In the distant land of Paro risky merchants and faithful and devout missionaries tell of a race of stoic and prideful antlered centaurs that debate about the meaning of everything...
Regarding those antlers:
Only the male Paronine centaurs have antlers, and they are terribly proud of them. The larger the antler, the belief goes, the greater the 'personal divinity.'
They are not used in regular combat, but rather in 'honor-duels' between peers. In these duels, they literally lock horns and try to shove one another into submission. It is beneath dignity to use their antlers against anyone but another Paronine centaur; to dirty one's antlers against a lesser being is unthinkable.
These antlers molt naturally every seven to eight years. They take up to a year to grow back to respectable size, during which time most Paronine males will wear a helmet with false antlers, or a hood once the budding antlers get too big for the helmet. Regardless, there is no shame in this natural condition; however, to have one's antlers broken is embarrassing at best, utterly shameful at worst . So then, to have them deliberately severed by the Emperor is a punishment nearly worse than death...
