Sosaria is dominated by cattle barons and the cattle industry. The cattle is slaughtered in The Trunk.
Livestock in Sosaria (including dodos and ostriches as well as cattle) outnumber citizens over 10 to one.
Of the tgwo major factions of cattle baron, the Blood and Soil faction favour local ranchers while the White Sun/White Hope faction want to open the Trunk to foreign livestock. Horvath Pignose, leader of the White faction, wants to make night cattle jerky as a convenient and delicious holy sacrament that all faiths can enjoy.
The buildup of dung from livestock keeps the lands around Sosaria fertilised.
The gnolls of the Burning Lands bred blackhorn aurochs with Shuttered’s cows. The resulting cattle are great shaggy beasts. Gnoll jerked beef lasts longer than almost any other kind of food.
A ‘proper’ red cow will put the ghosts of the Last Skirmish (17.03) to rest according to Thad Breen (though whether that is a breed or just coloration is not specified).
In Monatheron they still keep the six sacred breeds of Andaran cattle. They cannot be crossbred or removed from Monatheron on pain of death.
One variety are moon-horned cattle. Drogo rustled a herd, but it contained no bulls so he cannot breed them.
Practice
Night cattle that enter the Shuttered City must do so via the South Gate, where their brands are examined.
Sosarian cattle chants are said to be millennia-old but are recited for political reasons (see Sosaria the Brave).
Giant bee honey is used to cure meat in Sosaria. Beef jerked in this way acts as a potion of cure light wounds.
Flayed cattle corpses are used by orcs to collect gems from a peculiar valley ([36.02]])
Night cattle on the Isle of Dolyeades (33.16) are used in the election of a doge.
Kolfrosta keeps a demonic bull shackled behind her altar. When a night heifer is mounted by the demon bull, its flesh is corrupted and those who eat it turn into monstrosities.
When the gnollish matriarchs met at the City of Smoke to decide the next Mother, they burned the dung of a cow poisoned by bleeding berries. Those matriarchs that didn’t pass out would agree on the next Mother.