Minotaur

Minotaurs were a strong and combative race of monstrous humanoids resembling bull–human hybrids. They were rare in Dünya, outside of their ancestral homes in The Still.

Description

Minotaurs were large, muscular humanoids. They had the head of a bull, upper torso, hands, and the body of a human, and hooved feet. Their fur and wild hair typically ranged from brown to black. The fur often covered forearms, chest, abdomen, and legs. Males were referred to as bulls and reached up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) in height, while females – cows, were similar in appearance, with broader hips, humanoid breasts, and reached only 7 feet (2.1 meters).
Minotaurs matured much faster than humans: a two-year-old calf had fully formed horns and could kill an orc in combat, a five-year-old minotaur towered over other humanoids, and by their tenth year - minotaurs were considered adults.
Minotaur bodies were of similar shape and build to that of an ogre. Their hands were huge and strong, ending in thick sharp yellow nails. Minotaurs were known to use claws in battle, but they were brittle and did not survive heavy use. Despite their heads being that of a bull, there were subtle differences in features between mundane beasts and minotaurs. Some were known to have cow-like tails. Their snouts were thicker and longer than that of an animal, and bull-men had sharp carnivore teeth. Their canines were especially noticeable, and minotaurs never hesitated to bite their victims, prey, and opponents. Lastly, unlike bovines, minotaurs' eyes were positioned closer to the center of their faces, granting them good depth perception and another telltale evidence of their predatory nature.
The creatures' iconic feature – their horns – were very similar to normal bulls', slightly curving forward. Both males and females had similarly shaped huge horns. However, males' were longer and thicker on average. There were several horn coloring variations, and sometimes as many as three colors could be present. Minotaurs with dark fur often had dark yellow or brown horns. The shortest horns were around 1 foot (0.3 meters) and could reach up to three times that length.
Minotaurs possessed almost uncanny tracking and navigational abilities and a superbly keen sense of smell. They could easily visualize any path they needed to take to get close to the prey.
The youth showed little affection towards their mothers and fathers. Older females received no special treatment and were respected as long as they remained strong and physically superior to the youths. Overall, their society was patriarchal, and those females who were physically weaker than other members of the tribes were treated not much better than slaves. Younger minotaurs often stayed out of the way of older males just to avoid conflicts and brutal assertions of dominance. Adult minotaurs consumed copious amounts of alcohol and dueled over most things: treasures, females, power. Polygamy was common as bulls sought to father a great number of children. In some minotaur communities, males assembled harems of six-seven cows. In some fringe cases, infanticide was practiced in cases when a calf was born with physical deformities. Slavery was not unheard of. Some males kept weaker creatures as slaves while females were put in charge and allowed to take out their frustrations on their bulls' slaves. Despite that, minotaurs disliked torture. Despite minotaurs' general brutality, they had the capability to be kind and empathetic.

A minotaur cow

Society

A typical minotaur leader, also known as the elder, was the biggest and strongest bull in the tribe, which did not necessarily mean the most intelligent leader. The tribe's king led his fellow bulls into raids. Solitary minotaurs were a common occurrence, however, a clan could have eight members.
Minotaur youth were taught to fight and master weapons at an early age. In the minotaur society, combat education was done by parents and fellow male tribe members. Even while playing, minotaur children spent most of their time wrestling and fighting each other. Male calves developed brutal and cruel rivalries amongst each other from earliest childhood, and these feuds were encouraged by the adults.
Minotaurs were proud of their horns and often spent their free time sharpening, cleaning, and polishing them with old rags or furs. Decorations were common as well. Brass and silver tacks and spikes were used to accentuate the horns' natural appeal. Repaired severed horns were common in tribes with talented crafters or skilled allies who knew how to work metals. After a duel, the winner customarily took the left horn of their opponent, often leaving the opponent maimed and badly injured. These horns were hollowed out and turned into wind musical instruments, and stronger individuals often owned several.
Apart from horn decorations, minotaurs rarely wore any other type of jewelry. The closest to what humans consider decorations among minotaurs were fanciful girdles or gauntlets. Sages speculated that minotaurs were known to easily adapt traditions and norms from other races and societies in lieu of their own culture. Of course, those cultural norms that were aimed at aggression and intimidation were highly preferred and emulated.

Interracial Relations

When interacting with other races, minotaurs respected giants and trolls for their strength. Smaller humanoids, such as Human, Elf, Gnome, and others, were considered beneath minotaurs in all senses of the word. Bulls could not, or didn't care enough to distinguish one humanoid from another. Gnolls and minotaurs hated each other and immediately attacked each other on sight.
As far as the other races of The Still, minotaurs tended to be the most violent and territorial. Because they lived near the coast, they very rarely enconuntered Centaur clans. They frequently fought against Leonin prids who proved to be roughly even competition in strength.

Religion

Similarly to centaurs and leonins, minotaurs worshipped a demi-god. They elevated Bukh, the legendary minotaur who learned the art of sailing and navigation, to this status and was the main figure in their faith.
Death was not feared in minotaur society. On the contrary, death was considered to be a holy event. Minotaurs thought good death to be quick, clean, and in a rush of battle. Honor kills were a staple of minotaurs' cultural and religious creed.

Player Race Features

• Ability Scores. Choose any +2; choose any other +1.
• Size. Medium.
• Speed. 30 feet.
• Horns. You have horns that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
• Goring Rush. Immediately after you take the Dash action on your turn and move at least 20 feet, you can make one melee attack with your Horns as a bonus action.
• Hammering Horns. Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack as part of the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to push that target with your horns. The target must be within 5 feet of you and no more than one size larger than you. Unless it succeeds on a Strength saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier, you can push it up to 10 feet away from you.
• Navigational Recall. You always know which direction is north, and you have advantage on any Wisdom (Survival) check you make to navigate or track.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Khel.