The Steppe - Creatures of the Steppe

Centaurs

Plains Centaurs live in small clans made up of family groups and lone bachelors and females. They are fully nomadic, travelling across the plains and steppes searching for the best fodder and grass. Centaur clans are known as herd to outsiders and Hosts to centaurs. Each Host is led by the Head Centaur who is assisted in turn by a number of males and together they form a council, although the centaurs themselves do not officially recognise anything so formal. The Head centaur and his advisors each have a harem of females who follow them wherever they roam. Their children stay with them until they reach adolescence when they leave their home Host and travel to meet up with another Host, at which point they attempt to join the new Host as bachelor males and females. Bachelor males help the clan as warriors, herders and reapers and try to attract females or try to usurp one of the ranking males and take his harem. Bachelor females can join a harem if they attract the attention of a dominant male and if they can overcome the hostility of the harem females. Often. Bachelor females stay single until they meet up with a new bachelor male and join his harem.

Centaur Hosts spend two or three days in any area, cutting down the grass and rooting up the tubers. Then they move on to a new area. If the Host moves slowly, Reapers travel on ahead, cutting a path through the grass, if the Host moves quickly they move straight through the steppe not bothering to collect food.

Centaurs can eat both the food of humans and horses. In fact, they need both types of food to live normally. If they have only horse food, they become sluggish and find it difficult to concentrate. If they have only human food they become weak and emaciated. Since they do not have a horse's head or neck, centaurs find it difficult to graze as horses do, in fact they find grazing demeaning and fit only for beasts. Instead they reap and have a specially trained profession called Reapers for collecting food. Reapers are centaurs trained in grass collection. They are skilled in the use of large two-handed scythes that they use to cut vast swathes of grass from the steppe. Young centaurs travel behind the Reapers and pick up the freshly mown grass and bundle it up for later use. Reapers can cut a couple of acres around a centaur camp each day, providing enough grass for the centaurs to eat. Most centaurs carry enough grass with them for a couple of days and eat on the move, carrying cut grass in baskets that they continually eat from. Centaurs can eat oats and other high-energy grains and often trade for these when they meet other nomads. They make flour and bread from gathered grains and collect tubers from their camps. They hunt the other creatures of the steppe and often feast on rich haunches of meat. Centaurs are partial to fermented milk, especially mares' milk, but also drink mead, beer and wine, most of which they trade for. Sometimes, centaurs have special agreements with outlying settlements or nomads on the steppe and are provided beer, wine or other food and drink in return for whatever skills the centaurs have.

Centaurs often travel lightly clothed, especially in summer. They wear blankets around their waists and sometimes wear shirts on their backs. Females always cover their breasts and males always cover their loins, for they have two sets of genitals. In times of war, centaurs wear heavier armour, at least horse barding and leather armour, but more typically chainmail on their top parts and scale skirts on their bodies and legs. Hairstyles and clothing styles vary from Host to Host and a centaur's Host can be easily identified by his clothing or hairstyle. Bachelors have some elements from their old Host and their new Host, but gradually convert to the new Host's style. Centaurs never wear saddles, in fact the centaur name for enslaved centaurs is "Saddle Centaur" and the wearing of saddles indicated slavery.

Centaurs typically use horse bow, spear and shield as weapons. Some use a specialised form of lance/axe that allows them to use the same weapon for close combat as charging. Reapers use two-handed war scythes that are almost as effective as greatswords. Centaurs are natural archers and can shoot while running at no penalty. In battle, centaurs normally skirmish, picking off enemies at a distance. However, they are comfortable with cavalry charges and have the equivalent of medium and heavy cavalry, made up of highly trained and well-equipped soldiers.

Centaurs worship the Sky and Steppe, the Wind and Rain. The Sky is nowhere as big as above the Steppe and centaurs worship the Great Sky. They worship the Steppe as mother and father, as provider of food through the Grass Mother and meat from the various animals that roam the grasslands. They worship the Wind as the First Nomad, never staying still and forever roaming the vast steppe. They worship Rain as Life-Giver, Cleanser and Thunderer. They honour their ancestors, especially the founders of their Host and the First Centaurs. Their temples are mobile and carried together with the rest of the centaurs' belongings.

When centaurs move, they carry all their belongings with them. They carry much of it on their backs in great sacks and panniers, but many centaurs have drags that they pull behind them. Some centaurs have carts and wagons pulled by horses, but they cannot always move around the steppe. All Hosts keep horses and many keep cattle. They herd these themselves but often have human and inhuman slaves to help them with some tasks.