Questions tagged [mounts]

For questions about animals that can be used by other species to ride on, for example battle mounts.

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10 votes
6 answers
4k views

Feline rider's position: reclining, seated or Prone?

I'm looking at the idea of a large feline as a rideable mount, and I'm running into a question about the rider's posture when riding. Would it be best to have the rider mounted Prone, like on a modern ...
Hugh Ayers's user avatar
30 votes
9 answers
5k views

Would crab-cavalry work? [closed]

Basically, giant crabs ridden by humans as cavalry, I just don't know if it's a good idea, and I could use some answers on how to make it work. The setting is medieval fantasy. The Giant Crabs won't ...
Crabalry's user avatar
  • 309
9 votes
5 answers
2k views

What mount would work best in a desert setting as a cavalry animal?

The story I’m currently writing, is in a fantasy desert setting. It’s gonna be focused on world and city building so obviously the army is gonna play a big role. The technology of the world is based ...
Boulder_Man's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
3k views

Would merfolk gain any real advantage from mounts (and beasts of burden)?

In writing my merfolk centric fantasy novel, I've largely ignored any creatures of burden used within their society. Animals of burden were very important in the growth of human civilization, and the ...
WasatchWind's user avatar
  • 3,167
5 votes
2 answers
477 views

Adaptations necessary for a big feline to be rideable?

I imagine they'd need to be much larger than any extant cat (like ligers, Panthera atrox, or the ginormous cat mounts they have in World of Warcraft) and need more rigid spines, longer legs, and more ...
Lunar A. P.'s user avatar
22 votes
8 answers
2k views

Riding Flying Animals, sitting or lying on them?

A long time ago I asked a question about dragon saddlery(Dragon Riding Question) and later on how to pilot flying animals(How to pilot flying animals?), but recently I saw a lot of art on the internet ...
Wizard King's user avatar
  • 2,694
7 votes
4 answers
924 views

What if large pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus had survived as isolates in New Zealand and ended up domesticated by the Maori?

The question. Let's say a pterosaur like Q. Northropi survived as an isolate and thrived as apex predator in New Zealand for millions of years. Without much evolutionary pressure its species remained ...
Inquirer's user avatar
  • 807
33 votes
15 answers
5k views

The Witch's Broom

A very common trope in witchcraft-themed fictional narratives is the iconic Magic Broom, a magical object made from wood and straw to fly and serve as a vehicle for witches. Witches generally fly with ...
Wizard King's user avatar
  • 2,694
5 votes
4 answers
836 views

is it possible in a given world to ride a triceratops and so how would it work?

I've been thinking about this world that's been in my mind and one of the things in it are drake knights which are warriors who raised and ride domesticate breed of triceratops like the war elephants ...
Lawson Pulley's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
295 views

Raid-efficient feline species

Let's say that there is a warlike tribe that focuses on raiding small villages. They are kind of like the Vikings, but they don't arrive by riverboats; they strike the oblivious villages, arriving ...
Yellow's user avatar
  • 817
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

What advantages would riding a reindeer have over a horse?

I am currently creating a world in which the group in question is intended to ride reindeer rather than horses. The reasons for this aren't quite relevant, but they simply don't have horses available ...
King of the Hounds's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
145 views

Gryphons as mounts

So, an idea I keep coming back to is about a fantasy setting where gryphons are used as mounts. Obviously, since this is a fantasy setting and such a creature doesn't exist, it can't be "...
Knight_of_the Order_of_Pizza's user avatar
11 votes
7 answers
1k views

Would a dragon sized saddle or any of its parts be buoyant enough to keep an unconscious human breathing in a calm ocean?

Info: Apparently leather is buoyant. The material composition shouldn't exceed the technology of the 1700s. Please use the image below for a rough size comparison of the person and the dragon. The ...
John's user avatar
  • 269
28 votes
7 answers
3k views

Would it be possible to mount a working minigun onto the saddle of a tyrannosaurid dinosaur?

My modern setting has these humanoids called the Degenerates whose culture draws inspiration from those of Indo-Iranian steppe nomads like the Scythians, Sarmatians and Parthians who fight as mounted ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
251 views

Would very small humanoids be able to use rats as mounts?

These humanoids would be about 13cm tall. Is there anything preventing them from mounting rats with proper training and a customized saddle?
Onix's user avatar
  • 1,025
1 vote
3 answers
231 views

Would it be possible to use a mount that requires a much higher temperature than the rider?

Would it be possible for an insect-sized intelligent species to ride a larger insect-sized species that can only survive at around 600°C, and if so, what would the mount need to be kept both warm and ...
Ichthys King's user avatar
  • 15.6k
9 votes
1 answer
787 views

How practical would war boars be?

along with horses, Orcs have also bred giant Boars which they ride to battle. these war boars have been bred to be the size of Entelodont with larger tusks and I was wondering in what field might ...
icewar1908's user avatar
  • 6,845
5 votes
7 answers
2k views

If you could train them, would bulls make good cavalry?

If you had elves who can train bulls and other animals to do all sorts of tasks... would bulls be useful as cavalry for war? Would they be useful enough to use a bull instead of a horse, in some ...
mustardMan's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
371 views

How to ride a giant turtle?

How would you design a saddle for a giant turtle (think rhino size) and a bridle, and how would you make it go, given that spurs or whip wouldn't really be an option with the shell?
Comrade Mango's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
182 views

What would be a good size for rideable creatures? [closed]

I am making a world where the environment is much larger than the people who live in it, and is in a swamp setting. My problem is that I would like to have the characters riding on wild animals (fish, ...
BloodyNightStalker's user avatar
-4 votes
2 answers
205 views

19th century-like transportation without horses?

So, let’s say, hypothetically A NUCLEAR WAR KICKS OFF DUE TO PROLONGED INTERNATIONAL TENSION, AND TURNS THE EARTH INTO A BLEAK, HOSTILE WASTELAND. Now, let’s flash forward 197 years, to 2259. By now, ...
DT Cooper's user avatar
  • 11.3k
20 votes
4 answers
6k views

Could moose/elk survive in the Amazon forest?

In my story, there is a civilization living in the Amazon rainforest. They need some time of mount that is adapted to the forest. I don't think horses can survive by themselves in there, so I was ...
Onix's user avatar
  • 1,025
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

Alternative to horses in a dry climate

I'm looking for an alternative for horses. Why not horses? the short answer is the gods didn't want to create them. The gods in my universe like to annoy humanity. Horses only seem to really benefit ...
Mormacil's user avatar
  • 8,767
9 votes
5 answers
864 views

Hippotragine Antelopes: A Suitable Alternative For Actual Horses?

The hippotragines are a small subfamily of antelopes that bear physical resemblance to horses. There are three separate genera--Hippotragus, Oryx and Addax. As grazers, rather than browsers, the "...
JohnWDailey's user avatar
  • 14.5k
3 votes
1 answer
827 views

What animals in North America are rideable?

I thought of this question when I heard Einstein's statement on WW3, and I wondered if humanity was setback, would North Americans have any mounts that would rival those of the rest of the world? (...
spite772's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
2k views

Challenges for using a bull as a character's mount

I'm writing a character for a fantasy setting, and I wanted him to be a gruff half-orc war master whose mount is a bull. I wanted to know if there has ever been an actual historical use of bulls or ...
as.beaulieu's user avatar
11 votes
8 answers
2k views

What kind of animal could a centaur ride, and how?

Let's be using your typical centaur: half man, half horse. Due to the nature of their legs, they can't ride animals in the way that humans do. Horse legs just aren't really made to do that. My ...
AzaleaGarden's user avatar
  • 1,685
3 votes
6 answers
559 views

What sort of legs would a 1-ton pig neeed to support its body weight and move in short bursts of speed?

I recently asked how big a giant pig would need to be in order to carry a 10 foot tall (3.0 meters) and 272 kilogram (599.66 pounds) humanoid (wearing plate armour or an ankle-length cuirass ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
465 views

How big would a giant pig need to be in order to carry a 10-foot tall humanoid on its back?

A book that I'm currently writing called Surge features an enemy faction called the Degenerates that are heavily inspired by the Scythians (Indo-Iranian horse nomads that ruled the Eurasian Steppes ...
user avatar
13 votes
6 answers
2k views

Would a giant Pogona (bearded dragon) be a good desert mount?

By saying giant, I mean something roughly around 2-3m long from nose to rear legs (not including tail) and 1m tall at the withers. How would such a creature fare as a mount used by humans/humanoid to ...
Hankrecords's user avatar
  • 4,687
13 votes
8 answers
2k views

Building The "Perfect" Mount

Horses are not perfect for war but they are still very good when trained. How to make a horse better for the following conditions? be stronger in the act of charging infantry and other horseman ...
Christopher Void's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
219 views

Speed of flying bird [closed]

If you had a bird which was large enough to ride, how fast could it fly? I need this information to work out the scale for my maps as i know how long it takes for one of the birds to fly from A to B.
Ajnatorix Zersolar's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to make a saddle for a feline mount

Sort-of sequel to this question. In that question, I asked about the feisability of domesticating a jaguar with the end goal of making a ridable mount. One good point that was mentioned was that a ...
Lot-Of-Malarkey's user avatar
7 votes
11 answers
2k views

Viability of stone wagons?

Can they be pulled by traditional beasts of burden? I want to create a wagon that’s fireproof, can survive high temperatures, turn over to protect the occupants like a shell, and be made with ...
Z.Schroeder's user avatar
  • 11.3k
5 votes
5 answers
959 views

Dog Breeds used as Horses - Warfare Applications

Follow up to this Realistic Horse-sized Dog Breeds So we got a 250 to 300 pound dog based creature that's been specially bred (so no back issues) to carry a fully armoured human warrior to battle and ...
MrDracoSpirit's user avatar
19 votes
8 answers
18k views

Is it possible to ride a carnivore species?

Humans have been domesticating carnivores for over 10 000 years. And there are certainly carnivores big enough to ride. The former is the biggest feline ever to exist. They certainly can carry a human ...
TrEs-2b's user avatar
  • 56.1k
18 votes
13 answers
8k views

Realistic alternatives to Horses

Mounts are one of the coolest things about fantasy in my opinion. Riding around on raptors, dragons, elephants and even weirder things is one of the main draws to a lot of fantasy things. However, ...
Titanide's user avatar
  • 958
27 votes
6 answers
11k views

Could a Human Ride a Raptor?

I'm sure we can all agree that raptors are pretty cool (most dinosaurs are). But what I think would be really, really cool would be a rideable raptor. However, I don't know if this is possible. While ...
DaaaahWhoosh's user avatar
5 votes
5 answers
3k views

Horses went extinct, people domesticated something else. - What is it and what would change?

Assuming that horses went extinct early in history, what would replace the horse, and how would the change in domesticated animal affect the development of the first civilizations? Info on horse ...
Malady's user avatar
  • 4,466
24 votes
9 answers
8k views

What advantages would bovines have over horses when used as cavalry?

What advantages would bovines have over horses when used as cavalry? I've got a culture whose way of life is based around cattle, and I'm wondering what kinds of advantages they might have in combat ...
ckersch's user avatar
  • 46.2k