Race Description: Minotaurs on the Shattered World
incl: the Cult of Minos, the Sleeping God.
By: mroos@neuro.biol.ETHZ.ch (Marc Roos)
Marc Roos
Institut fur Neurobiologie
ETH Honggerberg
8093 Zurich
Switzerland
Physical description and psychology: Shattered World
Minotaors are the classic Mythological beings, a tall, very
strong humanoid race with the head and neck of a bovine,
including horns.
Due to their size Minotaurs are generally not particularly
dextrous, and are not known for their great intelligence.
Although they tend to be fiece and stubborn, they are slow to
anger and of placid disposition. Minotaurs are a reserved, proud
and loyal race, and to have a Minotaur call one Friend is a rare
honour indeed. A peaceful race, Minotaurs are not noted for their
skill at warcraft, traditional weapons are the harpoon, trident
or club or, more recently, a warhammer may be used by a Hero.
Unless cornered and desperate, a Minotaur will not use its horns
in attack or defence, as they are sacred to the individual.
Bull Minotaurs usually range in height between 7-8' tall,
females slightly shorter.
Stats: For the record, minotaurs get the following bonuses
and limitations:
Str +2, Con +1, Int-1, Dex-1.
Infravision to 60'
Colourblindness.
Native language: minoan.
Due to mouth construction, Minotaurs bay 2X cost of
acquiring new languages. Nonweapon proficiencies: minotaurs get
Sailing, Swimming, Fishing and Religion:Minos.
History and Society:
Pre-Shattering the Minotaurs were a little known race
dwelling on a remote island chain in the subtropical ocean.
Traditionally they lived in small communities, subsisting on the
chief economic activities of fishing and shellfish/shoreline
gathering. This was supplemented with some little
hunter-gathering on the largest islands. Minotaurs are
accomplished sailors, navigators and fisherfolk.
Politically the society is a highly organised
clan-theocracy/matriarchy, all disputes settled ritually by the
matriarch, who is also a priestess of the religious cult. Warfare
between Minotaur settlements or individuals is unknown, in the
Minoan language, the word for Minotaur is the same as the word
for Friend.
Religion: Minotaurs worship a druidic God of the Sea called
Minos, who physically has the head and body of a minotaur and the
tail of a fish. Minos is principally God of the sea, from which
all life originates and in which all life ends. In ancient times,
(pre-Shattering) the Minotaurs believed the Sea to be curved in
on itself at the ends to meet again in the middle (effectively
the inside of a sphere). Thus the Sky is simply a view of the sea
from a long way away. Since there is very little Earth, Land and
Fire (in this Theology), subordinate aspects of Minos have
particular responsibility for these, rather than separate
deities. This effectively makes Minos the God of Everything,
although principally worshipped in his Water Aspect. It is also
considered that both land and fire exist at the will of water,
which is capable od destroying either. Wind is a function of the
sea (water) moving the air so Air becomes subordinate also.
Post-Shattering:
The Minoan Archipelago was saved on a small Fragment,
although in radically altered geography. Geographically the
fragment of Minos is a small but deep saltwater sea entirely
surrounded by a mountain chain. Outside the mountains begins the
Abbyss. Minotaurs believe that the miraculous preservation of
their society was accomplished by the God Minos, as an act of
love and desperation to save his people. That this act brought
the Balance too far to Good has been compensated by the god
placing Itself in hibernation. The God Minos is believed to be
sleeping at the bottom of the Sea of Minos. For this reason
Minos is often referred to as 'the Sleeping God'.
It is the racial Mission of all Minotaors to redress the
Balance of the Shattered World by attempting to open a direct
link with the Elemental Plane of Water, thereby restoring the
Sleeping God to full Power. This mission was revealed by the
great legendary hero/prophet Plaff shortly afer the great events
of the Shattering.
In service to this mission, which is known as the 'Great
Restoration', the Minotaurs have become a great travelling
people, who send missionaries (always cleric/druids) known as
Questing Ones to all places in the Crystal Sphere to gather
knowledge and attempt to fulfill the Great Restoration. Due to
the random nature of these travels, many do not return, but many
have and the Great Library of Minos is a mythological repository
of knowledge in many cultures.
Beacause of their propensity for travel, Minotaurs are at
least a legend on almost all fragments, and reasonably well known
on some of the closer and larger neighbors of Minos, although
always a rare sight. To the general populace, Minotaurs are known
(or rumoured) to be exceptionally strong but gentle creatures,
and the touch of the horn of a living Minotaur is said to have
magical healing properties. There are no known Minotaur
settlements outside of the Minos Fragment, although rarely a
Minotaur will settle in a remote Fragment if it feels called to
do so. There are no Missions or Temples to Minos on other
fragments, as the worship of the Sleeping God is exclusive to
Minotaurs.
(
geocities.com/timessquare)