Centaur

Female Centaurs: attractive but anatomically frustrating

The Centaurs are a race of mythical creatures from Greek mythology, best known for being a literal mix of man and horse - they have a human's upper torso (that is, the body from the top of the hips up to the top of the head) replacing the head. They're also noted for being horny bastards and massive drunks. Centaurs were one of the less important monsters of their myths, with only a handful of references. Even so, they did get a constellation, and appear in various fantasy settings throughout the world now.

Who were they?

In their creation myth, the centaurs were descended from a mythical culture called the Lapiths, via their douchebag king Ixion. In short, Ixion was an asshole who murdered his father-in-law by burning the dude alive - a huge no-no for the Greeks. Somehow, Zeus decided to be a super-chill guy, and not only forgave Ixion, but actually brought the asshole to Olympus to have dinner with the gods. Did Ixion realize just how lucky he was? Nope; asshole started eyeing Zeus's wife/sister, Hera. Zeus got suspicious, so he made a double for Hera out of clouds, called Nephele, and had her take Hera's place serving Ixion some dinner. Ixion promptly attacked and raped Nephele, for which Zeus smote his ass with a lightning bolt, then tied his spirit to a burning wheel and sent it spinning endlessly through the "sky" of Tartarus. Nephele got pregnant and her kids were fucking half-horse somehow.

Ironically, one of the Centaur myths describes their interactions with the Lapiths. The Lapiths invited the Centaurs to one of their weddings, and then things went haywire very, very fast. Though the Centaurs had been benevolent beforehand, the copious amounts of wine being served got them all drunk, which meant they turned on a plate during the wedding, trying to rape the women and kill the men of the Lapiths. This ended up as one huge brawl, ending with a Lapith victory. This was the Greek way of saying "Hey, nature? You suck."

Chiron, a great healer and teacher of heroes in Greek myth, was a rare case of a friendly centaur. The constellation Sagittarius is rendered in Chiron's image. Consequently, the prefix "sagittar-" is commonly used to denote centaurs, blissfully ignorant of the fact that "sagittarius" translates to "archer" (Chiron's favorite way of killing shit) in Latin, not "centaur".

A centaur by the name of Nessus was also responsible for slaying Hercules (original Greek name Heracles). Nessus tried to kidnap Hercules's wife Diania to rape her at his leisure, and Hercules shot him with one of his poisoned arrows that was dipped in the Hydra's blood for it. As he was dying, he told Hercules' wife to secretly soak a cloak in his blood, promising that if Hercules' eye started to wander, all she'd have to do is make him wear it and he'd fall back in love with her, failing to mentioned that his blood was now poisoned by the arrow. She believed him, but the gory cape drove Hercules mad with pain, as the cloak burned his skin to the bone. He simply burned himself alive on a funeral pyre that he built in order to find relief.

If you want to know about the real world origin of the Centaur, well, consider where Greece is. Go too much farther north and your hit the Ukrainian and Russian Steppe, where the horse was first domesticated and where nomadic tribesmen practically learned to ride before they could walk. It's believed that the early Greeks saw either early horsemen or the first horsemen at a distance and could not understand that they were looking at a human ON an animal (a distinction that the Spanish report the Aztec had trouble grasping), and instead saw a horse with the top half of a man. And thus the Centaurs were born.

Biology

Centaurs are a fascinating example of a complete can of worms when looked at from a scientific standpoint, mainly because the way the Centaur is structured consists of two torsos (removing the horse torso would make it a Satyr, removing the human torso would make it a horse-themed Sphinx).

In theory, a centaur has two different sets of ribcages. Depending on how the setting has the internal anatomy work, a centaur could have two pairs of lungs, two hearts, an extra stomach and possible extra intestine leading to the horse stomachs, two livers, two sets of kidneys, and most anatomy exclusive to both dedicated carnivores and to dedicated herbivores. If this version of Centaur actually existed, it would possibly be the most unspecialized and least energy-efficient creature in the setting. More often however, the human half is explained to have large lungs and a large heart while the rest of the anatomy is contained within the horse half. This presents the problem of having a ridiculously long esophagus which has an elevated risk of choking while the Heimlich Maneuver would have greatly reduced ability to save the Centaur's life, although as long as food manages to make it past the human half the rest of the esophagus would not require more than a drink of water to alleviate discomfort.

They do not need to wipe their own asses, because their horse anus wipes itself through layers of sphincters. Any additional cleaning for social reasons however would require a sponge or towel on a stick. Likewise, putting garments on the horse half for reasons of modesty would be extremely difficult unless it's something like a horse blanket you can almost drape over the body.

Human babies are born completely helpless and unable to do much of anything by themselves other than emit noise. Horse babies immediately run once the birth awl is cleaned off by the mother. In theory, this means centaur babies run around and play while the human half flops around helplessly. More likely is that centaur babies would have both halves as developed as that of a regular horse since the horse womb's larger opening gives more time for the head to grow. (Head growth is not the only reason for helpless human infants, however. Human brains must take time to grow their connections while interacting with their environment, for which they need a massively extended period of maturation. Horses, like most animals, do not need to be young for long as they do not need to learn in this manner. Humans actually mature ungodly slow for creatures of our size in general, in fact. There would always be a mismatch in development unless the horse part could be held back to the pace of the human part.)

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Dungeons & Dragons

Centaurs can be very pretty from the waist up.

Centaurs and other "tauric" creatures have appeared throughout the editions and settings of Dungeons & Dragons, from the half-lion wemics of Forgotten Realms to the Driders that have become so iconically linked with the Drow.

Flavor-wise, centaurs are pretty much identical to the standard Wood Elf; they are a "sylvan" (read: fey-lite) race who inhabit the deep woods and unspoiled meadows of the world, existing as nomadic hunter-gatherers with a deep respect for nature, always striving to live in balance with their environment and to replace what they take. Their population is kept small due to their massive caloric intake, which gives them a reputation as drunkards due to how much liquor they can consume in a sitting. They are generally disinterested in the demihuman races, save elves and forest gnomes, and are more likely to keep company with other sylvan races, such as dryads and satyrs.

This portrayal is pretty consistent, having begun all the way back in Mystara and remaining throughout most settings. But, this is different in the Nentir Vale setting; here, they are considered a type of fey (rather than their traditional monstrous humanoid) and a warlike tribal people who inhabit the steppes, plains and prairies of the Feywild, although they may also be found in the mortal world, particularly in close proximity to elven lands. World Axis centaurs maintain permanent settlements, and do not suffer trespassers lightly. An emotional and rugged people, they swear allegiance to Kord and Melora, rather than the gentler and more refined Corellon; they are renowned for the wild parties they throw to celebrate battles, hunts and births, which are full of boasting, sport and drink, and do not fear death. They have even been known to hire their services out as mercenaries to eladrin, elves or any other race willing to meet their price. They are still dedicated to protecting the unspoiled wilderness, though, and if anything are more assertive about it.

Centaur are rarely used as Player Character races due to the difficulties of a Centaur performing non-running feats of agility, but those players who do use them find that they are both quite powerful and also have the perk of not having to buy a mount. In fact, centaurs have been playable in most editions of the game, having appeared in: "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk" for Basic D&D; "The Complete Book of Humanoids" for Advanced D&D; and the Monster Manual 1, Races of the Wild, the Dragonlance campaign setting book, Races of Krynn and Races of Faerun splatbooks for 3rd edition. Absent in 4th edition, they made a return in the 2018 May issue of Unearthed Arcana for 5th edition before being made official in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.

PC Stats

BD&D

Ability Score Minimums/Maximums: Requires 9 Strength and 5 Constitution. All other scores have a base minimum of 3. All scores have a maximum of 18.

Prime Ability Requisite: Strength. A centaur PC gains +5% EXP if their Str is 13+, and +10% if their Str is 16+.

Natural Armor Class: AC 8 at level -1, AC 7 from level 0.

Centaurs can achieve 8th level in both the Shaman sub-class and the Wokani/Wicca sub-class. To become a shaman requires Int 13+ and Wis 10+, whilst to become a wicca requires Int 13+ and Wis 13+. In both classes, progressing requires Int 15+ and Wis 13+. A centaur can choose to progress in both the Shaman and Wokani/Wicca class by way of the dual-classing mechanic; stopping their advancing in one and beginning advancing in the other.

A centaur can strike with its hooves, inflicting 1d6 damage per hoof.

A centaur wielding a lance can inflict double damage by charging, as if a mounted fighter, but cannot use its hooves in the same round in which it does so.

Centaurs require a special combination of human armor and horse barding to protect themselves.

Centaurs may use magic items permitted to Fighters.

Centaurs make Saving Throws as per a Fighter of the same level.

Centaur Racial Level Advancement Table

Level -1: -4,000 EXP, 2d8 Hit Dice

Level 0: 0 EXP, 4d8 Hit Dice

Level 1: 4,000

Level 2: 12,000 EXP, 5d8 Hit Dice

Level 3: 28,000 EXP, 6d8 Hit Dice

Level 4: 60,000 EXP

Level 5: 124,000 EXP, 7d8 Hit Dice

Level 6: 250,000 EXP, 8d8 Hit Dice

Level 7: 500,000 EXP

Level 8: 800,000 EXP, 9d8 Hit Dice

Level 9: 1,100,000 EXP, 10d8 Hit Dice

Level 10: 1,400,000 EXP, 10d8+2 Hit Dice

Subsequent levels cost +300,000 EXP and grant +2 HP.

AD&D

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 11/18, Dexterity 3/16, Constitution 11/18, Intelligence 3/16, Wisdom 4/18, Charisma 3/18

Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Constitution, +1 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity

Class & Level Limits: Fighter 12, Ranger 10, Mage 12, Druid 14, Shaman 7, Bard 12

+4 hit points at 1st level

Available Kits: Tribal Defender, Pit Fighter, Sellsword, Wild Protector, Hedge Wizard, Humanoid Scholar, Outlaw Mage, Shaman, Oracle, Wandering Mystic, Humanoid Bard (mandatory for Centaur Bards)

Multiclassing Options: Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Thief, Ranger/Shaman

Thieving Skill Adjustments: -10% Move Silently, -5% to Hide in Shadows and Read Languages

Natural Armor Class: 5

Can make 3 melee attacks per round; once with weapon, twice with a forehoof (hooves do 1d6 damage).

Centaurs armed with lances can Charge for double damage, but cannot attack with their hooves in that same round.

Centaurs take damage as Large creatures.

Centaurs have difficulty negotiating underground settings.

Weapon Proficiencies: Composite Long Bow, Medium Horse Lance, Great Club

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Animal Lore, Agriculture, Animal Noise, Armorer, Artistic Ability, Bowyer/Fletcher, Brewing, Drinking, Eating, Fishing, Hunting, Leatherworking, Natural Fighting, Running, Set Snares, Survival (Forests), Tracking, Weaving, Winemaking

3e D&D

Amazingly, despite appearing in multiple different splatbooks for both 3.0 and 3.5, the Centaur maintained a singular set of stats across all of them.

+8 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom.

Large size: –1 penalty to Armor Class, –1 penalty on attack rolls, –4 penalty on Hide checks, +4 bonus on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium characters.

Space/Reach: 10 feet/5 feet.

A centaur’s base land speed is 50 feet.

Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Racial Hit Dice: A centaur begins with four levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice; a base attack bonus of +4; and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +4, and Will +4.

Racial Skills: A centaur’s monstrous humanoid levels give him skill points equal to 7 × (2 + Int modifier). His class skills are Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival.

Racial Feats: A centaur’s monstrous humanoid levels give him two feats.

+3 natural armor bonus.

Automatic Languages: Sylvan, Elven. Bonus Languages: Common, Gnome, Halfling.

Favored Class: Ranger. Centaur rangers often choose magical beasts or some variety of humanoid as their favored enemy.

Level adjustment +2.

Pathfinder

Like virtually all OGL monsters, the only changes to centaur in Pathfinder were system wide changes (Monstrous Humanoid HD is now D10 and 4 + int skill points).

Advanced Race Guide gave a centaur as an example of its race creation system. Since they decided to keep the absurdly high stat adjustments it's power level is, by the book's own admission, unusable by player characters in normal campaign.

Dreamscarred Press included Centaur as one of the monster classes they published. It's pretty much just 4 levels that give you all the stuff in the 3.5 example (except the level adjustment) with the PF RHD changes.

5e D&D

How to pull off a 5e centaur PC race was something that was debated on /tg/ every now and then; how should you handle the size issue? What effects should having a horse for legs have on getting around? Well, WoTC came up with surprisingly elegant solutions when they debuted a centaur in the Unearthed Arcana for May 2018. They even took the time to address the most unbalancing aspect of being a centaur in 3e, which was that your racial type not being standard Humanoid made you immune to a lot of common spells, a somewhat flawed design idea that was brought back for 5e.

Unfortunately, because the design team persistently overvalues both natural weapons and Powerful Build, they're also a bit... bland. Not bad, per se, but uninspired. And because no positive effects target monstrosities but not humanoids, it's strictly a bad thing, though even that will barely come up, they don't even count as mounted for feats or the Cavalier archetype. That said, because of the ability to inflict what's effectively a crit on demand the amount of damage they can do, in theory, on a charge is almost stupidly high. At level one with 17 strength, with an average roll of 7 of a 2d6 weapon and +3 mod becomes 17 damage, enough to one shot a lot of things at level one or 1/6 of an ogre and an actual crit stacks with this to become out-and-out devastating. In an ideal situation of +5 mod, 12 damage,+5 magic bonus and a crit: your looking at 58 damage. While that is strictly speaking unlikely, there are rerolls for all those rolls, (champion crit extension, and great weapon fighting style rerolls of 1's and 2's) so it is far from impossible. All in all: Centaurs may be a one trick pony, but it can be one hell of a trick.

Abilities: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 40 feet

Vision: Normal

Charge: You can make a charge attack by moving at least 20 feet towards a target and then hitting it with a melee attack in the same turn. If you hit with this charge attack, roll your weapon's damage dice twice and add the results together to determine how much damage you have inflicted. Once you have made a charge attack, you must complete a short rest or a long rest before you can make one again.

Hooves: You possess hooves, which are a natural weapon that you have proficiency in. A hoof attack inflicts 1d6 + Str modifier Bludgeoning damage.

Equine Build: You count as one size category larger to determine your capacity to carry, push and drag. However, when climbing, each foot of movement costs you +4 extra movement instead of the normal +1 foot. You can allow a creature of Medium or smaller size to ride on your back, but you still act independently when you have a rider.

Survivor: You have Proficiency in the Survival skill.

Hybrid Nature: You count as being both a Humanoid and a Monstrosity in terms of Creature Type, and thus can be affected by any game effect that specifically targets either of your types.

They made a surprise reappearance in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, acquiring an official writeup that was similar to, yet different from, the version presented in Unearthed Arcana:

Ability Scores: Str +2; Wis +1

Size: Medium

Speed: 40 ft.

Age. Centaurs mature and age at about the same rate as humans.

Alignment. Centaurs are inclined toward neutrality. Those who join the Selesnya are more often neutral good, while those who join the Gruul are typically chaotic neutral.

Size. Centaurs stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, with their equine bodies reaching about 4 feet at the withers. Your size is Medium.

Fey. Your creature type is fey, rather than humanoid.

Charge. If you move at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hit it with a melee weapon attack on the same turn, you can immediately follow that attack with a bonus action, making one attack against the target with your hooves.

Hooves. Your hooves are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Equine Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push or drag. In addition, any climb that requires hands and feet is especially difficult for you because of your equine legs. When you make such a climb, each foot of movement costs you 4 extra feet, instead of the normal 1 extra foot.

Survivor. You have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan. Sylvan is widely spoken in the Selesnya Conclave, for it is rich in vocabulary to describe natural phenomena and spiritual forces.

You will note that this version of the centaur is far weaker. Charge is now basically pathetic and only grants you an additional 1d4 on a hit, even if it's no longer a short rest ability. Mordekainen's Monsters of the Multiverse would rewrite rules for many races following the paradigm introduced by Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and Centaurs would emerge largely unchanged except for their hooves being restored to 1d6 damage, making a bit less pathetic.

If the official 5e centaur stats don't tickle your fancy, you could always try out the ones from the Midgard Heroes Handbook, which present their own take on the concept.

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom

Size: Large - but see Humanoid Torso

Speed: 40 feet

Type: Monstrosity

Natural Attacks: You can make a single attack with your hooves, which you are considered Proficient in and which deal 2d6 Bludgeoning damage.

Centaur Weapon Training: You have Proficiency with the Pike and the Longbow.

Pike Charge: If you move at least 30 feet straight toward a target it and then hit it with a Pike attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 3 (1d6) piercing damage, which increases to 6 (2d6) at level 6 and 9 (3d6) at level 11. You can only make one Pike Charge per turn, and can only make a number of Pike Charges per day eqal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). You recover all uses of this ability when you complete a Long Rest.

Humanoid Torso: Though you take up space as if you were a Large creature, you are still considered a Medium creature for purposes of weapons and armor.

Quadruped: You have Disadvantage on Stealth checks and also suffer problems when dealing with architecture designed for humanoids, such as ladders and manholes.

Self-Sufficient: You have Proficiency in the Medicine skill.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords offers yet another alternative for the 5e centaur PC. Centaurs of Thylea are characterized as a proud race of nomadic warriors; hunter-gatherers with an emphasis on the hunter part, they are once of the major civilizations created by the titans, and whilst they're not at open war with the Mytrosians, they have never forgotten or forgiven the Dragonlords for how they fucked over their people during the First War, and they will happily trample the shit out of anyone stupid enough to try and build permanent settlements on their land. Whilst their egos are infamous - Thylean centaurs view themselves as the supreme race and are notorious for their vanity when it comes to their looks - and it's common knowledge that they become dangerous, belligerent and boorish when drunk, they're also renowned for their loyalty. Make a centaur friend, and they'll be your friend for life, and you can't find a truer adventuring companion.

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 40 feet

Vision: Normal

Charge: If you move 30 feet straight toward a target and then hit them with a melee attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage from the first attack.

Mountable: As a bonus action on your turn, you may allow a single willing ally within 5 feet of you to hitch a brief ride on your back. They are carried on your back until the end of your turn, at which point they must disembark within 5 feet of you. While being carried, your rider is not considered to be mounted and they are not vulnerable to attacks of opportunity. Your rider must be a bipedal creature of your size or smaller.

Quadrapedal Stride: Climbing and manuevering in tight spaces count as difficult terrain for you.

Ptolus's version of the centaur meanwhile, is more customizable, like the Litorian.

Ability Score Increase: +2 to one ablity of your choice, +1 to one ablity of your choice

Size: Large

Speed: 50 feet

Hooves: You can make an unarmed attack with your hooves dealing 2d6 bludgeoning damage.

Athletic Hunter: You have proficiency in two skills of your choice.

Languages: You can speak and read Aram and one other appropriate language.

Variants and Centaur-kin

The centaur body plan is ripe for derivatives, since one could conceivably combine any bipedal species with any quadrupedal species in this manner.

• Chevall: Can shapeshift between a regular horse and a centaur. They see it as their duty to protect horses from harm.

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• Desert Centaur: A more swarthy and oriental breed of centaur from Al-Qadim.

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• Sea Centaur: A cross between a centaur and a mermaid, or a human and a hippocampus, maybe? It has a human torso, the front half-torso of a horse (with legs ending in flippers), and the rest is all fish. It appeared in Dragon Magazine #116.

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• Wemic: Lion centaurs that originally had human upper-halfs, but later got a more furry redesign.

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• Hybsil: 3 foot tall sprite-deer centaurs.

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• Bariaur: goat or sheep centaurs native to Ysgard. Made a playable race by Planescape.

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• Zebranaur: Dark-skinned zebra centaurs for your Africa-themed setting.

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• Dorvesh: dwarf-donkey centaurs.

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• Gnoat: gnome-goat centaurs.

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• Ha'pony: halfling-pony centaurs. The name is a pun on ha'penny.

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Gallery

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  1e

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  2e

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  Centaur Mummy

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  3e Half-Fey Centaur

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  Pathfinder

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Warhammer Fantasy

The "proto-Hammer" version of Warhammer Fantasy featured Centaurs as a Chaos-aligned race closely linked to Beastmen in the Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned for 3rd edition. They were dropped in 5th edition, for some reason, but eventually returned in 6th edition after having been reworked into the Centigors, and may be returning in the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as among the Half-Orcs and Hobgoblins in the Eastern Steppes.

The Chaos Dwarves have the Bull Centaur, the result of a Chaos Dwarf given a mighty blessing by their dark god Hashut, the bull Chaos God. They are still Chaos Dwarfs with their usual appearances of big, mean, muscular, curly beard and horns on their head, only that their bottom-half has been replaced by that of a bull's. This transformation replaces the their short leg and thus nullified their slow moving weakness while retaining their trademark endurance, strength and high leadership.

If that's not enough then things get bigger with Dragon Ogres, because regular centaur isn't awesome enough. Dragon Ogres have the upper part of an Ogre and their lower parts are four dragon-like legs. These Dragon Ogres made a pact with the Chaos Gods that they would serve them, in exchange for immortality (at the cost of having no female Dragon Ogres to fuck, or possibly having females but all being sterile; it's hard to say from the fluff). They are one of the oldest creatures in the Old World, and are supercharged when struck by lightning. The oldest and largest Dragon Ogres are Shaggoths.

Lastly there's the Zoats. A hermit-like, scaly, four-legged creature who has power over nature with their lore of life spell. Their size were so similar to a small dragon ogres that CA was able to put it in Total War: WARHAMMER as a reskinned Dragon Ogres.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

In the Age of Sigmar universe, centauroids are - or at least used to be - one of the races inhabiting the realm of Ghur. The character Kragnos is a member of the Drogrukh species of massive centauroids, who became a god through sheer bloodymindedness, ultimately making such a nuisance of himself that the forces of Order sealed him away. He recently broke out, and is very pissed to discover that the remaining Drogrukh were wiped out whilst he was gone. There are also normal-sized, still alive Non-Chaos Centaurs amongst the Kurnothi, along with Non-Chaos Fauns, and Chaos Centaurs with 4 arms amongst the Slaves to Darkness.

Warhammer 40K

Though the Centaur in and of itself hasn't been discovered as of yet in the dark millennium (it is perfectly possible that they exist somewhere in the galaxy, mind you - there is weirder shit out there), the Interex had a heavy infantry platform which had the shape and appearance of the Centaurs of myth. The human soldier was fit into the front of a mechanical, horselike body (where the head would've been on a real horse), so only the upper body was visible. They even went so far as giving the soldiers laser-crossbows.

Though most would argue that this was freaking awesome, they were exterminated by the Imperium, and as far as we know, the Mechanicum haven't kept anything from the Interex... But who knows, maybe the next Imperial Guard Supplement will include cyborg horse-human hybrids (of course you can make these anyway and just proxy them as rough riders on the table top). You can't know with GW these days.

A centaur body is one of the common Chaos mutations, though given the nature of Chaos you may end up with a snake tail, a giant bloodhound body, or a fucking spider torso instead of your legs, and that's if you get lucky - some poor Nurglite sod may get a snail or maggot body instead of his legs, or even a twisted mess of tentacles that have the mind of their own and immediately start raping all asses in proximity, including their own.

Additionally, an Imperial Guard short story (Children of the Emperor) from the Into the Maelstrom anthology features a guardsman stranded on a lost, feral world with super-high gravity, populated by abhumans whose ancestors gave themselves centaur bodies and super-enhanced muscles to cope with high gravity and abundance of deadly predators. He gets involved with a struggle between the Emperor-worshipping locals and a Khornate heresy, but the best he can do is to report to the Imperium when he escapes that the planet is feral, too dangerous & resource poor to colonize, and houses only some unimportant alien species, thus preventing the loyalists from being slaughtered as mutants by more Puritanical Imperials.

Also we have the Zoats, a now-abandoned (They're back now, fuckers!) race of reptilian taurs that were originally envoys and propagandists for the Tyranids, before they fully embraced the Horde of Alien Locusts thing.

Warcraft

Warcraft features many types of Centaur as well as centaur-like creatures. The earliest Centaur are descendants to the demigod Cenarius (half-Night elf half Stag), his sons are called Keepers of the grove, they have the upper part of a night elf with antlers on their heads, one of their hands is wood like, and they have the lower parts of a stag. The female versions of them are Dryads who are female night elf and half doe.

They also have regular Centaurs who are a bastard race born from a Keeper of the grove and (the rather ugly) spirit of Earth, they thank their father for creating them by killing him. They have the traditional Centaur look, with a nomadic Mongol-like culture mostly built on harassing the cow-like Tauren.

The Burning Legion has Annihilan which are massive demons that have an upper part of a demon and a lower part of a four legged dragon. They serve as among the Legions commanders and wield enormous weapons that can smash armies in one swing.

Centaur Monstergirls

This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match.

Centaurs invite ceaseless argument over whether they count as monstergirls or as furry. On the one hand, they do have human-like heads and not muzzles (though Japanese hentai seems to like portraying them with horse ears instead of human ears, and this has become more common in western art too). On the other hand, they have horse-junk at their business end (except, again, for some Japanese hentai, where they have human pussies at the front of their horse bodies instead or in addition to mare-cunts at their ass-end), which makes them in many ways more like bestiality than regular furries.

Not helping things is that both sides of the divide have embraced them. In fact, centaurs are so popular that the idea of replacing the horse with other critters that sound cool or sexy is rather popular; lions, wolves, tigers, spiders... heck, lamias can be described as "centaurs that are half-snake instead of half-horse". The idea is so popular that a whole new word (arguably descended from the furries), "tauric", has popped up as a shorthand for it.

/d/ alternatively loves them (because they're an excuse for pictures of huge buff guys with huge horse cocks, monstergirls with huge-ass tits, or monstergirls with huge-ass tits AND huge horse cocks) and loathes them (because of the aforementioned furry/bestiality connotations).

Surprisingly, despite the fact that centaurs are iconic creatures from western "Classical Mythology", the vast majority of centaur MG depictions have come from Japan. This may be because, unlike westerners, Japanese smutfans don't really make so much of a distinction between furry and monstergirl, and so they don't get bothered by the whole "you're fucking a horse's hiney" thing since they pass the Harkness Test.

Perhaps because of the strong association between the cavalry and the samurai caste - or because Japanese dig soft, sweet chicks to an almost disturbing degree - almost all known Japanese centaur MGs have been tsunderes or yamato nadeshikos, i.e. either sweet-girls who act like bitches because they don't wanna admit their feelings, or very sweet and demure girls with a steely core. A more mythology-accurate centaur MG would be a total ladette - a she-jock who loves to fight, hunt, drink and fuck like there's no tomorrow and aggressively chases after good-looking guys. Sort of a bro with the body of a super-model who's fine with letting you grope her titties and cunt (wherever it is), or kills you on a whim.

Additionally there are several factors of horse anatomy one should keep in mind when discussing sex with centaurs:

• The above-discussed reason why horses don't need to wipe their asses after taking a dump would doubtlessly affect anal sex in some way, for better or worse.
• Giving Centaurs rear horse junk would be likely to complicate masturbation.
• Given the thing male horses are so infamous for worldwide, a centauress(?) that has horse junk would be likely to find human men quite underwhelming.
• On that note, getting any meaningful length of a horse penis inside a human frequently kills real-life zoophiles due to organ rupture, and deepthroat would probably require you to dislocate your jaw and find some acid-proof horse condoms.
• Like with minotaurs, there's also the issue of whether a centauress would have human boobs or a horse udder when you think about it. There are many more lulzy ways to interpret this than the minotaur offers, however, such as centaur women with two perfectly human and hairless boobs dangling from the fucking horse torso like a ballsack (you could even nickname these body parts the breasticles or chesticles).

Monster Girl Encyclopedia

There may be a reason why the MGE centaur looks like a half-horse half-elf...

In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, centaurs are a race of tsundere nomadic archers. They do still love booze, though, and have a tendency to lose control and become horny drunks who'll rape men... of course, being tsunderes, they'll bitch at the men to "take responsibility" after they sober up, which is as tired a cliche in hentai as "OMG it's so big" is in western porn. For many years, constant arguments frequently sprung up about where the genitals are. The author decided to split the difference by decreeing they have two sets of genitals, one on each end. All this served to do was re-draw the battle lines so as to be fought over whether this succeeded in solving the problem or is the stupidest thing in the history of ever.

Life With Monstergirls

Centaur have a long and noble history as knights and paladins, and most of their race still carry themselves with dignity. Female Centaur often adopt knightly demeanor and customs. Their females are only fertile during certain periods of the year (like real horses), and must use this time to produce offspring. Their sex drive is greatly reduced (although not non-existent) outside of this period, which also like with real horses is called estrus. Centaurs have long had a history where the sexually selected traits for males were general raw strength and bravado. This unfortunately resulted in most modern Centaur men being unattractive fratboys. Recently, their culture is shifting towards effeminate and polite men being attractive, and this means that Centaur women are beginning to more and more desire human men. The product of a human/Centaur union is a full-blooded Centaur (no word on the results of a horse-centaur union), but the practice is still highly taboo. Instead Centaurs have been relying on human men as "teasers", a role that yet still exists in real life horse breeding (although in real life the role is thankfully filled by other horses). The human man more or less arouses a female who is in estrus until she can bear to reproduce with her husband.

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  Centaur sexual habits in Daily Life with Monstergirl

See Also

• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races