amerindian lore. Myth and Lore - rewritten from the Bestiary Mole page (Spiritual Blindness).

GENERAL INFORMATION - ENCYCLOPEDIA.COM, Encyclopedia Britannica, European Urcheon Research Group (EHRG), The Mammal Society (for general information and the picture.) and the Urcheon hobby page.

FORMAT for the article by - Mitchell Gore and Robert B. Smuck (Fauna of NWLythia by).

This article is the second part of the GROUNDERS article. There are four parts in total: GROUNDERS: URCHEONS, MOLES, and SHREWS.

This page was last updated on August 13, 2002
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