Centaurs

The Modern Centaur

a herd of hunting centaurs

Not much is known of centaurs. They live deep within the Erkenheld Forest, and rarely venture out into the more exposed and more populated border areas, and relatively few Elothninans have been in their presence. The exception to this is the southwestern corner of the country, which is embedded in the forest. In this region, there is greater contact with centaurs as those in the logging settlements venture further into the Erkenheld. However, since more and more centaurs have been seen fighting with the rebel forces, this is begining to change.

Those who have had conversations with these creatures describe them as highly intelligent and usually polite, but deeply distrustful towards humans. Centaurs are independent and reserved, but not isolated since they often travel in nomadic familial herds. These herds range in size from three or four up to ten or more.

A Note on Centaurian Anatomy
The race of centaurs is magic-born, but have no more ability to harness and use magic than a human does. By this, it is meant that the evolutionary convergence of man and horse into what is now called the centaur can be explained by the presence of environmental magic. Some thinkers have argued that the ancient ancestors of centaurs were a race of hunters who lived deep in the Erkenheld Forest. This group of humans trained and domesticated the wild ponies of the forest for hunting purposes, and became great riders at an early age. Over the millenia, the high level of ambient magic in their environment caused them to fuse with the wild ponies they used to hunt, forging together the best characteristics of each species: the shrewdness and opposable thumbs of the human, and the speed and strength of the horse (or pony, or what have you).

One prevalent misconception about centaurs is that they cannot be killed by non-magical creatures (humans), only magic-using creatures (such as elves). The tendency of magically-challenged persons to assume that magical folk are more resilient is apparent in the old human adage:

"If thine enemy be magick, thy outlook be tragic/But mundayne be vyllain, then the fite be thine to win."

Even though centaurs were known to be non-magical folk, it was assumed that their proximity to magic protected them from attack.

In reality, the hardiness of centaurs has to do with their quirky anatomical features. As you can see, the centaur has two sets of ribcages and only one spine. Thus, the centaur has two sets of lungs, but a single airway connecting them both, allowing them to breathe in and hold more air that a human. The centaur is similarly equipped with two hearts, which beat together using the same veins. The presence of such complementary (and potentially compensatory) systems give the centaur the ability to survive and quickly recover from what would have a fatal blow to either a man or a horse. That being said, having the doubled hearts and lungs makes them extremely sensitive to anything affecting the bloodstream, which may explain their general aversion to alcohol and elvish pipe-weed. The anatomy of a center is discussed here in more detail.

See Also:
Glothnafar
Perejin