Cats
"Cat" is a bit of a 'catch-all' name for small feline shifters. What the Cats themselves call themselves changes according to location or culture - the Cats that call themselves bao-mao in Britain or Cat in Northern America, call themselves tane tori in New Zealand.
All species of both bestial and lycanthropic small cats - from ocelot to jaguarondi to house cat (effectively the wild 'felis silvestris' of Europe from which the house cat was domesticated) to bobcat to leopard cat - are in the same classification of 'small cats.' In some countries – such as Central American countries and New Zealand, Cat colonies are comprised of only one variety of small cat, but in the United States, the melting pot effect seems to have produced a very large variety in small cat types.
Due to their small size when in fur, large territorial shifters tolerate their presence when larger species would be run off or killed; they can not deplete the larger prey. They are fiercely territorial with each other, though their territories are small, and large cities hold multiple groups. Human authorities sometimes mistake inter-group disputes as gang warfare, a belief that in the past has been useful for those not wanting to come out of the furry closet.
A Cat who accidentally wanders in to the wrong territory will quickly find the next taxi, bus, train or plane out... if they live to board it.
All species of both bestial and lycanthropic small cats - from ocelot to jaguarondi to house cat (effectively the wild 'felis silvestris' of Europe from which the house cat was domesticated) to bobcat to leopard cat - are in the same classification of 'small cats.' In some countries – such as Central American countries and New Zealand, Cat colonies are comprised of only one variety of small cat, but in the United States, the melting pot effect seems to have produced a very large variety in small cat types.
Due to their small size when in fur, large territorial shifters tolerate their presence when larger species would be run off or killed; they can not deplete the larger prey. They are fiercely territorial with each other, though their territories are small, and large cities hold multiple groups. Human authorities sometimes mistake inter-group disputes as gang warfare, a belief that in the past has been useful for those not wanting to come out of the furry closet.
A Cat who accidentally wanders in to the wrong territory will quickly find the next taxi, bus, train or plane out... if they live to board it.
Cat Infections
The virus for Cat lycanthropy is a unique strain. Unlike other varieties of the virus, the virulence of Cat lycanthropy infection varies according to the victim's age.
From birth to age 18, infection results in a 100% transformation rate. From 18-22, the transformation rate drops to 50%. Individuals 22-27 risk a 25% transformation rate. After age 25, transformation risk levels off at 1% thereafter.
Adult individuals with auto-immune disorders, including severe allergies, may suffer a higher transformation rate if infected.
OOC: Infections in characters not initially approved as Cats must follow these infection rates. If a player wishes to infect an adult character with Cat lycanthropy, they must make a request to the Council. We'll roll the dice for you, or you can pitch a compelling plot to us that requires your adult to be infected.
From birth to age 18, infection results in a 100% transformation rate. From 18-22, the transformation rate drops to 50%. Individuals 22-27 risk a 25% transformation rate. After age 25, transformation risk levels off at 1% thereafter.
Adult individuals with auto-immune disorders, including severe allergies, may suffer a higher transformation rate if infected.
OOC: Infections in characters not initially approved as Cats must follow these infection rates. If a player wishes to infect an adult character with Cat lycanthropy, they must make a request to the Council. We'll roll the dice for you, or you can pitch a compelling plot to us that requires your adult to be infected.
North American Cats
Often mistaken for house cats when 'in fur,’ these lycanthropes hunt small prey; rabbits, hares, birds, rats, etc. As a result their hunting grounds are as likely to be in an inner-city area as in a forest, though they compete for territory with other Cats.
Each Colony is led by a male or female known as the Tom or Queen. When the job position is open, strong males and females compete for the chance to lead. There is no stigma against males fighting females in leadership competition, and the winning Tom or Queen is not bound to choose the opposite-sex victor as a sexual partner, though only those victors, not their chosen sexual partners, will be Tom or Queen of the Colony.
The 'second in command' of the Colony is the Nickel If there's fighting over territory, the Nickel may have backup; he or she is then called the 'Nickel Tom' and their backup, Nickels.
The Dimes are non-fighters, the eyes and ears who are expected to warn the Nickels if there's trouble heading their way. Whereas the Nickels are the strong-arms of the Colony, the Dimes are the ones you really have to worry about, because you never know where they'll be. They're the stealthy, unassuming individuals that people overlook, but they're sharp and clever and they know what to watch for.
Each Colony is led by a male or female known as the Tom or Queen. When the job position is open, strong males and females compete for the chance to lead. There is no stigma against males fighting females in leadership competition, and the winning Tom or Queen is not bound to choose the opposite-sex victor as a sexual partner, though only those victors, not their chosen sexual partners, will be Tom or Queen of the Colony.
The 'second in command' of the Colony is the Nickel If there's fighting over territory, the Nickel may have backup; he or she is then called the 'Nickel Tom' and their backup, Nickels.
The Dimes are non-fighters, the eyes and ears who are expected to warn the Nickels if there's trouble heading their way. Whereas the Nickels are the strong-arms of the Colony, the Dimes are the ones you really have to worry about, because you never know where they'll be. They're the stealthy, unassuming individuals that people overlook, but they're sharp and clever and they know what to watch for.
Cat Reproduction
Like all shifter groups, the highest sexual taboo (and for Cats, almost the only one, other than incest and pedophilia) is sexual contact with bestial felines or other true animals. Any ‘cat proven to have practiced such a perversion is branded with silver and exiled from the Colony (and refused admission to all others as well) or may be summarily executed without mercy.
Females go in to heat at puberty and stay in heat until pregnant. Luckily, they get pregnant extremely easily, and will not be in heat again until four to six weeks after miscarrying or giving birth. Cats are also fertile with humans. Sexual contact with adult humans is actively encouraged among Cats. Unlike other forms of lycanthropy, adult humans are almost always immune to infection, so the risk of exposure is minimal. Besides the very low risk of infection, this flaunting of the usual lycanthropic prohibition is because a Cat can be as easily impregnated by a human as by another Cat, though a Human/Cat pregnancy has no chance of continuing to birth. Because of this, hybrid Human-Cat individuals are unknown.
This quirk of Human/Cat biology is the reason that so many female Cats, born or infected, practice some form of prostitution. They get temporary relief from their heats, the risk of a successful pregnancy is zero, and they earn money for fulfilling a biological drive. (Males can also turn to prostitution but it's no more common in male Cats than in male humans, because there's not that biological drive of estrus.) Cats attach no moral stigma to prostitution. Many Colonies subsidize much of their needs through the earnings of their females.
Human 'johns' tend to prefer those who surreptitiously identify as Cat shifters. Because of the almost nonexistent risk of lycanthropy infection, and since any shifter is immune to all human sexually transmitted diseases (except for such things as lice, which are external contaminants,) the usual condom demands are absent. Most female cats who chose this way of controlling their biology work wearing something with a cat on it. 'Hello Kitty' takes on a whole new meaning on a midnight street corner in the sleazier sections of towns and cities across America.
Cat Pregnancies:
Even Cat/Cat pregnancies most often end in miscarriage; a rare successful live birth gains the title of 'Cash' for the mother, and also for the father if known. Less than 5% of Cats gain this title. The advantage of becoming Cash for a female Cat goes beyond the prestige of being one of the rare few who add to the species naturally. A full-term pregnancy halts the incessant estrus most female Cats endure, until the offspring die or reach puberty. At that time, her estruses will resume, but in a much more manageable form, ebbing and abating much like Wolves or Bears.
A Queen is as likely to miscarry as any of the other females in the colony, and a Tom is as likely to be incapable of siring a viable pregnancy as any other Cat male. Miscarriage takes place very early in the pregnancy, usually before the embryos implant into the uterine lining to form placentas. There is normally no tissue expelled, nor any pain or discomfort. The body simply reabsorbs the rejected embryos.
Because successful Cat pregnancies are so rare, any player wishing to have their character carry to term, must get permission from the Council first. Decisions are made by rolling a twenty-sided die that corresponds to the 95% chance of miscarriage. Only a natural 20 will be a yes.
Cat births are called litters, even if the birth consists of only one infant. Gestation is six months. Twins are more common in Cats than in humans, but multiple births of higher numbers are exceedingly rare and are considered at much greater risk of failure even in later stages of pregnancy.
Young Cats are called kittens, and are able to shift at will from birth. Once the embryos implant into the uterus and form their placentas and umbilical cords, the pregnant Cat will find she is unable to shift. This is when most prospective mothers begin crossing their fingers and thinking of themselves as Cash.
Kittens develop physically and mentally at an accelerated pace during their first two years, at approximately double human speed. A two year old kitten thinks and looks like a four-year old child. In the third year, growth slows dramatically to human normal. At all times, however, a Cat child is stronger and faster than a human child, with the enhanced senses of their species.
Like all shifters, Cats try to keep their youngsters away from humans until the children can be trusted not to do anything wildly human-inappropriate, and/or until their growth rate slows to human normal. A Cat parent, if caught out, will call their children by their apparent ages rather than by their true chronological ages.
The entire Colony, as well as the parents, will be expected to look after the Colony's youngest members until they're ready to work for the Colony. (This, incidentally, gets the ‘successful breeders’ out of the line of fire during inter-Colony conflicts.) If the successful breeder already has a title, both titles are kept, with the exceptions of Nickel when there's an active conflict with another Colony, and the title of 'Gib', which is sometimes given to the lowest ranked, or lowest regarded, member of the Colony. Often the term Gib is used as a unisex insult of scorn, as humans may use ‘bastard’ or ‘bitch’. As a rank, the Gib is considered beneath even the newest recruit or born kitten, both of whom will lack a rank title.
Children call their mother, and whoever their mother is currently attached to, their parents- though a male partner may or may not be their biological father. Regardless of biological relationship, kittens would call any adult member who isn't their parent, Uncle or Aunt. Other kittens/young cats are referred to as cousins. Unlike human uses of the terms, cousin, uncle and aunt are recognitions of the other members’ position in the kitten’s life rather than titles of genetic relationship. The only titles of rank kittens use are Tom and Queen, though in most Colonies, the leaders and rankers are usually addressed informally by first name by all the members.
Unlike Wolf society, there is no rank or position for the Cat who helps a new shifter learn control during sex; but Cats are encouraged to learn on each other.
Females go in to heat at puberty and stay in heat until pregnant. Luckily, they get pregnant extremely easily, and will not be in heat again until four to six weeks after miscarrying or giving birth. Cats are also fertile with humans. Sexual contact with adult humans is actively encouraged among Cats. Unlike other forms of lycanthropy, adult humans are almost always immune to infection, so the risk of exposure is minimal. Besides the very low risk of infection, this flaunting of the usual lycanthropic prohibition is because a Cat can be as easily impregnated by a human as by another Cat, though a Human/Cat pregnancy has no chance of continuing to birth. Because of this, hybrid Human-Cat individuals are unknown.
This quirk of Human/Cat biology is the reason that so many female Cats, born or infected, practice some form of prostitution. They get temporary relief from their heats, the risk of a successful pregnancy is zero, and they earn money for fulfilling a biological drive. (Males can also turn to prostitution but it's no more common in male Cats than in male humans, because there's not that biological drive of estrus.) Cats attach no moral stigma to prostitution. Many Colonies subsidize much of their needs through the earnings of their females.
Human 'johns' tend to prefer those who surreptitiously identify as Cat shifters. Because of the almost nonexistent risk of lycanthropy infection, and since any shifter is immune to all human sexually transmitted diseases (except for such things as lice, which are external contaminants,) the usual condom demands are absent. Most female cats who chose this way of controlling their biology work wearing something with a cat on it. 'Hello Kitty' takes on a whole new meaning on a midnight street corner in the sleazier sections of towns and cities across America.
Cat Pregnancies:
Even Cat/Cat pregnancies most often end in miscarriage; a rare successful live birth gains the title of 'Cash' for the mother, and also for the father if known. Less than 5% of Cats gain this title. The advantage of becoming Cash for a female Cat goes beyond the prestige of being one of the rare few who add to the species naturally. A full-term pregnancy halts the incessant estrus most female Cats endure, until the offspring die or reach puberty. At that time, her estruses will resume, but in a much more manageable form, ebbing and abating much like Wolves or Bears.
A Queen is as likely to miscarry as any of the other females in the colony, and a Tom is as likely to be incapable of siring a viable pregnancy as any other Cat male. Miscarriage takes place very early in the pregnancy, usually before the embryos implant into the uterine lining to form placentas. There is normally no tissue expelled, nor any pain or discomfort. The body simply reabsorbs the rejected embryos.
Because successful Cat pregnancies are so rare, any player wishing to have their character carry to term, must get permission from the Council first. Decisions are made by rolling a twenty-sided die that corresponds to the 95% chance of miscarriage. Only a natural 20 will be a yes.
Cat births are called litters, even if the birth consists of only one infant. Gestation is six months. Twins are more common in Cats than in humans, but multiple births of higher numbers are exceedingly rare and are considered at much greater risk of failure even in later stages of pregnancy.
Young Cats are called kittens, and are able to shift at will from birth. Once the embryos implant into the uterus and form their placentas and umbilical cords, the pregnant Cat will find she is unable to shift. This is when most prospective mothers begin crossing their fingers and thinking of themselves as Cash.
Kittens develop physically and mentally at an accelerated pace during their first two years, at approximately double human speed. A two year old kitten thinks and looks like a four-year old child. In the third year, growth slows dramatically to human normal. At all times, however, a Cat child is stronger and faster than a human child, with the enhanced senses of their species.
Like all shifters, Cats try to keep their youngsters away from humans until the children can be trusted not to do anything wildly human-inappropriate, and/or until their growth rate slows to human normal. A Cat parent, if caught out, will call their children by their apparent ages rather than by their true chronological ages.
The entire Colony, as well as the parents, will be expected to look after the Colony's youngest members until they're ready to work for the Colony. (This, incidentally, gets the ‘successful breeders’ out of the line of fire during inter-Colony conflicts.) If the successful breeder already has a title, both titles are kept, with the exceptions of Nickel when there's an active conflict with another Colony, and the title of 'Gib', which is sometimes given to the lowest ranked, or lowest regarded, member of the Colony. Often the term Gib is used as a unisex insult of scorn, as humans may use ‘bastard’ or ‘bitch’. As a rank, the Gib is considered beneath even the newest recruit or born kitten, both of whom will lack a rank title.
Children call their mother, and whoever their mother is currently attached to, their parents- though a male partner may or may not be their biological father. Regardless of biological relationship, kittens would call any adult member who isn't their parent, Uncle or Aunt. Other kittens/young cats are referred to as cousins. Unlike human uses of the terms, cousin, uncle and aunt are recognitions of the other members’ position in the kitten’s life rather than titles of genetic relationship. The only titles of rank kittens use are Tom and Queen, though in most Colonies, the leaders and rankers are usually addressed informally by first name by all the members.
Unlike Wolf society, there is no rank or position for the Cat who helps a new shifter learn control during sex; but Cats are encouraged to learn on each other.
Cat Mating
Cats, unlike most other shifters, do not mate for life. There is no metaphysical "soul-to-soul" bonding in their relationships. Thus, there are no mating rituals for Cats. They can form emotional bonds with a partner, but these are no more binding than human emotions-- and are most often far less binding than human commitments.
When a female Cat goes into heat, she stays in heat until she becomes pregnant. This is different from all other shifter groups, where the female’s heat ends within a certain number of days, regardless of whether or not she conceives. Because of the biology of their estrus, Cats do not tend to make strong pair-bonds.
Cats are instinctively promiscuous with both their own kind and humans from the time they become sexually mature. This is about 15-18 in both males and females. In Cats, sexual maturity doesn’t mean the same thing as puberty or sexual development. Cats develop mature sexual characteristics at about the same rate as humans, but their sexual drive (and for females, estrus) doesn’t appear until the the mid to late teens.
There is no negative social opinion attached to sexual activity by Cat society. Because of this, Cats have relationships that range from completely random hook-ups, to 'friends with benefits,’ to something approximating a human style 'open marriage' where there is profound emotional intimacy and fidelity but sexual fidelity isn't expected.
Relationships for infected Cats tend to be far more complicated, for they tend to have more struggles reconciling their new biology to the morals and romantic expectations they bring with them from their human lives. The mores of their new society and the strong drives and instincts of their new biology usually conflict strongly with their human morals and romantic ideals. An infected Cat’s relationships with both other Cats and humans, in regards to monogamy, can be all over the map. This is within the rules of the game, as long as some sort of struggle is evident as they try to reconcile their new nature with their old human thought patterns and beliefs.
Whether or not they are in a committed relationship, all Cats will be strongly drawn to others of their own kind, all the time. Successful Cat couples work it out with a redefinition of faithfulness-- instead of it meaning, 'no sex with anyone else, ever', it means something more like ‘no sex with anyone not from our Colony, and no emotional intimacy with anyone but me.’
More than any other shifter group, Cats have wide latitude of freedom in their relationship choices, which can also make it a bit confusing to a new player. Please always feel free to drop the Council an email if you have a question, or if you have any suggestions for the game and its “world.”
IMPORTANT NOTE: The age of sexual consent in Georgia is 16, but please do not play out explicit sexual relationships of any kind involving characters younger than 18. Yes, they sometimes happen, and they can be discreetly alluded to (please “fade to black,” or “close the curtain” before the situation goes past PG-13) These are only fictitious characters, but we have to remember that our game also has to abide by real-life rules.
When a female Cat goes into heat, she stays in heat until she becomes pregnant. This is different from all other shifter groups, where the female’s heat ends within a certain number of days, regardless of whether or not she conceives. Because of the biology of their estrus, Cats do not tend to make strong pair-bonds.
Cats are instinctively promiscuous with both their own kind and humans from the time they become sexually mature. This is about 15-18 in both males and females. In Cats, sexual maturity doesn’t mean the same thing as puberty or sexual development. Cats develop mature sexual characteristics at about the same rate as humans, but their sexual drive (and for females, estrus) doesn’t appear until the the mid to late teens.
There is no negative social opinion attached to sexual activity by Cat society. Because of this, Cats have relationships that range from completely random hook-ups, to 'friends with benefits,’ to something approximating a human style 'open marriage' where there is profound emotional intimacy and fidelity but sexual fidelity isn't expected.
Relationships for infected Cats tend to be far more complicated, for they tend to have more struggles reconciling their new biology to the morals and romantic expectations they bring with them from their human lives. The mores of their new society and the strong drives and instincts of their new biology usually conflict strongly with their human morals and romantic ideals. An infected Cat’s relationships with both other Cats and humans, in regards to monogamy, can be all over the map. This is within the rules of the game, as long as some sort of struggle is evident as they try to reconcile their new nature with their old human thought patterns and beliefs.
Whether or not they are in a committed relationship, all Cats will be strongly drawn to others of their own kind, all the time. Successful Cat couples work it out with a redefinition of faithfulness-- instead of it meaning, 'no sex with anyone else, ever', it means something more like ‘no sex with anyone not from our Colony, and no emotional intimacy with anyone but me.’
More than any other shifter group, Cats have wide latitude of freedom in their relationship choices, which can also make it a bit confusing to a new player. Please always feel free to drop the Council an email if you have a question, or if you have any suggestions for the game and its “world.”
IMPORTANT NOTE: The age of sexual consent in Georgia is 16, but please do not play out explicit sexual relationships of any kind involving characters younger than 18. Yes, they sometimes happen, and they can be discreetly alluded to (please “fade to black,” or “close the curtain” before the situation goes past PG-13) These are only fictitious characters, but we have to remember that our game also has to abide by real-life rules.