Kylorne Catfolk

The Catfolk of Kylorne, also known as the Mřau, are a race of humanoids with catlike features.

Appearance and Physiology
The Mřau appear to be a mix of humans/humanoids & cats; though, the exact ratio of humanoid to cat varies between individuals in the group. The Mřau are most commonly referred to as "catfolk" because of their appearance. Many Mřau women have features that other cultures would describe as "masculine", while a lot of Mřau men had features that could be described as "feminine."

A Mřau's average lifespan is technically between 100-150 years, though almost none die that young. Mřau have a special innate ability for magic within them, this strange trait causes them to be able to live 9 separate lives; their bodies regenerating almost completely once "killed." A Mřau doesn't forget their past life when reborn, so this effectively raises their lifespan up to 1000-1350 if they live wisely throughout their 9 lives.

History
The Mřau are a very ancient species, it is unknown exactly how long ago they originated. The Mřau also speak their own language, and it is thought to be one of the oldest languages in the world of Kylorne. The Mřau were originally native to the jungle regions of Kylorne, though most wandered through all the lands of Kylorne, splitting the overall population throughout the world. Currently, not many catfolk are left alive, especially compared to their original numbers, this is largely due to the fact that most Mřau villages/tribes were already low in population.

Beliefs & Culture
Most, if not all of the Mřau believed in Has'eumu; a religion in which there were two gods. The first god is Has, the sun; they believed Has was a giant warrior lion who fought so bravely that she was placed among the great sky. The second is Eumu, the moon, they believed that he was such a great scholar, that he had found a way to place himself among the stars. the Mřau believed that there were two paths you could take in life; becoming a warrior to defend your people and tribe, or become a scholar to find new ways to thrive and survive. The warriors praised the sun for it's fiery passion and unwavering heat. The scholars praised the moon for revealing glimmering secrets in the sky (stars), and it's celestial-like dim glow. A majority of Mřau women became warriors, hunters, and protectors, many becoming leaders of tribes. On the other hand, most of the Mřau men became scholars, they studied the stars, agriculture, and sciences, many helping treat wounded soldiers with new medicines. This synchronization of the two main facets of Mřau society caused them to be one of the more advanced cultures at the time.

The Mřau's system of government was a diarchy, they placed one scholar, and one warrior into the positions of ruler to keep each other in balance, every 5 winters a new ruler would be elected by the general Mřau public. Although this was the main system of government for the larger tribes, many smaller tribes simply opted to give the title of ruler for life.

Meh'yah Tribe
Meh'yah literally translates into new-old, this is because the Meh'yah tribe was very traditional to old Mřau ideals, but thought about them in a new way. The Meh'yah tribe believed that instead of sciences, scholars should study the natural & unnatural magics of Kylorne. They also believed that instead of defending from attackers, warriors should strike first, leaving no chance for enemies to even begin to form. The Meh'yah Tribe prospered for a long time, slowly increasing the size and strength of their army, researching magics like never before, and building their walls stronger and stronger; but that wouldn't last forever, all good things come to and end eventually. After some time, other cultures began catching up in technology due to the lack of research the Meh'yah Tribe had been doing on it, this caused more and more enemy tribes to group together against the Meh'yah. Out of desperation, the diarchs of the Meh'yah ordered that all of the brightest scholars focus on a secret project of theirs, "project eu'nim," which roughly translates to "project Star-metal." The diarchs were eventually informed that project eu'nim was ready; the plan was to use a fragment of a star that the Meh'yah had acquired to power a large metal being of artificial life using a magic only recently discovered to them, necromancy. Due to the nature of the magic, the lead researchers of project eu'nim decided to merge skin, muscle, and bone into the metal behemoth, merging the automaton with these things caused a sort of dread in some of the scholars, though they persevered. The casting of the initial spell required 10 magic users to sacrifice their own lives in order to merge with the artificial abomination. after all was said and done, the automaton sparked to life with an awful screech consisting of many voices of multiple different pitches; it was ear-piercing. The very thing the diarchs of the Meh'yah tribe created to protect them, caused the end of not only the most successful Mřau tribe to date, but also almost wiping out the entirety of the Mřau in one single day. Although the enemies of the Meh'yah cheered and celebrated, there was one thing that they all agreed on; that for all of their flaws and evils, the knowledge that the Meh'yah held was far greater than any of theirs, but it was now lost, forever. As they celebrated their bittersweet victory, the tribes began to wonder; what was the fate of the metal monster that had wiped out the Meh'yah? where did it go? would it ever come back? Though they wouldn't get the answers to these questions in any of their lifetimes, and they would continue to stay unanswered for many more winters, history eventually forgetting all about the automaton and it's destruction.