Race: Neko-jin
Average Height: 1.4m – 1.65m (4ft 6in - 5ft 4in)
Average Weight: Male 50 kg – 66 (110lbs – 145) female 43kg – 63kg (95lbs - 138lbs)
Life Span: 100-150 years
Note: Any reference to increased stats, decreased stats, abilities or other game mechanical effects mentioned in this race write up is cosmetic with regard to combat and statistics until such time as the world supports such affects.
General Description: (This is very general there is more detail under Physiology)
Humanoid with fuzzed or furry cat ears and tail. May have a furred or fuzzed body.
History and Geography: The Neko-jin began on an island chain inn the south east of the world. This island chain consisted of 5 large pieces of land, Kital, Roain, Ta'ble, Naraan and Nadia. Kital, Roain and Ta'ble were linked by land bridges. Nadia was linked to Kital at the end nearest Ta'ble, but this land bridge was slightly below the water and a perpetual mud trap for any whom crossed it, due to the water even mud shoes were dangerous. However during the winter the water and mud would solidify for the season to enable trade and war if necessary. The island of Naraan was completely cut off from the others except by boat, there was no existing land bridge.
Aside from the 5 large islands there where 3 clusters of 12-15 medium size pieces of land, each capable of having three to six towns or villages on them depending on size. The cluster to the south of Ta'ble and Roain was called Nip and fortunately for them their island cluster was bridged together by small pieces of rock and earth, some of which required a slight swim from one bridge segment to the other. The second cluster was called Yarra. It was to the North of Kital and Roan. And while they had land bridges they were quite unreliable and the connections changed with the season and so small boats were the preferred method of traversing the gap, though a brave swimmer could make the gap depending on their skill and endurance. The third cluster was to the west of Naraan and Nadia, the island group was Katar. The Katar cluster had many reefs through it and some around. Due to this fact Katar was largely isolated from a number in their group as well as the core land masses. Only a skilled sailor could navigate the area and as such trips that weren't local relative to each island in the Katar cluster was expensive.
Kital, Roain and Ta'ble at multiple times throughout their history were fighting each other. Roain generally started fighting during the winter when the Nadia land bridge was passable. They had to go through Ta'ble to gain quick access to it, but Ta'ble had refused open access considering they had to struggle for access themselves with Kital having a near constant hold over the Nadia land link. Roain warfare erred on the side of endurance and had a habit of deploying multiple Clerics with their task forces, more so than was typically thought needed by the others. However as with the other core islands it wasn't war all the time, Roain had much trade and interaction with Yarra during the non-winter seasons.
Ta'ble and Kital during peace time had fair trade amongst themselves, but occasionally Ta'ble wanted more than part time access to Nadia or Kital was feeling greedy and wanted to keep the Nadia bridge to themselves for a season and this lead to periodic fighting. Ta'ble had sturdier warriors than one would think, but that's not because of specialist standard, but due to necessity. Ta'ble expects to be fighting on two fronts during the winter. The Kital front and the Roain front and so they, out of perceived necessity, have increased their training regiments to produce two tiers of warrior, Knights and Swordsman. These two groups have worked well for Ta'ble to fend off the enduring warriors of Roan and frequent battles with Kital.
Kital, having had more regular trade with Nadia has adopted some of their training techniques and as such has added Rangers suited for Kital's geography to their ranks. This has produced a standard of having roughly equal amounts of Swordsman and Ranger in detachments and and slight skew towards Ranger over Swordsman for defense of outposts, not that there are no Swordsman defending holdings, just that they generally out number stationed swordsman. However due to Rangers being a recent inclusion there is still an abundance of Swordsman in area that aren't considered outposts, like keeps and cities.
The semi-isolated island Nadia has enjoyed it's trade from Kital and occasional trade with Ta'be. They haven't had much strife in their land compared to that of Kital, Roain and Ta'ble. Usually defensive situations, though a few times in history they have felt so tensed about the Kital-Ta'ble skirmishes that they have dispatched their forces to the other end of the land bridge to prevent anyone from coing across during winter. Nadia is mainly wilderness and has build their villages and cities in harmony with that. As such their main forces consists of wilderness based Rangers. Many of those native of Nadia seems to have an ability to vanish into forests and become untraceable, it is said that some can even teleport through trees, thought this is most likely just a rather skilled Ranger of Nadia.
The isolated island of Naraan has had slight contact with the other core islands. In Naraan there is only occasional in fighting on a large scale and only a handful of external conflict. This island is mainly focused inwardly and as such a large amount of it's population is magically inclined. Their military force is a combination of Mages and Swordsman with Swordsman being the minority. This is part of the reason why there has only been a few in-wars, both sides realize that the devastation that they can cause could go beyond their control or ability to mend. Naraan, while not having much interaction with the core, has trade and travel with the Katar cluster of islands to their west. It is mostly a symbiotic relationship between the two groups. Travel and foodstuffs come from Katar due to their sailing skills and Naraan aids them in construction and has helped them clear critical paths through the coral reef. Katar is also where many of the better Swordsman of the Naraan military come from.
Physiology and Tidbits:
The Neko-jin universally prefer meat and fish over other things with the exception of the people from Nadia as their environment has an overabundance of plant life. They have claws and sharp teeth for killing animals, eating meats and to a lesser degree climbing trees. The Neko-jin also have tails, ranging from fuzzed to furred that aid in balance, maneuvering and manual tasks, though the prehensile, grasping, tail is evolutionarily recent and as such some are born with their tail under lesser degrees of control. The eyes of a Neko-jin have a vertical slit pupil and are adept at night vision, however those that go off adventuring generally lose a majority of their night sight compared to their homeland brethren, due to the extremes they experience, though it can be mostly regained with enough years of living back in the homeland.
Their hearing is also different than that of others in that the Neko-jin have and expanded range of hearing and potentially better hearing depending on the person. This aids in defense of things like ambushes and is manifested by cat like ears on their head, some are born with the ears on top of their head and others with them as the sides. Their nose is also more sensitive to scents enabling them to smell things and people. This has granted some that ability to track spectacularly well. In addition some Neko-jin are fuzzed or furred on their body and it seems to be a condition of what their environment was like, though it hasn't yet been proven as a definite.
While they can move swiftly their body has become slightly deficient when compared to a baseline group, like Humans in some regards as well as being sensitive to certain stimulus. In general they are physically weaker in feats of strength and their hearing and smell, while it could be described as superior, is sensitive to things like pungent smells and pitched or extremely loud noises, what other races would consider just unpleasantly loud. Also their eyes are slightly more sensitive to bright light, a reason why many traveling Neko-jin will were hooded clothing during the summer or on a cloudless day.
Class Break Down by Island: (Typical place of origin)
Swordsman: Katar (main), Any of the islands (secondary)
Knights: Ta'ble
Clerics: Roain
Rangers: Nadia (main), Kital (secondary)
Mages: Naraan
