Cait Sith

The **Cait Sith** (ket shee) are a parahuman race of bipedal feline hybrids. They have retained much of their cat like features and attributes. What most don’t realize about the Cait Sith is they have excellent memories. Able to recall events with impressive clarity, with elders of the race able to recall their times as normal cats before a Malevolence changed them forever.

While they can be often witty and sarcastic in nature, they are also extremely zealous. Willing to give up their lives for their ideals. The Cait Sith of Clan Kellas serve Arthur with that devotion because he was willing to risk his own life to try save one of their own.

## History

The Cait Sith come from a background of oppression. The Veilstorms freed them from their bounds, and they were forced to survive in the harshest of environments. They would later recover their mantles as hunters. Hesitant to trust the Furless that used to hunt them, they nevertheless forged an alliance with Arthur and his people.

### Age of Becoming

*Main Article:* Cait Sith Becoming
The origin of the Cait Sith traces back to a single homestead. Owned by a hunter named Palug and his wife. The wife loved cats more than anything in the world. The attention was welcome because cats were treated poorly in those terrible days. Their pelts stolen for clothes, and misfortunes unjustly placed upon them by folklore.

One bad winter took the wife’s life, and disaster struck for her cats. After burying his wife, Palug succumbed to his superstitions. He blamed the cats for her untimely demise, thinking that they took her soul. In his grief he declared himself as the, “hunter of hunters.”

Palug began to hunt the cats. He did this on his own, and justified his bloodlust by disposing the blighted creatures for the benefit of all. He became increasingly dissatisfied with just killing the cats and became to lose himself to madness. In that madness he became more cruel in his desire for revenge, and began to torture the cats. Starving them, clipping their ears, and plucking their whiskers. Stripping them of their nobility and independence.

Palug paid special attention to a proud, regal, but pregnant cat named Moireach. The cruelest torments were placed upon her. Of her litter, only one kitten survived its birth; a pure white female. The newborn’s starved mewlings irked Palug, and he meant to drown the kitten in the river to silence it.

As he came to the cats to dispose of the kitten, the storms started to gather that changed everything. The irrational Palug thought the storm was the evil work of the cats, and decided to kill them all. After dispatching a couple of them, the storm flashed. In the blinding light, the cats began to transform. Bursting from their cages, they fled from Palug. Running on two legs for the first time.

They ran far away from the lands of men, to a region called the Stormlands. Not all survived the trip, and the journey of the first Cait Sith are remembered annually with the Midnight Lament. There, in the harsh Stormlands, the Cait Sith learned to survive; once again becoming the hunters.

The Cait Sith tempered themselves into the fiercest of predators of the Stormlands. They hunted only for food, and commonly ended the torment of the Suffering.

The fashioned clans, with Moireach as their leader. With her guidance they would become the Cait Sith that the other Realms know and fear. They observed the other races, learning their technologies and magic. They made burrows to protect themselves from the storms. Through their diligence they flourished.

### Prophecies, and Clan Kellas joining Arthur

Moireach had vision that the fate of one of the Furless’ leaders would be in their hands. A leader whom was both strong and weak. She told the Cait Sith of this, and she advised them to await for this day.

That day was realized when Moireach’s daughter, Gwenhwyfar, encountered the ancient enemy of the Cait Sith. This enemy was now named Cath Palug. Their old tormentor transformed by the very same Malevolence the made the Cait Sith. He ironically became a gigantic, multi-legged cat-like creature. Her fight with the beast was interrupted by Arthur. Initially she thought he was to aid the beast, but was surprised when he attacked it. Though the creature proved too much for Arthur to handle. Gwenhwyfar stopped the Cath Palug when the abomination was about to fell Arthur. They jointly brought the creature low, with Arthur giving the killing blow to Gwenhwyfar. She found that Arthur traveled to the Stormlands to see if the rumors about her people were true. In return, she knocked him out. Strapped him his unconscious body to his horse and ushered the horse back the way Arthur had come.

Years later, Arthur returned to the Stormlands to warn them of a Malevolence and came to offer shelter to Gwenhwyfar and her people. Although, the Cait Sith already knew of the impending storm and already had shelter. When it became obvious that Arthur could caught in the storm if he returned to his home, Gwenhwyfar offered the protection of their lair.

Gwenhwyfar, a psychic like her mother, had a vision during the storm. She foresaw the fate of Camelot, and how everything he built would crumble around him. This was a painful thing for her to experience and witness. After the storm had passed, and Arthur was sent along his way back home, she conferred with the elders of the Cait Sith. With their approval, she followed him a day later.

Gwen tracked him back to Camelot, where she was brought before Arthur as he sat on the throne. There she told him that she saw his future. She explained to him that while they can’t tell him what she saw, he will need the assistance of Clan Kellas for the trouble that future would bring. That her and her people to will come to his lands to help him. Despite the opposition of others in attendance, Arthur readily accepted their aid; knowing what fierce warriors they were.

## Appearance

Cait Sith appear as cat-like humanoids. Their heads are still like that of a predatory feline, similar to a cougar. The hands have opposable thumbs, with three flexible fingers; all ending in sharp claws. While their legs mark them as bipedal, they move quietly on their clawed paws like any other feline. They possess coats of lavish fur with thicker manes of fur around the collar and chest.

Their colors usually consist of colors of white, grey, black, brown and/or auburn in striped or patched patterns, though some members of the species possess a monochrome coat of fur. The males of the species tend to be more broad at the shoulders, while the females are more sleek and graceful.

## Features

Mark Jacobs, in Kickstarter Update #59 , mentioned the following design goals for **Cait Sith** race:

"In bringing forth our interpretation of the **Cait Sith**, the goals I set were:

* They must not be like the Thundercats or other truly anthropomorphic cats. Not that I don’t love the TCs (huge fan, I would have loved to re-imagine the IP) but the world doesn’t need another cat-like race that is more human than cat.
* The CS must be badass. Cats are predators and our CS must look like the meanest, scariest, ”top of the food chain” being in the Realm.
* The CS must have a uniquely feline society. These are not cuddly, cute or sexy feline skin-suits but rather a race of beings that evolved quite quickly and have retained many of their feline traits rather than adopting human ones.
* The CSE should tie them into the Arthurian legends in a way that could reflect both popular local opinion (fear) and the concept of Arthur as a unifying force within his realm.
* To consider the possibility of them being shape shifters as well."

### Banes and Boons

*Main Article:* Bane and Boons

* Cait Sith Banes
* Cait Sith Boons
* Arthurian Banes
* Arthurian Boons

## Notable members

* Gwenhwyfar
* Moireach

### Clans of the Cait Sith

* Clan Kellas - The greatest and purest of the Cait Sith clans. Their leader, Moireach and her daughter Gwenhwyfar, offered to aid Arthur for they foresaw the fall of Camelot and have stuck by him since.

## Trivia

* The Cait Sith refer the other races and in particular humans as Furless, or Furless Ones
* They refer to Veilstorms as Great Storms.
* They also call their infants newlings.
* Unlike most races that evolved in the Age of Becoming, the Cait Sith did not derive from humans.
* An unnamed Cait Sith perished fighting abominations in Nuada’s return to the The Depths, possibly of a clan different than Kellas.
* They're named after the Cat Sith, a fairy creature from Celtic mythology said to resemble a large cat.

## Revision history

* August 16th, 2013 - Becoming story was released.
* August 30th, 2013 - Concept art was released.

## External Links

1. Cait Sith Race Page
2. Cait Sith Becoming
3. CU Kickstarter Afternoon Update 8-16-2013
4. CU Kickstarter Afternoon Update 8-30-2013

## References

1. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13861848/camelot-unchained/posts/571786