Thylean Minotaur

"I will never understand how the people of Mytros can consider themselves to be so enlightened when they treat the minotaur tribes like cattle. Travel widely enough and you will come to know shopkeepers, poets, and philosophers with the faces of bulls. True, there are some who are monsters. But is that not also true of men?”
—Aesop, Keeper of the Dragon Shrine

Minotaurs are the descendants of an ancient tribe of humans who were cursed by the gods, transforming  them into half-human, half-bull monstrosities. Although they are widely dismissed as unthinking brutes, they are in fact as diverse and as intelligent as any other race.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Minotaurs possess uncommon strength, making them excellent warriors. The curse infuses their bodies with the power of a bull at all times, and their muscles seldom relax, even when they are drunk or asleep. In battle, minotaurs sometimes lose control of their emotions and fly into a rage. When this happens, the curse takes over, transforming them back into a full-fledged bull for a short period of time.

Growth Rate & Stages

Minotaurs mature at the same rate as humans.

Behaviour

Most minotaurs gather together to form small farming or fishing communities, far from civilization.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Minotaurs have a particularly keen sense of smell, being able to smell strong odors from up to six miles away. They also are able to see in the dark. However, minotaurs suffer from colorblindness leaving them incapable of discerning any color except for very bright reds.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Minotaurs generally prefer names that are short and simple. They typically punctuate their names with a snort or a sharp exhalation of air through their nostrils. When someone omits this part of their name, they become annoyed.

Names:

Arxan, Braz, Dregxa, Elagore, Garnox, Horus, Kath, Luth, Manx, Parth, Raxus, Steth, Torag, Zark

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Minotaurs commonly speak, read, and write Common and Abyssal.

Common Myths and Legends

Over a thousand years ago, a tribe of humans washed ashore in Thylea and came to live in the southern hills of the Aresian peninsula. Here, they laid foundations for a city and called it Minos. But not one man or woman among them had the strength to till the hard, rocky soil. As fate would have it, they discovered a magnificent bull that could pull a plow through any terrain for days with- out resting. Using the bull’s great strength, they were able to produce bountiful crops with which to survive the first winter.
Over time, the people of the tribe began to venerate the bull, crowning him as the god of the harvest. When Sydon learned of this, he was furious. He threw curses down upon the settlers and transformed them into bulls, in mockery of their insolence. Each of them was harnessed  to a plow and forced to tread the same winding, geometric path, until that path became a deep, labyrinthian gorge. Eventually, the plows broke, and the people of Minos slowly began to stand upright again—but their faces had been forever changed by the curse.
The people of the tribe came to be called minotaurs— the bulls of Minos—and they have never fully shed their bull-like demeanors. Some of them merely have horns and a snout-like nose, while others have the entire upper torso of a bull. Some continued to dwell in the labyrinth, while others left to explore the far reaches of Thylea. Over the centuries, they have come to view their own cursed existence as the will of the Fates.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Minotaurs are widely shunned, because they are believed to be unthinking brutes who have been cursed by the gods. The only way that most minotaurs can find work in cities and villages is to swear oaths of service that effectively reduce them to the status of slaves. Many bear this humiliation with stoic grit, but others resort to banditry rather than submit to the unreasonable demands of cowardly superstition.

Lifespan

Minotaurs live to about 80 years old.

Average Height

Minotaurs range from 6 to 8 feet in height.

Average Weight

Minotaurs weigh between 200 and 400 pounds.