General Description
The three races of Catfolk are the most widely spread of the Beastfolk races, with populations living in the majority of different nations and areas. They are a race of humanoid felines of various shapes and sizes, covered from head to toe in fur of varying lengths, colours and patterns depending on both the subrace and the individual. Females also tend to be slightly shorter than males.The various subraces differ wildly from each other in many ways.
Language
Feline is an extremely unusual language from a linguistic standpoint. Depending largely on context to produce meaning and with few actual words compared to most other languages, it is rather easy for a non-native speaker to pick up and hold a basic conversation with the correct general meaning. However, it is very hard to master for this exact same reason as many complex words and meanings are made up by combining a long string of words into a contracted sentence with no spaces that seems to break their own rules of syntax and grammar (for example, their word for “boot” combines the words for “heavy”, “thick”, “foot” and “blanket” in such a way that if directly transposed into the Troll alphabet it would read something akin to “heathiootnket” which obviously is gibberish to any Common speaker.) Written Feline suffers similarly as their alphabet only has fourteen letters, many of which have no direct single-letter equivalent in any other language. As such, while spoken Feline is relatively easy to get a bare bones grasp of, reading it and especially translating any form of it directly is a herculean task which may be a struggle for even Oerth's best linguists. Many Catfolk living elsewhere than the Beastfolk Heartlands will probably also be able to speak Common and the resident main language of their location, and many Expansion Catfolk are sadly unable to speak their mother tongue, having been brought up listening to Common and other more widely spoken languages. Even those within the Heartlands will likely also know Centaur and/or at least some Common.
Superior Senses
Catfolk have incredibly sharp senses of hearing, sight and smell, dating back from their evolutionary origins as savannah predators. In the modern civilised Oerth these skills find use in a wide variety of areas.
Natural Weapons
The Catfolk have rather interesting hands and feet. Their feet are quite small and more like paws, while their hands are structurally similar to that of an Elf, albeit with no fingernails and with distinctive “pads”, giving them hand prints like a paw print with longer digits. Instead of nails, the Catfolk have retractable claws at the tips of their toes and fingers. These are not overly practical in a combat situation except in a pinch, but do assist the Catfolk in climbing rocks and trees, catching fish and animals, and other small tasks that require a sharp implement.
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