A Siege Animantarax ploughing through the armies of the Circle
With slow and measured steps, Siege Animantaraxes march alongside the armies of the mighty Skorne Empire as living siege engines. The ornate houdaas atop their backs bristle with weapons manned by veteran crews of Praetorians and Venators. From the vantage of the rear platforms that tower above the beasts’ lacquered armor, commanding dakars shout their orders and blow sonorous horns to signal the attack. A hail of reiver fire from its double reivers accompany the unstoppable advance of these great beasts. Incoming fire serves only to enrage them, and their handlers gladly indulge the beasts’ anger, watching with grim pleasure as the behemoths smash through their foes with slashes of their powerful clubbed tails. Spears and double-combed reiver guns keep time with the swing of the creatures’ deadly tails, delivering death to everything within reach.[1]
Animantaraxes were known to the skorne for centuries, and have long been highly prized by those few houses that could afford the cost of capturing them. Acquiring them and maintaining them with adequate supplies of meat would bankrupt a lesser house. The beasts’ incredible durability and strength made them ideal as weapon platforms in the largest house wars in the centuries before unification. House Balaash was feared and envied for the dozen Siege Animantaraxes it kept ready during the Wars of Unification. The Skorne Empire’s expansion north of the Shroudwall Mountains has led to increased availability of the notoriously intractable animantaraxes. Impossible to breed in captivity, they are captured by teams of paingiver beast handlers supported by low-caste warriors and even cyclopes. These teams are dispatched into the dangerous plains north of the empire’s borders, where a number of the massive beasts have carved out their territories. The archdomina has ordered the wealthy houses of Malaak to renew these efforts, sparing no expense to send the walking fortresses to the burgeoning fortifications of the Army of the Western Reaches.[1]
Veteran dakars who have trained in the fundamentals of the beast handler’s art lead mixed units of Praetorians and Venators in weeks of drills before they mount the armored houdaa atop a Siege Animantarax. Commanding tyrants strive to requisition animantaraxes for any conflict in which they expect to face heavy resistance or significant enemy fortifications. The presence of just one of these living engines of war can ensure victory.[1]