As may have been noticed in some of the short stories, I like minotaurs. While many races have been culled from the world of my writings, the minotaurs survived and thrived.
I am not sure exactly where my fascination for the minotaur comes from. In Greek mythology the Minotaur was a singular creature, not a race, and was something of a violent monster that ate dwelt in the labyrinth of Crete and devoured young men and maidens. He was slain by Theseus of Athens (though this being a Greek story, it ends in tragedy for Theseus as well.)
Every since, minotaurs have generally been depicted as being rather violent, barbaric and evil creatures. Mostly. Yet despite this, I had a soft spot for them. When I first started writing fantasy at a young age, one part of the world had what I refer to as the half-men; minotaurs, centaurs and satyrs. At the time C. S. Lewis’ Narnia books were one of my main influences, hence the centaurs and satyrs. While minotaurs did rate a reference at times, they were on the White Witch’s side.
I think I may have wondered why the half-man/half-bull creatures were bad while the half-man/half-horse and half-man/half-goat creatures were good, so I included them all in together. Since then the centaurs and satyrs have been culled (reluctantly, and they may return as creatures of one of the Otherwords) but the minotaurs remained. My biggest concern is that I may have made them a little too good.
Recently minotaurs have been seen in a more positive light, one of the main reasons being Warcraft. In Warcraft III a race of bullmen made an appearance – the Taurens. They were minotaurs with an Amerindian influence. They were wise and calm and lived in balance with nature and became an integral part of The Horde. They are seen by both sides as being probably the most ‘good’ of any race. Hardly surprising then that in WCIII and World of Warcraft that I turned out to be an avid Horde player – and my main was a Tauren Druid called Kwatalani.
So here is to the noble minotaur and be on the lookout for further appearances of them in my stories.
Mist and Shadows 