In the mountain, the mighty mountain, the Liontaur sleeps tonight ....

[kieran_of_the_dark_peaks]

No, I'm lying. She's not sleeping at all, she's sharpening the edge of her Chakram throwing disk. If someone should be brave enough to enter her territory - she'll cut their damn head off.

This is another one of the unique monster we have in the Dark Peaks setting. Taurs of all kinds - Goattaurs, Wolftaurs, Rattaurs and others are all endemic to the mountain of Deepmaw Fell. This and many monster will be appearing in the manual of the Dark Peaks, coming soon. What do people think? Does she seem dangerous, or just too cute to be afraid of!?

You can find out more about the Dark Peaks by downloading our first free adventure , the Festival of Swords

 

[Horacio]

I detest to be the guy who uses etymology to crash your product, but the taur of Minotaur doesn't mean half man half something, it comes from taurus, and it means bull... Mino comes from Minos, Minotaur could be translated as "Bull of Minos". So Liontaur, Goattaurs, Wolftaurs, Rattaurs or Taurs in general don't mean human-something hybrid

Please take no offense, I think it's better if you know it now, when you still have time to fix before the release.

 

[kieran_of_the_dark_peaks]

I'm not remotely offended, thanks for the comment - good to get some engagement! You are, of course, correct. The use of Taurus is also there to represent the bull too.

However, I'd argue that in common usage if you said minotaur to someone they'd think 'half bull, half man' (whether linguistically correct or otherwise) and then you say 'wolftaur' and the association is immediate (half wolf, half man). So what I'm playing off is not linguistically accurate for sure - especially because it's a Greek word at root.

But I'd say that it's conceptually correct - if I say it to you, you know exactly and immediately what I mean. Do you see what I mean?

 

[Fenris-77]

On the other hand, the actual Centaur isn't remotely bull related. Linking the etymology to tauros for bull is complicated, as the actual etymology is a little misty. I believe "unknown origin" is the common descriptor there. People will get the drift though, yes.

 

[kieran_of_the_dark_peaks]

The Centaur is a great example - thank you. I didn't think of that. Like you said, I just want people to get the concept/drift. It saves time for players if you say 'crocotaur' and everyone can imagine almost exactly the creature I'm describing.

I love D&D but some of the names in that are bizarre. I can't really imagine that a bullywug is a frog (I love the bullywug, though. It's one of my favourite creatures)

 

[John Dallman]

"Liontaur" had me expecting a creature that was a lion, except for a human torso, with arms and head, where the lion's head should be. A centaur with lion parts in place of horse parts.

 

[Richards]

"Liontaur" had me expecting a creature that was a lion, except for a human torso, with arms and head, where the lion's head should be. A centaur with lion parts in place of horse parts.

D&D has such a creature - it's called a wemic.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

Getting back to the original post, though, I think if those are blades on the inside of her Chakram throwing disk as well as the outside, her target's head won't be the only body part being removed - she can probably also say goodbye to a finger or two of her own.

Johnathan

 

[kieran_of_the_dark_peaks]

D&D has such a creature - it's called a wemic.

View attachment 122683

Johnathan

Wow, that's awesome. I wouldn't imagine that from the name though! Is this a 3.5 edition monster?

 

[kieran_of_the_dark_peaks]

Getting back to the original post, though, I think if those are blades on the inside of her Chakram throwing disk as well as the outside, her target's head won't be the only body part being removed - she can probably also say goodbye to a finger or two of her own.

Johnathan

Oh yeah - that's a really good point. I didn't notice that, honestly I just thought it looked really cool. Getting art made of ideas the team might have had is definitely one of the more exciting experiences of game development, so it tends to blind me to the details of the image. I tend to just go "oh, oh wow, that's so cool!" and then praise the artist. I'll ask Laura (@lafrey on twitter, if you want to follow her) to make those changes.