Tauren

**General content warnings:** colonialism

Tauren(also known as Šu'xalo in Classical Tauren), are a species of wooly, generally bovine humanoids on Azeroth Beta native to the continent Kalimdor, and together with the contemporaneously evolving Torrog Qai are one of the two oldest species on Azeroth, and one of only four species truly native to the planet(together with the Torrog Qai, Orog Qhay, and Úmargrad). They are four-stomached ruminants with very thick fur that has to be manually sheared in summer and sometimes other seasons(thus, the highly prized in Azeroth commodity of Tauren wool is considered vegan by most philosophers), generally grow up to ten feet tall, have four breasts, very little sexual dimorphism(Tauren only have one sex hormone), superhuman strength muscles, and are obligate herbivores. Tauren fur is generally brown colored, but can also be white or black.

## Society

Tauren are generally organized into societies similar to the clans of the Kingdom of the Northlands, communal groups with collective ownership of property led by a rotating council, and have a distaste for the feudal structures and large complex hierarchies found in Azeroth. Tauren are often described as a "primitive nomadic tribal people" by colonialist "sophontists" from Stormwind, but are actually a largely sedentary society, and some of the most groundbreaking and radical scientific and magitek discoveries of the people of Azeroth Beta(such as the discovery of the Kyrie hyperlanes and the interpretation of radio signals from across the Kyrie Galaxy leading to the discovery of the Kyrie civilization) have been made by Tauren scientists, although they have not yet discovered stuff like how to \*make\* actual spaceships and hyperdrives or transmit signals of their own.

Tauren religion centers around the Aša'kē or Ašakas, powerful spirits(actually God Tiers) who have ascended and serve as guardians of the universe, and were said to have guided the Tauren civilization to prosperity. However the Aša'kē are very much a flawed pantheon, and there are even malevolent Aša'kē who are said to fight against the Tauren and their goals as a species. Appeasing the Aša'kē is done through ritual sacrifice of plants and carved wooden objects in bonfires, and one is taught to guard against blasphemous thoughts. The original Tauren religion was monotheistic, believing in a benevolent one god called Xaba Daimü, though most modern Tauren associate that name with an evil Aša'kē, as Xaba Daimü is now taught to be a demiurge figure, creator of the Tauren and father of all suffering and pain.

A Tauren prophet called Maani Komewaay created a new religious movement called Komewaianism(inspired by the real-world Manichaeanism) around five hundred years ago, while unpopular among the Tauren this tradition became extremely popular in the Archipelago of Zandalar and in northern Kalimdor, becoming favored by the Torrog Qai and Úmargrad worldwide as the main religion of these species and societies. Komewaianism preaches an elaborate dualist cosmology, an eternal struggle between the good spiritual world of FireLight and the evil material world of Murky Darkness, the final battle of which will determine the fate of all souls in the universe, of perfect ascension into the FireLight or eternal drowning in the Murky Darkness.

## Languages

Tauren languages can be grouped into three major families: Šilien-Duan languages(based on Tungusic languages and the Khitan language, Classical Tauren is from this language group), Tokira languages(based on Bantu languages and Japanese), and Highmountain languages(based on Siouan languages).