Melenaos

History
The countries of Mel and Maos used to be one country, Melenaos. Melenaos used to be inhabited by just humans. The men and women were hailed to be one of the most beautiful humans around and everyone would strive to have a Melena'an spouse. The people were traders at heart and the country was rich and made some of the best ships of the world. In the year 2579 this changed.

The whole population fell ill to the Melena'an Madness. While this illness spread around most of the world it was most severe in Melenaos. About 9 months after the onset of this disease, the cows started birthing unusual offspring. These offspring were monstrous hybrids between man and cow; a human torso with cow legs and the head of a bull. Understandably, the women got furious over the fact that a lot of their man had been secretly having sex with their cattle and on top of that, fathering children with said cows as well. Most women, refused to take care of the minotaur babies and unrest started on the island. The women took up arms and after a short civil war they drove the men away to the eastern parts of the island and to the smaller islands.

During this period the women stopped giving birth to men. Only girls were born, but these children were unusually unruly as they grew up they turned out to be as beautiful as they were strong. Their culture shifted to one where hunting and combat play important roles and trading became less and less important. The western part of the country became Mel and the eastern part became Maos. In Maos the men tried to raise their minotaur offspring as good as possible. Trade became more difficult, people didn't want to trade as much with these monstrous humanoids compared to their beautiful and charming ancestors and their riches quickly disappeared. The minotaurs still had one of the best shipwrights and fast and powerful boats. Since trade became worse the minotaurs started to take resources from other islands by force and became sell swords aboard ships.