Centaurs are a mythological creature from Ancient Greek legend. A centaur consists of a human head, arms and torso upon a horse's body. Centaurs are sentient and can speak and write human languages. However, they are very base creatures, prone to lechery and violence, especially when under the influence of alcohol.
Centaurs in "The Horse of Bronze"[]
Centaurs lived in their homeland on the eastern shore of the Inner Sea. They imported tin from the Tin Isle and battled their traditional enemies, the sphinxes.
One day they stopped receiving tin imports from the Nuggies and were unable to forge bronze weapons. This put them at a military disadvantage. After losing a major battle to the Sphinxes as a result of this, the centaurs sent two expeditions: a nautical expedition led by Cheiron to attempt to reestablish contact with the Nuggies, and an overland expedition led by Pholus to seek new sources of tin in the unexplored interior of Eastern Europe. Both expeditions failed to secure a tin supply, and worse, both made contact with the Lapiths. Eventually, these Lapiths battled the centaurs, defeated them, nearly drove them to extinction, and claimed the centaurs' homeland for their own, believing they were entitled to it merely because of their inherent superiority to the centaurs.
Centaurs in Thessalonica[]
A colony of centaurs who had survived the erosion of the Olympian pantheon lived near Thessalonica in the sixth century. When the Slavs and Avars besieged that city, the centaurs, persuaded by George and Father Luke that the rise of the Avar pantheon in what had once been their territory represented an even greater threat to their continued survival than Christianity, attacked the Slavic army as it stormed the city, and played a decisive role in breaking the siege. Unlike the more fanatic Bishop Eusebius, Father Luke believed that Centaurs (as well as Satyrs), too, had a role in God's plan for the world - and he also was secretly in love with a female Centaur, a love which had no chance of consummation even if Luke had not been sworn to celibacy and chastity.
See also[]
The following alien races in science fiction stories are described as resembling centaurs.
- Gormanians ("Island of the Gods")
- Krolp ("Vilcabamba")
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