The Moot
The capital city, and only true major city, of the Minotaur race.
Demographics
The only inhabitants of The Moot are Minotaurs, with no outsiders allowed into the city.
Defences
The Moot is a walled city built to Minotaur scale at the peak of Mount Dolmenduracht, an enormous shield volcano long since inactive. Inactive is a bit of a misnomer, as there is still a lava chamber beneath The Moot. However, the likelihood of eruption is essentially nonexistent thanks to the intricate and multiply redundant tunnels and trenches that relieve the magma pressure by diverting the flow into a labyrinth of trenches and defenses that guard the approaches to the city. Only minotaurs know the safe path through the network, and it has never opened its gates to outsiders, allowing only herds on the edges of the Steppes trade with the outside world.
History
The Moot was threatened by invasion twice in its long history, once by a host of undead during the Death Wars, when the herds were routed before it, and forced to retreat to the city, sending the calves on towards the coast for safety. It was an odd sort of siege, for the undead found themselves unable to pass beyond the second ring of lava defenses due to ludicrously redundant warding sigils against them carved into the inner side of every rock of the second ring. The horde was only broken with the arrival of a warherd from the west, with battalions from all the western herds, trapping the host between hammer and anvil. Hornlord Oronak led the massed charge, destroying the lich overlord Zargustha with khopesh and glaive. The other occasion was by the legions of the Imperator, during his long attempt to unify all of Andorei under a xenophobic human banner. 18 legions were dedicated to the task, again driving the herds before them. When they built their earthen ramps across the lava rings to stand before the walls of The Moot, their rearguard was annihilated by flying wedges of chargers. When they built warmachines to assault the walls, the Silent Hooves harried them. The siege was relentless, but short-lived. The legions had marched into the Steppes, yes, and had driven their foe before them like a wave. But like a wave, the herds flowed around the army’s flanks, which were lightly guarded. As every Minotaur charger learns, one must always protect their flanks, as they are easily gored. The Imperator’s legions learned that lesson the hard way. It likely would not have mattered if the flanks were better guarded, for Minotaur chargers are faster than any warhorse, and their greatbows nearly as powerful as a ballista. Of the eighteen legions, or 150,000 soldiers, only six hundred returned to their master. The rest lay shot, gored, or trampled in the hundred leagues between The Moot and the Bronze Crest.
Architecture
The most notable thing upon approaching The Moot is the scale. The city appears closer than it truly is to outsiders, for it is all built to accommodate the large minotaurs. The curtain wall and the main buildings of the city are built from stone quarried from the mountain itself, with most of the other buildings built of wood brought in from trade or the small forests scattered across the steppes.
Type
Capital
Population
40,000
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