…Yes, we mean badgers. (Look, it’s only going to get stranger as we go, so you know, brace yourselves.) There are lots of children’s books that include badgers as major characters, either as kind dears or… well, cranky, “get off my lawn!” guys. For some people, they are their favorite characters and while having a badger isn’t normal anywhere else, this is Astranar (and a video game). Badgers are available in every district, and if you stumble across in the wild, you can use spells and bribes to tame one.

Badgers (and badger kits) may look super cuddly, but beware–they are browsers, so their breath may not smell particularly sweet. English badgers tend to be a bit more shy and mellow than their American counterparts, but some people like the gruff old men. (Okay, Becca likes the old grumps because of a certain Disney movie about foxes and dogs…) Either way, they are forest critters.

If you want to tame your own, you can find badgers in the woods with heavy brush fall to get through, since they like their sets to be well hidden. Alternatively, there are breeders (like you’d find for dogs and cats) that can adopt you a badger if you’re either in a not-particularly wooded district, or it sounds like more work than you want to invest.

Astranar is sometimes not quite as culturally the same as anywhere else, and the badgers are perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. For some, they appreciate the weird and want to adopt one of their own. For others, they’d prefer something that didn’t have a tendency to be cranky…and maybe a little water proof. For that, you’ll want next week’s pet!