Legends of Belariath

Cat People History

"Come, gather round my friends as I relive the tale that apparently gives heed of our creation onto this world. It has been many months now and we have finally pieced together the first parts of the fading artwork on the old caves of the Jimt’nia Mountain. Now I will let you all read it here with my notes on areas that are hazy or faded, so we now can rejoice we were made by something that was done wrong…”

Scribe Thune of the Fren

Below is the transcribed history of our race. It is only the first few years of our creation, and has a few gaps, as plant dyes only last for a certain length of time, but we now have at least a valid story of how we were borne into this sweet world and what effect we have had on it.

We only have the first few hundred years of our creation, as this was the hardest of the glyphs and scriptures we were able to translate and find. We have done our best to make it as complete as possible. Below will be listed the local legends and myths that exist in the folklore of the many new orders, in a project to unite all our history together to form a great library of the Cat People Race.

The First History

Transcribed on site at the mountain of Creation

(Scribes note: The scribing of the beginnings of the cat-people found many moons ago by a curious scribe and now the original drawings have faded altogether, and we know not of any other copy. We thank the goddess we were able to record this before it was too late)

The night was dark. Lighting forked overhead, as the 12 dark figures entered the mountaintop, dressed in simple furs, adorned by cloaks of leather, their heads hidden by their hoods. They were dark skinned, shabby characters, hair rough and unwashed, small necklaces of bones hung at their necks, highly polished, and all exactly the same. All carried a small dark-wood staff in their bony fingers, adorned by a skull.

(Scribes note: The first time we had read this on the cave we had noticed that the history before the ritual had been scraped off. Whether this was to be done because of the goddess’s wishes or what no one knows)

All carried a leathery skin pouch full of herbs and leaves, and 7 out of the 12 carried a small-uncut gemstone in their tightly clenched fists. So tonight was the night. As the simple pictures on the cave wall dictated about the ingredients and methods to use, one picture told the 12 to include a sacrifice.

(Scribes note: We had to use many more newer scriptures to decode this information, due to the old dialect that we had not previously discovered, but the pictures were very similar)

But by devoting this sacrifice to their goddess, the 12 chosen would find immortality, stealing it from the being lying in the ground beside the 7 neatly arranged stones of Aku-Rak, waiting for the moment when the goddess would deliver her promise.

(Scribes note: The goddess… only mentioned here with a small picture of what appears to be a tiny black cat... maybe that is why she asked for the familiars to be brought to her…)

The night had been planned for many cycles of the moon, ever since the drawing had been discovered. The 12 chosen were all females, being the most favoured in the tribe, and chosen for the purpose for their beauty, wisdom and fertility.

(Scribes note: This mentions a tribe… possibly what we were before the ritual? It is a shame they were so unclear…)

They were prepared and a festival was held to celebrate the prophecy of the Chosen. They were to be given Immortality, the greatest honour that one could have bestowed on them from the goddess. The tribesmen who were in charge of the potions and spells mistranslated slightly, mistaking some of the faded drawings, and this could prove fatal to the Chosen if the goddess were not invoked properly.

(Scribes note: This also states that there was an error, so who was writing or recording this down? It is obviously being written as it happened with a past tense view with the impeding error… but once again the word tribe was mentioned… so… Were we human before this? Or were we something else who lived in a tribe? And what drawing were they referring to? And who drew them…? So many unanswered questions we are never going to know. The symbol for immortality is the reverse symbol for death. So we can only deduce this is what it actually means, as the literal translation would be “forever life” so is a good enough reason to assume they meant immortality, but the recipes and potion mixtures have not been found. We are not even looking for them as we think they do not exist)

Warriors hunted far and wide to bring back the sacred ingredients, a selection of herbs from the mountains, on which many a good fighter perished, just for a sprig of this plant. Gemstones, one for each colour of the spectrum had to be found also, and these were dug for, but uncut, as they thought it was not required.

The other ingredient to be included was to be in fact an Elf. They were told to be of great wealth and knowledge, capped with immortality, they were the perfect beings. The drawing foretold of the 12 Chosen rising up and taking the tribe to a higher state of being, and wealth, peace, and knowledge being plentiful. So the special alter was prepared, 13 cats were brought along to the clearing on the mountaintop, as portrayed on the ancient drawings.

(Scribes note: The symbol for the sacrifice matches a later dialect of the symbol for the newer race of Elves which were discovered about 3000 years later than this suggests, also why say the drawings were ancient? How can the fact we only have recently discovered them make them already ancient? So this means there is more history out there for us to find. If only we knew where to look. The gemstones that were used we can only think of as the colours of the different glyphs that were to be used on the stones which are there today, faded and worn)

The potion was mixed, the gemstones were placed on the 7 Stones of Aku-Rak, and the most powerful female looked to the group, and raised her hands up to the sky, and the eleven chanted the words from the scriptures, the unconscious male elf lay on the alter covered in the vile potion, and then the sky opened up and lighting flashed, blinding all on the mountain…

(Scribes note: They had scriptures?! This is one of the most confusing deciphering works to date. As we are aware that the cat people first started to write scriptures many years later than this as plant stems and reeds were thought of as too worthless to store information on, and most of the earlier histories have been carved on rock. Whoever was writing this stopped at the most interesting time as we would have loved to have had a description of the way the magic worked.)

When the Chosen awoke the following day, a change had happened, not only to the surrounding area, but to their personal bodies also. The village around them had be burnt and charred; the landscape black and barren, trees stood menacing against the charcoal covered earth. At first the Chosen knew not of what had happened, then while looking to the village of their tribe, they knew it had to have been some great power, even the goddess herself. But why would she punish them? Had they not given her a suitable sacrifice?

Weeping the Chosen walked down the mountainside to the charred remains of the village, only to find that all had perished. They were the last of their race. From under their cloaks all made a silent pact with each other to stay together, as one and to restart the race they had been part of and loved so.

(Scribes note: What in the 3 dark lands had happened here? The spell had had some effect obviously but to char that area of land the magic must have been powerful indeed. I know of only a fireball doing that damage, but why were they not burnt?)

Only one thing stood in the way of this pact. There were no males of the race left. What were they to do? Crawling back to the mountaintop with heavy hearts, they noticed a few things wrong. Where were the gemstones? The prophecy said they would turn into powerful stones able to hold powers including ice and fire for example. They were missing. The next thing that was the most noticeable was where had all the familiars gone? There were thirteen cats in the clearing, 2 placed by each stone except for where the head of the Chosen had stood. A groan and a mewing sound averted their attention…

(Scribes note: Uh huh. So this is where we first discover who we are. They could have said it in a more attractive way. It seems whoever was scribing this was as confused as the others, as to what had happened. The seven gemstones still have not been found, but there are many rumours onto where they rest. Once we have more evidence we will be trying to seek them out.)

The chosen looked to the noise and all of them were shocked to see, that their sacrifice, had instead been turned into some weird being. At first they were frightened, unsure of its intentions, but when a smile was offered, they relaxed a little and looked to him.

(Scribes note: The first Cat-Man in history. The picture for him is not too great but he was of black fur, great tufted ears and a long black tail, obvious signs he was blessed by their then goddess. The chosen were a variety of colours from the small pictures we have for reference. They were about 5’ 7” in today’s measurements as the unit used here were hands. Today however it seems that cat-people come in all shapes and sizes)

“My Chosen, it is time…”

The 12 girls looked at each other questioningly. His Chosen? What was that about? The prophecy said nothing of this, except a grand new race was to be created, and the Chosen would bear the childe of the Founder, in this case the pictures showed the head of the tribe, according to the scribes. What if they were wrong? Confused and a little frightened, the Chosen 12 slowly walked to him.

“Bow before me and remove your cloaks little ones…”

They did as requested, and to their horror found each of the 12 had very catlike features, they shrank down to the mountain earth in fear, cowering, thinking of what was to come. Looking to them all, the Founder gently scratched and rubbed each Cat-girl’s ears, ensuring the transition had been completed. After many mews and purrs of pleasure from them, he asked the Head of the Chosen to stand.

(Scribes note: Ok we apologise for the use of common in their words, as trying to write the original dialect in its pure translation was too hard for everyone to understand. So here we have written the nearest translation.)

The obvious delight our kind have for being petted and caressed comes from this time it seems… mind you we all love being petted and shown affection, whether it is good or bad)

She was a beautiful girl standing tall and proud, kitten ears perked, tail swishing gently, and awaited his instruction.

He petted her, gently arousing her urges readying her for breeding and made love to her right there in front of the others, while this was happening, all the other cat girls began to explore their new bodies, and the mountaintop, which is still there today, in cat terms as the Mountain of Creation.

The founder mated with all of the Chosen, impregnating all of them to further the race. He spoke of many new things and a golden era for the cat people, as the race that one-day would rival the elves for knowledge.

(Scribes note: Hmm. It shows here how amorous the race is. Not bothering to figure out what to do, they have sex instead. Indeed furthering the race was a good idea at this time, but what did the goddess have in mind for us? It disappoints us we will never know, all those words and testaments lost in the winds of time and what does the scribe mean rival the Elves for knowledge? They had about 4 million seasons ahead of us.)

He quoted things the goddess said to him in the transition, and that they were a new race, spawned for a purpose. Yet he did not let them know that purpose. For it was to reveal itself to them at a later date and thwart the cat people forever.

(Scribes note: Now this one confused us. The purpose I can only deduce is that we were to be servants of a greater race. Only a few orders are free of slavery in today’s world, but what is this that will “thwart” us? We have found no records of a purpose or a major threat to the race, so this is unknown.)

The day of the first litters soon arrived and it was a day of great celebration for the Chosen as the first ever set of kittens were brought into the world. A day of confusion for the founder also, as only 3 boys were born out of the 36 kittens, foretelling the words of the goddess, “You will pay for the Chosen’s people’s ignorance!”

(Scribes note: What happened in the time before the first cat-people young were brought into the world? The word kitten is used here as the symbol for a cat-person baby matches that for a “kitten” so we have used it here. The cat people young are humanoid babies with cat features, ears and tail; the fur grows a little later on. And where had the goddess’s words come from? It was not recorded anywhere else what she had said so why suddenly this from nowhere? Was this deliberately scribed here so we later on would come and find the reason why we are as we are? Only with time and much more work and research will we begin to understand what we have done and been punished for. This is all we have in the cave of the rising sun on the Mountain of Creation; the rest if there is any is buried or has eroded from the wall in the tunnel. It saddens us we do not have a complete history.)

The addendum that was found on the Keystone of Mihi Fren

This following extract was found carved into one of the Keystones for the cat-people language, we have many symbols that we do not know and have not found words or meanings to. We know it has meanings to the overall history story as it has the same signature of the original scriber in the cave. It has been included in the archive for completeness.

Scribe Thune of the Fren

The Cat People History
What follows here happened about 70 seasons (35 years) after the ritual of creation.

Then it began, many years passed with the Kittens being adept hunters and warriors, each order being headed by the Chosen and the Founder, and each Order being adept in one thing, be it Crafts, or natural healing, But before long there was unrest. In each order, Kittens with magical powers began to be born, causing jealousy and hatred.

The Elders as they were called now were forced to make the new cat mages into an order in their own right, but as there were so few males in the race, they were not able to discover a way to bring the mages into the normal society, so then the society broke down, mages and non-mages living together, against the wishes of the Founder. Everyone then thought the males in the Founder’s order, had the wrong ideas and views which would better the Cat people race, and the orders of females, were also sick and tired of being treated like slaves to the males, seeing them only for breeding tools, and insignificant for anything else other that fighting.

(Scribes note: The first signs of conflict. It is sad really most of the battles and events of pain and suffering are so clearly written in history, why can’t we have the other sides, like the first birth of the magical cat people, or the celebrations of the town and thanks for the harvest. But this shows how petty our ancestors truly were, and we agree us cat-girls should not be treated below the males in this race, it is obvious the goddess favours us over them.)

On the Founder’s 70th complete breeding cycle, basically 35 years, the cat girls of the chosen orders lead a revolt against the Founders order, whilst the elders were absent planning a new civilisation structure, which would put the squabbling cat girls evens with the males in the group. After this was achieved and all were happy, they returned to their people to find massive bloodshed and killing, and another one of the goddess’s prophecies had been realised. “The coming of unrest”

(Scribes note: prophecies of the goddess? Where had this come from? All we have is a scribbled note on this, and it says on how the race can be wiped out as quickly as it was borne into this world. This was true but why did they fight in the first place?)

The Elders called to their children, pleading with them that violence was not the answer, but alas, the frenzied kittens did not listen, the blood lust had taken them from their parents, and all that was to be done now was pain and terror – many kittens died due to the hatred, that the magic users had more power than them.

Hatred that the mages were favourites of the Elders, and would be able to better the race more then they can, jealously, for the powerful ones seemed to have perfect litters, with no stillborn kittens but four healthy, bouncing ones. This also caused unrest amongst the females, as they were trying to figure out why the cat-girls were chosen. With a final slay of the sword, Keria, the head of the Rebellion brutally murdered the last remaining male, his blood spraying on her naked body, the females went triumphant to the elders and demanded fair treatment.

(Scribes note: It says on the stone that the elders had put to the cat-people fighting in the fields this new proposal that the females would enjoy equality, but they seemed to ignore them until they had killed every male who existed. The founder was very upset it reads but shows not of any punishment that he ensued on the girls who remained or not)

Unfortunately for the cat-girls they had one major flaw in their plan. Now there were 200 cat-girls and only 1 elder male, so in effect the race had to be recreated from the beginning. The Founder bred with the Chosen again, hoping the curse of the goddess did not continue into the second generation, but it did. Out of 36 kittens not one was male. The time was bleak, with only one male, so the Founder went back to the Mountain of Creation, and reread the ancient scriptures on the walls. Finding out that the Chosen would only bear female kittens after the first generation had bred. He then also read down the certain females of the “lesser” kittens were marked by the goddess as being able to bear one male per season. So with the scriptures in mind, he sought out females in the settlement which had this characteristic and bred with them on their next season and the first generation of lesser males were born.

(Scribes note: There are no records of scriptures OR drawings on the tunnels in the cave. Let alone the ones that are mentioned here. The curse we have been given by the goddess becomes clearer a little here but again this seems only to bring up more questions than answers. The signs that the cat writing this history was a female is obvious with the fact the males were wiped out and the history continues, gives it away somewhat. The marking of the cat-girls in question is unknown. We have no idea how they were identified and why the chosen had not ventured to read the scriptures… this has confused us no end. Was the fact the Founder once an elf the reason? We are never to find out)

Many more years past and the Founder and his Chosen were starting to show the toll of long life, their fur had greyed almost white, yet they remained young and beautiful in the face and in their features. A female however did spread the word that the founder would breed with you if you had a certain mark. Such is the price for drunken talk. There were now 3 generations of cat-people, which males had been born to, and these were a mix of mage and non-magical kittens.

(Scribes note: The writer tells of “drunken talk” what was it that made them drunk? This is odd, as the cat people did not discover ale or wine until many years later. Could it be the sex talking? We think this is more the reason.)

When the Chosen found this information out, they were outraged, almost obsessed as to why their founder would sleep with the lesser cats. They went and sought him, and asked him to explain his reasons for betraying the race, and he said that it was not to betray the race, but to freshen it with new stock. He took them down into the sacred cave, where he explained what the pictures meant. Not understanding them, or choosing not to, they disbelieved him, and hatred grew in their hearts. For he was the Founder, the master of the race, yet why would he not choose them as his mates?

(Scribes note: Here we can see the fact that the Founder was indeed more intelligent than the chosen, perhaps this is because he was blessed by the goddess, as we have seen many males that have been and acted more stupid than some females in the race. But the reasons they justified their hate is very unfeasible. There must be another reason that was not put to stone in this text.)

Upset and confused, each of the chosen returned to their orders, and discussed it with the “council of few” which were their closest and most trusted kittens, and a few males also made it to the council, by proving their worth, in battle or in skill.

(Scribes note: This “council of few” system is still active in certain orders today, and it enjoys great success. But why then did it not work here? We cannot see why it didn’t. One obvious reason is that we were not about in this time and so do not know what they went through.)

When the next gathering of the council was due, the chosen were so full of hatred for themselves and their Founder that the kittens from each order would fight to the death to avenge his actions. This hatred and unruly behaviour led to the biggest civil war in Cat-people history so far, “The Cleanse”

(Scribes note: “The Cleanse” was the bloodiest battle in the cat people history even more so than the Great War of the Orders in 44320. as they fought with claws and flint that was plentiful on the battlefield. We are working on deciphering a journal that has been found on this terrible time.)

This war was to end the 3000-year rule of the Founder, but ended the lives of the chosen as well. The reason for this was simple. All the time the Founder lived the Chosen lived. The 4th Prophecy had spoken. “The Time of Change”

(Scribes note: This is the true reason the goddess gives out the prophecies… it seems whoever is scribing knows them well. But then why did no one else know them? And was this what they meant with the fact we were to be thwarted? Leaderless and without direction we continued to live, but is it destiny that we are never to be one race of people? Or to always be in small orders of like-minded individuals? We think it is.)

All were broken hearted when their acts of war had sunken in, no Mistress to lead the orders, hell no orders exist now. There was no one to decide their future, their goals, to help realise their hopes and dreams. When it appeared all was lost, their heritage under threat, a few cats from the various “Council of Few” from several orders who had survived, took what remained of the cat people, and spoke from the mountaintop.

“All of you! Hear us! This is not a time for pity or sorrow! This is a time of joyous occasion! For we are FREE! Free to live our own lives, our own dreams and fantasies, to breath life into the forests and valleys. To be together as one race!!!”

(Scribes note: the council of few were obviously not well in the head with this as it seems they were only too eager to take the race over and give the cat-people the direction they wanted for them and not to bother with anyone else)

The cats listened to the speech, ears flicking, and then one piped up; “yes but how can we be together as one race? We are all different…”

Unfortunately for the race, another noticed that on the “Council of Few” there was a cat from every walk of life. The council told of a new time in the race, a new structure they would adhere to or be punished severely, and over the coming months peace and order was restored.

(Scribes note: The keystone this was taken from reads of a time of peace for many seasons and that there is much more detailed histories out there on the other stones. We have 3 in our possession, and only one has history on the reverse. So whether or not this was a lie or that we have mistranslated it remains unknown)

Also now the other races were developing enough to see the cat-people as potential sexual and worker slaves. Too scared of the council to alert them or to act the race saw the drastic numbers of girls and a few males being sold in markets or raped and slaughtered in the woods.

(Scribes note: This is something that shocked us, according the detailed timeline we are working on, this was noted about 3000 years later. It seems that the historian in charge of archiving the Timeline was told to omit it on the founder’s orders. Now begs the question: What else was omitted?)

And the 5th Prophecy “The Cruel Times” this was the goddess’s final punishment to the race, and a fatal clause, one that would break many a heart, the race would still be under the genetic struggle of 70 girls to 1 boy ratio. This has led to many cat-girls having female relationships and marriages in some clans, but all the same it is the price to pay for insulting a goddess by ignorance…

(Scribes note: Confusing as it sounds this is a curious curse as if the goddess wished us to survive as a race, why limit the number of males? It has continued to this day which also shows the goddess has made herself very clear and that she must exist. But again nothing solid on this can be found at this stage)

Now the race had been set up into one order, but still there was no real leader or representative of the race. This led to a few scuffles amongst the kittens thirsting for power, but none prevailed. The race was to suffer its punishment. No Leader. No greatness. No honour.

In their own way the cats of the order regained their sociological structure, some following paths they had chosen and to better them, and strive to ensure peace in the settlement. Over time the council leaders were picked, all were female, as the death of the founder meant that the males were once again only seen as breeding tools, and not having much say in council matters. Society on the whole though was good, and with the settlements beginning to spread throughout the world of Belariath, living and surviving off the land, the race blossomed for the first time in its history.

(Scribes note: This shows that the “golden era” of the race was finally realised, the way the females had taken charge was in all effect beneficial to all. Having to answer to a male is not my idea of being in a fair race.)

Unbeknown to nearly all cats however, some kittens embraced the hatred their Mistress had shown them in the revolt, and went to the darker side of life. Separated and alone these orders live in the darkest areas of Belariath, either in the dark valleys or in dark tunnels deep in the mountains. They went to study the dark arts, namely on how to make their anger into the supreme breed of cats. Another race legend has it, they sacrifice their weak and captured to honour the loss of their council member, believing that they could resurrect her, from arcane magic.

This however will never be done as they just go about it in the wrong way, causing frustrations and bitter feuds between families.

(Scribes note: sadly it seems the stone is damaged and the lower end of the carvings have been lost. How the scribe knew about the dark orders this early in history is unknown, but we can deduce it was because they regularly came to the order’s settlement to kidnap and pillage, once again not written on the timeline for some reason. But the timeline will remain as it is transcribed, as a testimony to the cat-people who wrote it.)

More history is being found and added to the archive at the mountain of Creation, a complete copy also resides in the Imperial library, as we now have a reason to be proud of our history, even if at some stages it has been not anything to be fond of, the wars in particular come to mind)

Timeline

The Cat-people have a long and interesting history, which has taken historians in the race hundreds of years to create. Below is what they were able to translate from the old language of the Cat race, Felinitas, an old picture and glyph like language created from the Elder via his cave of information left to him by the goddess. The history is far from complete it is the piecing together of ancient parchments and scriptures, the first age was translated from a cave about 200 seasons ago to be added to the records.

This information is currently held at the settlement by the mountain of creation and is available to whoever wishes to read it.

BC = Before Creation

AC = After Creation.

There is a proper cat calendar but sadly we were not able to recover all of the lost scripts. There are many more that remain undiscovered out there…

Scribe Thune Of The Fren

With thanks to Tsuneko