All creatures have the ability of having traits, whether through breeding or being set by a GM.

Traits do not affect characteristics such as Body Strength. Some traits affect their carry weight limits, but that’s it. Otherwise, you could have a traited sheep pulling a wagon, and it probably would affect hitched speed.

Here’s what the traits do in terms of movement speed and carrying capacity:

• It has fleeter movement than normal: +10% speed
• It has a strong body: +10kg carry weight
• It has lightning movement: +20% speed
• It can carry more than average: +20kg carry weight
• It has very strong leg muscles: +10% speed, +10kg carry weight
• It looks very unmotivated: -30kg carry weight
• It has malformed hindlegs: -10% speed
• The legs are of different length: -30% speed
• (Ebony black color): +2.5% speed

NOTE:  Silver/black is higher than ebony.

Hell horses have an ebony equivalent; I believe it’s “molten” but I’m not 100% sure.

Animals absolutely do not care about the weight of a hitched vehicle, so traits that only affect carry capacity (carry more, strong body) won’t matter in that case.

Speed-related traits kick in when the horse passes a Soul Strength skill check, and turn off if they fail it. The opposite is true for negative traits; it can pass a Soul Strength check to not be affected by something like “malformed hindlegs”. Hell horses have much higher Soul Strength than normal horses, so they pass these checks much more consistently. Unicorns, bisons, and other animals that aren’t horses, don’t do these checks; the traits are always in effect for them.

• Mark of the Rift = Will not be attacked by rift mobs.
• Mark of Valrei = Will age and die faster.