Catfolk
No nation — scattered peoples Pre-war culture: Aztec/Incan — jaguar people Homeland: Azlotl (a farside landmass off the dinosaur continent's coast) and both shores of the sea between them — now a dried seabed, and now goblin territory. See Geography document. Self-name: Ocelotl — real Nahuatl for "jaguar," doubling as both the individual and collective name the way "Nasrin" does. "Catfolk" remains the common name everyone else actually uses. Chosen over a constructed plural (e.g. "Ocelomeh") specifically because it's recognizable and web-searchable as-is — a player who looks it up lands on the real word rather than nothing. Pronunciation: "oh-SEH-lotl," with the C reading as a soft S the same way it already does in English before E — no need to reach for an unusual spelling like "Ozelotl" or "Oselotl" to get there.
History — the Catfolk Diaspora: Very early in the Long War, the Giants dried the sea at the heart of Catfolk civilization, with the Caldrian Imperium lending a hand. It wasn't a battlefield defeat — it was an act of war aimed at their whole way of life, and it worked. Catfolk had no technology to compete with it. Their cities, their fleets, and their coastline stopped functioning as a civilization all at once, and they were taken out of the Long War entirely rather than beaten in it. What followed is remembered as the Catfolk Diaspora — the scattering into every other nation that defines Catfolk life today. See Geography and Giant Kingdoms documents.
Seafaring and airships: Catfolk are, without much argument, the finest shipwrights and captains in Tir Hathar — sea or air. Before the Diaspora, this wasn't a reputation, it was daily life: Aztec-mode Catfolk fleets used that now-dried sea as a highway between both shores, not a barrier. When they were scattered, the craft came with them, and they've spent the centuries since sharpening it rather than losing it. Catfolk are also credited as the ones who first worked out airships, and they remain the captains every nation wants at the wheel of one when they can get them — every major power fields airships now, and a Catfolk pilot is the difference between a good crew and the best one. Some rare Catfolk master shipwrights are said to be able to build something more than a hull — a vessel with a spark of its own awareness. Not standard, not well understood, and not something this document is resolving yet.
Ruins: Catfolk ruins are scattered across all of Azlotl — what's left of the cities and ports that used to be there before the sea dried and the goblins moved in. Nobody Catfolk has ruled that land in generations — except, in a strange, quiet exception, a handful of Catfolk who never left at all. Azlotl's dragon, the Feathered Serpent, keeps Catfolk remnants among the high-ranking staff of his Demesne, holding real titles and thoroughly sick of the goblin underlings beneath them. See Dragons document.
The long game: Catfolk are rebuilding through dispersal and numbers. They've spread into other nations, moving into positions of influence through politics and relationships. They breed deliberately and spread out so the growing numbers aren't obvious. The goal is to eventually reclaim influence — through numbers, political control, and indispensability rather than warfare.
Awareness of the plan: Most Catfolk are not aware of the strategy. It's simply the Catfolk way — enjoy a large family, move around, build connections. The elders and priests carry the full weight of the plan. The average Catfolk doesn't need to understand it to participate in it.
The Tide Sigil: Catfolk hold the Tide Sigil — navigation and the intuitive command of a vessel, sea or air, rather than the raw power that drives one. See The Sigil Houses document. It gives every nation a reason to tolerate them that they'd rather not admit openly, and the elders use it deliberately — the long game applied to shipping: make yourself the thing every nation quietly needs and can't easily replace.
Magic: Primarily sorcerers and witches. Magic flows through blood and lineage rather than academic study. Their sorcerous bloodlines trace to pre-war traditions the colonizing nations tried to suppress without full success. Extli, the blood-tempered warrior art, began with the Catfolk too; its oldest forms are lost in the ruins of Azlotl. See Magic Systems → Extli.
Religion: Some Catfolk communities have quietly adopted Chain Cult theology and woven it into existing ancestor-worship traditions.
Changelings: Catfolk and Changelings have a natural affinity — neither has a homeland, neither fully belongs anywhere. Not a formal alliance, just a mutual understanding.
Sigils present: Tide
Body¶
Build: Shorter than humans, but not drastically — about six inches under human average. Lean and long-limbed, built for climbing and balance rather than bulk.
Fur: Jaguar-patterned. Rosette patterns run in families, so an elder can often read a Catfolk's lineage off their coat.
Eyes: Catfolk see in dim light nearly as well as in daylight — moonlight, a shuttered lantern, a night deck — but not in total darkness.
Claws: Real ones, retractable, and enough to fight with. The jaguar-warrior imagery of the old Catfolk cities wasn't only ceremony.
Balance: The body under the seafaring. Catfolk are sure-footed on rigging, masts, and pitching decks, climb easily, and land well when they fall. It's why they took to ships before anyone else did, and why they were the first to trust a deck that flies.
Origin Focus — Catfolk¶
Taken like any other Origin Focus, with a normal Focus pick. No bonus skill. Their height is under average, not small, and carries no mechanical effect.
Level 1: - Night Eyes. You see in dim light as well as in daylight. Total darkness still blinds you. - Claws. Your claws are a natural weapon: 1d6 damage, using the Punch skill. They can't be disarmed. - Sure-Footed. You climb at your normal movement rate without a check for ordinary climbs — rigging, trees, rough walls. A pitching deck or narrow footing never costs you your balance, and falls deal you half damage.
Level 2 — Pounce: When you attack a foe who doesn't know you're there, or right after a leap of at least 10 feet, your claws deal double damage. The jaguar hunts from ambush, and so did the jaguar warriors.