2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Centaur

2022-02-07T04:30:07Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:8A8:AD97:9AEE:5BA6: /* Who were they? */

[[File:Elmore Lyra.jpg|thumb|right|400px|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 - [[Heresy|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 [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|"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 [[/d/|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.)

<gallery>
Horse Ass.png
Centaur Babies.png
Centaur Anatomy.jpg
Centaur Muscles.jpg
Centaur Wut.png
</gallery>

=Dungeons & Dragons=
[[File:Elmore 3e Centaur.jpg|300px|thumb|right|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 [[wemic]]s of [[Forgotten Realms]] to the [[Drider]]s that have become so iconically linked with the [[Drow]].

Flavor-wise, centaurs are pretty much identical to the standard [[Elf|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 [[gnome]]s, and are more likely to keep company with other sylvan races, such as [[dryad]]s and [[satyr]]s.

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; "[[Complete Book Series|The Complete Book of Humanoids]]" for Advanced D&D; and the [[Monster Manual]] 1, [[Races of X|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 [[Wizard|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 [[Multiclassing|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 [[Fighter]]s.
::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===
[[File:centaur MM 2e.png|thumb|250px]]
::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

{{D&D2e-Races}}

===3e D&D===
[[File:centaur RoF.jpg|thumb|250px]]
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 [https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/monstrous-races-21-30-rp/centaur/ 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===
[[File:centaur 5e.jpg|thumb]]
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.

If the canon 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 [[Catfolk#Litorian|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.

''Mordekainen's Monsters of the Multiverse'' would rewrite rules for ALL the races (and several subraces) following the paradigm introduced by ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', and Centaurs would fall under this too.
::Ability Score Increase: +2 to one ablity of your choice, +1 to one ablity of your choice
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 40 feet
::Creature Type: Fey
::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.
::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.
::Hooves: Your hooves are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal 1d6 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
::Natural Affinity: You have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival.

==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.

*'''Desert Centaur''': A more swarthy and oriental breed of centaur from [[Al-Qadim]].
<gallery>
Desert centaur MC Al-Qadim.png
</gallery>

*'''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.
<gallery>
Sea centaur Dragon 116.png
</gallery>

*'''[[Wemic]]''': Lion centaurs that originally had human upper-halfs, but later got a more [[furry]] redesign.
<gallery>
Wemic Monster card.jpg
Wemic 1e.png
Wemic MM 2e.png
Wemic Portraits.png
Wemic Ritual.png
MoF Wemic.png
RoF Wemic.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Hybsil''': 3 foot tall [[sprite]]-deer centaurs.
<gallery>
hybsil monster card.jpg
hybsil RoZK.jpg
hybsil MCAV3.jpg
</gallery>

*'''[[Bariaur]]''': goat or sheep centaurs native to [[Ysgard]]. Made a playable race by [[Planescape]].
<gallery>
Bariaur MC8.jpg
Free league member.jpg
Wooly cupgrass Uncaged.jpg
Bariaur (PlaHB).jpg
Expansionist Dragon 339.png
</gallery>

*'''Zebranaur''': Dark-skinned zebra centaurs for your Africa-themed setting.
<gallery>
zebranaur MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Dorvesh''': dwarf-donkey centaurs.
<gallery>
dorvesh MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Gnoat''': gnome-goat centaurs.
<gallery>
gnoat MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Ha'pony''': halfling-pony centaurs. The name is a pun on ''ha'penny''.
<gallery>
ha'pony MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
centaur 1e.jpg
Centaur monster card.jpg
centaur MCV1.jpg
Centaur mummy MCAV2.jpg|Centaur [[Mummy]]
half-fey centaur 3e FF.jpg|[[Half-Fey]] Centaur
centaur 4e.jpg
Centaur B1.png|Pathfinder
Centaur ARG.png
</gallery>

=[[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. They were dropped, for some reason, but eventually returned in 6th edition after having been reworked into the [[Centigor]]s.

The [[Chaos Dwarves]] has bull centaur, the result of a Chaos Dwarf given 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 [[Zoat]]s. 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, centaurs are - or at least used to be - one of the races inhabiting the realm of [[Ghur]]. The character [[Kragnos]] is a centaur of the Drogrukh clan 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 centaurs were wiped out whilst he was gone.

=[[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 [[Abhuman|''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 [[Games Workshop|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 [[abhuman]]s 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 [[Khorne|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 [[mutant]]s by more Puritanical Imperials.

Also we have the [[Zoats]], a <strike>now-abandoned</strike> (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]]=
{{monstergirls}}
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 [[Chakat|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, [[drider|spiders]]... heck, [[lamia]]s 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 [[dickgirl|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 [[minotaur|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]]==
[[File:MGE Centaur.jpg|thumb|250px|right|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.
{{clear}}

==[[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.
<gallery>
Image:Centaur Breeding.jpg|Centaur sexual habits in Daily Life with Monstergirl
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Races]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Greek Mythology]]

Treant

2022-02-07T04:24:32Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:8A8:AD97:9AEE:5BA6: /* Evil and Undead Treants */

[[File:Treant 5e.png|thumb|right|300px]]

The '''Treant''' is the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] depiction of the iconic [[treeman]] monster. Stolen shamelessly from the depiction by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], [[Gary Gygax]] changed the name from "ent" to "treant" in order to avoid legal disputes, much the same way that [[hobbits]] were turned into [[halflings]].

Treants are massive trees with the ability to walk around and talk. They consider themselves the guardians and protectors of their non-mobile brethren, and thus defend the woods, forests and jungles from use by humanoid races.

Although usually typed as Plants, for obvious reasons, Treants have a tradition of being associated with fey creatures, mostly because those creatures are also typically portrayed as being close to nature and sworn to its defense. Treants were even a playable race in the Basic D&D supplement "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk", a splatbook dedicated to fey PC races.

==The Family Tree==
The overlap between "treant" and "killer tree" is rather considerable, particularly in the days of [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], with such creatures as Black Willows, Dark Trees, and Norans all called out as tree-monsters that are often mistaken for treants by the unwary or unwise. However, AD&D is also home to a number of a variant treants... most of which, strangely, are evil.

[[Dungeon Magazine]] #61 introduced the concept of the Greater Treant, which is basically a bigger, stronger, more magical version of the treant. It has never appeared in more official sourcebooks.

===Athasian Treant===
The treants of [[Dark Sun|Athas]] are highly unusual in that they are not natural creatures... well, "natural" by the standards of a D&D world. Instead, they are a kind of [[druid]]ic golem, created when a druid successfully entreats a Spirit of the Land (water subtype) to enter a mystically prepared Tree of Life and bind with it, creating an enchanted sentinel set to protect a specific area. The ritual involves the spells ''Liveoak'', ''Reincarnate'' and ''Tree of Life'', and is not undertaken lightly; when the water spirit takes up residence in the tree of life, the water source originally inhabited by that spirit quickly dries up and disappears.

Still, the Athasian treant is an unflinching guardian; whilst it will seek to preserve its own life where possible, it will happily die to protect the wilderness, not least of which because its magical nature makes it immortal. Unless destroyed, an Athasian treant will live forever, and even if the treant itself is destroyed, the water spirit will simply be set free. Admittedly, it can't materialize again for a period of time equal to the time that it spent as a treant, but even so, it leaves the spirit completely unharmed. That said, the spirit and the treant do think of each other as separate entities; the treant retains no memories of its past existence as a water spirit, and will not give up its life just to resume its spirit form, whilst the spirit can remember what it experienced as a treant.

Athasian treants are most commonly used to safeguard groves of trees of life, since conventional forests are pretty much unknown on Athas. Regardless, it bears mentioning that they are actually not that powerful by the standards of Athasian monsters - in fact, the water spirit is all around stronger and more dangerous, and the splatbooks even call this out! But, being rooted more firmly in the physical world makes Athasian treants far quicker to react to despoilers and [[Defiler (Dark Sun)|Defilers]] than a spirit, so the tradeoff is useful.

Compared to standard treants, Athasian treants are ''brutes'', doing a whopping 6d6 damage per strike from their branch-claws - for comparison's sake, an '''elder''' treant only does 4d6! They're capable of lifting up to 500 pounds, and can hurl a single boulder as a ranged attack each round, doing 4d6 damage on a hit. They're even more vulnerable to fire than regular treants, lacking the usual resistance to magical flames, but possess a natural affinity for water magic, which allows them to cast each of the following spells once per day: create water, purify food and drink, create food and water, lower water, reflecting pool, conjure elemental (water), part water, and transmute water to dust. Each of these is an innate ability of the Athasian treant and is cast without verbal, somatic, or material components at an initiative rating of 2. However, this spellcasting comes at the forfeiture of the standard treant ability tro animate trees... which is no great loss, since Athas doesn't really HAVE that many trees.

===Evil and Undead Treants===
One of the subtler themes of [[Gothic Horror]] can be summed up as "Nature is Evil". As a result, the treants of [[Ravenloft]] are uniformly malicious. Even a treant brought into the [[Demiplane of Dread]] from another world will soon find itself infected by the evil energies of the demiplane and corrupted into a murderous parody of its former self.

For the most part, evil treants are... well, treants but evil. They despise all that is good and innocent, and go to great lengths to torment and terrorize travelers in their domains. Whereas regular treants photosynthesize, evil treants are carnivores with a particular fondness for the flesh of sapient creatures - the more innocent and pure, the better. Such is their malice that most evil treants believe that meat is only digestible if consumed whilst a victim is still alive and screaming, and they will discard the corpses of those they accidentally torture to death before they can feed to rot rather than eat them. Forests where these creatures settle invariably become twisted, dark places, haunted by [[ghost]]s, magical predators and evil [[fey]].

Legend has it that smearing one's body in sap taken from an evil treant will imbue the individual with supernatural durability, as if targeted by a ''Barkskin'' spell.

The most famous of all the evil treants in Ravenloft is '''Blackroot'''; once a sacred [[druid]]ic oak tree in Tepest, he was ritually corrupted by the Sisters Mindefisk, the [[hag]] [[darklord]]s of that domain, turning him into an abomination poised to take the realm for his own should the hags fall.

An even greater abomination than the standard evil treant is the '''[[undead]]''' treant; an evil treant that has refused to accept the end of its life and instead of deciding to go out in a final wild orgy of violence and death, has transformed itself into a kind of [[lich]]plant to continue its evil. Distinguishable by their lack of leaves and lusterless, almost brittle-looking bark, undead treants lose the ability to animate trees, but possess an instinctive command of [[druid]]ic magic (typically having the equivalent of 2-6 levels in that class), can extrude blood-sucking roots to drain victims dry, and wield a number of the typical undead resiliences... however, they are also immune to the effects of sunlight, holy water, and the [[Turn Undead]] abilities of both [[cleric]]s and [[paladin]]s, as well as being immune to spells that specifically control either undead or plants.

Such is the malevolence of treants of Ravenloft that undead treants are not outcasts, but instead regarded as respected, even revered leaders amongst the circles of their still-living counterparts.

Alone amongst the treant variants listed on this page, Evil and Undead Treants made it into [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]].

===Black Treant===
Formally known as '''Lyrannikin''', the so-called "Black Treants" of [[Greyhawk|Oerth]] are not a species as such, but rather are treants who have been spiritually corrupted and turned to the path of evil. his happens in a variety of ways: by magical change; the heart of a treant becoming rotted by blight; or in the case of very ancient treants, a festering hatred of those who destroy old forests, so that the treant becomes consumed by a desire for revenge that becomes indiscriminate. They are a subject of deep pity amongst true treants, who usually try to capture them and cure them of their wickedness where possible. Their rage turns them into savage killers, sleeping only in short snatches of restless slumber driven to constantly move, hunt, and kill.

Roughly 30% of all lyrannikin suffer some horrible blight that corrupts and twists their woody flesh; the bark rots from their hides, their limbs decay and hang limply, and [[fungus]] wells up from within their cracks, crevices and recesses. Blighted lyrannikin suffer greatly from their decay; their lifespans are shortened (though, admittedly, it tends to be elderly treants who most vulnerable to the blights in the first place - the official ratios for blighted lyrannikin are given as 20% of younger, 30% of middle-aged, and 50% of elder), their blows weakened, and their ability to photosynthesize impeded, forcing them to substitute by bathing their roots in the blood of slaughtered creatures. The only dubious benefit is that blighted lyrannikin don't suffer the traditional treant vulnerability to fire, as their diseased timber is too soaked with wet rot and mold to catch light easily. Such blights aren't incurable, but the effort isn't easy.

It seems highly likely that the [[Scarlet Brotherhood]] has captured treants and is experimenting with the use of blights that will turn the treants to evil while not affecting their health or combat ability (no reductions to damage dice rolls). These specially-bred lyrannikin may well be being placed within the Menowood to attack the defenders of Sunndi who spy in the eastern margin of that wood; there have been several reports of young lyrannikin (an unusual occurrence) from that wood during the years of the Greyhawk Wars.

==Treant PCs for BECMI==
Ironically, the treant isn't the biggest or most powerful monster race-class in BECMI - that title actually goes to the [[sphinx]]. They have a 13 level racial class, starting at level -3 to represent the need to "mature" to be on par with a standard monster specimen of their race.

::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 10/18, Dexterity 3/18, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 3/18, Wisdom 6/18, Charisma 3/18
::Save as a [[Fighter]] with level equal to the ''greater'' of the treant's Hit Dice or Level.
::Usable Magic Items: Any Permitted to [[Fighter]]s
::Natural Weapons: A treant can strike twice per round with its branch-limbs, doing 1d6 damage per strike at level -3, 1d8 at level -2, 1d10 at level -1, and finally 2d6 at level 0. These natural attacks benefit from high Strength, and a treant whose Hit Dice are high enough treats its natural weapons as if they were magic weapons, as per the rules for monsters.
::Natural Armor Class: A treant's natural armor class is AC 8 at level -3, AC 6 at level -2, AC 4 at level -1, and finally improves to AC 2 at level 0. Dexterity bonuses and penalties apply as normal.
::Bizarre Body Shape: Treants cannot wear armor of any sort, their tree-like bodies are simply impossible to create armor for. Additionally, some magic items may be unusable by treants due to being structured for humanoid use.
::Flammable: A treant struck by a fire-based attack takes +1 damage per damage die.
::Hardwood: An attack from a blunt weapon only inflicts (1+Str bonus+enchantment bonus) damage on a treant.
::Natural Camouflage: In a forest environment, a treant has a 50% chance to disguise itself as an ordinary tree.
::Animate Trees: From level 0, a treant can animate up to two trees that are within 60 feet to fight at its side. Animated trees have AC 2, HD 8, 2 Attacks doing 2d6 damage each, MV 30' (10'), Save as 8th level [[Fighter]]s, and ML 12.
::Brew Potion: From 10th level, a treant can use ingredients harvested from the forest to brew analogues for common potions, just like a [[wizard|magic-user]].

{| class=wikitable
!(Level ||Experience Points || Hit Dice
|-
|-3 ||-48,000|| 2d8
|-
|-2 ||-36,500|| 4d8
|-
|-1 ||-24,000|| 6d8
|-
|0 ||0|| 8d8
|-
|1 ||48,000|| -
|-
|2 ||145,000|| 9d8
|-
|3 ||340,000|| -
|-
|4 ||640,000|| 10d8
|-
|5 ||940,000|| -
|-
|6 ||1,240,000|| 11d8
|-
|7 ||1,540,000|| -
|-
|8 ||1,840,000|| 12d8
|-
|9 ||2,140,000|| -
|-
|10 ||2,440,000|| 12d8+3
|}

Each subsequent level costs 300,000 EXP and grants +3 hit points.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Treant 1e.jpg|1e
Treant TTotWF.jpg|PC1
Treant Monster card.jpg|AD&D Monster Card
Treant MM 2e.png|2e
Treant MCV1.jpg|Monstrous Compendium: Vol. 1
Treant 3e.png|3e
Treant 4e.jpg|4e
Treant 5e.png|5e
Treant B1.png|Pathfinder
Evil treant MC Ravenloft.jpg|Evil Treant
Evil treant blackroot.jpg
Evil treant Shadow Rift.png
Undead treant MC Ravenloft.jpg|Undead Treant
Undead treant DoD.jpg
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}

[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Pathfinder]]

Starship Troopers

2022-02-07T03:56:02Z

2600:1700:19C0:2760:8A8:AD97:9AEE:5BA6:

[[File:Whatiplayed starship troopers.jpg|thumb|450px|The movie gets it completely wrong. But seriously, read the book. Then see the movie.]]
{{topquote|Powered armour is one-half the reason we call ourselves ‘Mobile Infantry’ instead of just ‘infantry’. Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence, more fire-power, greater endurance, less vulnerability.<br/>A suit isn’t a space suit – although it can serve as one. Its not primarily armour – although the Knights of the round table were not armoured as well as we are. It isn’t a tank – but a single M.I private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted if anybody was silly enough to put tanks against M.I.<br/>A Suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little – on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in (like burning down a house to get one flea)...|Jonny Rico}}

'''''Starship Troopers''''' is a science fiction book by [[Robert Heinlein]], later adapted into a series of movies, a cartoon, and several board and wargames. It influenced the look and feel of science fiction militaries that came after -- and it influences real-world militaries as well, as it is on the recommended reading lists for recruits to the United States Marine Corps and Navy.

The basic storyline is that [[humanity]] is fighting a war against an implacable species of insectoid aliens called "Bugs" or "Arachnids". The actual front-line combatants are the Mobile Infantry, an elite, all-volunteer force equipped with devastating weapons and cutting-edge power armor. Life for the average human is not bad, but the only way to attain citizenship and the perks that go with it, such as suffrage, is to do a term of public service. Military service is only one of the possible avenues to citizenship mentioned in the book, a point often overlooked due to the heavy emphasis placed on the armed forces by the viewpoint character and his comrades.

Does any of this sound familiar?

''Would you like to know more?''

''Starship Troopers'' is credited with the codification and popularizing of modern science fiction tropes such as [[powered armor]], [[drop pod]]s, hive-minded insect aliens, and various other [[Space Marine]] tropes. The space marine and power armor were concepts invented "proper" in E. E. "Doc" Smith's ''Lensman'' books (with the former term first showing up in a 1932 short story by Bob Olsen), though Heinlein would actually use the phrase "Space Marine" before Smith did; he also openly cited Doc Smith as the main influence on his own writings. Regarding power armor, Heinlein had the advantage of writing in the era of computers, and so was able to give a reasonable high level description of how the technology would (and increasingly, does) work.

Such tropes would go on to feature prominently in many other sci-fi franchises and works - including the ''Alien'' films, ''[[Starcraft]]'', and of course ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''.

== The Book ==
[[File:StarShipTroopersCover.jpg|thumb|450px|]]
Now if you're here, you might be aware Starship Troopers has become a [[Skub|controversial work]], in large part because it is often mischaracterized by people who didn't read the book at all and/or experienced the movie first. What many such people might be surprised to learn is that the Starship Troopers book is ''not'' a war story in the traditional sense. In fact, there's only a mere handful of scenes where there's any real fighting at all, and it doesn't dwell that much on the action. The war with the Bugs simply serves as the backdrop to the book's plot, the majority of which deals with the the main character's training, career, and education while in federal service as Mobile Infantry. Large sections of the book are also concerned with history, philosophy, political science, economics and other social issues ranging from spanking to the purpose of war. After all, this wouldn't BE a Heinlein book without him including a somewhat [[TL;DR|thorough and lengthy]] exploration of his ideals.

===The Terran Federation===
The Terran Federation in Starship Troopers is an interstellar constitutional democratic republic. A constitution limits and describes the powers and responsibilities of government, and citizens vote for representatives. The main difference between their society and ours is the distinction between citizens and civilians. Civilians have all the normal rights and protections of a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy liberal democracy], except that they cannot vote. Voting is restricted to citizens, people who complete 2 or more years of federal service. Federal service is generally used for public works projects or military service such as space janitor, terraformer, starship pilot, or Mobile Infantry (or occasionally desk jockey, but they're mostly wounded vets of more dangerous jobs). Everyone in the Federation is guaranteed the right to (try to) become citizens, and the government is compelled to find something useful for them to do in their service without regard to race, religion, sex, class, disability status, or any other identity group. If you're a blind quadriplegic but insist on taking the oath and sticking out your term, then they'll find something suitably dangerous and useful to humanity for you to do, like being a medical test subject or something; what matters is that it is hard, contributes to the common good, and that you will remember what your vote cost you (assuming you survive to enjoy it).

The Federation's justification for restricting voting to citizens is to ensure only people who have demonstrated that they actually give a fuck about humanity as a whole are allowed, via their vote, to exercise the violence of the state. Federal service is intentionally made difficult, dangerous, uncomfortable, and poorly paid in order to weed out people who are motivated by personal gain and would use their political power for corrupt personal advancement or the advancement of a particular faction. They argue that a person's educational, class, wealth, or hereditary status is irrelevant, and by limiting the franchise to those with proven moral status, the state will act more justly and responsibly. The proportion of the population that are citizens varies widely by province, from 2% to over 80%. The supreme commander of the Federation military is the Sky Marshal, and only those who have [[Autarch|commanded both a Mobile Infantry regiment and a Navy capital ship]] at respective points in their careers are eligible for the position. The Terran Federation has enjoyed peace, prosperity, and good relations with its neighbors for generations, making war between humans a distant memory.

A required, but audited, class in all high schools and officer candidate schools is "History and Moral Philosophy", which teaches the students, (and the reader) how the Terran Federation came to exist; as nobody has to actually pass it in high school, few students take it seriously there. Sometime in the 20th century, most nations were on the brink of anarchy due to rampantly corrupt governments, unaccountable and irresponsible electorates, and widespread criminal gangs. A major and devastating world war breaks out, which collapses the already shaky states into chaos. Returning veterans organized local governments that grew and coalesced into the Terran Federation of today. The Terran Federation would later blame the failures of the 20th century on politicians and voters that were unconcerned with the well-being of society at large, and the inability of society to instill morality into its youth. The resulting Federation institutions are specifically designed to address that failure. Thus, many discussions in the book are concerned with discipline, responsibility, punishment, and morality.

The Mobile Infantry are the mainstays of the Federation military: they are an elite and high-tech infantry corps that uses powered armor equipped with multi-spectrum sensors, lasers, jump jets, flamethrowers, missiles, tactical nuclear weapons, and various other bombs and personal weapons. Each Mobile Infantryman costs $500,000 (if that's 1959 dollars, that would be over $4 million today) to train and equip. Mobile Infantry often employ hit-and-run tactics by [[drop pod]]ding from orbit and then doing as much damage as possible while skimming over buildings and terrain with their jump-packs toward a designated dust off point. Formations of Mobile Infantry typically have several miles between individual soldiers, using missile launchers and grenades to cover a wide swath as they go. Mobile Infantry training is comprehensive and extremely difficult. Recruits train with everything from knives and sticks to rifles, lasers, and tactical nukes, and in all environments, from mountain ranger to spaceborne assault in vacuum. Large-scale training exercises are done Russian-roulette style, with 1 live round for every few hundred blanks, meaning there are real (albeit rare) casualties in training. However medical and cybernetic technology has advanced to the point that any wound that isn't instantly fatal can be rapidly repaired; indeed, the recruiting sergeant who signs Rico up is missing an eye and three limbs, but when he has his prosthetics on you wouldn't know it to look at him. He takes the prosthetics off during the day just to make prospective recruits think ''really'' hard about whether they want to sign up for federal service.

===The Xenos===
The Arachnids are arthropods with 8 legs and a social structure similar to ants or termites. They have a terrifying appearance. There are 4 castes: workers, warriors, brains, and queens. Workers are defenseless and incapable of fighting, and described more as biological machinery than sapient creatures. Warriors are very tough fighters and are psychologically incapable of surrendering. Brains are the leaders of the species, while queens are apparently just there for reproduction, though nobody knows for sure since nobody has actually seen one. Most of their civilization is in underground tunnels that go deep enough that no one knows how big they are. The bugs of the book are particularly notable for being one of the first hive mind insectoid species in ''all fiction'' that actually uses technology; they are shown to build starships, equip their warriors with advanced beam weapons, and use some kind of weapon that can destroy Earth cities over interstellar distances. The latter is admittedly never given any detail or description, but it's probably fair to assume it's a little more advanced than ''throwing a fucking rock''. They're also one of the only hive minds in fiction that actually has alliances with other species and takes prisoners.

The Bugs are not the only xenos in this setting; there is another species called the Skinnies who are very loosely described as humanoid, presumably generic gray aliens. They start out allied with the Bugs, and then the Federation drops one platoon of [[SPESS MEHREENS]] armed with nukes on their planet to show them how grimdark things will get if they continue to be allied with the Bugs, and then the Skinnies stop being allied with the Bugs. FYI, this is the book's opener and doesn't stop getting better from there.

===The Bug War===
The Terran Federation goes to war with the Arachnids after the Bugs destroy the city of Buenos Aires. The book leaves doubt about who actually provoked the war, but it seems a straightforward ''Thucydides's Trap'' affair, where one power grows and another decides the galaxy isn't big enough for the both of them. For his part, Rico doesn't seem to have much actual antipathy towards the Bugs, viewing the conflict as an unavoidable fact of life, when he bothers to think much about it (he doesn't even have that big of an initial reaction to hearing about the destruction of Buenos Aires). As he puts it, both species are tough and smart and competing for the same real estate in a finite galaxy; ''of course'' they're going to go to war over it if they can't negotiate.

The Federation immediately invades the Arachnid home world of Klendathu in retaliation, but is summarily BTFO. For some time afterwards, humans are on the losing side as they attempt to weaken the Bugs with harassment. Over the next few years, several more cities and other installations in the Sol system are destroyed, while the Federation destroys peripheral Bug colonies, pacifies/converts Bug allies, captures Bug leaders, and learns more about Bug tactics, society, and biology. Starting out, the Bugs' biology gives them an inherent advantage, as they are able to rapidly replace losses. If 1000 Bugs die to kill a single trooper, it's a net win for the Bugs, and it takes a while for the Federation to adapt its weapons and tactics. The book ends just as the Federation is massing forces for a second invasion of Klendathu, in which the Federation appears to have a massive advantage, and presumably will win.

===RAGE===
Remember that controversy we mentioned before? Well...

''Starship Troopers'' was specifically written as a riposte against the activists that were agitating against nuclear weapons testing during the late 50s, and was published only a few years before the Vietnam War became a major global crisis; thus, its reception and subsequent movie adaptation should be understood within that context. According to Heinlein, a naval engineer, the book’s publication and awards “[[RAGE|enraged]]” the activists, because it opposed much of what they advocated: the book is pro-military at a time when large parts of the university literati were violently opposed to the armed forces. In the 60s and 70s, the debate between socialism and capitalism was still hotly contested, and several discussions in Starship Troopers place it solidly in the capitalist camp. It is also contemptuous of the social sciences (note that the culture around the "hard" science disciplines is such that they often tend to sneer down their noses at the "soft" sciences and at least at this point in his life Heinlein absolutely lived down to that stereotype of the STEM nerd), meaning that people who had the literary training to take the book apart often felt insulted by it personally. In the case of the modern social sciences this insult is EXPLICITLY in the text, faulting them with the decline of values in the 20th century. And Heinlein's warhawk values and contempt for anyone who disagrees with him leap off the page.

The result was that ''Starship Troopers'' has been accused of advocating fascism for the better part of a century, and though the worst of this reputation would eventually pass, it illustrates well how perceptions of the work shifted with the changing times. Come the 1980s, Heinlein's idealization of militaristic values and warfare as key to the creation of moral, socially-responsible citizens were far less compatible with the post-Vietnam counterculture's pacifist sentiments and disillusioned, often maimed and maladjusted veterans who felt abandoned by their country after fighting in a morally-murky conflict. It is perhaps relevant at this juncture to point out that Heinlein was ''not'' a frontline soldier and never experienced modern total war firsthand, as he was invalided out of the Navy seven years before America entered WWII.

Among the more merited criticisms is the harshness of some Federation laws, under which many misdemeanors warrant corporal punishment, and truly violent criminals are simply executed. The idea that a violent felon could be rehabilitated is dismissed as irrelevant, for if they ever truly repented their only course of action to cope with their failings would be suicide. Meanwhile, it's not fair to the rest of society to give them a second chance that might end in recidivism; better to make stark examples. Such laws are few in number for civilians, and more numerous for active military and citizens, but regardless feel very abrasive to a modern audience, and modern social sciences dismissed this "harsh punishments make for few punishments" attitude even at the time. (Dostoyevsky wrote that it is the certainty, rather than the severity of punishment, that deters crime the better part of a century before ''Starship Troopers''.)

Heinlein was said to have based this future society off of Switzerland (which has a longstanding tradition of national service) but made voluntary, as he was not a fan of conscription. However, the glorification of the military's role in strengthening society and aforementioned strict law was often taken at face value, to the point that some people accused Heinlein himself of being fascist. In truth, Heinlein was more sort of a proto-libertarian, to the point where several long stretches of dialogue in ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'' outright advocated anarchism, to say nothing of his later works. Of course such a system, in which some could vote and others could not with a high social tolerance for heavy-handed punishment, naturally has plenty of room to be abused and twisted to fascist ends (depending on how the voters are determined eligible and what beliefs prevail among them), or at least more general authoritarianism in a stratocratic junta. And the ''creation'' of the Federation is described in a chapter that dismisses modern liberal democracies as decadent and weak, and envisions a future where hardbitten veterans have to reestablish order through vigilantism and mass violence, all of which is ''pretty'' close to what actual fascists like the Blackshirts believed would happen in the future.

==The Movie==
Eventually, it came time for Hollywood to do its inevitable movie-of-the-popular-book, and shooting began for a Starship Troopers movie. The movie actually follows the book fairly closely, even repeating some scenes from the book verbatim. There were some changes however. A few of the characters were race swapped or gender swapped, and the power armor was completely erased. In particular, the intelligent planning, objectives, and tactics used during battles were deleted to make the mobile infantry look stupid. The bugs also had all of their technology removed and, most egregiously, their way of destroying Buenos Aires was with an asteroid they supposedly threw. [[wat|From all the way across the galaxy]]. There were also a few dialogue additions that were inserted with the clear intention of making the Federation government look more malevolent (along with the subtle implication that the bugs weren't actually responsible for the asteroid and the Federation just blamed them as an excuse to go to war). Why were these changes made? the answer lies in the previous 60 years of rage surrounding the book, and the director Paul Verhoeven.

Paul Verhoeven had been a child in the Netherlands during WWII and the [[Nazi]] occupation who [[Grimdark|almost died via collateral damage when a bomb from an Allied airstrike landed in his backyard]]. Such an experience could only color his perceptions of war for the worse: Verhoeven only read the first few chapters of Heinlein's book, and he saw the Terrans as [[Imperium of Man|a bunch of Space Nazis]] (ironically so, since Heinlein served the US Navy in the 20s and 30s), between their near-conscription level of military signups and the incredibly heavy use of propaganda enforcing "the individual's obligation to society". As such, he decided to crank the patriotic jingoism up to eleven and make the Terrans a bunch of hot-blooded dumbasses who, aside from a couple of sergeants, had no idea how to do anything more advanced than run at the enemy shooting their guns while looking pretty. The Terran political officers were even dressed up in black Nazi trenchcoats, to really drive the point home how much Verhoeven hated Heinlein's book. The movie is a giant 2-hour "fuck you" disguised as a parody disguised as a sci-fi action movie.

...OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration: Verhoeven was already working on a movie at that time before he had even read Heinlein's book, a dark satire sci-fi film similar to Robocop, except instead of being about capitalism in Detroit, it was about fascism in space. One of the marketers at the production company noticed some similarities to the novel and decided that the movie would sell better as an adaptation of an influential novel than as a new property. So everything was renamed and several aspects rewritten to make the movie into a loose adaptation with as few budget increases as possible. The biggest "fuck you" was mostly Verhoeven agreeing to name his movie ''Starship Troopers''; a lot of what was considered more direct "suck it Heinlein" moments were accidental.

Ironically, for all the Heinlein fans out there bitching about hippie pinko liberal arts majors, Verhoeven was ''also'' a physics and math major, STEM nerd, and naval engineer. He would also go on to be responsible for the ever-beloved ''Robocop'', which gleefully drove a pike up the ass of Reagan-era policing and government-corporate encroachment in a way that would make Judge Dredd proud.

===RAGE II: Electric Boogaloo===
The controversy of course continues on 4chan, and comes primarily from three factions who argue with each other every single day on /tv/'s ''Starship Troopers'' troll threads:

* Lefties and [[tumblr|ostensibly left-adjacent]] people who think the Federation is fascist (and fascism is bad).
* [[/pol/|Neo-Nazis]] who think the Federation is fascist (and fascism is good).
* [[Neckbeards|Heinlein fans]] who think the Federation is not fascist (and that anyone who disagrees is a retard).

====Leftists====
The book's got ''some'' evidence to support the first viewpoint - the simple fact that the founding of the Federation reads like a classic fascist's wet dream of manly, hard-headed soldiers standing up to reassert social order when a decadent, failing democratic government is in a state of collapse (see the rise of Fascism in Italy and the Freikorps after WW1). However, the people arguing this - including many leftists and those playing at leftism - are also, as a rule, heavily influenced by Verhoeven's movie. Said movie not only threw in a bunch of direct parallels to historical fascist movements (an asteroid attack being a false-flag operation, for instance, as with all those false-flag attacks made by fascist powers during the lead-up to WW II to manufacture casus belli and justify naked aggression), but played up the Nazi fashion of the cast. Additionally, while denying them franchise without civil service, The Federation has a great deal of legal protection for its non-citizen population. In the end, a lot of them end up arguing against the idealized view of stratocratic government the book presents; while they aren't wrong ''historically'', well... it's also a ''book'', and Heinlein isn't supporting that form of government, either.

====Neo-Nazis====
The film also ended up handing ammo to the second group of people, despite wearing its satirical intentions on its sleeve (if not the entire coat - this is Verhoeven we're talking about); it also manages to make the Federation look like a decent place to live with a functional government, because his satire usually consists of letting the people we're supposed to disagree with present their points into the camera without argument. The result is that real-life fascists]] like to use it as a bad-faith example of how fascism isn't that bad, really. Is this Verhoeven's fault?

''Fuck'' no, they're fascists, and as such are categorically weasels that co-opt any angle they can get their hands on.

If anything could be blamed on the film and/or Verhoeven ''besides'' being too heavy-handed, it's that the satirical approach of "let the villains state what their motives are outright in a way that makes them sound patently bugfuck insane to any rational person" thus assumes a rational audience. Far from an argument for some baby-brained "satire requires clarity of purpose" bullshit, the conclusion is simply that most neo-Nazis and fascists [[/pol/|are not very smart]].

====Heinlein fans====
Heinlein fans tend to be very, ''very'' protective of ''Starship Troopers'', and very defensive about the supposed virtues of the Federation, to the point of inventing things that aren't in the text - which doesn't go into much detail on the inner structure of how the Federation government actually works. Granted, this is in service of of one of the most important writers in the history of science fiction's most seminal works, but even so it can be a bit tardy.

There is something to be said for drawing equivalences between the way the vote works in ''Starship Troopers'' and the way it worked in the classical democracies and republics of the ancient world - and the Federation is not a place that discriminates on the basis of race, class, or sex, virtually all of which are anathema to modern-day fascist movements even if they aren't necessarily requirements for a belief system to be fascist.

Ultimately, you have people who didn't get the movie, people who thought the movie was great, people who said that the book was better, and people who didn't get the movie, thought it was great and made a 'sequel' with... flashlights, and all of these things are backed up by the intensely political nature of both the books and the parody. At least the third one (''Starship Troopers 3: Marauder'') featured real powered armor, for all of like five minutes.

So yeah... '''''Lotta''''' skub there.

===The Remake?===
Talk circulated in late 2016 of a possible remake of ''Starship Troopers'', supposedly more faithful to the book. Remakes are the vogue in Hollywood in the 2010s, and it would not be difficult to make a more faithful adaptation than Verhoeven's, but "more faithful" doesn't mean "particularly faithful", and it's easy to ''talk'' about movies but much harder to make them. In short: we'll believe it when we see it.

===Then... the light===
In 2012, Director Shinji Aramaki (the genius behind much a mecha anime, the Gen-1 Transformer toys, and the co-owner of a CG-animation studio) gave us the CGI-animation movie ''Starship Troopers: Invasion''. A Direct-to-DVD movie set after the events of "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder". Featuring a new cast, as well as return of Johnny Rico, now a eye-patch wearing Big Boss clone. It also gave us awesome power armour. The movie revolves around an incident aboard the Starship John A. Warden, and follows two squads of MI troopers as they attempt to stop the Bugs and save Earth. The movie is so much closer to what Heinlein wrote about and envisioned that you can practically feel the fanboying of the creators for the book. Other characters include Carman Ibanez and Carl Jenkins, although none of the original three protagonists from the first movie retain their actors as their voice.

That changed in the 2017 movie "Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars". Another CG-movie by Shinji Aramaki, and starring Casper Van Dien as the voice of Colonel Johnny Rico; the movie features Rico as the main character again (finally!). Improving on the depiction of power armour from the last film, it is set during a Bug outbreak on the surface of Mars, where Rico leads a team of barely-trained Martian MI recruits against an army of Bugs. The movie was released for the 20th anniversary of the original movie's release, and features the return of Dina Meyer as Dizzy Flores...I can feel your confusion already. Just watch the film. All will be revealed.

==The OVA?????==
[[image:StarshiptroopersOVA.png|thumb|300px|[https://youtu.be/BfbBcrGetVg\ BELIEVE IN DREAMS AND YOUR DREAMS WILL COME TRUUUUE]]]

Yes, believe it or not, there ''is'' an [[anime]] of Starship Troopers. [[Skub|Supposedly, it the most "faithful," adaptation so far]], although this is mainly due to it being based off of the Japanese edition of the novel, so it's honestly not wrong... While not 100% faithful, it comes pretty close, and has the benefit of coming well before the Vehoeven movie and the associated controversies. The biggest differences are:
* The lack of emphasis on the difference between civilians and citizens.
* The aliens are more blob-like rather than insectoid.
* The story is more linear as it follows Rico from high school until his post-deployment.
* [[Retcon|Several characters are dropped or never seen again]].
The verdict of whether or not it's any good is up to [[you]].
Side note: check out the mobile infantry helmets in OVA and tell me they weren’t nicked to be Master Chief’s helmet in Halo.

== ''Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles'' ==
{{main|Approved Television}}

A 1999-2000 CGI cartoon adaptation of the movie. The computer animation looks its age, but the show otherwise combines the better elements from the book (e.g. the aliens and small-squad focus that the movie left out) and the movie (e.g. a slightly cynical take on the Federation, without Heinlein's lectures or Verhoeven's over-the-top satire). It was cool, but it was also plagued by budget and production troubles. The series progressed from Pluto, through the galaxy, to the Bugs' homeworld of Klendathu, and then the Feds got word that the Bug Queen escaped and is invading Earth.

And then production stopped, with the last four episodes not produced.

Commentary from the production staff indicates that the final episodes would have featured the Queen's final attack destroying SICON headquarters and turning it into a volcano, followed by a Federation counter-attack themed after Dante's ''Inferno'', culminating in a final showdown between one of the main-character squad members vs. the Queen herself, but sadly we'll never get to see it. The material leading up to it is still worth watching, though!

== Games ==
There have been a few video games, none outstanding, but [[Avalon Hill]] made a two-player board game way back in 1976 -- in fact, a review of it was included in the very first June-July 1977 issue of ''[[White Dwarf]]''. One player takes the role of the Arachnids and draws up a hidden map of where the bugs are hiding and where their tunnels run, and then the human player tries to root them out. It was re-released following the movie.

[[Mongoose Publishing]] produced a [[d20 System]] RPG and a miniatures game from 2005-2008. Both represented a valiant attempt to gather every extant piece of Starship Troopers material to date, contradictions and all, and make them coexist in their own distinct universe. There were plans to port the RPG to the [[Traveller]] system and produce a second edition of the miniatures game, but they no longer have the license.

[[Alternity]] came out a year after the Verhoeven movie hit screens, and it's flagship Star*Drive setting included a vaguely trooper-esque storyline. At the very edge of explored space the Silver Bell colony is wiped out by a spacefaring insect hive, forcing the Galactic Concord to dispatch a military force to investigate the new threat and drive them from the system.

== Movie Props ==
Whatever its flaws, the Paul Verhoeven movie was still one of the last big-budget science fiction war movies done before the advent of full CGI battle sequences (which it helped pioneer with the bugs). Outfitting a small army of extras for the action scenes required a large quantity of costumes and props, which would continue to be recycled in television and movies for the next decade. The Alliance soldiers in [[Firefly]] were using these props, only slightly modified, as were the baddies in the Gundam G-Saviour movie. Hell, they were even used as is for Power Rangers Lost Galaxy!

== External Links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOQMpb_R41Y A free audiobook of Starship Troopers] on YouTube.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGHCoVzqtk Klendathu Drop], from the first movie's soundtrack, and one of the only features of the movie that everyone agrees is awesome. Very useful in [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Deathwatch]] and [[Only War]] games.
* [https://youtu.be/XGf7mLVajsk The OVA equivalent.] For those fast paced [[Mecha]] skirmish games.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Starship-troopers-traitor-of-mars-Big-boss.jpg| Trators of Mars Feturing Rico as [[Metal Gear#Big Boss|Big Boss]]
</gallery>
[[Category: Literature]]