Ideas for catfolk

Catfolk are one of the standard beastfolk races in fantasy and scifi that features beastfolk.

There isn't really much I can say that hasn't already been said by the innumerable catfolk writeups in various fantasy supplements. Instead, I decided to put together some traits from various different catfolk in scifi and fantasy. I had this in my head for a couple years but somehow haven't posted until now.

My primary influences are: khajiit from The Elder Scrolls, artathi from Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races, and c'tarl-c'tarl from Outlaw Star.

From the khajiit: I take the concept of astrological birth signs determining the degree of anthropomorphism. Based on their birth sign, a catfolk may range in size from a talking housecat to a horse-sized panther and range in appearance from an intelligent feline to a human/elf with slight feline features.

From the artathi: I take the concept of a caste system based on their feline species aspect. These castes would include lion, tiger, puma, lynx, cheetah, leopard, jaguar, and snow leopard. As with other caste systems, each is pigeonholed into particular social and economic roles. Mixed-race individuals would be considered outcasts.

From the c'tarl-c'tarl: I take the concept of a shapeshifter who can change shape from nearly human to giant cat and everything in between. This would be considered a distinct birth sign.

Miscellaneous links

• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CatFolk
• https://gamingeveryman.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/so-sick-of-catgirls/
• https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/133161/Animal-Races-Clan-of-the-Cat
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Catfolk

The arbitrariness of beastfolk

Fantasy gaming has many races variously known as “beastmen” or “beastfolk.” Catfolk, ratfolk, mongrelfolk, etc. I have alluded to these in past posts but didn't address them directly until now.

The basic premise of my world building attempt is that the beastfolk are worshipers of the beast lords, one of the groups of primal spirits or nature deities alongside the plant lords and elemental lords (a la Stormbringer, which D&D liberally copies). The beast lords are responsible for creating them, and each race is associated with a specific lord (or lords, as the case may be).

There are multiple ways to create beastfolk, not just heredity. This is because there are an arbitrary number of possible beastfolk and I don’t want to waste time on a bazillion entries for each race. Some may receive more attention than others, if only because fantasy gaming has focused more on them. For example, beastmen could be transformed humans, uplifted animals, or wholly original.

Here are some examples I thought of how a beastman’s animal aspect might be determined. I'm sure you can think of countless others.

• When an animal is uplifted to a beastman, its aspect is determined by the animal it used to be.
• This aspect may be changed through various means, such as the blessing of another patron, transmutation spells, etc.
• Beastmen are born in an ambiguous humanoid form and gain their aspect later in life. (Alternately, their animal aspect is not fixed until later in life. Like the daemons in His Dark Materials, their animal aspects shift based on their emotions.)
• A beastboy goes on a rite of passage to find his spirit animal or totem. After succeeding, he gains his animal aspect and is considered a man.
• A beastboy receives magical tattoos that determine his animal aspect, a la Lunars in Exalted.
• The animal aspect is determined by their faith or the blessing of their patron totem. Changing their faith (i.e. Beast Lord worshiped) changes their animal aspect.
• The animal aspect is determined by hereditary bloodline. This may be general (mammalian beastfolk has mammalian children of any specific aspect) or highly specific (wolfmen are only born to wolfmen parents).
• How quick is the transformation from one aspect to another?
• As a beastboy matures into a beastman, his human visage steadily becomes more beastly until he is fully therianthropomorphic.
• The transformation occurs more or less instantly upon the aspect being determined or changed.
• A beastboy's animal aspect is present from birth. He may become more or less human as he matures or grows in power, similar to anime character power ups.
• Beastmen appear as varying combinations of human and animal, determined by genetics, magical practices, or random chance.

Here are some examples of specific races that seem to show up fairly regularly (and not so regularly) in fantasy:

• The reptilefolk are the descendants of the Atlantean saurian race (aka dramojh, sarruk, sli’ess, samat, etc). The saurian race selectively bred themselves into a caste system, each caste resembling different reptiles like serpents, chameleons and tortoises. This obscured the unstable nature of their bloodlines, and by modern times many display bizarre mutations. The serpentfolk engaged in crossbreeding experiments with freakish results. (Based on Slavelords of Cydonia, He-Man, Warhammer Fantasy, Robert E. Howard, etc.) They would be patronized by, depending on whether you care for real taxonomy, the Beast Lord of Dragons, Reptiles, Dinosaurs, and/or Birds.
• The catfolk have highly varying degrees of anthropomorphism, ranging from nearly human to bipedal panthers. These are known as birth-signs since it is determined by astrology at their birth. Although they look identical at birth, close to humans in fact, as they age their appearance develops into that decided by their birth-sign. (Based on Outlaw Star, The Elder Scrolls, anime catgirls, etc.)
• The ratfolk always look like anthropomorphic rats, although they range in size from halflings to ogres. They come in many different cultures, ranging from peaceful monastic orders, to alien biker gangs, to vicious hordes of mad cultists. (Based on Ptolus, Scarred Lands, Warhammer Fantasy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice From Mars, etc.) They would be patronized by the Beast Lord of Rodents and/or Muroids.
• The mongrelfolk are the chimerical beastmen. I already wrote a post about them in which I posited they are the planetouched by the planes of discord and chaos. As beastmen, they would be patronized by the Beast Lord of Chimeras; s/he may well be a naturalized aberration or other demon of chaos.

In the future I would like to give more detail to various beastmen races. Perhaps expand the beast lords into a full-fledged feudal system to account for the messiness of real taxonomy.

Miscellaneous links

• http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/04/bx-beastmaster.html
• http://joyfulsitting.blogspot.com/2016/03/beast-men-from-d.html
• https://screamingstoryteller.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-sankarjin-furry-race.html
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Beastmen
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Beastfolk
• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism
• http://www.dmsguild.com/product/188081/Beastfolk-an-Original-Race-for-DD-5e
• https://gate-thus-the-jsdf-fought-there.fandom.com/wiki/Humanoid#Part-Animals
• https://overlordmaruyama.fandom.com/wiki/Beastman
• https://tensura.fandom.com/wiki/Beastman

We don’t need so many reptilian races

One of many oddities of D&D is that it has a bazillion reptilian races. As with goblinoids and orcs, I think it makes the most sense to treat all these chike/gatorfolk, kobolds, lizardfolk, serpentfolk/naga/ophiduan/inphidian, lernaeati/dorvae/manalishi, troglodytes/xulgath, dinosaurfolk, etc as members of the same monster family. For example, the reptilian races could be distinguished by categories like subrace, caste, size, tribe, degree of anthropomorphism, etc a la Warhammer Fantasy lizardmen.

Way back I briefly recapped the saurian race from Slavelords of Cydonia, which had several castes representing different reptile varieties like gators, chameleons, and turtles. I said back then that it made sense too, but this moment I wanted to add something else.

The reptilian races should be explicitly linked with dragons, dragonborn/dragonkin/dragonspawn, and so forth. In D&D-inspired media, this is already seen to a degree like the “dragonewt” race.

Furthermore, I think this family should (vaguely) include what amphibian races exist. A herptilefolk family? I alluded to this a while back when I discussed the Ogdoad of Ancient Egypt, a paired set of primordial deities in the forms of snakes and frogs. (Which are the parents of basilisks. Patterns are fun!)

In a future post I intend to explain about how I would define dragons based on comparative mythology rather than the idiosyncratic D&D norms.

Mongrelfolk and chaotic planetouched

The mongrelmen were introduced in early editions of D&D. Their backstory was that they were the result of extreme interspecies miscegenation. In later editions their name and backstory was changed for the sake of political correctness. They were renamed mongrelfolk (not an improvement) and their backstory changed to them being the result of fusion experiments by a mad wizard (not original). They now inherited the genetics of creatures they ate a la kroot in Warhammer 40,000.

The Tome of Horrors recycled their old miscegenation origins and this was reprinted by Pathfinder through the OGL. Aside from that, homebrew typically devise new non-miscegenation origins. The Daily Bestiary mentions that mongrelfolk could easily fit any backstory the GM desires.

For the most part, mongrelfolk look like bizarre patchworks of body parts from other humanoid species. Reptilian, insectoid, piscine, mammalian, avian, etc. In 3e they briefly changed to looking like a generic demikind race that could pass for members of the demikind races, but this was never used again. Personally, I like the idea that mongrelfolk could exist on a continuum between both extremes, maybe with some social friction between the two kinds of mongrelfolk over how other humanoid races treat them.

It doesn't make any sense to me that "mongrelfolk" is their racial name, since it is clearly a racial slur. I imagine they probably have their own name for themselves, like "the people," "the race," or "human beings."

New ideas for backstories came to me after some thought. Maybe they could be patronized by a Beast Lord of Chimeras (as in chimerical creatures, not the Greek Chimera). Maybe they could be chaotic planetouched?

Here is a list of chaotic planetouched from third party products I perused:

• Doathi, Frogfolk of Porphyra from Purple Duck Games
• Eirling, Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races from Lion's Den Press
• Ganzi, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures from Paizo Inc.
• Warpling, Dark Roads & Golden Hells from Kobold Press
• Xaoling, Planar Races: Chaos, The Xaolings from Purple Duck Games
• Xiokin, Children of the Planes from Tangent Games

A recurring theme of chaotic planetouched is that they have chimerical features. The eirling take the cake because they used randomized tables to determine their body parts, just like the mongrelfolk in Tome of Horrors! Being planetouched doesn't necessarily mean that you had an aboleth, chaosiic, ogdoad, protean or whatever in your family tree. Planetouched may be the result of pacts, transfusions, mutations by planar radiation or wild magic, surviving attack by a chaos beast, infection with pan-demoniac corruption, etc. For that matter, the term planetouched may just as easily apply to mortal inhabitants of the planes. The latter is the premise of the supplement Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races.

Regarding the doathi in particular, I think they could be conflated with the deep ones, gillmen, and skum presented elsewhere in Pathfinder. I could easily link the aboleth and ogdoad.

Research links

• http://dailybestiary.blogspot.com/2013/01/mongrelman.html
• http://errantd20designer.blogspot.com/2012/06/pfrpg-mongrelkin-race.html
• http://luduscarcerum.blogspot.com/2011/04/reworking-mongrelfolk.html
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Mongrelfolk
• https://dailybestiary.tumblr.com/post/40312989538/mongrelman
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongrelfolk
• https://faerunian.fandom.com/wiki/Mongrelfolk
• https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mongrelfolk
• https://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/curse-of-strahd-correctly-labels-strahd-an-abuser-yet-troublingly-racist/
• https://monstersandstuff.home.blog/2018/11/23/salvaging-a-good-design/
• https://nerdarchy.com/chimes-discordia-rise-mongrelfolk-birth-race/
• https://nerdarchy.com/customized-races-mogrelfolk-dungeons-dragons-5th-edition/
• https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Mongrelman
• https://trailblazerrpg.wordpress.com/2018/10/17/lost-races-part-11-mongrelfolk-rastipede-bariaur-wemic-and-dracotaur/
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/monstrous-humanoids/mongrelman-tohc/
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/monstrous-humanoids/mongrelman/
• https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mongrelfolk_(5e_Race)
• https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/60615-mongrelfolk
• https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/104108
• https://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?133058-quot-Mongrelfolk-quot-what-the-!

Generic beastfolk in crunch and fluff

Fantasy gaming is full of different beastfolk races. There are catfolk, ratfolk, lizardfolk, mongrelfolk, etc. They are almost always highly specific in terms of which animal they anthropomorphize, and sometimes may display subraces with more specific features like halfling-size ratfolk, squirrel-tailed ratfolk, etc. They are typically created by dark magic or a precursor race.

What is less common are generic beastfolk races who don't have a fixed animal aspect. There are a fair amount of supplements for beastfolk that let you build the race yourself rather than presenting a preset race, but there are few that do anything similar with the world building. (In contrast to the beastmen's random mutations being taken for granted.)

For example, the ferrans in Thunderscape: the World of Aden have multiple animal aspects within the same species. They are divided into three branches of mammalian, avian or reptilian. However, a ferran may only have children with a member of the same branch and their child will inherit the same animal aspect as one of their parents.

By contrast, the sankarjin span the full spectrum of avian, aquatic, amphibian, mammal, reptile, and insectoid. They do not have hereditary appearances: a wolf and a sheep may have a child who is reptilian or rabbit. (The link appears to be dead and I cannot find any copies elsewhere, so sorry about that!)

The beastfolk in Victoriana by Cubicle 7 Games are a more extreme example compared to ferrans. They are a race, but their animal aspect is random rather than hereditary. What is further interesting and bizarre is that stereotypes are associated with animal aspects: ratfolk are disliked, dogfolk are accepted, lionfolk are beloved, etc.

There are not, to my knowledge, beastfolk races where the character (as opposed to the player) may choose their animal aspect. Or change it. Or have multiple aspects like a chimera (except for the aforementioned mongrelfolk). I guess that is something to world build later.

ADDENDUM 11/19/2019: This writeup depicts beastmen as transformed animals, and "flora sapiens" as evolved plants.

Tribes of the centaurs, part 4: the beautiful centaurs

The callicantzaros (plural callicantzari) is a kind of fairy goblin in Balkan folklore with some similarities to vampires. It is included in this series because its name is speculated to derive from kalos-kentauros meaning "beautiful centaur," although this etymology is hotly contested.

Beast lords and shapechangers

Since I've decided to make the beast lords a basic part of my setting's theology, that means I have to tie them with beasts and various related monsters. That includes beastmen, beastfolk, lycanthropes, therianthropes, and more.

The distinction between beastmen and beastfolk is arbitrary and the terms are often used interchangeably. When one does wish to make a distinction, it generally boils down to this: beastmen are chimerical combinations of human and animals features (e.g. centaurs, harpies, satyrs, etc), whereas beastfolk are anthropomorphic animals (e.g. catfolk, ratfolk, lizardfolk, sea devils, gnolls, etc).

Lycanthropes are humans or other humanoids suffering the affliction or blessing of lycanthropy. In my setting all diseases whether mundane or magical are caused by disease spirits a la Glorantha, a variation of which applies here. The disease spirits that cause lycanthropy are lycanthropic spirits and they behave a bit differently from other disease spirits, not the least of which being that they cause transformation into animal forms.

Antherians (from "antherion," a compound of an- + therian meaning "not animal") are intelligent beasts that may assume humanoid form as a racial trait, typically to infiltrate humanoid societies. (This concept appears quite a few times in real world folklore, such as the stories of fox fairies in China, Korea and Japan, the goblin spiders and raccoon dogs of Japan, hyena men in some African countries, deer women in some indigenous American cultures, and so forth.) Antherians cannot contract, carry or transmit lycanthropy; their innate animal spirit repels the lycanthropic spirit.

Therianthrope is an ambiguous term referring to 1) all shape changers that switch between beast and humanoid forms, or 2) antherians specifically (a usage originating from the 3pp Tome of Horrors, which introduced them under the OGL).

Zoanthrope is a synonym for therianthrope, referring to a man that assumes the form of an animal. For purposes of game setting world building, I will use the term to refer to humanoids that assume the forms of animals as a racial (or class) trait but are neither lycanthropes nor antherians. An example would be the Mhuinntir race from Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races, the Skinwalker race from Blood of the Moon, or the Weretouched archetype for the Shifter class in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Wilderness. Like antherians, they cannot contract, carry or transmit lycanthropy.

Vermin hosts (introduced in Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie under the OGL) are shape changers whose animal aspect are vermin like leeches, rats, roaches, and spiders. Although appearing similar to lycanthropes due to their assumed forms and ability to infect others, physically vermin hosts are actually swarms of vermin with a shared mind. I will treat them as a type of lycanthropy.

In the setting itself, most people are unaware of these distinctions and treat as shape changers as interchangeable.

All of these therianthropes may trace their origins to specific patrons among the beast lords, such as the lord of lycanthropes, the lord of vermin, etc.

In future posts I hope to explore the distinctions and ramifications further.

Theriocephalus race concept

The theriocephalus (from therio- + -cephalus) is a human with the head of an animal. He is not anthropomorphic: his body is entirely human without fur or feathers or scales, while only his head is that of an animal.

 Theriocephaluses come in at least three flavors: the animan, the verman and anumus.

• The animan (plural animen) is an animal-headed aasimar descended from immigrants from the upper plane ruled by the beast lords. They have the heads of terrestrial vertebrates (i.e. mammals, reptiles, avians and amphibians). An animan is a humanoid with the aasimar tag.
• The verman (plural vermen) is a vermin-headed tiefling descended from the forgotten creations of a demon lord. They have the heads of terrestrial invertebrates (e.g. arthropods and gastropods). A verman is a humanoid with the tiefling tag.
• The anumus (plural anumi) are created from beasts given a special potion made from the mystical anumi plant. They may have the heads of any terrestrial animal that is given the anumi potion. An anumus is a humanoid with the beastfolk tag.

Sources: The anumus is from Remarkable Races: The Anumus by Alluria Publishing. The animan and verman are from Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races by Fantasy Flight Games.

Orcs and hobgoblins: what’s the diff?

As 1d4chan points out, there isn’t really that much of a difference between hobgoblins and orcs. There’s any number of ways you could world build a more convincing explanation in my opinion.

Of Beastmen and Beastfolk

World mythology and fantasy gaming is full of creatures and races that may be described as "beastmen" or "beastfolk." Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of beast people: 1) chimerical hybrids of human and animal, and 2) anthropomorphic versions of animals.

Chimerical hybrids of man and animal are commonplace in mythology and fantasy gaming. Centaurs, harpies, satyrs, minotaurs, mermaids and so forth are just a few examples. The famous examples in fantasy gaming of "beastmen" would be the Broo in RuneQuest and the Beastmen in Warhammer.

Anthropomorphic animals, or "furries" in the most reductionist term, seem to be a more recent invention with a loose precursor in the animal-headed deities of some ancient religions. There is actually a continuum of anthropomorphism, ranging from catgirls to animal-headed humans to "beastfolk."

In future posts I will explore how to world build beastmen and beastfolk in fantasy campaigns...