Minotaur

A minotaur is a half-man, half-bull. Unfortunately for the woman giving birth to the thing, the head is taurine, giving the monster huge horns. Though at least one artist drew the minotaur as a messed up centaur, with a human head on a hulking bull.

This creature originates in Greek mythology, which is pretty fucked up. The first minotaur was born to Pasiphae, the wife of a king of Crete named Minos. She had taken a fancy to a white bull that the king liked more than her. Apparently, she liked the bull more than she liked the king as well. After the minotaur was born, it was kept in a labyrinth so that ordinary people wouldn't have to look at it. This might seem like a pretty raw deal for the minotaur, but on the other hand the Cretans sacrificed virgins to it every year.

As a result of this story, minotaurs are associated with labyrinths and mazes of all kinds. For example, in 4e they enjoy puzzles and feel at home in twisting, turning passages. Whenever minotaurs build towns or cities, the roads are always arranged in the most confusing way possible. To the locals, this makes perfect sense. To adventurers, it's a fucking pain. To GMs, it's an easy way to take up an hour or two of the party's time after they breeze through your perfectly designed challenge in 5 minutes and you have nothing left this session.

Minotaurs were originally ruled over by Baphomet, the Horned King. After the Dawn War ended, he was cast into the Abyss and Erathis, the goddess of civilisation, called dibs on the minotaurs. This went well for a short while, until cultists of Baphomet corrupted the city, and Melora had to kill them with fire.

Individual minotaurs struggle with the insane beasts that rages in the maze within their heads. If they succumb to this madness, they often fall into thralldom to Baphomet. If they were to overcome this insanity, or keep it at bay their entire lives, minotaurs can be civilised creatures, though often preferring to live on the edge of society.

In Dragonlance, it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants.