The Tabaxi come from Maztica, driven by the curiousity granted by the Cat Lord, which leaves the question how did the Tabaxi go from worshipping Maztican Gods like Zeltec, before the Spellplague and now worship the Cat Lord who isn't even a God, but an Animal Lord of the Beastlands in generic D&D.
Somebody really liked the old 3E Epic Level Handbook write-up of him? As far as I know, that's the only place where the Cat Lord was ever posited to be a deity.
If it does violate any rules, I'm making the Cat Lord the Tabaxi Aspect of Sharess, the SCAG left her out, so I'll just use the Cat Lord and its domain, Trickery, which Sharess did have in 3e.
Sadly, that would violate AL rules, as the Cat Lord doesn't have an official write-up in a source cited by the ALPG, and thus isn't a legal option as a deity choice for clerics. (I'd thought Sharess was at least mentioned in teh PH, though, but if not, then she's not legal, either, nor would Bast of the Egyptian/Mulhorandi pantheon.) Keep in mind, though, that just because the tabaxi have a 'designated' deity, doesn't mean all tabaxi have to worship that deity -- dwarves and elves can worship and even serve as clerics to the Faerunian pantheon, ignoring the pantheons headed by Moradin and Corellon, respectively, so nothing prevents a tabaxi cleric from doing the same.
If your playing a Goliath there is literally no reason to use Volo's Guide to Monsters as your +1, unless you wish to worship the Cat Lord.
True, so it's interesting to note that the direction to use the backgrounds in the Volo's Guide document aren't restricted to characters that only use Volo's Guide as their +1. Likewise, the requirement that characters of these races must be part of a faction, and that faction is listed in the document, also do not appear to be restricted to just characters made from Volo's Guide. My guess would be that Goliaths (and admin-created Aasimar using the appropriate cert) would also need to abide by the background material in the addendum, even though their rules sources are not technically Volo's Guide.
I just don't see the point in this document, aside from railroading people into particular factions, and into particular background elements, that races from the PHB and EEPG doesn't have to deal with.
Well, some of it is based on the monster races generally trending toward evil, so some is just a re-statement of the existing rules on alignment and factions. (And adding a bit more restriction -- after all, you may claim your hobgoblin isn't evil, but who in the Harpers is going to believe you?)
The one race that is generally available outside of Volo's Guide has no faction restrictions, so I don't see that as being terribly limiting.
Most of it is confusing, only alittle bit useful. Still none of it crippling or anything, if you want a Pureblood from elsewhere, just add that your pureblood was born in X and later moved to Najara, and you basically meet the requirement in your background for example.
As a DM, I'm actually happy that I have some campaign documentation that backs up my desire to keep things relatively 'canon' within the campaign. So if you say your yuan-ti pureblood is from X and moved to Najara, unless X is Chult, I'm going to say, 'nope, yuan-ti aren't from there'.
With that said, the backstories are pretty generic and are thus malleable; I'm putting together a hobgoblin wizard who got run out of the High Moor when he discovered that his gift didn't run toward the evocation mastery that is the expected path of all hobgoblin wizards serving Maglubiuyet. Nothing in the published AL document is going to make my character unplayable.
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Pauper
