guardianfallenangel
First Post
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Kanta
The defining facet of the Kanta is their ability to change forms. All Kanta are capable of assuming three different forms, each of which has different strengths and provides different modifiers to a character. To change shape, a Kanta draws on the supernatural power that infuses his body, making her form malleable forcing muscle and sinew into the desired shape. While most Kanta consider the three forms sufficient, some delve into the possibility of assuming other forms. Such Kanta can hail from any tribe, and are often found trying to attain the true freedom of shape changing.
Personality: Kanta share the typical personality of the humans amongst which they are raised. So, their temperament, ideals and morals. Some ethics are common and unique to the Kanta, those are listed below.
Physical Description: Kanta typically stand from about 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall, with exceptional specimens reaching nearly 7 feet in height. Weight varies from 125 to 250 pounds, with men noticeably taller and heavier than women. Thanks to their breeding with humans, Kanta are more physically diverse than some common races. Their skin shades range from nearly black to very pale, their hair from black to blond (curly, kinky, or straight), and their facial hair (for men) from sparse to thick. Members of this race are often ostentatious or unorthodox in their grooming and dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, body piercings, and the like. Kanta have relatively short life spans, reaching adulthood at about age 15 and rarely living even a single century.
Relations: Kanta have no racial animosity towards any other race, though local culture often dictates how they feel towards their neighbors.
Alignment: Kanta run the gamut of alignments, most often favoring those of the community in which they’re raised. Though most often the ties to pack and family denote a Lawful attitude.
Lands: Kanta have no lands of their own, being a relatively small racial group, that for the most part hangs on the edges of human society they don’t have the numbers, power, or influence to create their own lands.
Religion: Kanta don’t worship any particular deity, usually favoring that of their human parent. Those that do select a deity often choose one devoted to nature, war, or transformation.
Language: Kanta speak common, and a smattering of other languages they learn from interaction with other races.
Names: Kanta names vary greatly. Without a unifying deity to give them a touchstone for their culture, and with such a fast breeding cycle, humans mutate socially at a fast rate. Human culture, therefore, is more diverse than other cultures, and no human names are truly typical. Some human parents give their children dwarven or elven names (pronounced more or less correctly).
Adventurers: Kanta adventurers are the most audacious, daring, and ambitious members of an audacious, daring, and ambitious race. A kanta can earn glory in the eyes of her fellows by amassing power, wealth, and fame.
Kanta Racial Traits
shapechanger subtype
Medium: As Medium creatures, kanta have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Kanta base land speed is 30 feet.
Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See other racial lists for common languages or the Speak Language skill (page 82 PH) for a more comprehensive list.
Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass kanta takes an experience point penalty, her highest-level class does not count. Many kanta go into prestige classes that allow greater use or range of their shape changing abilities.
Stat modifiers listed for the given forms always apply to the character’s base stats in Edan form. A character who is in Onna form and shifts to Neva form doesn’t get the trait bonuses of both forms. The Neva form modifiers are simply applied to his Edan traits. The minimum to which a stat can drop is 1 due to shapeshifting.
Due to increases in Constitution and Size, some forms grant additional hit points while such a form is maintained. If a Kanta is knocked unconscious or killed, he immediately reverts to Edan form.
Edan — The Human
In this form, the Kanta is indistinguishable from a normal human to casual observation, and even supernatural attempts to detect him for what he is suffer a –2 modifier. Legends about fingers being the same length or eyebrows growing together are false. (Some Kanta display such features, but no more often than normal humans do.) Kanta are usually lean and healthy-looking in Edan form.
Traits:
• Rapid Healing (Ex): kanta heal twice as quickly as normal (they heal double the normal number of hit points after a period of rest).
Neva — The Near--Human
Stronger and tougher than Edan form, but still small enough to barely pass for human, Neva is many Kanta’s form of choice for brawls involving normal people (or playful cubs). Neva adds four to six inches in height and approximately 25-50 pounds of muscle mass to the Edan form’s size. Body hair thickens and facial hair becomes prominent. Facial features become angular, and the Kanta exhibits subtle predatory behavior. She might bare her teeth when she’s angry or aggressive, or pant slightly when excited. Fingernails elongate, as do canine teeth (though neither reaches a length that allows the Kanta to inflict any special damage). In poor light, she simply looks like a large person with unusually angular features, but in plain sight, witnesses can observe the bestial light in the Kanta’s eyes.
The senses improve in Neva form. A kanta in Neva form can track a person by the scent of his cologne or
identify a particular car by the sound of its engine. In game terms, the player gains a +2 modifier to all search, spot and listen checks. The character may also track by scent. The Kanta can speak human languages, but not perfectly. A distinct growl creeps into the voice, garbling words, this also prevents the kanta from casting spells requiring verbal components. Kanta don’t assume this form for diplomacy or conversation; it’s simply a means to improve her fighting capacity.
Traits: Strength +2, Con +2, Charisma –2, Low light vision
• Rapid Healing (Ex): kanta heal twice as quickly as normal (they heal double the normal number of hit points after a period of rest).
Onna — The Predator
A Kanta assuming Onna form gains between two and three feet in height (few Kanta stand taller than 10 feet in this form) and 200 to 250 pounds of muscle mass. The body is covered in fur that shares coloration with the Edan form, and the head is that of a monstrous predator, although the Onna form remains capable of bipedal travel and retains opposable thumbs. The Kanta’s arms elongate and hands end in wicked claws. A Onna Kanta is capable of biting a man’s arm clean off with its powerful jaws. Onna form benefits from increased olfactory and auditory senses. The character may also track by scent. Onna form is sometimes called “the war form”, and for good reason. For the most part, this is a devastating capability and benefit that allows Kanta to lay their foes to waste. Barely any creature could stand up to and survive a combat with an enraged Kanta in Onna form. Yet the form and state of mind have their price. A Onna-form Kanta can make a bite attack without first having to grapple the target.
In any round in which she is in Onna, a Kanta must attack something (providing an enemy is in reach) or spend the round traveling to the nearest visible enemy. A Kanta in Onna may choose to throw an object as an attack (if she can reach the nearest visible enemy with a thrown object) instead of spending the round traveling. If no enemy is visible, but the Kanta is still in combat (for example, when fighting a mage striking from the cover of an invisibility spell), the Kanta must take out his frustration on something — a parked cart, a fallen foe, whatever is convenient. Kanta in Onna can still discern friend from foe, or a fallen enemy from one that’s still a threat, and can choose which foe to attack if multiple options are available.
If a Kanta attempts to take some other action besides attacking or moving toward a visible enemy — say, to read a newspaper headline, say a few words to someone or save a child in traffic — the player must make a Will save with a DC . Success means the kanta maintains control of himself and may act freely for one turn, failure results in a loss of control and the kanta goes berserk attacking anyone or anything near. While in Onna form, a character cannot attempt mental or social tasks, including spell casting. He can growl a quick threat, open a door or do things that are easy enough not to require a skill check (and that involve attacking or getting to an opponent), but he cannot do anything complicated.
A Kanta cannot stay in Onna form indefinitely. The strain is just too overwhelming. A Kanta can remain in Onna form for a number of rounds equal to his (Edan) Constitution modifier. After that time, he can no longer maintain Onna, and the player must make a Will save DC to shift to the form of his choice. If the roll fails the character reverts to Edan form automatically — which can be dangerous, considering the sudden loss of added hit points. A Kanta may also leave Onna form before he is forced to, shapeshifting as normal. In addition the change back from Onna leaves the Kanta weak, causing 1 temporary point of constitution damage.
Traits:
Size: changes to Large
Strength +6, Dexterity +2, Constitution +4, Int. -6, Cha -8
+3 Natural Armor; Fast Healing 1
Scent; Improved Low Light Vision
+5 search/spot/listen
SENSES
One of the greatest advantages of being a kanta is the sense acuity that matches, and even exceeds, that of their animal cousins. The Kanta enjoy the best of both worlds. They have full-color vision in Edan, Neva and Onna form. They also gain the benefit of exceptional hearing and smell in any form other than Edan. As a result, kanta’s impressions of the world are sharper and almost alien to human experience. To them, an old scent is like a trail laid through time, a glimpse of something that happened hours ago. A human’s voice contains additional layers of pitch that the speaker can’t perceive himself, and his scent tells those who can smell it things he might want to conceal — say, details of his sex life, his emotional state and his diet.
Predator’s BLOOD
Kanta can recognize the scent of their own kind even when wearing human skin. This ability is partially based on their sense acuity, but seems to be more than that. A kanta in Edan form can sometimes catch the scent of another who’s also wearing Edan form, despite the fact that the human shape confers no exceptional olfactory capabilities. Something about their nature simply calls to others — which can prove hazardous when packless and not among friends.
Whenever a character comes within moderate scent range of another kanta (generally about thirty feet in an open space), the DM may call for a roll to see if the character catches or recognizes the scent. (The DM may make this roll on players’ behalf to keep them in the dark about what’s happening.) The results can allow two human-form kanta to recognize one another for what they truly are, or it may alert a pack to a would-be ambush party that has clumsily chosen to hide upwind.
This ability cannot be used reliably to detect the kanta for what they are. A kanta may find a human form kanta somewhat more attractive than the human standing next to her, but the phenomenal cues are indistinguishable from the usual cues for a healthy potential mate. Kanta who have not yet undergone the First Change cannot be detected in this manner unless the Change is imminent, at which point the scent is stronger than usual as the nascent kanta’s flesh and spirit begin to go into flux.
MORALIT Y
The principle of balance and coexistence forms the basis of Kanta morality. Kanta aren’t human. Although they’re raised with human mores, they find certain ethical credos somewhat counterintuitive. For example a Kanta might consider stealing to be not so much a sin. After all, if the owner of the given property wasn’t strong or smart enough to protect it, why shouldn’t she take it? Yet they often form very close bonds to friends and family, protecting them as an animal does her packmates. That this affection isn’t always returned — the friends and family aren’t Kanta, and might find the strange child frightening — is a source of constant frustration and angst for these cubs.
When the First Change comes, a kanta suddenly begins to see the world through different eyes. In some ways, the Change brings freedom. Human laws and morals no longer seem quite appropriate. How can the laws of humans not killing one another apply to creatures seemingly designed to kill? Yet this philosophy is deceptive.
A kanta who utterly succumbs to his bestial side loses the ability to control it. In order to retain their sanity and have a chance at some precious peace of mind, they must walk a fine line between animal and human, between spirit and flesh, between instinct and reason. This is the path of Harmony.
The Harmony credo stresses the need to abide by the laws that the kanta have set down, to keep rage in check until it’s needed, and to always protect the pack. Those kanta who obey these strictures might never find complete peace, but they come closest. Those who search for harmony come nearest to balancing their dual natures, accepting their feral instinct without losing their human reason. Those who don’t are monsters, rampaging beasts with only their shapeshifting powers and rage to which they can resort.
The path of harmony is not a path of peace or calm — it is the path of accepting the predator and the human, the spirit and the beast. Kanta face the same moral challenges as normal humans. What a kanta considers sinful, though, can vary from human values. Succumbing entirely to savagery takes a kanta farther from harmony, but so does attempting to deny one’s inner animal and living strictly as a human.
• Slaying needlessly — Kanta are designed to kill, whether to feed themselves and their families or to defend themselves or their packs. If a human threatens her mate or cubs, a kanta will tear that person apart without a second thought; humans have no quality that makes their lives more “sacred” than other animals. Killing when there is no real threat, however, is the mark of a rabid beast, not a predator. A kanta who seeks greater control over her own nature must learn to separate a necessary kill from an act of spite or emotion.
• Slaying a Kanta in the heat of battle — As with humans, killing one’s own kind is a moral crime, at least to those who value the lives of their kind. Of course, slaying another kanta in battle is a point of contention. Arguably, one would be killed if he didn’t kill first, yet kanta’s ability to regenerate is a means to establish the dominance of over another. She who is felled but allowed to recover and rise again is obviously the lesser of the two, and death isn’t necessary to make the point.
• Torturing enemies/prey — A predator respects his enemies and prey, doing what he must to survive, whether it means teaching opponents a lesson or eating to survive. Abuses under either circumstance can lead to imbalance. The torture of enemies calls for retribution rather than resolving a competition, perpetuating rather than ending harm. Likewise, torturing prey exceeds the needs of survival, delving into cruelty. A true warrior and hunter recognizes that neither sin is necessary.
• Murdering a kanta — A contest of fangs, claws and even weapons among kanta is often enough to establish the dominance of the victor. The loser is typically down, but likely regenerating even in defeat. It’s a sign of respect to honor a contest by allowing a defeated foe to rise and accept her place as second. Victors who decide not to demonstrate such honor finish off their bested foes when they’re down, before they can rise again.
• Hunting humans for food
— kanta are born of human stock, but they’re also part predator. To hunt humans or other kanta — for food is a form of cannibalism. Even if the act is performed out of desperation to survive, the kanta consider the act a sin.
• Betrayal of pack — There is no stronger bond than that between a kanta and his pack. There is nobody else that the kanta can rely on more. A pack is more than family, more than friends. To betray that trust is a terrible treason, one that cannot help but erode a kanta’s sense of being.
Kanta
The defining facet of the Kanta is their ability to change forms. All Kanta are capable of assuming three different forms, each of which has different strengths and provides different modifiers to a character. To change shape, a Kanta draws on the supernatural power that infuses his body, making her form malleable forcing muscle and sinew into the desired shape. While most Kanta consider the three forms sufficient, some delve into the possibility of assuming other forms. Such Kanta can hail from any tribe, and are often found trying to attain the true freedom of shape changing.
Personality: Kanta share the typical personality of the humans amongst which they are raised. So, their temperament, ideals and morals. Some ethics are common and unique to the Kanta, those are listed below.
Physical Description: Kanta typically stand from about 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall, with exceptional specimens reaching nearly 7 feet in height. Weight varies from 125 to 250 pounds, with men noticeably taller and heavier than women. Thanks to their breeding with humans, Kanta are more physically diverse than some common races. Their skin shades range from nearly black to very pale, their hair from black to blond (curly, kinky, or straight), and their facial hair (for men) from sparse to thick. Members of this race are often ostentatious or unorthodox in their grooming and dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, body piercings, and the like. Kanta have relatively short life spans, reaching adulthood at about age 15 and rarely living even a single century.
Relations: Kanta have no racial animosity towards any other race, though local culture often dictates how they feel towards their neighbors.
Alignment: Kanta run the gamut of alignments, most often favoring those of the community in which they’re raised. Though most often the ties to pack and family denote a Lawful attitude.
Lands: Kanta have no lands of their own, being a relatively small racial group, that for the most part hangs on the edges of human society they don’t have the numbers, power, or influence to create their own lands.
Religion: Kanta don’t worship any particular deity, usually favoring that of their human parent. Those that do select a deity often choose one devoted to nature, war, or transformation.
Language: Kanta speak common, and a smattering of other languages they learn from interaction with other races.
Names: Kanta names vary greatly. Without a unifying deity to give them a touchstone for their culture, and with such a fast breeding cycle, humans mutate socially at a fast rate. Human culture, therefore, is more diverse than other cultures, and no human names are truly typical. Some human parents give their children dwarven or elven names (pronounced more or less correctly).
Adventurers: Kanta adventurers are the most audacious, daring, and ambitious members of an audacious, daring, and ambitious race. A kanta can earn glory in the eyes of her fellows by amassing power, wealth, and fame.
Kanta Racial Traits
shapechanger subtype
Medium: As Medium creatures, kanta have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Kanta base land speed is 30 feet.
Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See other racial lists for common languages or the Speak Language skill (page 82 PH) for a more comprehensive list.
Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass kanta takes an experience point penalty, her highest-level class does not count. Many kanta go into prestige classes that allow greater use or range of their shape changing abilities.
Stat modifiers listed for the given forms always apply to the character’s base stats in Edan form. A character who is in Onna form and shifts to Neva form doesn’t get the trait bonuses of both forms. The Neva form modifiers are simply applied to his Edan traits. The minimum to which a stat can drop is 1 due to shapeshifting.
Due to increases in Constitution and Size, some forms grant additional hit points while such a form is maintained. If a Kanta is knocked unconscious or killed, he immediately reverts to Edan form.
Edan — The Human
In this form, the Kanta is indistinguishable from a normal human to casual observation, and even supernatural attempts to detect him for what he is suffer a –2 modifier. Legends about fingers being the same length or eyebrows growing together are false. (Some Kanta display such features, but no more often than normal humans do.) Kanta are usually lean and healthy-looking in Edan form.
Traits:
• Rapid Healing (Ex): kanta heal twice as quickly as normal (they heal double the normal number of hit points after a period of rest).
Neva — The Near--Human
Stronger and tougher than Edan form, but still small enough to barely pass for human, Neva is many Kanta’s form of choice for brawls involving normal people (or playful cubs). Neva adds four to six inches in height and approximately 25-50 pounds of muscle mass to the Edan form’s size. Body hair thickens and facial hair becomes prominent. Facial features become angular, and the Kanta exhibits subtle predatory behavior. She might bare her teeth when she’s angry or aggressive, or pant slightly when excited. Fingernails elongate, as do canine teeth (though neither reaches a length that allows the Kanta to inflict any special damage). In poor light, she simply looks like a large person with unusually angular features, but in plain sight, witnesses can observe the bestial light in the Kanta’s eyes.
The senses improve in Neva form. A kanta in Neva form can track a person by the scent of his cologne or
identify a particular car by the sound of its engine. In game terms, the player gains a +2 modifier to all search, spot and listen checks. The character may also track by scent. The Kanta can speak human languages, but not perfectly. A distinct growl creeps into the voice, garbling words, this also prevents the kanta from casting spells requiring verbal components. Kanta don’t assume this form for diplomacy or conversation; it’s simply a means to improve her fighting capacity.
Traits: Strength +2, Con +2, Charisma –2, Low light vision
• Rapid Healing (Ex): kanta heal twice as quickly as normal (they heal double the normal number of hit points after a period of rest).
Onna — The Predator
A Kanta assuming Onna form gains between two and three feet in height (few Kanta stand taller than 10 feet in this form) and 200 to 250 pounds of muscle mass. The body is covered in fur that shares coloration with the Edan form, and the head is that of a monstrous predator, although the Onna form remains capable of bipedal travel and retains opposable thumbs. The Kanta’s arms elongate and hands end in wicked claws. A Onna Kanta is capable of biting a man’s arm clean off with its powerful jaws. Onna form benefits from increased olfactory and auditory senses. The character may also track by scent. Onna form is sometimes called “the war form”, and for good reason. For the most part, this is a devastating capability and benefit that allows Kanta to lay their foes to waste. Barely any creature could stand up to and survive a combat with an enraged Kanta in Onna form. Yet the form and state of mind have their price. A Onna-form Kanta can make a bite attack without first having to grapple the target.
In any round in which she is in Onna, a Kanta must attack something (providing an enemy is in reach) or spend the round traveling to the nearest visible enemy. A Kanta in Onna may choose to throw an object as an attack (if she can reach the nearest visible enemy with a thrown object) instead of spending the round traveling. If no enemy is visible, but the Kanta is still in combat (for example, when fighting a mage striking from the cover of an invisibility spell), the Kanta must take out his frustration on something — a parked cart, a fallen foe, whatever is convenient. Kanta in Onna can still discern friend from foe, or a fallen enemy from one that’s still a threat, and can choose which foe to attack if multiple options are available.
If a Kanta attempts to take some other action besides attacking or moving toward a visible enemy — say, to read a newspaper headline, say a few words to someone or save a child in traffic — the player must make a Will save with a DC . Success means the kanta maintains control of himself and may act freely for one turn, failure results in a loss of control and the kanta goes berserk attacking anyone or anything near. While in Onna form, a character cannot attempt mental or social tasks, including spell casting. He can growl a quick threat, open a door or do things that are easy enough not to require a skill check (and that involve attacking or getting to an opponent), but he cannot do anything complicated.
A Kanta cannot stay in Onna form indefinitely. The strain is just too overwhelming. A Kanta can remain in Onna form for a number of rounds equal to his (Edan) Constitution modifier. After that time, he can no longer maintain Onna, and the player must make a Will save DC to shift to the form of his choice. If the roll fails the character reverts to Edan form automatically — which can be dangerous, considering the sudden loss of added hit points. A Kanta may also leave Onna form before he is forced to, shapeshifting as normal. In addition the change back from Onna leaves the Kanta weak, causing 1 temporary point of constitution damage.
Traits:
Size: changes to Large
Strength +6, Dexterity +2, Constitution +4, Int. -6, Cha -8
+3 Natural Armor; Fast Healing 1
Scent; Improved Low Light Vision
+5 search/spot/listen
SENSES
One of the greatest advantages of being a kanta is the sense acuity that matches, and even exceeds, that of their animal cousins. The Kanta enjoy the best of both worlds. They have full-color vision in Edan, Neva and Onna form. They also gain the benefit of exceptional hearing and smell in any form other than Edan. As a result, kanta’s impressions of the world are sharper and almost alien to human experience. To them, an old scent is like a trail laid through time, a glimpse of something that happened hours ago. A human’s voice contains additional layers of pitch that the speaker can’t perceive himself, and his scent tells those who can smell it things he might want to conceal — say, details of his sex life, his emotional state and his diet.
Predator’s BLOOD
Kanta can recognize the scent of their own kind even when wearing human skin. This ability is partially based on their sense acuity, but seems to be more than that. A kanta in Edan form can sometimes catch the scent of another who’s also wearing Edan form, despite the fact that the human shape confers no exceptional olfactory capabilities. Something about their nature simply calls to others — which can prove hazardous when packless and not among friends.
Whenever a character comes within moderate scent range of another kanta (generally about thirty feet in an open space), the DM may call for a roll to see if the character catches or recognizes the scent. (The DM may make this roll on players’ behalf to keep them in the dark about what’s happening.) The results can allow two human-form kanta to recognize one another for what they truly are, or it may alert a pack to a would-be ambush party that has clumsily chosen to hide upwind.
This ability cannot be used reliably to detect the kanta for what they are. A kanta may find a human form kanta somewhat more attractive than the human standing next to her, but the phenomenal cues are indistinguishable from the usual cues for a healthy potential mate. Kanta who have not yet undergone the First Change cannot be detected in this manner unless the Change is imminent, at which point the scent is stronger than usual as the nascent kanta’s flesh and spirit begin to go into flux.
MORALIT Y
The principle of balance and coexistence forms the basis of Kanta morality. Kanta aren’t human. Although they’re raised with human mores, they find certain ethical credos somewhat counterintuitive. For example a Kanta might consider stealing to be not so much a sin. After all, if the owner of the given property wasn’t strong or smart enough to protect it, why shouldn’t she take it? Yet they often form very close bonds to friends and family, protecting them as an animal does her packmates. That this affection isn’t always returned — the friends and family aren’t Kanta, and might find the strange child frightening — is a source of constant frustration and angst for these cubs.
When the First Change comes, a kanta suddenly begins to see the world through different eyes. In some ways, the Change brings freedom. Human laws and morals no longer seem quite appropriate. How can the laws of humans not killing one another apply to creatures seemingly designed to kill? Yet this philosophy is deceptive.
A kanta who utterly succumbs to his bestial side loses the ability to control it. In order to retain their sanity and have a chance at some precious peace of mind, they must walk a fine line between animal and human, between spirit and flesh, between instinct and reason. This is the path of Harmony.
The Harmony credo stresses the need to abide by the laws that the kanta have set down, to keep rage in check until it’s needed, and to always protect the pack. Those kanta who obey these strictures might never find complete peace, but they come closest. Those who search for harmony come nearest to balancing their dual natures, accepting their feral instinct without losing their human reason. Those who don’t are monsters, rampaging beasts with only their shapeshifting powers and rage to which they can resort.
The path of harmony is not a path of peace or calm — it is the path of accepting the predator and the human, the spirit and the beast. Kanta face the same moral challenges as normal humans. What a kanta considers sinful, though, can vary from human values. Succumbing entirely to savagery takes a kanta farther from harmony, but so does attempting to deny one’s inner animal and living strictly as a human.
• Slaying needlessly — Kanta are designed to kill, whether to feed themselves and their families or to defend themselves or their packs. If a human threatens her mate or cubs, a kanta will tear that person apart without a second thought; humans have no quality that makes their lives more “sacred” than other animals. Killing when there is no real threat, however, is the mark of a rabid beast, not a predator. A kanta who seeks greater control over her own nature must learn to separate a necessary kill from an act of spite or emotion.
• Slaying a Kanta in the heat of battle — As with humans, killing one’s own kind is a moral crime, at least to those who value the lives of their kind. Of course, slaying another kanta in battle is a point of contention. Arguably, one would be killed if he didn’t kill first, yet kanta’s ability to regenerate is a means to establish the dominance of over another. She who is felled but allowed to recover and rise again is obviously the lesser of the two, and death isn’t necessary to make the point.
• Torturing enemies/prey — A predator respects his enemies and prey, doing what he must to survive, whether it means teaching opponents a lesson or eating to survive. Abuses under either circumstance can lead to imbalance. The torture of enemies calls for retribution rather than resolving a competition, perpetuating rather than ending harm. Likewise, torturing prey exceeds the needs of survival, delving into cruelty. A true warrior and hunter recognizes that neither sin is necessary.
• Murdering a kanta — A contest of fangs, claws and even weapons among kanta is often enough to establish the dominance of the victor. The loser is typically down, but likely regenerating even in defeat. It’s a sign of respect to honor a contest by allowing a defeated foe to rise and accept her place as second. Victors who decide not to demonstrate such honor finish off their bested foes when they’re down, before they can rise again.
• Hunting humans for food
— kanta are born of human stock, but they’re also part predator. To hunt humans or other kanta — for food is a form of cannibalism. Even if the act is performed out of desperation to survive, the kanta consider the act a sin.
• Betrayal of pack — There is no stronger bond than that between a kanta and his pack. There is nobody else that the kanta can rely on more. A pack is more than family, more than friends. To betray that trust is a terrible treason, one that cannot help but erode a kanta’s sense of being.
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