Satyrs have a well-earned reputation for their good spirits, gregarious personalities, and love of revels. Most satyrs are driven by simple desires, to see the world and to sample its every pleasure.
While their spontaneity and whimsy sometimes put them at odds with more stoic peoples, satyrs rarely let the moodiness of others hinder their own happiness.
Life is a blessing from the gods, after all, and the proper response to such a gift, as far as most satyrs are concerned, is to accept it with relish.
Born of the Wild
Satyrs have the lower body of a goat and the upper body of an elf. A pair of goat-like horns sprout from their foreheads. These horns can range from small spikes to huge horns worthy of a mountain goat. Satyrs’ solid horns connect to their heads at the base of their skulls, while their legs end in sturdy hooves. In addition to a full head of hair, satyrs grow fur on their arms, legs, and torsos. Short, soft hair grows down their neck and spine, along their shoulders, and on their forearms. Thick fur covers their bodies from the waist down, shorter at the waist and longer below the knees. Some satyrs grow less fur, and many choose to carefully shave the hair from their arms and body. They can have brown, black, blonde, red, grey, or white hair. Their skin color ranges from dark to pale
Embracing Life
Most satyrs believe that the other peoples of Theros are woefully burdened with the plague of seriousness. Satyrs scoff at the efforts of polis-builders with their laws and right angles, and they poke fun at philosophers with their endless theories and interminable discourse. Satyrs feel that life is to be lived and experienced with all the senses. Satyrs see the world and everything in it as a book of delights, and they want to explore every page. See chapter 3 for more details on the satyr homeland, the Skola Vale.
The Art of the Revel
The humans of the poleis generally think of satyrs’ revels as raucous bacchanals, where anything and everything might happen. This picture isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete: there’s more to a revel than debauchery. For satyrs, revelry is a way of life. It’s the delight in small things: the song of a bird, a warm breeze, the smell of a tasty pie, relaxing by a river in the sunshine. Life freely offers these gifts, and for a satyr, they are more valuable than gold or glory. To revel means to forget the constraints of time, to let go of the future and past, and to be wholly in the present moment. For satyrs, encountering life with all the senses honors the gods, and—most importantly—it feels really good. Driven by instinct and intuition, most satyrs prove unpredictable, following their sense of wonder wherever it leads. Satyrs are in tune with their emotions to a degree that can be disturbing to other races. They want to experience everything: happiness, sadness, love, rage, etc. The only thing they avoid is boredom. They love music, wine, and dancing. They also enjoy an interest in carnal pleasures, and they are not afraid to share a bed with any of the other intelligent races.
Music Lovers
Satyrs love to listen to music. They will happily spend long stretches of time both playing and composing new music. They are known to travel great distances to hear new songs, instruments, and poetry.
Satyrs in Thylea
Satyrs don’t have the same strained relationship with the civilized races of Thylea that the centaurs do. Satyrs can be found in many towns and villages throughout Thylea, as well as the great city of Mytros. They are attracted to the abundance of experiences that civilization provides: the food, the wine, and most especially the music. The civilized races of Thylea are suspicious of satyrs, for there are many stories of satyrs seducing and corrupting both the old and the young alike.
Satyr Names
Satyrs have names that they draw from legends and myths—and from the powers that rule over the Feywild.
Male Names: Adrastos, Aeolus, Brontes, Castor, Cephalus, Glaucus, Helios, Iacchus, Kreios, Lycus, Melanthios, Okeanos, and Proteus.
Female Names: Acantha, Astraea, Briseis, Clio, Erato, Harmonia, Ianthe, Jocasta, Melete, Phaedra, Phoebe, Selene, and Tethys.
Very Odd Indeed
Satyrs are known for their eccentricities. Some people spend too much time worrying over why satyrs behave as they do. But satyrs themselves simply are as they are, feeling no need to understand what drives them, much less explain it to others. T
