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Description
Many times in Earths history, mammoths, elephants, and other proboscideans swam out to an island when sea levels were low, got trapped, and shrank in a common phenomenon called insular dwarfism. This most famously happened in the Mediterranean, on islands west of California, and on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, where the last mammoths lived. Proboscideans have an astonishing sense of smell, so smelling lush and untouched vegetation on an island many miles offshore is not surprising and would have been a tempting lure. Foster’s Rule states that in isolated environments, animals can quickly adopt larger or smaller body size based on space, predator pressures, and food availability. Although the inland sea has thousands of islands scattered throughout, and common oliphaunts regularly travel between to forage, oliphaunts in these islands do not shrink. While each island has limited space, there are so many islands and the waters shallow enough that oliphaunts can simply move to the next island and keep browsing rather than becoming trapped and isolated. To make matters worse, there are plenty of large island-hopping predators, so any local fauna that shrinks just renders itself vulnerable.

However, on the offshore Khalin islands to the south, several different proboscideans have been found in insular populations.

For most of recorded history, all of these Khalin dwarf elephants were assumed to be the same animal, called the tuga in the language of the Eskadin, or Eastern Khalin. However, Assembly studies of the whole archipelago have revealed as many as twenty-two insular dwarfs from several different species of voyaging proboscidean.

The trunked boar or tuga, namesake of these little giants, are species of Palaeoloxodon. Palaeoloxodon were generalist browsers and grazers, and it seems wherever these generalists went, they could adapt to whatever food was readily available and outcompete whatever small herbivores were present. They are most abundant on the largest of the Khalin isles, Khalren Island, where bulls can weigh up to a ton, though most species of tuga scattered throughout the many smaller eastern Khalin islands are even smaller. Some islands particularly distant and only accessible during unusually low sea levels have a distinct species with tiny populations, while the Khalren species often integrate with nearby islands which boosts genetic viability.

Like most proboscideans, bulls of all Palaeoloxodon tuga are generally solitary, while cows and calves live in small herds. As generalist browsers and grazers, they can get by on just about anything on these islands. Folklore, historical accounts, and an abundance of ivory in circulation proves there was once a species in the core islands of the Free-States, though if any survive, it is in small isolated populations in the highlands.

On most of the smaller and more isolated islands, tuga are the only large herbivores and there are no regular predators large enough to bring down even the smaller species. These smaller species run into problems of genetic diversity, as many species have less than a thousand individuals, but without regular predators or competition, they do enjoy a more peaceful existence.

On Khalren and other larger islands, cervids are the greatest competition of tuga, with the three species of Cervavitus being their primary opponents for browsing and grazing opportunities. Although eagles, pterosaurs, and firebirds sometimes hunt their young, wolves are the most frequent threat to Khalren tuga. Khalin wolves can reach two hundred pounds and are large enough to tackle even bull Khalren tuga if they hunt in groups. Lions and Homotherium are also found on a few islands, although the Khalin have hunted most of these to extinction, which is a boon to tuga populations. Black sloths sometimes swim out to even the isolated islands, and boar sloths can readily kill even the largest Khalren tuga. Titan crows are the only regular threat to all islands, though forests can provide sanctuary.

On Khalren Island, tuga are fairly skittish and aggressive due to predator pressures. There have been domestication efforts of this population, though thusfar they have not been successful because of their temperament. Tiny island species of tuga are much more docile, though these still take too long to reach maturity to be a viable domesticate, not becoming adults until around fifteen years of age, and being isolated, many are riddled with health issues. They are, however, often easy to tame and take well to training because of their intelligence, so make popular pets in Khalin settlements.

Description
Many times in Earths history, mammoths, elephants, and other proboscideans swam out to an island when sea levels were low, got trapped, and shrank in a common phenomenon called insular dwarfism. This most famously happened in the Mediterranean, on islands west of California, and on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, where the last mammoths lived. Proboscideans have an astonishing sense of smell, so smelling lush and untouched vegetation on an island many miles offshore is not surprising and would have been a tempting lure. Foster’s Rule states that in isolated environments, animals can quickly adopt larger or smaller body size based on space, predator pressures, and food availability. Although the inland sea has thousands of islands scattered throughout, and common oliphaunts regularly travel between to forage, oliphaunts in these islands do not shrink. While each island has limited space, there are so many islands and the waters shallow enough that oliphaunts can simply move to the next island and keep browsing rather than becoming trapped and isolated. To make matters worse, there are plenty of large island-hopping predators, so any local fauna that shrinks just renders itself vulnerable.

However, on the offshore Khalin islands to the south, several different proboscideans have been found in insular populations.

For most of recorded history, all of these Khalin dwarf elephants were assumed to be the same animal, called the tuga in the language of the Eskadin, or Eastern Khalin. However, Assembly studies of the whole archipelago have revealed as many as twenty-two insular dwarfs from several different species of voyaging proboscidean.

The trunked boar or tuga, namesake of these little giants, are species of Palaeoloxodon. Palaeoloxodon were generalist browsers and grazers, and it seems wherever these generalists went, they could adapt to whatever food was readily available and outcompete whatever small herbivores were present. They are most abundant on the largest of the Khalin isles, Khalren Island, where bulls can weigh up to a ton, though most species of tuga scattered throughout the many smaller eastern Khalin islands are even smaller. Some islands particularly distant and only accessible during unusually low sea levels have a distinct species with tiny populations, while the Khalren species often integrate with nearby islands which boosts genetic viability.

Like most proboscideans, bulls of all Palaeoloxodon tuga are generally solitary, while cows and calves live in small herds. As generalist browsers and grazers, they can get by on just about anything on these islands. Folklore, historical accounts, and an abundance of ivory in circulation proves there was once a species in the core islands of the Free-States, though if any survive, it is in small isolated populations in the highlands.

On most of the smaller and more isolated islands, tuga are the only large herbivores and there are no regular predators large enough to bring down even the smaller species. These smaller species run into problems of genetic diversity, as many species have less than a thousand individuals, but without regular predators or competition, they do enjoy a more peaceful existence.

On Khalren and other larger islands, cervids are the greatest competition of tuga, with the three species of Cervavitus being their primary opponents for browsing and grazing opportunities. Although eagles, pterosaurs, and firebirds sometimes hunt their young, wolves are the most frequent threat to Khalren tuga. Khalin wolves can reach two hundred pounds and are large enough to tackle even bull Khalren tuga if they hunt in groups. Lions and Homotherium are also found on a few islands, although the Khalin have hunted most of these to extinction, which is a boon to tuga populations. Black sloths sometimes swim out to even the isolated islands, and boar sloths can readily kill even the largest Khalren tuga. Titan crows are the only regular threat to all islands, though forests can provide sanctuary.

On Khalren Island, tuga are fairly skittish and aggressive due to predator pressures. There have been domestication efforts of this population, though thusfar they have not been successful because of their temperament. Tiny island species of tuga are much more docile, though these still take too long to reach maturity to be a viable domesticate, not becoming adults until around fifteen years of age, and being isolated, many are riddled with health issues. They are, however, often easy to tame and take well to training because of their intelligence, so make popular pets in Khalin settlements.