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Warg-Rider — Description
Wargs get a bad rep.

A lot of the time, they are only seen as mindless killers and mounts for those creatures who would eat a milder-mannered mount, like Tolkien's orcs and Uruk-hai. I don't think they deserve this.
Wolves, who Wargs are most often likened to, are not mindless, slavering killers. I don't have to tell you that; you probably know it already. They have interesting hierarchical sturctures, they kill only to eat, they care for their young and even for the sick or weak members of the pack.
However.
You can't ride wolves.
Bear with me here; I have a point.
Wolves are not anatomically suited to having anything sit on their backs. No matter how big you make them, a rider is going to have a damaging impact to a wolf's back. Their spines are just not built to be loadbearing. They bend too much. (Horses' spines, and cows' or camels' for that matter, don't bend nearly as much in motion as a wolf's or a cat's does.)
So if you're going to ride a carnivore? Better make it a bear or a hyena. Both of those have massive, muscular shoulders that can, if the proportions fit, bear enough load to carry a rider. (That's why my Warg-Rider's saddle is way in the front: this is the only area where a giant hyena can carry extra weight.)
Why did I pick the hyena?
Well, bears aren't really known for being very social creatures. Hyenas ARE. They have a female-dominated pack structure and therefore are probably easier to tame than solitary, terrirorial bears.

In other words, wargs that can be ridden must be physically and mentally suited for the job - they must respond to authority and follow orders, just like a riding horse would. A mindless killing machine is just not suited to the task.

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