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Some friends of mine from the kink world recently became intrigued with the idea of playing my sensual psychedelic mythopoeia D&D setting, and became really intrigued by the region of Presterjho. I've split my setting, which has about 7 continents, into several regions, each of which contains exactly 20 realms (though many realms are further subdivided, just like in real life "Spain" meant something, but there were actually like half a dozen independent kingdoms there). I wanted to do that so someone stuck for an idea, with analysis paralysis, or whose brain/neurology makes making decisions difficult, could just roll a d20 and have somewhere to start.
Anyway, Presterjho is the region where I wanted to mix in a lot of In Nomine (two RPGs that go well together!) and other bits of angelology, demonology, etc. To be sure, our extraplanar morality exemplars show up everywhere, but they're especially focused in Presterjho. The only problem being that I'dn't really gotten much further than that in fleshing out Presterjho! >.< So I hastily started doing a bunch of design work before our first session (which was the day before yesterday). Here's the first bit that came to me; there's much more to follow, I promise!
Highly aggressive and hostile to outsiders to the point of being called "the Black Death" or "widowmakers" by the other races of Esgode, the buffalo minotaurs of Tilruur focus their veneration first on Li'akhim (the faras* archangel of the War) and less so on the other archangels of the War Faction, including Ardynel (kruv** archangel of Sanctuary), Diwad (the klam*** archangel of Stone), and Svildei (the klam archangel of Scars). The missing Leiru (the klam archangel of Purity) and Surual (the klam archangel of the Sword) are given this reverence only begrudgingly, as Li'akhim was General of the Hosts of Heaven before he was deemed guilty of the sin of pride and replaced with Leiru, whose disappearance passed the title on to Surual. Among their kind it is often said, “When Li'akhim bellows, none survive—not even the warrior whose horns he rides.” The other archangels receive some light reverence in Tilruur, as befits their important, but lesser, function. Tilruuri neyú ("people of Tilruur") recognize the value of the Peace Faction, but leave it to the softer, simpler peoples to venerate them.
Tilruuryál warriors and berserkers are famed for their speed and prowess in battle, as well as their distinctive crystal swords; they are also the only minotaurs known to practice wizardry, particularly the magics of chronurgy and illusion. The Tilruuri neyú are also known for their vanity; they consider other minotaurs to be ugly savages. That the Hemeya Sea is no longer the Hemeya Mountains which housed their ancestors in Stihaar and Khamirolstiin is proof enough of this.
There is no word for "surprised" in their tongue. After the Heavenly Treasure Chest came to the mountainous aarakocra nation of T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír (pronounced /t̪jiːː˦lgɛ̤˦˩ʃnaː˧n̪o̤ː˨θi˦ɾ/, the city-state of Ay'lonit sent some of its lord's offspring to reclaim it. Ancient alliances brought the Tilruur neyú to its defense. All thought the minotaurs' stand hopeless, for orange-scaled wings kept the dragons far from their blades while allowing them to rain explosions upon Tilruur. Ornate pipes rose to minotaur lips, and when the Tilruuri neyú began to play, the dragons could not help but fall from the sky to squash the obnoxious noise. This war-music tradition continues to this day.
The Origins of Tilruur
In the ancient times, far away from the modern nation of Tilruur in the sunken empire of Stihaar, the minotaur princess Mwinyalem is said to have aspired to the throne. The legends tell us that she was rebuffed. She claimed, however, that she had received the sovereignty from the gods, and the arguments she made from sacred texts were as strong as those her opponents made from the same texts. Mwinyalem, feeling a need for further proof, embarked on a long and complicated practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, submitting herself to the skeptical oversight of her opponents' mothers. They it was who confirmed that the gods themselves had given Mwinyalem a response at the culmination of all her efforts, that the empire would be given unto her if she sacrificed as a burnt offering upon the altar-on-the-peak of Mount Ayirom whatever came out of the sea when she called. As a pilgrim, Mwinyalem travelled to the shore and bellowed forth a summoning call. It was her own son Gheli who left the water for the sand in reply.
Gheli was Mwinyalem's second son, but the first by her husband. She was of quite advanced age already when she bore her elder son, Shama ~ 85 years old ~ and her husband Zharairekst was 12 years her senior. Long had they thought themselves too old to have children, and long had they mourned the calves they had no chance to suckle. Then Zharairekst had the idea to hire a foreign priest, skilled in the prayers and rites appropriate to this matter. Zeni was his name, a haw-headed aven from Taweret, and he prayed, and he sacrificed, and he laid with Mwinyalem, and Shama was born as a result, to much joy and not a little jealousy on Zharairekst's part. Sixteen years later was the miraculous birth of Gheli, and it was indeed this unforeseen and impossible blessing that led Mwinyalem to desire the throne.
It was not many years later that Zharairekst saw Shama mocking the younger Gheli, at a time when it seemed Mwinyalem's ambitions might succeed. Upset at the idea that Gheli might have to share his imperial inheritance with his half-brother, he implored Mwinyalem to banish both Shama and Zeni, intimating that they were purrah (unclean) by not being fully minotaur. Sadly, Mwinyalem bowed to her husband's desires, and cast them out into the wilderness wherein Shama became a legendary slinger, greater than any in Stihaar, and founded his own nation. But that nation was not Tilruur.
Famed throughout the empire for his strength and his skill and the brutal trickery of his ways, Gheli was nonetheless dutiful and went without question on the journey with his mother to Mount Ayirom. He helped her cut the wood and prepare the fire, and, though he was mightily surprised and wary, willingly let himself be bound upon the altar. Or at least, this is the story Mwinyalem told. A story which concluded with an angel from the Heavens appearing before her to tell her it was a test. She did make a sacrifice upon that altar-on-the-peak, but it was of a large wolf she said this angel revealed.
This story did not satisfy her political opponents who rose in a riot and seized Gheli, tearing and chopping him until every piece of him was small enough to be flattened by their hooves. Mwinyalem finally fled, travelling south to Esgode, where she raised an army. Stihaar's crags rang with the army after many years, and Mwinyalem claimed her revenge. But victory tasted bitter and soour upon her tongue, like dwarfin dinner, and so she asked only for a yearly tribute of seven minotaur daughters and seven minotaur sons, all yet to pass through the rotes of adulthood. This the mothers of Stihaar did, often coercing these tributes from the calves of Khamirolstiin.
And from these tributes and an ambitious mother's realization that there are things of greater value than power, Tilruur grew.
The Land and Governance of Tilruur
The land of Tilruur is littered with illusions and temporal strangenesses that make it navigate; this is its passive defense, more impregnable than walls. Its people organize themselves as a confederation of herds, held together by their shared relations to a core herd of related women and their children who make decisions for the nation as a whole by voting among themselves to come to a communal decision. Around that core of highly sexually desired women revolve three types of herds: ones composed of subordinate males, herds that mix higher-ranking men and lower-ranking women, and elder herds composed entirely of old and disabled minotaurs. A fourth type of herd develops in the dry season, as unmarried men form bachelor herds that engage in sport and raiding. Buffalo minotaur calves remain with their mother longer than most mortal races, though mothers tend to show a marked preference for their youngest child.
The Bodies and Cuisine of the Tilruuri Neyú
The most characteristic feature of the buffalo minotaur are their horns: their bases fuse, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss". From this boss, the horns diverge downwards before smoothly curving upwards and outwards. Some minotaur's horns also curve inwards and/or backwards. Upon further examination, however, they have a quite different build, with a longer torso and shorter, thicker arms and legs. They carry their head low upon their shoulders, giving them a slight hunched look.
Black or dark brown fur coats their body, thickening with age; older males tend to develop white circles in the hide on their face, especially around their eyes. A reddish tint to a buffalo minotaur's hide is associated with femininity in their culture. They grow the hair on their heads long and often style it in elaborate braids.
Their vegetarian diet consists primarily of tall, coarse grasses, which they eat using their remarkably dextrous and powerful tongue and wide incisors to break down. Races without these traits can find Tilruuryál cuisine hard to eat, tough, and over-textured, even despite the Tilruuryál predilection for preparing them in soups and stews. Dishes often include yams, potatoes, beans, lentils, and other vegetables, as well. Tilruuryál cuisine has a distinctive taste to go with its texture, the result of a culturally significant spice mix including powdered dried okra. A soft white salty cheese made from goat or camel milk is a common ingredient. Unlike many other white cheeses, salt is added directly to the milk, before rennet is added.
The national dish is often considered to be asrik (grass pancake), though adiis (grass porridge) is quite popular as well. Balls of ground beans resembling falafel are also common, as well as a spinach stew made with peanut butter. Desserts of izadnam (fried grass-flour pastry) and fulfu (sweet peanut stew) are prized. Meals are often accompanied by cups of coffee, hibiscus tea, a shockingly strong millet wine, or an even stronger date gin. Buffalo minotaur have gritty, creaking voices that lend themselves well to grunts, punctuated with the occasional explosive grunt, honk, or rumbling growl.
Game Mechanics
Buffalo minotaurs use the racial traits of the minotaur from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, with one change. They lack the Imposing Presence trait, but make up for it by having a base walking speed of 40 feet. The classes most associated with Tilruur include:
- Barbarian on the path of the berserker
- Barbarian on the path of the juggernaut
- Barbarian on the path of the zealot
- Bard in the college of harbingers
- Bard in the college of valor
- Strength cleric
- Trickery cleric
- War cleric
- Zeal cleric
- Echo knight fighter
- Noble in a lineage of war
- Bloody hands paladin
- Paladin who's taken an oath of glory
- Warlock of the celestial
- Warlock of the Warrior-Saint
- Chronurgist wizard
- Illusionist wizard
- War mage wizard
* Often known as the "Most High", the mifaras are a choir of angels closely connected with truth. They know whether things said to them are true or false, and speaking falsehood tears at their nature, possibly causing them to fall. Six serpentine eyes mark them, regardless of what type of angel they are.
** The mikruv are a choir of angels dedicated to guarding their charges, the locations of which they always know. Betrayal rends the soul of these golden-haloed angels, possibly damning them.
*** Miklam did not exist before the rebellion of the fiends. Angels of other choirs took on their dark and desperate honor in order to lead the war against the Hells, their form drenching itself in shadow. Their eyes easily pluck knowledge of others' integrity from a mere glance.
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