I also do not believe that they are predominantly goatlike. I don't recall if Nomad Gods gave them the nickname of "goatkin" or not, but in any case the Nomad Gods illustration is not very goatlike -- there is a bighorn sheep, antelope, etc.,. In any case it doesn't really matter, because at the time it was not known how broos bred. Now it is common knowledge, and the broo life-cycle makes it unlikely that many Praxian broos would be goat-like. There are certainly wild goats in the Rockwoods, and broos from parts of the Wastes & Prax adjacent to the Rockwoods might possibly have goat-like features.
>As for broos, I thought that occasionally you get a broo that doesn't
look like a parent, and when that happens, it looks like
>a goat. At the very least, the always-present horns are goat horns by
default.
I don't think that either of these statements are true. Broos usually
have horns at least partly because they have links to other ungulates.
Their horns might be sheep-like, goat-like, antler-like, antelope-like,
bovine-like, etc. etc.
In Orlanthi hill country, goats are the easiest animals to get to -- they are often wild, and they are not watched over as closely as sheep or cattle. Hence, goat-broos are probably the commonest variety of broo in these lands. But even this doesn't give them a majority -- only a plurality. The second-most common type of broo is probably dog or deer. After that come types such as human or horse.
Broo genetics is an iffy subject at best, but here is a stab at broo horns (so to speak). Regardless of the broo's ancestry, most have horns. These horns are often of the type of the broo's predominant ancestor. Since most broos in Orlanthi lands have some goat blood, goat horns are reasonably common, even if the broo has a human, canine, feline, or equine head.
Anyway, this fixation on the broo's head is a false one - -- just because human social interactions are driven by facial expression and appearance, we look only at the broo's face. Probably more broos have tails than have horns, but we don't seem to worry about that.
However, I do not believe that the "ancestral broo", back when they still had females, had a head anything like that of a goat. I do believe that the ancestral broos were horned humanoids, though.
>If a particular band of broos would impregnate only humans for a few
generations, what would be the result?
A bunch of loathsome chaos monsters that tended to have human parts mixed in with their broo parts.
>Would the broos look more human?
Of course.
>Would they become smarter?
Good question. They're already as smart as humans (2d6+6), just not as well-educated (a literate broo is a rara avis outside the Lunar Empire). Broos also frequently have much less experience in the world (since they reach adulthood much more quickly). Hence, we have two arguments on this point:
MALKIONI PHILOSOPHER ARGUMENT: when a broo crossbreeds with a pig, the result is as intelligent as a human. If you were to average a human's mind with that of a pig, you'd end up with something much stupider than a human. Therefore, it is obvious that the "basic" broo intellect is far higher than that of the basic human, because when you hybridize a broo with a non-sentient animal, you get full intelligence. The conclusion: broos MUST be prevented from breeding with sapient creatures, even including trolls or dragonewts, because their offspring would tend towards an extremely high intelligence and these monsters would become even a more horrendous threat than they are now.
GRAY SAGE ARGUMENT: the intelligence of broos is based on their souls, and so it doesn't matter who their parents are. They'll be the same intelligence no matter what, since they're always going to have a broo soul.
RQ2 Broos -- RQ2 _products_ did not claim that broos were half-goat.
>From Nomad Gods on, most (not all) illustrations of broos, and most (not
all) stats given for broos were NOT goat-like. Check out the broos of
the Big Rubble or Borderlands. They're simply not goatlike. Besides, RQ
already has a goat-like humanoid group -- satyrs. If broos were just
goat-men, they would be dull and pointless.
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