Legends of Belariath

Centaurs

The fighting spirit of humanity is toned down in the wealth and abundantly rich animal blood of the common centaur. Centaurs are half human/half horse by nature, and yet are a race all their own. They can be very tall, and often quite broad chested on both sexes. What they lack in the manners of progress and civilization, preferring to live in the wilds when given the choice, they make up for with determination and hardiness; centaurs often join causes for the good and the just. Centaurs generally roam in family groups similar to horse herds, founding nomadic tribes in the plains and lighter forests. There is little division between the sexes, and most centaurs have a good and honorable fighting spirit within, second only to their serene desire for peace. Oddly for a race so magical in design, centaurs do better in melee than anything. They have strong hearts and make for sturdy warriors and resourceful clerics. Their dedication to the natural world often turns their futures towards the guilds of rangers and druids, giving them a chance to heal the wounds of the earth around them.

Character Creation

Starter Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Druid, Shaman, Cleric, Healer, Artisan, Entertainer, Laymen

Advanced Classes: Hierophant, Warrior Mage, Priest/Priestess, Earth Mage, Fire Mage

Starting Stats:

	STR	INT	AGI	RES	STA	SPL	LFE
Basic Stats	5	3	2	1	6	4	6

Appearance

When most people think of equine centaurs, they picture hulking draft-horse type equine bodies and muscled, tanned human torsos. While this is true in many cases, there are as many 'breeds' of equine centaurs as there are breeds of horses or races of man. They range in sizes anywhere from five to nine feet tall, when measured from the top of the human head. The length of the equine body corresponds directly to the height, being just slightly shorter. Their coloring is varied, as is build. Some are bulky and cumbersome with feathered fetlocks, as a Bavarian draft horse or Clydesdale. (Remember those Budweiser commercials?) The majority of centaurs do tend to be heavily built. With such a beautiful strong race there must not be any confusion with where the sexual genitals are placed. Not in front as a humans might be, but at the back end where such strength is never wasted. Bear in mind that they do not have a horses genitalia but a humans.

Society

There are three distinct societal structures in the Centaur race. Each has their own set of customs, rituals, and religion. One thing all Centaurs hold in common is an un-abiding passion and intensity of emotion. However, Centaurs are a private people, keeping these emotions held close to their heart and sharing them only with their dearest of friends. They are fiercely loyal and to gain the friendship and loyalty of a centaur is a true gift. This is not to say that Centaurs are good and decent. Every race has its share of bad seeds. Centaurs tend to be a proud race and consider themselves to be both noble and respectable. Most Centaurs would take offense to being ridiculed in anyway or referred to as a 'horse'. Despite their intolerance for this term, they still use 'filly' (female foal), 'colt' (male foal) and 'foal' to describe the young among them as well as 'mare' and 'stallion'. Both male and female Centaurs may become warriors; Centaurs treat the sexes equally in all regards save for leadership roles in Nomadic Centaur Herds.

Nomadic

The nomadic tribes are just as strong as their desert brethren but there is a few differences in their strengths. They tend to focus on the mind instead of the body, and as a result, they are the most powerful with magics of the three tribes. They have roamed the forests, the plains wherever the game is, for centuries, and as a result, they are good hunters just not as good as their desert brethren.

They prefer to use their magical skills for fighting, and as such, they usually avoid head-on confrontations, preferring to humiliate and destroy their foes from afar...without getting their hands all too dirty. They are balanced, for the most part their loyalty staying with the so-called 'greater good' whatever that means for the centaur at the time. It is a subjective term among the centaur nation, and in-fighting among various branches of the tribe are not uncommon.

Those who feel they have accomplished all they can in the centaur tribes will find themselves wandering sometimes, alone, and they seek a further form of arcane knowledge. It is there they find the cities of the world, seeking to further their knowledge, so that they can become more powerful, and perhaps even take command of their home tribe, should they return. Most, however, never feel they have enough power to do it and tend to stay and learn more and more.

Leadership in the nomadic tribes are as static as their homes are...they change based on who has the power to take it, and it can be either male or female a rarity among the centaur tribes. Whoever can seize power can have it but there is always someone who has the power to take it from them, biding their time.

Domestic

These centaurs are usually the smallest of the three tribes and yet they have found other ways to live and survive. The domesticated centaurs prefer the life of the larger towns rather then foraging into the deeper parts of the world, away from everyone and everything. It is usually those that go on spirit quests that leave the comforts of urban life. They are very good, however, about using their cunning and guile in the world of the humans, to which they have adapted quite well.

There is no real structure in these centaur tribes, save for a centralized leader of each tribe, his harem of women or slaves and then his lieutenant. The rest is nebulous, with infighting that tends to establish other little hierarchies, and an uneasy truce most of the time. Some humans will either back one or the other, when there is fighting, to further their own interests but they do it at their own risk because, should they bet upon the loser, the winner will turn his steady gaze upon them and he will not forget disloyalty so easy.

They integrate into life in the larger towns very easily, adapting and honing to the other races around them. Yet these domestic centaurs prefer to give birth to their young outside the towns and away from civilizations ever watchful eye. The young ones, along with their parents, spend a few years within the wilds, learning the centaur ways before they are introduced into the town proper. Most towns that have a centaur population on or near the town itself will have an inn or stable set aside for centaurs, as the domestic tribes are usually very good tippers and are very good about paying for their services.

They have a strict sense of honor which no one but one of their own tribes will fully ever understand. They do not steal from their own kin, but will take from humans by force without delay or hesitation. They will be loathe to kill a member of the centaur nation, but any one who crosses them will usually find them dead, or screaming at their hooves. Their usual mastery of the shaman arts gives then an edge most weren't prepared for. Suffice to say, cross a domestic centaur at your own risk.

Desert

Those of the desert tribe are strong, powerful, both of arm and leg. They are the strongest of the three tribes generally, having forced an existence in the harsh environment of the desert for centuries. Just as strong as their arm is their will, nearly indomitable and stubborn. Some have claimed they were not bred with horses but with donkeys, as stubborn as they are and yet this is but tales told over campfires and myth long lost. Certainly such a fine breed came from Gaea herself.

They are fierce in battle, and fierce in bed, preferring to be the dominant one in all aspects. However, should you find the ability to break one of the desert tribes, you have indeed accomplished a great feat. They are loyal to the end, seeing personal honor above all, and if they say they will do something, they will do it, or die trying. That being said there is the occasional cheat and liar among them, one who rebels against the ways of their forefathers and when they are ferreted out, they are usually pushed from the tribe quickly, so as to keep them whole.

It is usually these so-called trouble makers that find their ways to the cities, alone, lost in the world, and usually these trouble makers learn the hard way that life outside the tribe isn't everything they thought. However, there is the occasional tribesman who roams on a quest for strength and finds him in the cities and decides to not leave. It has been known to happen and when and if they return to the tribe it is not uncommon to have them forced back out once more.

Each of the desert tribes has a distinct leader, who holds alpha male breeding status among his tribe, while the others must seek permission from the females when they come into season. Should one of these 'lower' males violate this unwritten code, the punishment is usually castration, so they will not feel this urge so easily again. Desert justice is harsh, swift, and swept away once the punishment has been metered out.

Breeding

Female Centaurs go into heat every three months. Heat lasts a span of 4-10 days, depending on the particular Centaur. Centaurs are only fertile during heat and their sexual drive is nearly insatiable during this time. Centaurs usually produce one offspring at a time, with the occasional twins, and will wait at least 5 years before becoming pregnant again. If impregnated by another race, a female centaur will always breed true, their offspring being Centaur (excluding rare cases where magic is involved). Their foal may have some visual characteristics of their father's race, but will for all intents and purposes be a centaur. Centaur males are incapable of impregnating other races.

OOC Note: Information about breeding habits is included only for background. Unless specifically allowed, none of this information can be used in active role play.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The Advantages and Disadvantages of this race are meant specifically for Role Play affect only and have no combat orientated stats. If you wish to use such Advantages and or Disadvantages into your combat, please remember they have no stat affects, will add nothing to your rolls of combat dice. Likewise tolerance to poison has no effect on dice rolls.

Advantages:

Stamina. The heart of the Centaur is large and his need to gallop away the energy bottled up in such amazing creatures is seen in the beauty of their four pounding legs. Never do they seem to tire, outrunning steed and rider and able to go great distances before finally needing to catch their breath.

Alcohol has little affect on one so large, indeed it would take three times what a human might drink to finally put a Centaur under his cups, so to speak. At the same time, poisons act differently within these beautiful creatures, only affecting them half as much as it would a normal bipedal human like race.

Disadvantages:

While obviously such a creature is well versed in stamina and daily activities with far more energy to succeed most in jobs, they also have a hard time seeing a sneak attack from the rear. Their bodies are large and yet the human torso while it can twist just as any other bipedal creature, tends to need to turn its lower half about first to be able to fire at an opponent behind it, thus making it slightly slower.

Centaurs are a rather large and as such, prefer the freedom to kick up their hooves to the confined spaces of buildings. It brings about one to many blind spots as that big back horse body simply cannot maneuver as quickly as some of the two legged sort. Nervous, ready to run, their ears almost thrumming at every foot step that comes their way, they would rather bolt then have another walk up behind them and this in turn can make any fighting within a closed home to shop or Inn, very hard on the Centaur race as a whole.

Combat Modifiers

Disabilities and Their Mechanics

Type:	Attack				Defense				Init
	CloPhy	RanPhy	CloMag	RanMag	CloPhy	RanPhy	CloMag	RanMag
Sight	-30%	-100%	-30%	-100%	-30%	-30%	-30%	-30%	-50%
Hearing	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	-25%	-25%	-25%	-25%	-25%
Speech	N/A	N/A	-100%	-100%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hands/Arms***	-25%	-25%	-50%	-50%	-25%	-25%	-25%	-25%	-20%
Legs/Feet***	-25%	-10%	-25%	-N/A	-25%	-20%	-25%	-25%	-25%
* Attack/Defense Enchantments are not effected, penalties apply to base stats. * Those temporarily blinded in one eye will receive half penalties for blindness to all attacks. ** All penalties are cumulative. *** Penalties are cumulative per limb. * Those temporarily blinded in one eye will receive half penalties for blindness to all attacks.