Centaurs

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

BOOK OF STONE: Centaurs

(A Stone Soldiers Encyclopedia Entry)

When you think mythological creature, one of the first legendary monsters you might think of is the Centaur. Something many wouldn't even think of as a monster. Human from the hips up, with the body of a horse instead of just two legs, Centaurs have existed in literature and legend for well over a thousand years. Many accounts depict the equine beings as noble--teachers of humanity, rather than killers of the innocent. 

Greek legends have that Centaurs were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele or children of Centaurus, a cursed offspring of the Gods who mated with mares to produce the centaur race. Legends further put the Centaurs in the region of Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi forest in Ellis and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. 

In a universe with werewolves, vampires, witches and shapeshifters, it would seem odd if the Centaur were absent. But centaurs are indeed alive and well in the Stone Soldiers universe, but they are not the noble beings so often portrayed in fiction.

In Black Knight Down, a servant of the witches coven responsible for bringing a prehistoric satellite crashing to earth is revealed as a were-creature, able to shift back and forth from human to centaur form. Identified as "Thor", this half-man, half-horse creature served the leader of the witches, acting as her valet, chauffeur and personal body guard. The were-creature's strength and speed were superhuman, as were his abilities with a bow and arrow, but in the end, he was just as mortal as so many of the monsters in Stone Soldiers. 

In Pale Horseman (Stone Soldiers #9), the team will encounter an even more sinister Centaur--an ancient creature cursed to roam the earth for centuries, murdering the innocent to feed his addiction for death. Armed with a reaper's scythe, the Pale Horseman may well be the deadliest of foes the Stone Soldiers have yet met, as within his shapeshifting body lingers a darker, more ancient secret and an enemy that cannot be killed....

Look for a preview of Pale Horseman later this month, after the release of Stone Soldiers #8, Terrorcota