Centaurs (Action)

Centaurs are horse/human chimeras, a horse body with the torso of a human in place of a horses head. They are larger and more powerful than humans, but not as heavy or powerful as horses, centaurs are descended from wild horses not yet bred for size.

Attributes and Schticks

Body: 6-11
Mind: 4-9
Reflexes: 4-9
Move: 7

Buck

Trigger Action (Defense or Combo)

You can make powerful kicks to the rear. When you are being encircled you can buck as a defense. When you take a Full Move to run away you can buck as a combo.

Make a Melee attack for Body +2 Blunt damage. If the target takes a Hit he is unbalanced and either loses its current action if this was a defense or loses a shot if this was a combo.

Beast of Burden

Inherent

You are able to carry and pull great weights for extended periods of time. Increase your Body by +3 when calculating Encumbrance.

Twin Body

Inherent

You have developed an independent ability to act between your upper and lower body, which allows you to move your Move meters before or after each Basic Action you take. This allows you to move-move-act, act-move-move, or move-act-move. You cannot use Twin Body if the basic Action is one that in itself allows additional movement or when attacking with a Static weapon.

Description

Appearance

Centaurs are half-horse, half-men, with the hindquarters of horses and the forequarters of men. They are unusually handsome in their equine parts, often smaller than horses and slimmer than ponies. Their human parts are often coarse and ungraceful, though some are as charming and beautiful as any human.

Role

Their tastes, appetites and desires are much more human than horse, though they still have a craving for running free under open skies. Centaurs are rarely city-dwellers, preferring to roam the wild plains of the countryside. They are omnivores much like humans and make excellent warriors and herdsmen, messengers and scouts. They can master the crafts needed of nomads quite readily, but detest crafts that require a permanent shop or heavy equipment.

Politics

Centaurs live on plains and in woods, hills, and marshes. They avoid swamp, mountain, or dense forests where their speed would be less telling or rocky ground that can hurt their hooves. They are territorial but often nomadic, returning to periodically claim their lands and pastures. This leads to conflict with others who have occupied the seemingly empty land.

Integration

Most lands has seen few centaurs, and these are still curiosities and find employment quite readily as guardsmen, couriers or bodyguards, especially if they master the nuisances of civilization. Centaurs in civilized lands often accept to be shod in iron to protect their hooves on roads and hard ground.

Family

Though mated pairs of centaurs exists, often living outside the tribal structure, most centaurs have open relationships. Commonly a male becomes an alpha and the preferred mate for all females of a tribe, usually only for a short time as the position is both dangerous and demanding. The alpha position has little political clout except in war, it is more of an idol champion than a king. Centaur mares live in flocks or tribes, led by a council of the wisest and fastest females. Tribe is really only relevant for mares, who usually stay with the herd they were born into. Stallions often ride alone or form all-male warbands. Young stallions born of the same father, all of from the same age when their father was an alpha, form gangs or even warbands and conflicts can arise among different sibling groups. As they mature, stallions become more competitive as the seek to become an alpha, generally of a different flock than the one they were born in.