Centaur

The first centaurs in Norrath did not wander long -- only long enough to find a hospitable home with ample hunting grounds and a measure of solitude.

One stable of centaurs raised in the lush grasslands of the Karanas in Tunaria chose to leave their crowded village and create one of their own. With the support of the Karana centaurs, the eldest and wisest of those who chose to leave, Kolkator Fieldstrider, was named chief of the departing stable. He was a leader with great visions and optimism, seeing a great future for those who would follow him. For four months, all of the centaurs who wished to follow Kolkator were mentored by the elder coursers of the village so they would be armed with all the knowledge they would need to start anew.

Chief Kolkator left the Karanas with his stable that came to be called the Fieldstrider centaurs. They followed the rain clouds for a time and wandered northeast looking for fertile soil, fresh water, and food resources. They had no great motivations but to survive in peace and tranquility with the land and enjoy the hunt.

In the northern timberlands beyond the Elddar Forest and a good distance from Veeshan's brood of dragons in the Nest, the centaurs found an area to build anew on the outskirts of a forest of willows. Their village soon sprang up and they lived at peace for many years.

When the violent shift of the lands occurred as Solusek Ro raised the lands around them and destroyed their village, most survived, collected up the pieces of their fallen village and quickly rebuilt. Naturally, most creatures in the Serpent Spine Mountains were completely unaware of Solusek Ro's involvement in the grumblings of the earth and had their own thoughts on why the earth shook and was rent from its foundations. The centaurs called it the The Thunderhoof Shattering. They believed that the nature spirits trampled and hoofed the ground to shape it for a better and more fruitful landscape.

Even as the Fieldstriders reconstructed their village they did not think much of the younger centaur who seemed to be falling sick and unable to work. It wasn't unusual for some of the youngers to eat fouled meat or rotting fruit to greedily fill their bellies. But as the finishing touches were put on their new village, more than half of the Fieldstriders were ill and struggling in their toils.

When it became clear that the village was suffering from some unknown malady, the remaining healthy centaurs chose to leave and protect themselves from infection. Some of the more defiant centaurs felt this was a choice opportunity to take advantage and exert force over their brethren to gain power over the chief and his blind optimism.

"A History of the Centaur," by Wiseman Oluran, centaur of the Thundering Steppes -- Being a history of the centaurs, as told by one of their own.

In the years after the cataclysms that reshaped Norrath, changes shook the foundations of many societies. Some were forced from ancestral homes, others were reduced to begging and thievery. The centaurs of the Thundering Steppes adapted to the changes in the world in their own way.

A long time ago, when the gods still lived and the moon was whole, the centaurs lived in Karana.

Long did we hunt upon the plains of Karana, racing one another in bands several hundred strong! Tails held high, hooves burnished with thin sheets of copper, silver and gold, the centaurs lived as one with the land.

Centaurs have no creation myth, we know we have always existed.

Some say that centaurs were formed by the union of a wood elf queen and the god Karana, which is why centaurs always roam, yet love the land so completely.

We centaurs feel no such need to explain ourselves; we have always been, and that is enough.