The Kingdom of Bos Rekki

The call us beasts, because we remind them of the mindless animals of their own lands. And they express revulsion at the manner of our birth. And yet, unlike them, we know the unity of the natural world, for in the Bos lands, all creatures are intermingled. We do not despise those with limited minds, for they are our kin; and we deny our inferiority, for the best among us have minds as keen as any humanity or the elvenkind may boast. Indeed, we proclaim our superiority, for we have among us those with eyes as keen as the eagles, noses as sensitive as those of a hound, hearing like that of the owl. And while we kill as necessary to feed, we know what it is to feel compassion for all living things.

-- Teachings of the Seer Venos, Esoteric Vehicle Press, Bos Major, 6 IV Age

Ruler's Title: Bos Majesty
National Hero: Bos Minos
National Wizard: Ba Killekka
Military Units: Bos Lord, Eagle Scouts, Centaur Cavalry, Bos Infantry
Starting Forces: Bos Minos, Ba Killekka, 2 Eagle Scouts, 4 Centaur Cavalry, 6 Bos Infantry, 3 Illusory Cavalry, 3 Illusory Infantry
Starting Treasury: 10
Continent: Ahaut

History: Where do they come from?

According to the Bos Rekki, they were born in the dreamtime, when there was no distinction between species. All mated with all, and children could be of any form; the animals were not separated into kinds as they are today. Then some catastrophe occurred, and most creatures lost the ability to mate except with their own kind. And that remains true today, except in the lands of Bos Rekki, where the ancient rules still hold sway.

The legend is obviously false. There is no record that the Bos Rekki existed prior to the Third Age. They cannot be that ancient.

According to one theory, they are the children of some ancient wizard, a chaos shaper, who changed the basic structure of some beasts to permit chaotic interbreeding. According to another, they come from some other world, somehow arriving in our own a few millennia ago.

But this much is certainly true: They are beast-men, half human, half animal. Which part is human varies from Bos to Bos -- in some the upper torso, in some the lower. Some are bipedal and roughly human in form, retaining other animal characteristics throughout the body. Others have the bodies of humans and the mentality of animals; and others the reverse. There seems no logic in it; or if there is, only the Bos understand it.

And most peculiarly, perhaps, the Bos do not breed true. The product of a union between a half-bull and a half-leopard may well be a half-bear, or half-rat.

They have government, of a sort: a King, a Queen, an army, courts. But the monarch is acclaimed at a folk moot when the previous one dies; and there are no hereditary classes. When a child is as likely as not to have the intelligence of a goat or the body of a lion, it is difficult to bind a family permanently to the land. Consequently, organization of any kind is not the strong suit of the Bos; their cities are sewers, their markets chaotic. They are a poor race, but they have a higher degree of individual freedom than in most other lands.