Zebranaur [Centaur-kin]

A zebranaur has a human upper body joined to a zebra's lower half. The human torso is plain brown, lacking the black and white stripes below, though many paint dark stripes and patterns on it with plant dyes to extend their camouflage, adding new marks each year to celebrate deeds, battles, or loves. Some tribes tattoo young ones at their coming of age, and one southern tribe has made this a refined art. Many have a short crest of stiff black bristles running from mid-back to the nape. Spiky hair is popular, though some follow the styles of nearby humans.

Their usual garment is a square of soft, individually embroidered leather over the chest, tied at the neck and waist with thongs. They wear wood and bone jewelry brightened with seeds and feathers, and they treasure brass and copper ornaments, trading fringed clothing or feathered spears to get them. They speak common and perhaps other tongues, but few can read or write.

Generations of bow hunting give every zebranaur +1 to attack with any bow other than a crossbow. Bands are mixed, though: in a typical one, 30% pair a bow with a scimitar, 30% wield only spears, and 20% carry a spear and scimitar. Even unarmed they can kick with both front hooves for 1d4 each. They never wear armor.

Females are treated as equals and make up 30% of any band. A group larger than 10 has a 50% chance of including a chief and a shaman.

Zebranaurs are wanderers who live close to nature, much like their human neighbors. Each temporary camp is watched by 8 to 12 guards with bows and scimitars. A tribe of 50 to 80 is 30% female and 20% children, led by a chief (AC 6, 4+4 HD). Males share equally in childcare, cooking, teaching, and other household work.

Each tribe has a 4th- or 5th-level shaman plus three or four of 1st to 3rd level, usually armed with quarterstaves. Their memory for abstract shapes is nearly perfect, so although they cannot read common, they record history in elaborate swirling designs painted on tanned hides, kept safe by the eldest shaman and taught to the next generation.

They hunt most kinds of small game and gather berries and roots. More peaceful than wemics, with whom they get along poorly, they often leave when a wemic tribe moves into their range. They live 50-60 years.