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In [[Dragonlance]], it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants. They're also famous for being even more Greco-Roman inspired than minotaurs usually are, having a highly disciplined, warlike culture based on a strong army and martial honor, gladiatorial games being super-important (even how they select their emperors!), and being expert sailors. So much so that 5e made minotaurs playable by using the Krynn variant as inspiration and releasing it in the Waterborne Adventures web-enhancement [[http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_Waterborne_v3.pdf| here]]
In [[Dragonlance]], it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants. They're also famous for being even more Greco-Roman inspired than minotaurs usually are, having a highly disciplined, warlike culture based on a strong army and martial honor, gladiatorial games being super-important (even how they select their emperors!), and being expert sailors. So much so that 5e made minotaurs playable by using the Krynn variant as inspiration and releasing it in the Waterborne Adventures web-enhancement [[http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_Waterborne_v3.pdf| here]]


[[Warcraft]] was one of the first settings to give good minotaurs a look, in the form of the tauren, which are basically minotaurs done by way of the "noble savage Native American" stereotype. They eventually gave them an arctic equivalent as well.
[[Warcraft]] was one of the first settings to give good minotaurs a look, in the form of the tauren, which are basically minotaurs done by way of the "noble savage Native American" stereotype. They eventually gave them an arctic EVIL equivalent as well.


In [[White Wolf]]'s [[Scion]] setting, minotaurs are a race of Demigod-tier mooks spawned when the aforementioned White Bull of Crete emerged from the sea, raped Pasiphae, and then began rampaging all over Crete raping every woman it encountered until Hercules came along and caught the fucking thing - King Minos couldn't stop it because it would have pissed off Poseidon, who sent it to do this pretty much for shits and giggles. All-male themselves, minotaurs have to keep raping human women to keep their numbers up.
In [[White Wolf]]'s [[Scion]] setting, minotaurs are a race of Demigod-tier mooks spawned when the aforementioned White Bull of Crete emerged from the sea, raped Pasiphae, and then began rampaging all over Crete raping every woman it encountered until Hercules came along and caught the fucking thing - King Minos couldn't stop it because it would have pissed off Poseidon, who sent it to do this pretty much for shits and giggles. All-male themselves, minotaurs have to keep raping human women to keep their numbers up.

Revision as of 08:14, 4 August 2015

A minotaur is a half-man, half-bull. Unfortunately for the woman giving birth to the thing, the head is taurine, giving the monster huge horns calves are not born with horns, everything should be fine. Though at least one artist drew the minotaur as a messed up centaur, with a human head on a hulking bull.

This creature originates in Greek mythology, which is pretty fucked up. The first minotaur was born to Pasiphae, the wife of a king of Crete named Minos. Minos was supposed to sacrifice a white bull to the god Poseidon, but he refused because he took a liking to the majestic creature. As punishment Poseidon made his wife take a greater, FATAL-level, liking to the bull. After the minotaur was born, it was kept in a labyrinth so that ordinary people wouldn't have to look at it. This might seem like a pretty raw deal for the minotaur, but on the other hand the Cretans sacrificed virgins to it every year.

As a result of this story, minotaurs are associated with labyrinths and mazes of all kinds. For example, in 4e they enjoy puzzles and feel at home in twisting, turning passages. Whenever minotaurs build towns or cities, the roads are always arranged in the most confusing way possible. To the locals, this makes perfect sense. To adventurers, it's a fucking pain. To GMs, it's an easy way to take up an hour or two of the party's time after they breeze through your perfectly designed challenge in 5 minutes and you have nothing left this session.

4e was also the first edition to make minotaurs a playable race, rather than monsters. In Points of Light, Minotaurs were originally ruled over by Baphomet, the Horned King. After the Dawn War ended, he was cast into the Abyss and Erathis, the goddess of civilisation, called dibs on the minotaurs. This went well for a short while, until cultists of Baphomet corrupted the city, and Melora had to kill them with fire. Individual minotaurs struggle with the insane beasts that rages in the maze within their heads. If they succumb to this madness, they often fall into thralldom to Baphomet. If they were to overcome this insanity, or keep it at bay their entire lives, minotaurs can be civilised creatures, though often preferring to live on the edge of society.

In Dragonlance, it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants. They're also famous for being even more Greco-Roman inspired than minotaurs usually are, having a highly disciplined, warlike culture based on a strong army and martial honor, gladiatorial games being super-important (even how they select their emperors!), and being expert sailors. So much so that 5e made minotaurs playable by using the Krynn variant as inspiration and releasing it in the Waterborne Adventures web-enhancement [here]

Warcraft was one of the first settings to give good minotaurs a look, in the form of the tauren, which are basically minotaurs done by way of the "noble savage Native American" stereotype. They eventually gave them an arctic EVIL equivalent as well.

In White Wolf's Scion setting, minotaurs are a race of Demigod-tier mooks spawned when the aforementioned White Bull of Crete emerged from the sea, raped Pasiphae, and then began rampaging all over Crete raping every woman it encountered until Hercules came along and caught the fucking thing - King Minos couldn't stop it because it would have pissed off Poseidon, who sent it to do this pretty much for shits and giggles. All-male themselves, minotaurs have to keep raping human women to keep their numbers up.

Alonside centaurs, minotaurs share the dubious honor of being a race that is alternatively embraced and shunned by fans of both monstergirls and furry - though their native form leans much closer to the furry side, monstergirlified minotaurs who are basically women with huge tits and sometimes 10% or so furry (1 or more of ears, horns, tail, hooves) are pretty common. Probably because of the connotation between "cow monstergirl" and "fucking huge tits".

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Races
Player's Handbook 1 DragonbornDwarfEladrinElfHalf-ElfHalflingHumanTiefling
Player's Handbook 2 DevaGnomeGoliathHalf-OrcShifter
Player's Handbook 3 GithzeraiMinotaurShardmindWilden
Monster Manual 1: BugbearDoppelgangerGithyankiGoblinHobgoblinKoboldOrc
Monster Manual 2 BullywugDuergarKenku
Dragon Magazine GnollShadar-kai
Heroes of Shadow RevenantShadeVryloka
Heroes of the Feywild HamadryadPixieSatyr
Eberron's Player's Guide ChangelingKalashtarWarforged
The Manual of the Planes Bladeling
Dark Sun Campaign Setting MulThri-kreen
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide DrowGenasi
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Races
Player's Handbook DragonbornDrowDwarfElfGnomeHalf-ElfHalf-OrcHalflingHumanTiefling
Dungeon Master's Guide AasimarEladrin
Elemental Evil Player's Guide AarakocraGenasiGoliathSvirfneblin
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide DuergarGhostwise HalflingSvirfneblinTiefling Variants
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Baatific TieflingsDuergarEladrinGithyankiGithzeraiSea ElfShadar-kaiSvirfneblin
Volo's Guide to Monsters AasimarBugbearFirbolgGoblinGoliathHobgoblinKenkuKoboldLizardfolkOrcTabaxiTritonYuan-Ti Pureblood
Eberron: Rising from the Last War BugbearChangelingGoblinHobgoblinShifterWarforged
Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica CentaurElfGoblinHumanLoxodonMinotaurSimic HybridVedalken
Mythic Odysseys of Theros HumanCentaurLeoninMinotaurSatyrTriton
Plane Shift: Amonkhet AvenKhenraMinotaurNaga
Plane Shift: Innistrad Human
Plane Shift: Ixalan GoblinHumanMerfolkOrcSirenVampire
Plane Shift: Kaladesh AetherbornDwarfElfHumanVedalken
Plane Shift: Zendikar ElfGoblinHumanKorMerfolkVampire
One Grung Above Grung
Astral Adventurer's Guide Astral ElfAutognomeGiffHadozeePlasmoidThri-kreen
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Kender
Unearthed Arcana GlitchlingMinotaurRevenant