Some folks elsewhere have talked about wanting some sort of 'open' tech trees. Seems like the Animal Husbandry branch could be a good place to work something like that out, at least in terms of variety if not endlessness. Instead of Tech A inevitably leading to branches A1, A2, and A3, why not have the root Animal Husbandry craft simply enable you to develop a specific craft for each type of useful animal you encounter? That way, if your people worshipped bears and thought riding them a horrible sin, you'd not have to include things like Bear Riding in your research but that wouldn't stop you from mounting swamp scouts on giant frogs.

In other words, Animal Husbandry could be a major parent node with a wide range of possible branches off it, each one grouped by species. Within each species, e.g. giant frogs, you might begin with Herding (create and maintain your usable critter pop), move on to Harnessing (plows, carts, & chariots), then to Riding (basic cavalry), and finally to War Training (true warhorses & analogs).

LOL if your people worshipped bears using them for ANY reason would be a sin so have no fear.

I should have known that with nearly 7 billion on the planet, someone had already hand made a bear-drawn chariot fig.

Well, that's another interesting question for a possible 'next-gen' tech tree. I was thinking a linear set when I muttered about Herding, Harnessing, etc. But maybe you should be able to flat-out skip some crafts if you're willing to pay some extra research cost to go directly from point A to point C.

Or maybe a whole different approach would be to have a pair (or more) of similar Animal Husbandry root nodes that distinguish between people who identify a species as a resource first vs. identifying them as "like people" or "our heroes" or just outright deserving worship.

On a semi-threadjacking note, man, I want to know more about the possible mechanics behind that shaman concept art. Are those shamans intermediaries between channelers & regular folk, is there an established spirit world we haven't heard about yet, or will a shaman in Elemental be basically just a field medic who knows lots of medicinal plants?

What do you mean? An African or European bear?

Are there bears in Africa? I've never heard of bears in Africa before.

Edit: I just looked. Apparently there used to be some bears in northern Africa, but they became extinct in the 19th century due to habitat destruction and hunting. They never made it south of the Sahara, though.

Animal Husbandry is a good topic that I am quite excited about.  But I am thinking it could be expanded.  As far as I can tell, Armies are going to be mainly Humans.  I love it because I love being human (Its my flaw, I know).  But I would like it expanded a little sometimes.  Heres my idea for the research/production of "Mounts"

In order to build the units, one must research the techs.  Some will have multiple tiers to it.  Then you have to have a building to build the right unit.  Maybe a hatchery for all the Avian/Draconic creatures.  A stable for the horses.  Maybe even the special units need their own training buildings.  A Labrynth Training Ground for Minotaurs, Graveyard for undead, etc.  Research could have several catagories.  Animal Husbandry, Monster Training, and Summoning.  Each one gives you certain units and such.

• Mounts - Creatures that actually have to be paired with another unit.   You can pair it with another unit to make it that much better.  Stardock's example with a knight is a perfect example.  Better creatures give you better bonuses.
  • Examples
    • Horses
    • Unicorns
    • Pegai (Plural winged horses?)
    • Manticore (Can also be a unit)
    • Dragons (Can also be a unit)
    • Sea Turtles (Can also be a unit)
    • Griffons (Can also be a unit)
• Units - Actual usable army units of "monsters" that fight along your troops.  These troops are a lot like army units but come with different starts and innate bonuses.  Also, they can be equipped, for the most part, like your normal units with acceptable limits.  Ex being merfolk cant wear boots or greaves, and anything heavy slows it considerably.
  • Examples
    • Bugbear
    • Fae Folk
    • Merfolk
    • Skeletons
    • Minotaurs

As always, sorry if I copied anyones idea.  I just like talking a lot ^^.

I'm confused.    are these supposed to be related?   you made it sound like you group things together like "donkey, horse, warhorse, pesasus"   or maybe "turtle, giant turtle, Dragon turtle"    but is your example supposed to show things that would come from similar places the way avians would come from a hachery?  Or are you just giving an example of a mount vs. something that is not a mount?  (seemed a little redundent, but maybe its because I'm tired

I like the idea of riding a manticore.  Usually they are their own stand alone beast like minotaurs, bugbears, and sphinx.

Its "pegasi", but close enough (the 'S' is the missing link)