The minotaurs of Arata are strong in body, dedication, and courage. They are at home on the battlefield, willing to fight for their various causes. They combine a burning fury in battle with keen tactics that make them excellent commanders as well as valuable shock troops.
Horns and Hooves
Minotaurs are barrel-chested humanoids with heads resembling those of bulls, their fur is long and drapes from their bodies, but their muscles are revealed in certain areas. Their horns range in size from about 1 foot long to great, curling weapons easily three times that length. They often ornament their horns with metal rings or sheathe them in metal to protect them from damage.
Manes of shaggy fur extend down minotaurs’ necks and powerful backs, and males have long tufts of hair on their chins and cheeks. Their legs end in heavy, cloven hooves. Minotaurs are born with long, tufted tails, but young minotaurs of the many clans have their tails docked as part of a coming-of-age ceremony; they find that wearing heavy armor much more comfortable without a long tail in the way.
Strength and Zeal
Minotaurs are considered civilized but are dangerously close to bestial impulses. Their society is complex, with merit-based castes, which priests occupying the highest caste. These are found among the many barbarian and nomadic clans, but some minotaurs focus their tenacity, strength, and cunning to become some of the most skilled and ferocious mariners in the world. They range across the water in their ships, raiding and pillaging as they wish. Minotaurs sometimes engage in trade, but they much prefer to take what they want by force. After all, as the strongest of all folk, they deserve the treasures and goods that lesser creatures have gathered.
Minotaurs tend to vent their outrage through violence, but they aren’t generally quick to anger. They are passionate, loving their friends and partners fiercely, and they laugh loud and long at good jokes.
Family and Guild
Minotaur legends describe a small pantheon of heroes—perhaps they were once thought of as gods—who established the minotaurs’ place in the world. Every minotaur in Arata claims descent from one of these heroes. The noble Ordruun line is the most prominent, with thousands of members descended from an ancient hero who is said to have taught minotaurs the arts of war. Other important family lines include the Kharran line, the seafaring Drendaa line, and the notorious Tazgral line.
Since each family line has many members numbering into the hundreds, minotaurs don’t usually find it helpful to connect the name of the linage to their personal names and would never call oneself by their clans linage the way a human would use a surname.