The Ranag were muskoxen[1] — large, horned, herd animals that were long extinct.[2][3]
In Memories of Ice
During the 33rd Jaghut War (298,665 years before Burn's Sleep), Cannig Tol and Pran Chole recalled how the Imass hunted the ranag to extinction.[4]
In Midnight Tides
When describing the life found in the wastes of the ice fields of Lether, Fear Sengar mentioned an animal he called an "aranag". It was unclear if this referred to the ranag.[5]
In Reaper's Gale
Although thought to be extinct, a remnant of the species persisted in the Refugium.[6] Rud Elalle and Udinaas looked on as a lost ranag calf was reunited with its parents in the Refugium.[7]
Quotes
- "Onrack was always reluctant to dance in the deeper recesses of the caves, where the drums pounded and the echoes rolled through flesh and bone as if one was lying in the path of a stampeding herd of ranag—a herd such as the one Onrack had blown onto the cave walls around them. His mouth bitter with spit, charcoal and ochre, the backs of his hands stained where they had blocked the spray from his lips, defining the shapes on the stone."
- ―Onrack the Broken, reminiscing about his life before the Ritual of Tellann
Speculations
The ranag were possibly musk oxen. When Toc the Younger looked into the eyes of Baaljagg, the last ay, he saw a vision of the same scene of trapped animals witnessed by Pran Chole. Toc identified the three creatures mired in the mud as musk oxen.[8]
Notes and references
- ↑ Steven Erikson Facebook post 21 May 2020
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.572
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Prologue
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Prologue
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.246
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Epilogue
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Epilogue
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 7