Dorcean Headcanon: Poachers
In Dorcean culture, a poacher isn't only a hunter who truly kills just for sport and money. They're hunters who broke the Hunter's Code and were banished from their tribes. As such, they're not held back by the Dorcean honor codes and will do as they please.
They hunt endangered species and do not respect hunting seasons, killing all year long indiscriminately.
They stick together in groups because strength is in the numbers. However, their rules differ from that of a normal Dorcean tribe and revolve more around money. EG: food is distributed according to who contributes more. A poacher who sells more gets more food.
Hyaena, a cruel huntress who was a rival of Vamphyr's in their youth, leads the biggest group of poachers. Said rivalry has carried on to the next generation, as her son Quggai is a long-time rival of Besteel's.
They've been trying to capture Broken Tooth for decades, as her rare coloration makes her very valuable.
They kill the offspring of endangered species to make sure it stays rare and valuable.
All the forest tribes are openly hostile toward poachers. They will spit whenever a poacher's name is mentioned in their presence, and if they catch a poacher in the act, they'll kill them if possible. As far as they're concerned, a poacher is not a true Dorcean.
From the above, legitimate hunters, such as Besteel and Vamphyr, will lash out if they're called or compared to poachers.
Poachers are the main reason Dorceans hunters face prejudice, as poachers not only kill wild animals. They'll even kill/steal cattle from non-Dorcean peoples. The victims of said thefts, of course, do not differentiate between a poacher and a legitimate hunter, and so came to see Dorceans in general as poachers.
Throughout her life, Cassiora was a pain in the ass for poachers, as she'd free their catches whenever possible.
After the war, poacher activity came to a peak when the humans, in collaboration with the Ojo family, began reintroducing some of Earth's original fauna to the environments restored by the Vitae Virus. They were particularly interested in the animals with 'intriguing patterns', such as jaguars, tigers, etc.
Irkana became a poacher the moment she broke the Code's first rule, despite not being a huntress. After her banishment, she joined Hyaena's group. However, because of her lack of skill at anything due to her pampered upbringing, she's practically a maid to them. The only reason they keep her around is because Quggai 'likes' her.
Eva's telepathic connection to the Orbonian wildlife has made her a priority target to the poachers; Hyaena intends to use her 'power' to make their catches easier, or eliminate her before she becomes a threat if the first option fails.
Eva reluctantly had to join forces with Besteel to deal with the poachers' threat, but from this experience she finally came to understand Dorceans after seeing their darker side, realizing that legitimate hunters are not evil.
They use longruns stolen from the Ventav'ir tribe to further their hunts, as they're more subtle and deadlier than gliders—the latter are only used to transport merchandise to their buyers.
