With the recent discussion regarding Ka Hmnd, I went and started rereading some of the Kaire stories and tried to visualize a Kratcal from the descriptions and failed. I also failed in trying to find any form of picture of them.
The dscription mentions 4 arms and 4 legs and also with what sounds like a very disagreeable disposition, so my best mental model atm is an angry 4-armed centaur.
Any one with a better imagination than me?
The dscription mentions 4 arms and 4 legs and also with what sounds like a very disagreeable disposition
8 limbs? Consider a partially upright arachnoid (spider like)
From the story 'Turning into an Alien':
Out of one hundred, ten were left but only three of us accepted the last match. We were to face a Kratcal brought from Kair just for our Hunt. They had six limbs, each with long claws and a large mouth with fangs and lots of teeth. Think of an old earth bear but as fast as a weasel and you would be close.
The fact that they rear up on the hindlegs kind of had me leaning to bear-like though this is the most descriptive image I have seen in the stories. Most stories just drop little hints here and there.
From 'Turning into an Alien'.
face a Kratcal brought from Kair just for our Hunt. They had six limbs, each with long claws and a large mouth with fangs and lots of teeth. Think of an old earth bear but as fast as a weasel and you would be close.
I shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet but continued to wait while the Kratcal came closer. At the last second I rolled to the side and came to my feet. I moved after the animal as it stopped in mid charge to spin. It stood on its rear legs and lashed out with its two left arms.
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From the above, I visualize a bear with 3 pairs of legs. It can run like a bear using all 3 pair of legs and stand on its rear legs. It has 2 pair of legs on its upper torso, and 1 pair of legs at the rear of its torso; alternatively, 1 pair of legs between the other 2 pair of legs. There is a reference to the 2 upper legs being arms, so the 2 pair of legs on the upper torso may resemble arms more than legs.
I was reading Agronomist and in it there is a fight with a kratcal where he talks about "the other 2 arms" and also the "lower legs", so 2+2 arms and if it has lower legs it implies upper legs, but as you say, maybe the middle limbs are used as both arms and legs.
Anatomy is interesting, I've long held the belief that humans are missing at least one hand, so many things would be easier with 3 or 4 hands, maybe that is why we have technology, it is a way to make up for the lack of a sufficient number of hands.
The leg-arm definition seems to be a matter of perception on the part of Ka Hmnd.
The 2 lower limbs are defined as lower legs. That seems to be consistent between stories. The term "lower" seems to be relative to the attachment point of the other 2 pair of limbs. I would not interpret it to mean a second pair of upper legs, although other passages imply a second pair of limbs that function as legs. I do not think this lower pair of limbs would be used for grasping.
Hmnd's comment about front arms implies to me that the Kratcal's 2 upper pair of arms share an attachment point on the torso that would be a human's shoulders. I think the front pair of limbs function as legs, and the Kratcal runs on four limbs (i.e. legs). Perhaps the third pair of limbs are capable of grasping, which would explain Kmnd's use of the term "arm". I'm not sure how 2 pair of limbs would be attached at a single attachment point such that the front pair is legs and the second pair is arms.
Hmnd's comment about resembling a bear also affects my visualization of the Kratcal. I visualize a bear as a large bulky animal, but they aren't fast like a weasel. Therefore, I visualize an animal built like a panther with fur and the features of a bear. However, slender and low to the ground when on its four legs.