Asonara, the region in the Southern Continent’s center, is dominated by vast grasslands and deserts. In this barren wilderness, Bomohku (Lariska’s species) clans eke out a living by traveling from waterhole to waterhole with their herds of herbivorous Avohi Raptors and living from what little the land offers.
It is thus no surprise that the Bomohku seek to improve their lives by taking what they want from other lands - predominantly the western regions of the Southern Continent.
While the Bomohku are commonly only lightly armored, their speed and agility as well as their skills with various weaponry and in handling their mounts are superb, and their raids are feared accordingly. With the large Matoran population in the affected regions, the Bomohku have become particularly skilled at fighting Toa, while the heavy Augafi (Mantax’s species) infantry more common in the south fares a little better against them.
As a response, the Toa and other locals started to learn from the Bomohku, however, also taming the Avohi Raptors to be able to meet the raiders cavalry against cavalry.
Avohi Raptor:
Large herbivores which despite their fearsome appearance are generally placid, but if angered - or trained - can pose a serious threat due to their powerful jaws, sharp claws and pure weight. They normally live in herds, and an Avohi Raptor stampede is near unstoppable. They are common in the regions of Avohi and in northern Asonara, and have been tamed in both places. While in Avohi they predominantly serve as mounts or as pack Rahi, the Bomohku also live from their energy, though care is taken to never draw too much from an individual.
The natural colours of Avohi Raptors are black and silver, but particularly the Bomohku like to decorate their favored mounts, as they are of central importance to any warrior in their culture.
Desert Bomohku:
The desert Bomohku are proud warriors, though not as stealthy or acrobatic as their jungle brethren in the east of the continent. Due to them frequently facing Toa, most of their weapons include hooks and spikes to unmask an opponent. Such masks are often collected as trophies, and occasionally also used - though damaged masks bring particular prestige for a warrior, as it means they faced a worthy foe that wasn’t overwhelmed easily.
Desert Bomohku and Jungle Bomohku (Lariska)
Size comparisons:
And of course I also put Lhikan on there:
So, this is definitely the largest MOC I built to date and - wow was this difficult to balance. The legs don’t just need to hold up the entire raptor, but a rider on top of that. No chance without friction sockets here. This obviously also meant poseability had to be restricted, which might be most noticeable with the neck and tail of the raptor. They’re not completely static, but about as stiff as they look.
I built the whole thing in the first place because I wanted to try out my Lariska build in a different colour variation, and once one has a Desert Bomohku, a mount is kinda obligatory 
I have to say that the natural colouring looks better to me than the attempt at matching colours to the rider, though. Likely because the raptor was built with only black and silver in mind, and thus recolours are difficult due to not having the parts in other colours/them not existing in other colours.
Kinda sad that I’ll have to take the raptor apart again - but I put way too many good parts in there, predominantly all those friction sockets and slizer feet, but also other small stuff… Also due to the size I have no place to put it. It’s already starting to gather dust.
But anyways, hope you enjoy and feel free to give feedback!
EDIT: Here’s a stud. io file for this. Stronius armor and those “feet that are no feet” parts on the front and back of the upper legs, but otherwise I hope this works. Feel free to say so if it doesn’t or you notice I forgot anything else. Avohi_Raptor_Stud.io - Google Drive
(Updated the link on Oct 18th 2021 - a few missing parts added and many thanks to Sigma for making this as convertable to a bricklink order list as it’ll get and attaching those hoses)
