What's this? A minotaur lass, with a crown? Did she perchance devour some poor unsuspecting princess and take her crown for her own?
... no, silly, she'd get hunted down by "heroes" if she did things like that. No, Lady Aminta Minoa o Therais is the daughter of Lord Balios Mykenea Muladis o Therais, Marquess and rightful ruler of the Great Northern March, a wide flat strip of land spanning the entirety of the northern coastline of the region that locals still call the Northern Balklands, though modern scholars tend to refer to the land by the various countries that comprise it. Entrusted by the surrounding tribes to defend the region from the north, her family has ruled the March for generations on end, since the time of the Halfkind's first genesis.
But more on that later. You want to know about the girl to the left. Aminta, or more properly Lady Aminta Minoa, is, as mentioned, the daughter of a Marquess by the name of Lord Balios Mykenea. As such, she is cultured, graceful, polite, and absolutely spoiled rotten. This last quality thankfully is not always apparent, but when it is, have a care. In Aminta's eyes, her family has rendered services to the entire region for centuries, and anything she might demand from others is but reasonable recompense for them. Not that she demands -things-, mind. A person's possessions are not to be demanded at will! No, she'll ask for things like being read to, or having food prepared for and brought to her, or having her lovely split hooves cleaned and rubbed. After all, the clan o Therais has done so much for the people, surely she's well within her rights to ask for such petty pampering in return!
That's not just for her family's deeds, mind. Aminta herself is -well- trained, and if invaders try to enter the Balklands through the March, she is often right out there alongside her father splitting helms and crushing shields - or smashing scales and snapping bones, depending on just who's coming. There's all kinds of danger still quite extant, and the rulers of the Great Northern March, male and female alike, are expected to do their part to drive it off, so even if she's far more comfortable in frills and dresses, she'll wear her armor readily enough. She'll never turn that strength on a commoner, though. She has other ways of dealing with someone who won't give their due.
Other things... are mostly odds and ends. The biggest one being what she -does- subject people who won't treat her lovely royal self right to. As a minotaur, Aminta does have a number of bull-like characteristics, most visibly obvious her horns and tail. She also, however, has some significant internal differences... such as her ruminant digestive system. Yes, Aminta digests her food like a cow, cud-chewing and all, and heaven itself would be frightened to shield the one who pokes fun at her when she does it. And if someone displeases her, they'll get a very first-hand (but usually non-fatal) lesson on the exact workings of a minotaur's digestive system. She also will moo at times. However, she is NOT a "cow-girl", and don't you dare crack any milk jokes around her unless you like being used as a practice dummy by a rather protective and LARGE minotaur father... However, when she's not punishing people or demanding pamperings, she's actually quite cultured and friendly. In more tech-modern settings, she is well aware of modern electronic devices and makes use of them, just don't expect her to bring out the trash talk if she kicks your ass in Soul Calibre. (And she will.)
Beyond here is optional, read at your leisure (or don't).
As mentioned above, Aminta's digestive tract is that of a ruminant, a bull's, and thus those she eats are treated to a rather different experience than the average predator. Firstly, the stomach is segmented into four compartments. The first two act together, passing food back and forth between them several times while mixing salivary fluids around the food. While lightly digestive, this won't have much effect on a living meal except to soften the skin lightly and soak clothing. Whether living or not, Aminta will then force the cud back up into her mouth to be chewed thoroughly, shredding clothing and tenderizing the flesh, as well as allowing that thick, warm tongue to thoroughly taste her meal.
This done, the cud is then swallowed back down and deposited immediately in the bottom of the second stomach, where the prey is doused in fluids once again and forced through a tight valve into the third stomach. Here further processing is performed, and if she has chosen to truly digest her meal, powerful gastric acids will begin their work. When processed enough, the food then passes into the fourth and final stomach, from which nothing but waste departs as immensely powerful muscles churn and squeeze the prey until everything of use is absorbed, the remnant waste then passed into the rectum.
She may also choose not to digest her living meal, in which case they will simply be squeezed and churned uncomfortably for a few hours before being dumped into the rectum and allowed to experience being squeezed out of a royal lady's butt. Those she allows to survive are then cleaned and sent on their way, a very important lesson drilled into their brain. As a final note, meals may also be compressed by powerful stomach muscles, hiding the bulge from the world and restricting motion further, and this will usually be the case unless she is alone and wishes to enjoy a struggling belly more fully.
Aminta's world, while like Earth, is rather different from the monsterkin societies one might know in more "modern" times. In olden times, the world was peopled by humans and by monsters - proper monsters, too, dragons and rocs and orcs and all manner of beasts. And since this world didn't have Nietzche to tell them not to, eventually many humans employed the magic that ran in their veins and made themselves more like the creatures that shared the lands with them. Thus the "monsterkin" or Halfkind were born, what those from our worlds might call monstergirls. Minotaurs like Aminta, mermaids, harpies, even more direct imitations like dragon-girls and slimes.
Naturally, not all humans embraced this change. The wizards, for example, were quite happy to let their more mundane brethren take the risk of being changed into a new form and living out a new life. Thus, humans, Halfkind, and monsters now inhabit the planet together in an uneasy and oft-broken peace.
Politically, the civilized parts of the world are mostly carved out by and governed by the Halfkind, with some aid from the magical community. Humans dwell within Halfkind cities and nations, welcoming the protection of their cousin races. There is little in the way of oppression; the more evil-inclined among the monsterkin discovered very early on that even incredible strength, magic resistance, and the power to breathe fire won't allow one to completely cow a group of humans, especially when there's bound to be a wizard or three among them. Especially when the one doing the oppressing looks like a cute girl of fifteen.
Outside the civilized boundaries dwell the proper monsters. These creatures, unlike the Halfkind, did not come from humans and display neither their intellect, with notable exceptions, nor frequently their morality. Humans and Halfkind alike are a food source to them, simple as that, and they will gladly use that source wherever they can find it. Hence the establishment of the Marches, regions on the borders of the civilized nations where the most powerful of the monsterkin tend to dwell, along with the more brave or foolhardy humans, always on watch against incursion from monsters or, at times, other nations. Further within are more peaceful areas, the Counties, only troubled by those wily monsters that can slip through the watchful eyes of the Marches, and proportionately more humans dwell here in relative peace. Thus is the state of the world.
