Catfolk


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


Hello, I have questions about catfolk.

Quote:
Believed to originate somewhere in central or southern Garund, catfolk—known amongst themselves as amurruns—live everywhere around the Inner Sea. Catfolk legends claim that when Golarion was first created, the gods made catfolk to be guardians tasked with hunting threats to the young world. They consider their nation of Murraseth in southern Garund their hereditary home, though the allure of travel appeals to many catfolk. Propelled by their culture of discovery and bursts of restless energy, they’ve spread across the world since ancient times, pursuing their love of company and their ancient sense of duty.
Quote:

Amurrun legends tell that catfolk were once great cats, guardians made by mighty creator spirits. These cats were tasked with hunting down lingering threats to Golarion when the world was new, and the great creator spirits gifted them with intelligence and forms better suited to using tools so that they could hunt down even the mightiest horrors that stalked the lands.

Amurruns have protected their ancestral city-state of Murraseth in southern Garund since at least the Age of Legend. Although the government of Murraseth has been reformed or overthrown several times throughout its long history, each of its leaders has understood the grave responsibility of keeping their people’s secrets from the rest of the world. Indeed, the catfolk’s greatest secret—
the reason for the seclusion and secrecy of Murraseth in the first place—is so well kept that even the common catfolk citizens of Murraseth know nothing of its details, in no short part thanks to the work of the Pridekillers: shadowy government-sponsored spies and researchers who serve the safety of the realm above any government.

What about the great cat ?

what are the secrets that even the common catfolk citizens if Murraseth know nothing its details ?
What about the Pridekillers ?

Quote:

Murraseth’s precursor was another catfolk nation, but any information more than this has been scrubbed from all known records. Whatever doomed this progenitor city, it came before Earthfall and drove many of its people to serve enigmatic agents thousands of miles away

in the Valashmai Jungle.
Catfolk claim they have avoided repeating the downfall of the past by destroying all records of the mysterious schism and declaring a refuge at the heart of their lands forbidden to all but the royal family and chosen mystics. The catfolk’s dark secret—if there truly is one—supposedly lies within this refuge.

Thanks for your future answer.

Grand Lodge

Dot


You know about as much as we do; Murraseth is located in Southern Garund, an area we haven’t seen in detail yet across Pathfinder’s long history. If you’ve read the Ancestry Guide and the Amurrun-focused article in Extinction Curse, you’ve got the bulk of published catfolk canon.


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We know the Garundi emigrated from somewhere to the south, possibly before Earthfall, bringing their gods with them. Among their number as the two great cat goddesses Bastet and Sekhmet, both of whom are aspects of the Eye of Ra, and even the real-life Ra was sometimes depicted as a cat slaying Apep. In Osiriani culture, cats slay evil. And I wonder if that's something they picked up from the catfolk of what preceded Murraseth on their way north. If anyone was going to be a patron of the catfolk it would be Bastet, who could be mercurial and mischievous at times but generally was on the side of order, and Sekhmet who embodied raw chaotic power that served order but without restraint.

We also know that Adanye is believed to have mentored the first catfolk, though explicitly didn't create them. And I suspect that the Old Sun Gods, Chohar, Luhar and Tlehar, the ancient lion gods that Mzali's kings once claimed descent from and which Walkena actively suppresses, would probably find a place in an Amurran pantheon. But given how secretive Murraseth's monarchy are, even the catfolk may not know and might have competing beliefs, perfectly content in not knowing but trusting their own natures to guide them. I've appreciated Paizo stressing with 2e that a lot of legends and beliefs about the gods aren't necessarily true, because ambiguity leaves a lot of room for storytelling to fill in the gaps. Amurrans of northern Garund might take Bastet and Sekhmet as patrons even if their brethren further south don't, telling stories of themselves being Bastet's/Sekhmet's children; Murrasethi and Mwangi catfolk probably hold Adanye in high regard and especially Mwangi catfolk might be drawn to the Old Sun Gods and reviving their worships; and while I couldn't find any cat gods of Tian Xia, I imagine Vudrani catfolk would appreciate a goddess like Chamidu, a "beast god" shown riding a tiger, although the description of the goddess rings suspiciously Rakshasa-like despite being neutral.

But it's appropriately cat-like for them to not know or care about the "true" history, if there even is one and it's not the royal family and trusted advisors desperately keeping plates spinning in the air for a few thousand years hoping nobody notices the discrepancies or even just a story Amurrans tell outsiders to amuse themselves, and that they might accept and prefer a multitude of versions all competing with each other, and picking and choosing what they like about each. Cats or all sizes are large and contain multitudes. :P


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To the above theory Morhek floats, there’s also jaguar goddess Kazutal having a history in Arcadia predating Earthfall, and a place in the Mwangi Expanse among the Matanji Orcs. Time and again, militant feline deities appear on Golarion…

There’s also the note that the Valashmai Jungle once hosted animal-folk slaves from across the cosmos, who eventually rebelled against the empire that held them and whose descendants (including Catfolk) still live there today. It’s a potential origin story for them, though I imagine they got their start in Garund like everything points to.


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The theory that they're related to rakshasas is popular enough that the wiki has "See also: Rakshasa" at the top of the page. It's a bit peculiar though, since while there are a few reasons (their physical similarity to the most well known form of rakshasa, occult connections, spiritual calling to fight evil, and irreligiousness) it's not enough to say that it's implied. Seems like an editor just thought "these cat people are obviously related to these other cat people" and no one pressed the X button to doubt claim. The amurrun would probably be insulted if you compared them to rakshasas.


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Per Lost Omens: Impossible Lands, the catfolk Askedhaki ethnic group's tendency to wear jewelry and metal-cap their fangs, "along with their striped fur, often gives them a resemblance to rakshasas, and rakshasas lying low often pose as Askedhaki, which the catfolk despise. As a result, Askedhaki often wear holy symbols and blessed objects even if they are not religious, and some become stalwart rakshasa hunters." So I think it's safe to say that catfolk don't take kindly to the suggestion that they are, or serve, Rakshasas.

But I did double-take when I saw Chamidu listed as Neutral. And while they overwhelmingly trend toward evil. the Rakshasa caste system has a name for Rakshasas who reject their "innate" natures, "Pagala: Traitors, a caste reserved for rakshasas who act in a manner antithetical to rakshasa ideals," which are below even "Goshta: Literally “food,” this caste applies to almost all non-rakshasas." If Chamidu is one of the rare Rakshasas who not only rejected her peoples' tendency to pervert and dominate and became a god-level Immortal and hasn't been cut down yet by one of the others, I could see catfolk of Vudra adopting her as a symbol of their opposition to others of her kind who didn't. Kinda like the inverse of satanism adopting the most evil being of a religion to point out its hypocrisies, adopting a Good Rakshasa to spit in their collective eye.

Before posting all that, I went and actually ctrl-f searched through the only source listed, Escape From Old Korvosa, and it doesn't actually list her alignment so that, like catfolk being tied to Rakshasas, seems to be something the wiki editors just assumed or had to leave blank. She is included in a section where the players fight Rakshasas, but they seem to have little love for her (a password is "Chamidu is blind). So if Chamidu doesn't like Rakshasas, the feeling seems to be mutual. Though it should be noted that Chamidu only rides the tiger which has human hands, so perhaps merely one of her Heralds is a Rakshasa. Nethys has a lich and a trumpet archon and is happy with the contradiction.


Off-topic tangent:
I still think it's great how the new Impossible Lands book says that Niswan is so egalitarian that there are several non-evil rakshasa there. If they're going to be found anywhere on Golarion, it's going to be in the Vudrani city that has abandoned the caste system in favor of cosmopolitanism.

If the amurrun's origins have anything to do with rakshasas, it's that while the amurrun were born of rakshasas they became disgusted by the fiends and declared the rakshasa their sworn enemies. It's also clear that if that is truly the case that origin has been long forgotten and the dedication to fighting evil is all that remains. So while a scholar may raise the theory that they're related, the amurrun will take it as a grave insult. After all, do they claim that humans are related to the charau-ka? It's also not really the only possible origin, and it may just be that they arose naturally like the iruxi and sekmin.

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