Minotaurs and Maenads

Minotaurs and maenads are different sexes of the same race, but so dissimilar as to have different attributes and race schticks.

Description

This is an unusual people, in that they are the result of a curse. They are a race of half-men, the males being powerful, furred men with the hooves, heads and horns of bulls, the females having human upper bodies and the lover bodies of goats. Both sexes are somewhat broader and more powerful than humans. The males are violent and brutish, go naked, and build great ships they row with huge oars to war and plunder. The females are more civilized, and often use voluminous tubular skirts to hide their animal parts. Both can subsist on a diet of leaves, twigs and reeds, spending much of their time in the wild grazing. They prefer cooked food or even raw flesh, however, and some learn to like the taste of human flesh.

Minotaurs as a group are not integrated in Zakharan society at all, a few having been brought there as slaves or mercenaries. Because of their lustful, animalistic natures, they can be good-natured but not really civilized. Most professions are beyond their keen. They can survive as porters or traders, but this is rare. As they can graze, they don't really have to work for sustenance. Males make great shock troops and both males and females are powerful lovers, almost like beasts.

The minotaurs were once men, only larger, stronger and wiser. They ruled a mighty trade-empire from their island of Mino in the Great Sea. But they offended the genies, gods, fate or the early Alphatians (depending on who tells the story), and were cursed with animalistic desires that led to their present debased state.