![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I love the expression "boom dust" for gunpowder.
OK, that makes sense. *nods* Honestly, the thinking that every single monster in the Monstrous Manual (or whatever 5th-ed calls it nowadays) must be stereotypical-evil is a bit out of fashion.
Not every kobold, goblin, and orc must be evil. Deekin Scalesinger (from NWN) is a great case in point. Sure, most of them will be ... but.
Yes, I also think that the bullfights are a bit ... I don't know -- barbaric? I always felt bad for the bull. It's not his fault.
But bull-fighting and minotaurs go hand-in-hand, you're right. They have a
really long history - ever since the golden age of ancient Crete (roughly 1800-2000 BC --
wow!)
The Cretans worshipped bulls. They didn't fight them, but their religion involved jumping over the horns of a bull. This is very similar to the idea, in bull-fighting, to grab the rosettes from the bull's horns.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
It's no surprise that the original minotaur (in Greek mythology) comes from the island of Crete.
The mainland Greeks, especially the Athenians, had a very male-oriented society. So they hated the Cretans, whose religion was female-based, with priestesses and everything (like the Revered Mother in Dragon Age: Origins).
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
So it's no surprise that when the Greeks wrote the legend of the Minotaur, they made the Cretans into "bad guys".
Incidentally, I did quite a bit of research into the original legend. The Minotaur himself might have been based on a real person. The legend says that the wife of Minos, the King of Crete, refused to sacrifice a sacred bull to Poseidon and so gave to a half-man, half-bull creature - the first Minotaur. The truth is probably that Minos's son was disabled (either physically or mentally), and kept out of public view because the parents felt ashamed. (A king's son must be perfect! We must be cursed by the gods! Etc. Of course, this was a long, long time before anyone understood anything about disabilities).