The Bovates

The Bovates may be considered one of the less cosmically important species in The Third World. They rarely get involved with matters on the Third World stage, such as wars, but it’s not because they avoid involvement. They just never seem to feel the need to. Beyond a few exceptions, they all live in the Bovate Nation, which is surrounded completely by a mountain range known as the Elmnis Mountains, after an ancient goddess who lived there long before the Bovates. The Elmnis Mountains are not particularly difficult to cross, but most adventurers and traders find that crossing them is not worth the minor risks involved. They just don’t find the Bovates interesting.
They are a generally peaceful species. As far as history records, there has never been a civil war in the Bovate Nation. There have been occasional disputes between the males of the species, but rarely are any of them fatally wounded. They hold similar restrictions on murder to many other races, and, despite the low murder rate, do not find it particularly horrifying when one Bovate kills another. Only in the grandest wars, involving nearly every race in The Third World, do the Bovates get involved as a nation. They have never been successfully invaded, but it has only been tried on a couple of occasions.
Bovates are, as their name suggests, a race of cows. Well, what we here in Our World would call a cow. There are three primary differences between the Bovates and Cows, the first of which is that the Bovates tend to walk on their hind legs, and they have hind legs strong enough to hold up their weight. Also, they are intelligent, which would be apparent to any human in a Bovate community. They are far from the purely content creatures in Our World that are worshiped by the Hindu. They are generally peaceful, true, but they are nowhere near contentment. They have desires and passions just as all other sentient species do. They strive to better themselves and their lives, unlike cows.
Male Bovates, what we would be likely to call Bulls, are known as Boves. Females are called Bevs. Quite possibly the most interesting thing about the Bovates is that Boves do not only have sex with Bevs, nor do Bevs only have sex with Boves. In fact, Bovates do not only have sex with Bovates. In general, their physiology is not compatible with that of other species as far as breeding goes, but that doesn’t really matter to them. What matters to them is the pleasures of sex. In essence, they will fuck anything that is willing.
They have nearly no sexual taboos in reality. Like all societies, they claim to have their limits, and like most societies, they break every single one of those taboos. Their stated limits aren’t even very harsh. They are also the only society in the entire Third World that does not state a taboo on Floraphilia, leading many Floraphiles to flee to the interior of the Elmnis Mountains. A number of Forest Sprites with an attraction to Big Folk, as well as those who wish to procure possessions for services rendered onto Floraphiliac Big Folk, have had their trees transplanted into the Bovate Nation. Transplanting a Forest Sprite’s tree is a very complicated and expensive process. All of which only serves to emphasize just how much Bovates accept, and like, fucking.
The Bovates have about as much magical prowess as the majority of the races in The Third World, and like many they tend to prefer a certain kind of magic. For example, The Coonsks tend to prefer Orange (defensive) and Ultra-Violet (mental) magics. The Bovates have particular prowess in Yellow Magic: Romantic and Sexual magic. Their prowess increased in the last few centuries, when they struck up a very powerful alliance with the Yellow Nagas who reside to the “west” of the Elmnis Mountains. These Yellow Nagas and Bovates struck up a trade agreement when they became officially allied: The Nagas began sending their magical leaders to boost Bovate knowledge of Yellow Magic, and the Bovates began supplying them with their three chief exports: Pornography, Prostitutes, and Bovate Milk. These are the only products that they produce that anyone has any desire for. The first two are desired for obvious reasons, and the latter is desired primarily for Dillon the Enhatted’s specialty drink, and because it is so desired for that purpose, the Bovates can very nearly name their price for it. Besides Dillon’s drink, it is said that Bovate Milk (really, it’s Bev milk, but the males of species don’t produce milk so it’s silly to differentiate between the milk of the genders. Except in the case of the Plats, but they’re a race for another time) enhances sexual prowess. It is not confirmed whether or not this is true, but the Bovates don’t care to make a stand, as people do not readily disbelieve myths like that, and scientists without an appreciation for sexual activity are continually purchasing samples of Bovate Milk in order to test it. The Bovates suppose that as long as they have an export that is in demand, they will continue to receive goods and visitors, as well as avoid being invaded and enslaved.
Despite the general neutrality of the Bovates on the Third World stage, they greatly abhor uptight societies and, so, when they learned of the Nadir and their philosophy towards anything illogical, they were one of the first nations to mobilize a military. Some have said that this was an unbelievable gamble, considering the minimal size of the Bovate military, and the fact that their tiny military was trained primarily in defensiveness, and not well even there. But you will not find out whether or not the gamble was worth it for some time, as we will not recount the Nadir War until all of the players are in place. Next time, we will learn of the Orange Nagas of the North Haber region.