 The Hoom, Habitat and Habits |
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| Added by | Tamriel Data | ||
| ID | T_Bk_HoomHabitatHabitsTR | ||
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50 |  |
3 |
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Found in the following locations:
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A little over 50 years ago a cargo vessel arrived at the Bravil docks. It had set sail for Morrowind three years before that, its hold filled with luxury goods. In its stead now it carried a set of strange items, hitherto unseen by our academics.
A set of painted, inlayed and lacquered shells took up most of the room in the hold, stacked on top of each other like a collection of nested dolls. The smallest perhaps twice the size of an adult Mudcrab, the largest as big as a small room.
All these shells were said to come from one single, individual animal, collected over decades. As it grew it molted, left behind the old shell and grew a new one, each larger than the last. The Dunmer had collected each shell as it was discarded by the animal and decorated it.
The captain had gambled that the novelty he traded his cargo for would turn him a profit and his gamble was correct beyond his greediest dreams. Nobles from many houses fell over each other to bid for this new and exciting curiosity. He had made his fortune.
That captain was my father and his windfall guaranteed me a life of luxury and the best education money could buy. Now, more than half a century later, I went on a journey to learn more about the creature which had become the mascot of my family.
Over land I traveled to Dawnstar, over sea to Baan Malur, in search of the Hoom. I will spare my reader the difficulties I encountered on the way and the unseemly amount of bribery required to make the reticent Dunmer farmers reveal their knowledge and simply present my results here.
The crustaceans called Hoom are native to the Velothi mountains which separate Morrowind from Skyrim. Attempts to transplant them to other regions have failed, likely due to a combination of the ever-present ashfalls from Red Mountain and a specific but unidentified quality of the waters where they spend their larval stage.
The Hoom life cycle can be divided into four distinct and separate stages.
First, in Spring, herds of Hoom make a trek towards the same ancestral spawning grounds where they themselves hatched. They feel at home in both salt and brackish water and the pregnant females lay clusters of hundreds of sticky eggs, which they attach to rocks. No parental care is given at this stage and shortly after laying the herd makes the journey back towards the mountains where they live as adults. Hoom farmers travel with their tamed herd at this time, but wild Hoom make the trek alone.
Between two and three weeks after spawning season the eggs hatch and the second stage of Hoom life reveals itself, the aquatic Hoom larvae, locally known as Grulbs. Grulbs are carnivorous, feed on insects, shellfish and small fish and their diet allows them to grow quickly. They are coated in a mildly toxic slime that is used by the Dunmer as an ingredient in some of their drogas and medicine. The sting of the Grulb delivers an unpleasant burning sensation that can last for a few days. Grulbs in turn are predated on enthusiatically by Slaughterfish and Cliff Racers. In form they resemble sea slugs.
Roughly two months after hatching they develop a hard shell and become immobile until from that casing emerges the third stage, Hoomcrabs.
The amphibious Hoomcrabs are easily mistaken for Mudcrabs. Looking remarkably similar, they fill the same ecological niche of scavenger as the Mudcrab itself, but are not aggressive. Hoomcrabs stay away from Mudcrabs, as Mudcrabs will not hesitate to attack them. Several moltings occur at this stage, each time the Hoomcrab emerges larger until at the end of Summer there is no mistaking them for Mudcrabs any longer. They will be roughly twice as large. Even though the Dunmer harvest Hoomcrabs for their meat, there is now little danger to them from the native wildlife. They can easily fend off Mudcrabs and no other animal takes a special interest in them. The largest thinning of the numbers occurs in late Summer, when they trek inland. Into the Velothi Mountains, in search of the specific herd of Hoom that parented them.
Maybe one in twenty of the Hoomcrabs actually survive to find their herd. The rest fall by the wayside because of the difficulty of the journey. Once they are re-united the Hoomcrabs will seek out adult males and attach themselves to their carapace like whelks to a rock. Dormant, the final changes occur to their physiology until at last emerges the fourth stage: Juvenile Hoom.
From this point onward no major alterations to their form occur. Once a year they molt, leaving behind their old shell as it becomes too small for them to comfortably reside in. At this final stage Hoom are herbivorous. A tame, well cared for Hoom can live for roughly 50 to 60 years. Stories of ancient Hoom older than a century exist, often detailing a wise, wild Hoom saving a foolish Dunmer hunter or traveller. But I have found no verified cases of a Hoom that old outside of folk tales.
Elsewhere is detailed how the Hoom shells are tuned to facilitate and beautify the sounds they can produce. I will refer my kind reader to this work by the scholar Adrys to satisfy his curiosity about this remarkable phenomenon. But I would be remiss not to mention the beauty of a tuned, tame Hoom herd, singing in the dusk light. The piccolos of the juveniles, the altos the females produce and the deep, rich bass tones of the adult males surely create a concerto without equal in nature.
Hoom products perform many functions in Dunmer society. Their saliva contains modest restorative properties. When fed Scrib jelly their dung becomes a type of cement that dries when exposed to air.
Hoom wool on its own is an irritant that has an adverse effect on the lungs, but when treated with Shalk resin it's a flame retardant and keeps out heat and cold. Treated Hoom wool is used for making winter coats, however its most important function is in construction. Traditional Dunmer homes as well as Ashlander yurts utilise a layer of Hoom wool to keep out the Winter cold as well as the Summer heat.
But the most important Hoom product is the shell, discarded by the animal during molting. The smaller shells are used to make musical instruments. Medium-sized shells are used to create parts of traditional Dunmer bonemold armor and tools. The largest shells are exceptionally prized and can function as a shelter by itself, or joined together with others. The shells are decorated using various techniques. Inlays of pearl, jade, glass and ebony. Lacquer, paints and metalwork all function to increase their value and also to display elaborate religious iconography for those shells which are not for trade.
The Hoom and its various products are so intertwined in Dunmer culture, arts and construction that it is difficult to imagine what Morrowind would be without these docile creatures that lead such remarkably complex lives.