This took a long time, a crapton of textures, and like 30+ layers of gradients but it’s finally done! And I’m pretty pleased with it, actually. I don’t really have the hang of color, but hopefully I’ll get there somewhere.

At any rate, teenage Aalit messing with some local megafauna. The animals in this picture are “tigers”, although they have almost nothing in common with tigers as we know them. These tigers are actually lemurs - enormous, terrifyingly smart obligate carnivore lemurs. The highlanders hate them with a burning passion, because 300-lbs carnivorous animals with thumbs, a good range of upper limb motion, and enough brains to understand how to open doors are kind of horrifying. Interestingly enough, there is no reverence for or romanticization of the tiger: as far as highlanders are concerned, they are treacherous hellbeasts and life would be a lot easier if they died out.

Tiger hunts in the spring - when young females call out to the males and the woods are filled with scraggly teenage animals looking to get some tiger booty and settle down in a permanent partnership with the female - function as a second rite of passage for the particularly bold or particularly stupid. Groups of young people trying to prove their worth would take the dogs and attempt to kill one or several of the animals, preferably the female. Not all come back alive, but successful hunters get mad street cred and bits of the dead animal - usually, bones, teeth, or claws. The pelt is reserved for the person who makes the kill, or the owner of the dog that makes the kill.