This may or may not end up as a novel, and I just want my word to be realistic. Instead of people, the world is filled with primarily centaurs. A male is called a stallion or a colt, depending on the age; man, boy, and centaur are also used. Females are called dams or fillies, depending on the age; they are also called women, girls, or kentaurs. The working name for the world is D'Arcut, and it is named after the god who the people believe created the world. Humans do exist, but mostly as paid servants and workers. The centaurs believe that they were created when D'Arcut combined a horse and a human back when time first began. D'Arcut, the world, is set mostly in a fairly mountainous European setting. Most of the commoners are farmers; they farm mostly high-growing plants (apples, cherries, corn) because bending over is much to difficult. For those who grow low growers such as wheat and vegetables, they use humans to pick and harvest. A good farmer would not think twice about harnessing himself to a plough or other farm equipment, but pulling carts is mule's work and is done by horses, donkeys or mules. Getting drunk is a common part of society, like getting sick or being pregnant. Sudden changes in their diet, such as switching from fruits and grains to meat and vegetables, can severely impact their health, like it would with a normal horse. Like on Earth, anyone can become royalty through marriage. If a commoner marries a prince or princess, they change their name to a natural item using a metaphorical wheel of names. There is a wheel for boys and a wheel for girls. Boy names include Rowan, Garnet, Ash, and Bane, while girl names include names such as Rose, Jade, Eve, and Vixen. Whenever the names are all used, the wheel continues back into the spin, reusing the old names. The currency is called darcuts, or darcs for short. I know that what I have is choppy, but if you see anything I should add, please don't hesitate to say anything.
Sounds good to me and pretty unique as well. It's not often non-humans are the focus of a story. I'd suggest doing a bit of research on old centaur myths. Also consider the size of the world. Is it set in one centaur ruled nation or do centaurs rule the entire world and if so are their different centaur cultures. And if not perhaps humans rule so countries. Just things to think about.
A fantasy world like this will require a lot of work. Looks like you're off to a good start. You'll probably really want to dig into the different cultures in your world, the geography, politics, economic conditions, religion, etc. I've read that you should create many more details for your world then you'll actually need in your story.
Just a few items to consider: What kind of crops grow in mountain regions? How well do horses (centaurs) get about in mountain regions? How well do they build roads and structures? Kind of tough to climb a ladder, for example. Ramps and other structures could be erected so that centaurs could do the work but it'd be far more difficult and time consuming. Sure, they could use humans, but in many respects, this would give humans an advantage in building defenses, walls and fortifications (tunneling, etc.).
