The common beastmen are well known to all but the most sheltered of peasants but the elite beastmen are monsters that are a threat to all but seasoned knights, mercenaries and soldiers. From the dangerously powerful bovine/caprine butchers to the mobile equine tramplers to the cunning gnolls and werebeasts that make the Hold a place of untold horrors. A horde composed of common beastmen is a threat but can easily be handled by experienced military. An army composed of the following beastmen are a threat that can wipe countries off the map.
BUTCHERS
Brutality incarnate.
Butchers are the result of a beast hag getting a concentrated diet of quality chevon, mutton or beef and are the meanest brutes of the beastmen. They stand twice as tall as a man, bulging with leathery muscle, and are topped with a bovine or caprine head with cruel eyes and a maw full of sharp teeth made for tearing flesh and crushing bone. Butchers take particular pleasure in seeing the disgust and fear of their foes, reveling for the opportunity to walk into a group of enemies, and making an example of the first opponent: ripping their limbs off, taking bites of their flesh, and crushing them beneath their hooves are all techniques that butchers revel in to soak up the terror of their enemies.
Among other beastmen, their physical strength and sadism often makes other beastmen cower in deference.
TRAMPLERS
Tramplers are the cavaliers of the beastmen horde, a cruel mockery of centaurs, with the lower half and head of a horse joined with a human-like torso between. Their mobility makes them excellent scouts and messengers for beastmen groups. In combat they prefer hit and run tactics with bows and pole-arms that take advantage of their speed. They are proud creatures that enjoy showing off their skill on the battlefield.
GNOLLS
A mix of canine and human flesh in a beast hag's diet creates the more cunning and devastating foot soldiers in any army of beastmen. Gnolls resemble humanoids with twisted features of a hyena, dog, jack or wolf with digitigrade back legs and hunched spines. They often have enlarged fangs and some even grown horns. These cackling and barking madmen take more pleasure in the subtle nuances of cruelty, playing with their food, before tearing it to shreds. The nightmares of many soldiers are filled with the laughter of gnolls.
Besides being foot soldiers that are a match for professional soldiers, gnolls are excellent hunters, using their social skills, cooperation and wits to overcome their prey. They are also known to use beasts, particularly wolves, hyenas, and monstrous canines to help them in their hunts and to put fear into the hearts of all innocent men.
Other Abominations
There are as many different and unique subspecies of beastmen as there are animals for beast hags to eat and infused with the fiendish magic of their lord Kalibos. The most feared subspecies are the werebeast:
The werebeast is similar to a werewolf in that they can shift between the form of a gnoll and a human but have a more unique ability: they can transform into any person they've eaten. This means that a clever werebeast can kill a member of a community and infiltrate it. Famously, a large group of werebeasts managed to infiltrate a monster hunting church, taking on the form of pilgrims, before turning on the priesthood and exterminating them.
The most insidious ability of the werebeast is to reproduce via their attacks. If they bite and infect someone with their blood, the person will transform into a werebeast. Most people who suffer this fate go mad from the pain of transformation under the next moon, becoming feral and attacking people, before eventually being drawn to the nearest group of beastmen and joining their ranks.
This is an example of the less natural and horrifying potential of beastmen.
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