Minotaur

Description

Despite an apish stance, the Minotaur is actually a type of Horned Koposeran. They converge on many humanoid aspects, which juxtapose their cowlike faces to create an almost chimeric visage. Together, they adopt the best physical traits from both their physical inspirations—and perhaps more than just brawn as they blur the line between man and beast. For while their form may be bestial, they, like the Heargemen, are capable of using tools in ways that simple brutes could not. Though unlike them they’re well-muscled and don’t rely on weapons to exact force.

Strength is defined by the Minotaur who rests toward the top of its hierarchy: able to break bone with their bare hands or plow straight through wooden barricades with a charge. Their horns don’t serve much as weapons, but are held aloft by a skull so thick that not even a bodkin arrow could pierce it. A Minotaur’s body is similarly durable, with lines of fat and muscle shielding the organs so that only under prolonged (2 or more hits) trauma could they be threatened. Their hulkish shoulders support a great deal of additional muscle, such as they’re able to lift items half as heavy as they are, as a man would a blade—casting him into the air should be the unlucky target of a swing. All this bulk does mean they’re pretty slow and need time to unleash their strikes: the sluggishness of which provides a chance to dodge it.

Like the animals that they look most closely to they haven’t a taste for flesh. Only occasionally have they been seen eating smaller creatures, such as insects, when no other food is available. They have a preference for grasses and leaves of the youngest growth that they’re enabled to reach by their tall statures. Within their bellies, several stomachs work to extract nutrients not so dissimilar to a true cow, producing the muscle that the Minotaur is known for.

Type: Monster

Life expectancy: 300 years

Height: 7'2"—8'0" ft. [2,18—2,43 m.]

Weight: 340—460 lbs. [154—209 kg.]

Biome(s): Multi-regional (abandoned ruins, caves...)

Behaviour

The life of a Minotaur is a lonely one: rarely are they found together with individuals, seemingly avoiding close proximity outside of periodic familial gatherings. Pairs form to raise families and typically take up residence in shelters such as caves or ruins. In these homes, they rigorously patrol and show a terrible, bullying aggression to all trespassers*. Though this may seem brutish, there are patterns which suggest greater complexity, as Minotaurs carve markings into their homes and serenade into the nothingness for no apparent reason. Some have suggested these rituals to invoke parts of themselves currently unknown—further study is required.

*While defending clearly marked territory, Minotaurs are PTK/PTC.

A deep curiosity is observed in them toward the happenings of men. They refuse entry to civilized life, but they don’t flee or automatically engage with people upon sighting them: instead, they watch them whilst maintaining a safe distance. No aggression is shown to those who give them a wide berth, but interlopers may be warned or charged should they become too comfortable nearby. Minotaurs seem particularly protective of the markings they make upon surfaces—flying into violent rages if they’re vandalized.

Although they have no true tongue, Minotaurs communicate. Using rumbling voices, they bellow and roar across the lands in a low register that may cause a tingling sensation in those nearby. It is thought that the Minotaur at great distances can pick up these low sounds even beyond what other creatures can hear, perhaps implying a more interconnected world than previously thought.

History

Scholars dispute the origin of the Minotaur as they do not seem wholly natural. Their shadowed intellect has left some to believe that they were once a people having since become corrupted, bewitched, or worse. Fauns interestingly experience not fear in the presence of them but an uncanny familiarity, with elders reporting that their rumbles—while incomprehensibly distinct from their language—bear a similar cadence. Some Fauns report hearing what seem to be unfinished sentences or fragments of meaning lost in time. While none of them have successfully translated or understood their words, the sense remains, and they believe the Minotaurs are not just beasts.

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