Minotaurs

“The next person who calls me a cow will die much slower than that man.” – Marthoon the Black

Overview

Minotaur are organized into “kindred”, large groupings that form along ideological identities. Although a kindred group may run in family lines, there is no guarantee that it will do so, and the major minotaur nations on Ariel consist of multiple kindred groups working in concert. There are nine major Minotaur kindred groups on the continent, along with numerous minor kindred septs. Though none of the major kindred groups claim territory with the established borders of separate nations, some minor kindred septs have been known to live on such lands as migratory bands and lone minotaurs can often be found throughout their wilderness and settlements.

Racial Bonuses

• Begin with 10 Skill Points (SP)
• Begin with 8 Life Points (LP)
• Begin with 2 Resurrections
• Begin with the Physical Prowess skill
• May purchase LP to a maximum of 20 LP
• May purchase the Exceptional Strength skill twice
• May purchase their first Exceptional Strength skill for half cost
• Pay 1 less Skill Point for the Labourer skill (to minimum of 1 SP)
• Must pay an additional 2 Skill Points for all other Trade Skills
• Must pay double Skill Points for the Magical Energy skill
• Must pay double Skill Points for the Spiritual Energy skill

Mandatory Costuming

• Pair of bovine horns (if lost in-game, stubs must be represented)
• Fur (makeup or prosthetics should cover exposed skin)
• Solid, singularly black or brown make-up is not permitted

Racial Aging

Youth	Elderly	Aging	Max. Age
16 years	30 years	2 years	70 years

Youth: This is the minimum starting age for a given race. This is also the minimum age that can be achieved through rejuvenating spells.

Elderly: This is the age when the effects of time begin to take their toll and benchmarks aging negatives for a character, eventually affecting their Life Points.

Aging: Upon reaching the age indicated in the “Elderly” column, a character’s maximum LP decreases 1 Life Point for every increment of years indicated in the “Aging” column. For example, if the racial maximum LP for a goblin is 8 LP, a 42-year-old goblin character would have a maximum Life Points of 6. (A 42-year-old Goblin is 12 years over “Elderly” and, marking two increments of aging at 5 years each, reducing that characters’ Life Points by 2.)

Maximum Age: Upon reaching the age indicated in “Max. Age” the character is deceased and may not resurrect.

Nations and Lands

• Skrulmiter is a minotaur territory substantially aligned to the kindred of Bloodhunt, Soulfire, Greenchild, and Goldenwheel, although other kindred groups are active within. Spanning a substantial area of southeastern Ariel, Skrulmiter’s enviable mineral deposits and talented miners have earned the territory considerable wealth – as well as international forgiveness for the various times in the past when minotaur raiders from the territory have violated the Continental Trade Agreement. Recently, a contingent of Trueblood minotaur supremacists nearly co-opted the leadership of Skrulmiter, and while they were eventually repelled, nearby lands are watching the territory with mild trepidation.
  
• Yat’turth (lit. ‘The Land of Winter’) is a minotaur territory in the northwesternmost parts of Ariel. Although the lands of the Yat’turth territory are vast, they are sparsely populated, with substantial parts of the territory properly on the tundra, reducing the number of minotaur settlements that can be sustained. Substantially aligned to the kindred of Earthguard, Steelfist, Soulfire, and Scrollbearer, the Yat’turth minotaurs will occasionally make hostile overtures to nearby lands, both to expand their resources or – somewhat cynically – to reduce the number of aggressive minotaurs calling upon the limited supply.

History

There are writings describing beings much like minotaurs dating back to the Golden Age of Magic. In minotaur culture, some of the kindred speak of a ‘First Minotaur’, known as Asterius, who was created by the gods in answer to the prayer of a tyrant, and kept within a great underground dungeon. The tyrant feared the loss of his own power, and gave a great sacrifice to the gods, asking for a beast to bring low ‘those who wrongfully seized power’.

Minotaur tales state that rather than slaying those thrown into the dungeon, Asterius learned from those that would teach, made allies, and kept alive those that were put into their keeping. When they had learned enough, and grown mightier than even they had been created, Asterius emerged, leading a contingent of those who had proven threatening to the tyrant, and the empire fell – fulfilling the prophecy in a way that surely made Elieff laugh, or at least Anajaream smile.

Asterius was parent to twelve offspring, each of which pursued differing fields and interests. Several of the existing major kindred groups trace their lineage back to the children of Asterius – and of those that came after, they built upon the knowledge and examples set by those that came before. The Trueblood kindred claim that only their line can trace an unbroken path to the blood of Asterius, and that they are ennobled by this line of descent. How true this is, speculation fails to answer.

In more modern times, minotaurs from multiple continents and across history. In the Lakes Region, it is said that the stone that built the walls of Hoggsport was quarried by minotaur miners… but that minotaur raiders and mercenaries have joined forces with some of the most aggressive attacks on other nations within the Continental Trade Agreement.

Factions

Many minotaurs divide themselves by ideologically-based factions known as kindred. While these kindred groups will often run in families (it’s easy, after all, to pick up values and beliefs from the community that raises you), the phrase “kindred in spirit, rather than blood” helps to describe the relation between minotaurs sharing a kindred group. There are nine major kindred groups which are represented across the continent and dozens or hundreds of smaller kindred septs, some of which are associated with the larger groups, and many of which have their own values or philosophies.

Further still, some minotaurs do not associate themselves with any kindred group at all. Known as the ‘Clanless’, these may be minotaurs who did not grow up in an environment where kindred groups played a significant role (such as minotaurs who came up in societies predominantly consisting of other species), or they may have once been a part of a kindred group with whose philosophy they came to not agree. Finally, some Clanless are clanless by choice – preferring to strike out their own path. It is from such clanless that minor septs come into being, as these free spirits often draw others to their way of life and strong ideals.

Bloodhunt:
“Through the Hunt, we find ourselves.”
Mercenaries and bounty hunters, the Bloodhunt minotaurs believe that the strength of Minotaurs as a species lies in the steel that they carry, and the blood that they shed. The Bloodhunters t rain hard and expect to be well paid for their hunts. It is well known that one does not hesitate to pay a Bloodhunter the agreed upon amount when a job is completed; such a breaking of one’s word is known to make you a target for the next clan’s Great Hunt. For a Bloodhunter, the hunt is the purpose of their life, and the payment is a means by which they can sustain themselves to the next hunt.
Iconography: A red pawprint.

Earthguard:
“Who destroys the earth’s splendour destroys themself.”
Rumoured to have been started by a wayward group of the Greenchild kindred, the Earthguard are a clan dedicated to defending the wild places of the world, those untouched by the greed and exploitation of society. The Earthguard consider these places sanctuaries of the Earth Mother, and think of themselves as her sworn guardians. Keeping within these wild places, the Earthguard are only known to venture out for two reasons: to send scouts throughout the world to seek more such sanctuaries, and to bring their wrath upon those that would destroy them. When a nobleman in Michian set fire to a forest to flush out rebels from the woods, it is said that he survived to defeat his foes – only to be crushed by the ferocity of the Earthguard in the week that followed.
Iconography: A shield with a leaf at the centre.

Goldenwheel:
“In value, worth.”
By far the wealthiest of all minotaurs, the Goldenwheel kindred are merchants and traders, taught from birth the rites and customs of all civilized lands within the catchment area of the local merchants. Intimately familiar with both legitimate and shadier mercantile connections, parts of the Goldenwheel minotaur kindred are unabashed slavers, although the Kindred as a whole denies any knowledge of such activities when operating in lands such as Harodom where the practice is frowned upon. Other kindred often view the Goldenwheel approach to matters as a necessary evil – after all, these effective merchants are the primary source for goods that other minotaur groups have difficulty internally sourcing. Even outside of minotaur circles, the Goldenwheel are known for driving a hard bargain, and also as a group that you really don’t want to cheat.
Iconography: A golden wheel.

Greenchild:
“Born of the earth, borne by the earth, returned to the earth.”
Devout followers of Atha, the Greenchildren are a peaceful kindred – by and large. Capable farmers, they use their exceptional physical prowess and strength to work enormous farms and cultivations, tending some of the most fertile fields in the world. For all of their recorded history, the Greenchildren have been all but pacifists, leading to their exploitation by conquerors and slavers seeking to take their lands and make them their own. No less capable as warriors than any other minotaur, Greenchildren have been known to heal those that they defeat in battle, taking from them weapons and armour, and sending them on their way. This said, the Greenchildren have also been known to show up without announcement and aid farmers in their vicinity who have undergone hardship or whose farmers are threatened or challenged by natural disasters.
Iconography: A green oak leaf with a red spot in the middle.

Scrollbearer:
“Liberty and strength through enlightenment.”
Once the smallest of the major minotaur kindred groups, Scrollbearer has only recently been displaced by one of their own offshoot septs, the Ringforger kindred. Scrollbearers are a clan that believe that the power of the mind is greater than the power of one’s body. Almost all Scrollbearers are scholars, priests, or mages, and although their numbers are few, they are well respected among most of the other kindreds for their wisdom and power – save perhaps for those that think that their focus on scholarly pursuits turn them from the paths of physical strength, and consequently disdain them.
Iconography: A scroll and key.

Ringforger:
“We craft the wings that will give us flight.”
The most recent kindred to be acknowledged by the other major kindred groups as a force to be reckoned with, Ringforger minotaurs refuse to shy away from the hard work that goes into learning the arts and artifice that are typically more difficult for their fellow minotaurs. Although only recognized as a major kindred group in 2021, Ringforger weapons, armour and mixtures have appeared on the battlefields in a support role for well over a century. The Ringforgers believe in craft for its own sake, but many have formed relationships with merchants from Goldenwheel to sell the acme of their art – helping both groups make substantial fortunes.
Iconography: A ring over a crossed hammer and awl.

Soulfire:
“The fire that burns within will drive you or burn you up – the difference is you.”
Rumoured to have been started by a minotaur priest of Callis centuries ago, the kindred group Soulfire is small but well renowned, even outside of minotaur-controlled lands. Trained to be protectors and guardians from a very young age, they are most often seen guarding particularly wealthy merchants, or as personal bodyguards. The members of clan Soulfire are bound by honour nurtured from their cradle, and most would rather fight to the death than abandon their ward. Soulfire minotaurs will not throw away their lives needlessly however, as it would prevent them from protecting their ward – or avenging them.
Iconography: A flaming shield.

Steelfist:
“Death before dishonour.”
One of the oldest surviving of the minotaur kindred groups, Steelfist is respected as a group of capable warriors by leaders both within the minotaur kindreds as well as by military leaders external to minotaur society. Followers of Hemulis all, bound by strict codes of honour, it is said that Hemulis himself formed this kindred group to honour the strength and valour that the minotaurs had shown. Steelfist is said to have the power to sway the balance of a war with their military precision and deadly skill.
Iconography: A gauntlet closed into a fist.

Trueblood:
“Ennobled by heritage.”
Known among all other species – and, indeed, among many other minotaurs – as troublemakers and minotaur supremacists, the Trueblood believe that minotaurs, with such great strength, should never bend the knee to any other species. Claiming a direct descent from Asterius the First Minotaur, it is at least implied that the Trueblood also think themselves the superior of other minotaurs as well. Instigators of strife between minotaurs and their neighbours, the Trueblood will use shows of strength, persuasion, and threats of violence to stir up discord in a constant attempt to prove minotaur superiority – and their own.
Iconography: A drop of blood over dark horns.

These factions are the largest among the minotaur kindred groupings, and hold the most political sway, but even within these groups, there are divisions as the stereotypically stubborn minotaurs seek to find the best way for their people to organize themselves.

Authored by: Andrew Dunlop
Fantasy Alive Lore Team 2026
Copyright © Endless Adventures Ontario