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In Loki's Honor
Life 28 - Prologue

Life 28 - Prologue

[https://i.imgur.com/9T4KUy6.png]

The great southeastern Centaur Plains of Pekothas. Squeezed between the ocean to the south and east, the Great Fulgen Forest to the west and the Griffin Mountains to the north (now an Elven territory as well since Queen Alloralla's Expedition), this vast and untamed region extends for thousands of kilometers in each direction. A thin strip of land a few hundred kilometers thick between the southern ocean and Fulgen had human settlements and was the trade corridor between east and west.

Human expansion and stalwart defense of the elven territory pushed the savage species from all over the continent to this region. Goblins, orcs, ogres, trolls, gnolls, and even roaming tribes of werefolk from the northern Empire made their stake in this place. Inter-species conflicts are the norm. The fast-breeding goblins and orcs demand females from the other species to do so and they must take from the other tribes or the daring human settlements that are found in the frontier. The losers of this conflict are pushed toward the elves, where they'll be eventually culled by the Rangers' arrows.

But the Centaur, according to their customs, were the first ones to gallop the plains. Numerous roaming tribes of the horse-folk move along the plains and foothills, never stopping for too long in a single place. Their culture resembled Earth hunter-gatherer mixed with a dash of Conan the Barbarian. They valued strength, prowess, and physique. They traded monster parts and rare herbs with metal weapons and were the most tolerated inhabitants of the plains in the border of the elven Forest. By "most tolerated", I meant that they weren't shot on sight. Clothing was seen as fancy and superfluous. Centaur wore only what they needed to keep the dangly bits from interfering in combat. Males wore a leather codpiece to hold their testicles and females breast bindings wrapped around their torso's chest.

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Their anatomy was most curious. Centaurs had the torso of a human replacing the head and neck of a horse's body, They had two sets of ribs. The human torso ended before the pelvis and had no belly button. Inside the upper torso, you'd find the lungs and heart only, although these organs were larger than a human's to occupy the extra space in the stomach region. The digestive tract existed only on the horse side. Trachea and esophagus extended all the way to the horse ribcage, where another, horse-sized set of lungs and heart lied. Females had teats on both the human torso and the equine underbelly. They gave birth to one foal at a time, with twins being extremely rare.

They dedicate their kills to Queltphion, god of Soldiers, War, and Balance, but also pray to the God of Monsters so they may migrate safely. Bit, Nurha-Boenir's successor has several Dungeon entrances peppered across the plains, where the brave test their mettle and the foolish meet their doom. They also worshipped the hippogriff, pegasus, and unicorn, to them they were sacred beasts and the progenitors of the centaur species. A few centaurs crossed over to the human kingdoms on the other side of Fulgen to work as mercenaries, but prejudice was great. They usually never came back.