Highcrown Colossus
Manalheim megatree browser
The Highcrown Colossus is the largest herbivore on Geba, a long-necked browser that feeds in the crowns of the Manalheim Megatree. It is one of the keystone megafauna of Manalheim, and most of the population lives on Manalheim Minor, the smaller island, which is kept deliberately wild.
It walks on four columnar legs and carries a neck long enough to reach the lower crowns of the megatrees. Its hide is thick and resists fire, and it usually carries a crust of ash and moss. It moves slowly through the megatree forests stripping foliage, and the gaps it opens in the lower crowns let light reach the forest floor.
It lives in small herds of three to eight and pays no attention to people. Its danger is its size. The ground shakes for kilometers when a herd moves, settlements stay clear of the routes the herds use, and anything standing in the path of a startled Colossus is crushed. The Emberjaw Sentinel ignores it, and nothing on Manalheim hunts a grown one.
It was first recorded by the Kazo Reyjuul and Huyasa Sers expedition during the Era of Imperial Conquest, and Huyasa Sers drew the first illustrations of it from closer than anyone has stood since.
