The val is a ferocious pack animal known to grow in the wild to a height of a full-grown Narn. The val is bulky, but it's six legs gives it shocking mobility. The hind legs also serve to stabilize the val as it roots for food. Though it can subsist on vegetation, the val prefers to use it's digging tusks to root out ground-dwelling animals. Scattered along the val's back are scent glands which grow more numerous as the beast ages. They use these glands to communicate with each other. Each of the val's twelve nostrils is attuned to a certain "scent family." Val-Kini is used to indicate a middle-level rank obligation in Narn culture. The domesticated val, or porcine, is also used in modern Narn funerary custom. The six-legged Narnian Boar had been driven to near extinction during the Centauri occupation. Many a hunt ended with a Centauri smile at the end of a high-powered, long-range weapon. Although attempts have been made to increase the val population in the last one-hundred years, the wild val still borders on extinction. With the current state of the planet, their complete recovery is uncertain. |
