Catfolk are small in number but spread far across the world. They have so many physical similarities to cats that some believe them to be closely related. This is an assertion that most catfolk find insulting. Catfolk are agile, and their senses and claws are sharp. Catfolk tend to be shorter lived than humans.
Given their animalistic appearance, straightforward culture, and soft-spoken nature, it is easy for the other races to see the Catfolk as lesser beings. They are surprisingly quick-witted and incredibly cunning, although most are happy to “play primitive” if it gains them an advantage while bartering or fighting.
Appearance
Catfolk are distinctive for their bipedal stance despite their catlike claws, feet, tail, and fur, though the latter traits can vary. The huge, muscular Singhara of Zanaga, for example, have a full mane and rich gold and auburn fur, while the compact Hyrrinx have lynx-like tall ears and a bobbed tail.
Society
Among the best hunters and trackers in all of Mennara, Catfolk are able to effortlessly live as hunter-gatherers no matter their location. Hyrrinx, for example, can be found in desolate areas across Terrinoth and Dunwarr. Each of their small villages is governed by a council of elders. When food runs scarce, as is often in winters, the village exiles adults who are unmarried, less productive, or have run afoul of the reigning council.
Most of these exiles, called Rythkin, become adventurers or mercenaries and may make new lives in Human and Dwarf cities. A small few walk a different path entirely, hunting less and becoming merchants or caravan traders who might roam through far reaches of Mennara. The Singhara, though, always exist for the hunt. Fierce and deadly, they abhor city or village life for the wilds of the jungle.
Culture
Hyrrinx Catfolk culture is based on communal simplicity. Food is shared, all aid in village upkeep and building dens, and trades are designed so that the needs of all met. Those who cannot hunt are expected to develop a skill that provides for the tribe. The Singhara, though they operate in packs, are instead fiercely independent and each kills to meet their own hunger.
Names
Catfolk normally have a single name, given to them by their parents. When they reach adulthood, catfolk adopt a new name, and their child name is used only by intimate family. In small Hyrrinx communities, each member is often given a title that describes their role in the community.
Hyrrinx
The Hyrrinx live in small villages in hard-to-reach and desolate spaces throughout Terrinoth and the Dunwarr Mountains, in deep forests and snowy mountain valleys. There they hunt, fish, and raise small herds of hardy pigs, goats, or sheep.
Every few years, usually in the winter, Hyrrinx villages run short of food and begin to starve. When this happens, their custom is to exile all unmarried adults in the village. These exiles spread to the four winds, seeking new hunting grounds or buying their acceptance into an existing Hyrrinx community.
As a result of this practice of exile, Hyrrinx are unsentimental about their homelands and their families. They feel no special loyalty to their place of origin, or indeed their fellow catfolk, and are principally concerned with finding their own place in the world. Although rarely seen by other races, Hyrrinx have little difficulty getting along with them. They are inquisitive and adaptable, accustomed to leaving a situation when it becomes suitable and finding a new one.
Wanderer gnomes and orc tribes sometimes trade with Hyrrinx villages, although in truth the Hyrrinx are usually too poor to benefit either party much. Some few Hyrrinx villages have entered into profitable arrangements with Dunwarr dwarves, trading Hyrrinx expertise as hunters and trackers for dwarven steel and handcrafts.
Singhara
The Singhara of Zanaga are excellent hunters. In the darkness of night, when their night sight gives them an edge over their prey, they move swiftly and silently across the plains and through the jungles. The favored weapon of these hunters is the lion spear, a shaft as long as a warrior is tall, tipped with a sharpened sabrecat tooth. In the hands of a Singhara hunter, such a spear can punch through toughened hide or shell and be launched into the air like a bolt of bone lightning to strike down targets hundreds of paces distant.
Singhara hunters often travel in packs, all the better to herd animals to their doom. Singhara can outdistance even a galloping horse, their tireless stamina carrying them on while their echoing roars coordinate the hunt. While some of the warriors form the pursuit, others pick out good spots for ambush or places to corral their prey. For all their swiftness, when Singhara choose to lie in wait—often from the branches of a tree or hidden in tall grass—they become almost invisible until they burst into a blinding sprint, then enjoy the bloody victory of the kill.
Pridelords
Pridelords are the largest and fiercest of the Singhara warriors. Powerfully muscled, they stand head and shoulders above even the tallest of Humans. Adding to their grandeur are their great manes, which hang like cloaks down their backs, the size and thickness a mark of a war chief’s status among their people. Armed with spear, club, tooth, and claw, the Pridelord is always at the forefront of the hunt or where battle is at its thickest, for it is the Singhara way to lead by example. As a mark of this bravery, a Pridelord’s body is often covered in scars, each one worn proudly to tell a tale of the chief’s life as a warrior and veteran of war.
Swift hunters, Pridelords can race across the wilds of Zanaga, their long legs and mighty muscles allowing them to run down almost any kind of prey. Despite such speed, though, their deafening roars precede them into battle. So great is the growl of a Pridelord that the very ground shakes with its booming, and weak-hearted creatures are set to flight. By contrast, nearby Singhara warriors are stirred to greater acts of animalistic savagery, their own roars joining those of their leader as they tear into their prey.
Half-Catfolk
Though village-dwelling Catfolk predominantly keep to themselves, those exiled into the world must find their place among the other races. This often leads to love, marriage, and offspring. Half-Catfolk most often retain the reflexes, senses, and coordination of their Catfolk parent, but commonly gain the aesthetics of their other parent’s species. Many Half-Catfolk appear as heavily furred Humans with cat-like ears and clawed fingers, though there are nearly limitless variations. Full-blooded Catfolk see them as the byproducts of unworthy exiles. Thus, Half-Catfolk are often shunned and ridiculed by their pure-blooded cousins.
Catfolk of any sort are rare in Terrinoth and seen generally as exotic curiosities. The Singhara and Katjie have their homeland in foreign and strange places, the Resharr are rarely seen outside the Aymhelin, and the Hyrrinx are few in number and live in the wild places of Terrinoth, where humans scarcely travel.
Yet despite this, half-catfolk children are still occasionally born. Such unfortunates seldom lead easy lives, as they will forever be caught between two worlds. No half-catfolk could ever pass as pure catfolk, as they rarely have fur and their claws are not as sharp as their non-human parent. And they also struggle to navigate human society, where their ears and tail mark them as something unusual wherever they go.
It's difficult to speak in broad terms about half-catfolk, as they are so rare. Some fight the odds and find acceptance in their human or catfolk society. Others never do, living as outcasts and scraping by as best they can on the fringes. Most of them go their whole lives and never see another half-catfolk or anyone else who truly understands their struggle.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth
- Legacy of Dragonholt