Editing Awnshegh (section)

==[[Minotaur|The Minotaur]]==
The lord of the Maze of the Minotaur is mysterious; though folklore links him to the famous adventurer Maalvar there's some scholarly dispute as to its veracity and accuracy.  While he sometimes gives interviews, the Minotaur is a mercurial person, given to dark moods and harsh rages, and secretive, never giving up too much about his past and cutting short any interview that asks too directly.  Either way, Maalvar was a consummate mercenary leader, brilliant tactician, and [[murderhobo]] in his day; never on the side of true evil, but generally more on the side of victory and swag than good.  But the blood of Azrai began to grow in power within him, and eventually Maalvar gave up his power and influence as an in-demand mercenary to become a small-scale adventurer then, it seems, after losing all his friends to the Sandpiper, a deadly desert awnshegh, he disappeared... possibly after committing bloodtheft on the monster and fully transforming into the Minotaur.  Maalvar was also famous for wearing a black suit of armor, which may even have belonged to Prince Raesene long ago, and the Minotaur still fits into the breastplate.

Maalvar the Minotaur doesn't properly resemble the classical bull-headed humanoid.  Instead, he looks like a bull-centaur, with two curving bull's horns growing from his human head.  The horns are themselves carved with glowing runes with the same effect as an amulet of proof against detection and location, making magical attempts to scry or learn about him impossible.  He is a fearsome opponent, not because of cheap bullshit like Regeneration or Invulnerability, but just by being built like a dumptruck with super-strength, buckets of hitpoints and good AC, all the good sensory powers, hefty resistance and an immortal lifetime to hone his skill at fighting unarmed.  He can also make trample attacks that stun enemies, and unlike most such monsters he's ''smart'', with lifetimes of experience fighting and winning against monsters bigger than himself or more-dangerous and better armed forces.  Maalvar's only real weakness is that he sometimes goes into a brief berserker frenzy, giving him a bucket of temporary hitpoints and a huge damage boost, as well as only going unconscious rather than dying when brought to zero, but removing some of his incredible tactical awareness in favor of killing anything in reach, friend or foe, though he leaves them pretty easily.

Also, despite his rages and depressions, Maalvar is kind of a bro.  In three hundred years, he's never given into the temptation of evil (his alignment is still just chaotic neutral), he's chosen to live in semi-isolation so that he won't hurt anyone when he rages without "reason or honor," and the Itave, the "primitive" aboriginal peoples of Cerillia who have been largely displaced by immigrants over the years and who had lived in the Maze before he took it over, love and respect him.  He's actually a pretty good king to them, teaching their champions how to fight, only really leaning on them to help build new settlements with his skill at masonry, and he is one of only a few people who can properly navigate the labrynth of the Maze, battling the weird and deadly creatures that occasionally show up to keep them safe. Furthermore, while raging, he doesn't have the mental acuity to navigate the Maze, meaning it protects others from his furious anger.  Even in his present state, Maalvar is a good barbarian king of his barbarian people.