Children of Eonil – Guardians of Stone and Mountain

Origins

Minotaurs were shaped by Eonil in the First and Second Eras to guard the mountains, highlands, and cavern halls of the first world. Their immense strength and endurance reflected the power of the earth itself. Where Centaurs roamed the plains, Minotaurs kept watch over heights and depths, ensuring balance in places where stone meets sky.

They came with the Ee’dornil to the Xaverion Islands in the Age of Light, settling the peaks of Tanea and the cave systems beneath Meriquy’s ridges. Their labyrinthine paths and stone cairns were considered sacred — both a warning and a test.

By the early Age of Darkness, their numbers dwindled sharply, their sanctuaries falling silent. Whatever calamity struck Eonil’s creatures in that time left Minotaurs nearly extinct, their mountain domains lost to ruins and echoing caverns.

Physical Description

• Tall, broad-shouldered humanoids with the head of a bull and bodies built of heavy muscle, often towering over two and a half meters.

• Horns vary in shape and length, sometimes carved or decorated with tokens of clan or ward.

• Skin and fur tones range from earthen browns to stone-grey, occasionally streaked with white or ash.

• Eyes often glow faintly in the dark — a trait tied to their cavern-dwelling heritage.

Culture & Society

• Territories: Mountain passes, ridges, caves, and underground labyrinths.

• Clans: Minotaurs lived in small kin-clans, usually led by a Warden (a keeper of tradition and judge of trials).

• Values: Strength, perseverance, and guardianship of sacred thresholds (caves, bridges, mountain paths).

• Traditions: Outsiders who wished to pass through their domains were often tested by riddles, duels, or the endurance of labyrinths. To succeed was to be judged worthy; to fail meant exile or death.

• Faith: Like all creatures of Eonil, they revered only her. They believed stone itself carried her presence, and many carved symbols of spirals, horns, or labyrinths into rock as signs of devotion.

Reputation

• To mortals, Minotaurs were both feared and respected. They were remembered as trial-givers — beings who stood between wanderers and their goal. Some stories paint them as merciless monsters, others as wise judges who protected what lay behind their labyrinths.

• In the Fifth Era, they are thought extinct, though some labyrinthine ruins on Tanea remain taboo. Travelers whisper that if you enter at dusk, you may hear hoof-steps echoing in the dark.

Role in the Fall

• By the early Age of Darkness, Minotaurs were already vanishing. Without the blessings of Quintra and Denday, mortals could no longer fight back Ghor’s minions with the same strength, and mountain sanctuaries fell one by one.

• Some mortals claim the Minotaurs retreated deeper underground, into labyrinths so vast no one has ever found them again. Others believe they were wiped out entirely in those first dark centuries.