The extremely rough guide to the Felisari

This information was compiled by the Felisari Information Office. It is not always up to date, but it is accurate and representative of most Felisari you will meet.

This guide was last updated on 1 November 2008.

The planet

Felisar [pronounced “FEL-iss-SAR”] is the fourth planet of the star known to its people (the Felisari [“FEL-iss-SAR-ee”]) as “Felistra”, a star slightly hotter than Sol. The planet has somewhat more water and less land mass than Earth.

Most of the land mass is concentrated into two large continents, the rest being distributed across a number of islands of varying sizes.

The Southern Continent is known for its cold winters, which is the origin of a great many “frozen South” jokes among Northerners.

History

The history of Felisar goes back the equivalent of about three and a half thousand Earth years. Before this, there was a period of development and expansion, which culminated in the events known as “the Collapse”. Nobody is quite sure what caused the Collapse – in fact, only fragmentary records survive from this period. To this dare, nobody can say for certain what caused the Collapse, or indeed what happened in the Collapse itself. Many of the surviving records of the collapse contradict each other, leading to many and fierce arguments between scholars. It is said on Felisar that if you put three experts into a room, you will get five opinions!

Bodies
Most Felisari tend to be slender, with a somewhat wiry build, which belies just how strong they actually are. Males and females both average around 5’6” or 5’7” in height. It is rare for a male or female to be taller than about 5’9”. Their bodies are completely covered in a dense soft fur, which generally feels much like cat fur. This fur is often heavier for those who live in the colder Southern Continent regions, which usually means that Southerners tend not to wear much in the way of clothing when visiting the warmer parts of Felisar.

Females do not have the huge breasts normally associated with “catgirls”; their breasts are medium-sized, shapely, and somewhat firmer than those of a human woman, due to having more connective tissue than a human’s. (It is recommended that you not ask to “check this out”, for obvious reasons!)

Like most cat-people, they have retractable claws on both their hands (or “hand-paws”) and their foot-paws. These are usually very sharp. (The Felisari language uses the same word for “hand” and “paw”, hence many Felisari will use the words interchangeably in English.)

- Strength
Felisari are not superhumanly strong, but weight for weight, they tend to average about 20% stronger than humans. Any adult Felisari can easily do a high jump at least equal to his or her own height.
The difference in physical strength between males and females is considerably less than with humans, and many a human has discovered the hard way that Felisari females are very strong for their size!

- Reflexes and agility
Their reflexes are, like most felinoid races, extremely fast. The phrase “cat-like reflexes” could well have been invented to describe them – they are several times faster than a human’s.

Except under very unusual circumstances, they will always land on their feet.

- Hearing
Felisari hearing is considerably better than human (as you would probably expect, from seeing the large, independently mobile ears). Typical hearing range is form about 25-44,000 hertz, and their hearing is much more acute than a human’s across the entire range.

- Eyesight
They can generally see better than a human over most distances. Their eyesight is geared to detect movement, and their night vision (as might be expected of a feline species) is considerably better than that of a human. In spite of this, some Felisari do require vision correction, much like humans.

- Smell
Not surprisingly, their sense of smell is not only substantially better than a human, but scent plays a much greater role in their culture than in human society.

- Tails
The typical adult Felisari tail is about 4’-5' long, and usually more than somewhat prehensile.

- Lifespans
Felisari are long-lived people, the average lifespan being between 150 and 180 Earth years. A young Felisari is not considered an adult until the age of about 25, and they will rarely choose a life mate until they reach at least 40. Thus, a Felisari at the age of 65 is about the equivalent of a 40 year old human. “Middle age” is somewhere around 70.

Magic: Nearly all Felisari posses the ability to sense magic in some form or other, but not all can actually use it directly – in fact the ones who can use it are often somewhat limited in strength and scope. Magic is often incorporated into Felisari technology, in one form or another. Other common uses of magic include healing, and the use of it in textiles to create enchanted clothing, with specific properties, such as being able to alter colour and/or style at the will of the wearer.

Nudity: This is an example of something that can cause difficulty when interacting with others. Felisari have no real concept of a nudity taboo as such, and their fur-covered bodies tend to make them far more relaxed about the matter of wearing clothes or not. There are some Felisari who never wear clothes at all, except when circumstances dictate, and the sight of people going about their business in just their fur is not at all uncommon.

Other details that don’t fit anywhere else

- Felisari tend to be fairly tactile, like most felines. This can cause some awkwardness when interacting with other non-Felisari. It is quite proper to greet another Felisari with a hug if you know them; when meeting one for the first time, it is usually considered polite to ask.

- Many Felisari have never seen a human being, at least in the more remote areas. In many of these regions, they are regarded as mythical beings, the stuff of fairy tales.

- The Felisari language sounds much like a cross between Esperanto and Ailurin. A lot of words have in fact transferred over from Ailurin.

- Young Felisari often have a sweet tooth, although it is rare for this to continue over into adulthood.