Catfolk in the realms

[Trellian]

Where would catfolk come from in Forgotten Realms? My guess would be the plains of Shaar, possibly jungles of Chult.

My second question, how would a catfollk be treated in other civilized areas, for example Cormyr? They are not known to be an evil race, but they would surely raise some eyebrows and curious looks.

 

[Crothian]

I'd go for Jungles personally. There are lots of odd races in the realms so I imagine they will raise eyebrows but I doubt there will be any huge problems.

 

[Gez]

They could be somewhat related to the Wemic in the Shaar. As they're more lionfolks than catfolks, placing them in warm savanna regions is an obvious idea, but you could play a bit around and twist the concept -- they could as well come in fact from the frozen north, were their fur gives them an advantage over other humanoids.

That said, I would be tempted, personally, to have them come from Mulhorand.

As for how they would be treated -- other people might assimilate them to gnolls and assume they're evil monsters, or think they are werecats in hybrid form.

 

[Trellian]

Thanks, I will try to use the wererat plot at least once. I don't think the character would get in a lot of trouble, but someone might not be knowledgeable enough to know about them.

 

[Gez]

Note that werecats are good-aligned lycanthropes (CG) and favored of Bast/Zandilar/Sharess. But as they're rather rare, and as somebody who would confuse a catfolk with a werecat would not really be knowledgeable about all that, it may still cause a scare and/or a mob.

(An interesting plot point would also be if the scare was organized by a genuine lycanthrope, like a wererat.)

 

[twofalls]

I agree with the Jungle idea. I'd say somewhere from the Wild Coast. Depends also the type of cat breed you are thinking about. There are mountain breeds (cougar), plains breeds (lion), and jungle breeds (jaguar, panther). If you have a specific cat in mind that might influence your decision on where to start them.

 

[dargoth3]

Theres a short story in one of the Realms of X books which features Catfolk like creatures in Cormyr

 

[Allandaros]

I remember that story. It was in Realms of Valor, IIRC. But they didn't actually look like cats, they just had cat-affinity and cat-like actions (again, IIRC).

It wasn't that good a story, but there were one or two neat points.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I'd go for Jungles personally. There are lots of odd races in the realms so I imagine they will raise eyebrows but I doubt there will be any huge problems.

This would be my opinion too....

 

[arscott]

catfolk are mini's handbook, right?
what's their favored class and alignment?