Ketarun Cats (Ket-are-rune)
The Ketarun Cats, also known as the Spring Clans or Spring Cats, are a cat culture and social model in Northern Stildane and Western Inahng that works as a loose network of allied social units.
The Ketarun are cats that live by a strict religious code that mixes traditional Cat Heaven traditionalism with Hainish Uvara. Everyone has a divinely ordained social role, with the warriors and priests at the top, who elect the Clan-lord and their deputy (heir). Most other cats must live as forager-producer cats, who farm chickens and rodents as livestock, tend to useful plants and harvest them for basic tools and herbs, and who act as servants for the warrior-elites. Priests are divided into three categories: Druids, Sorcerers, and Medicine Cats. Priests can only have children if they receive permission from the Lord, and those children are raised away from them to prevent favoritism.
The Ketarun are a militant and isolationist society, who prefer to avoid close contact with humanoids (as they believe that co-habitation would make them 'pets', and pets do not go to heaven). The druids, who are able to speak with humanoids magically and as peers, are allowed to work with humanoids and coordinate joint efforts, and many in the Kingdom of Hain have been able to secure 'Ketarun Preserves' for their clans: nature preserves where the cats are able to live in peace with minimal disturbance outside of humanoid druids (who use the preserves for practice and botany). Hainish Ketarun cats also have their own centralized body, known as the Grand Ketarun, though this is a decentralized oligarchy that avoids interfering with local Preserve Clans.
Ketarun clans also gate as gatekeepers for who is and isn't a cat in Stildane. Irradiated cats who are deemed True Cats are welcomed into the Ketarun as long as they promise to not interbreed with other mutant cats. Those who are too fargone are sent to the Starry Ketarune Clans, who live closer to humanoid societies and have looser rules.
As a closed and disciplined society, Ketarune cats have unusually formalized codes of crime and punishment. Cats are typically punished through forced work periods or time as a scout (the most dangerous part of the martial hierarchy), depending on the social role of the cat.
The Ketarune cats are often at odds with other cats. While they can often accept Jellicle courts under Starry Ketarune groups, traditionalists who aren't also Ketarune cats are to be conquered and converted. The greatest enemy of the current Ketarune are the 'Scrollcats' of the 'Second code' in Uzeven and the heavily irradiated wasteland cat clans of South Stildane. The Ketarune cats of the Adira Mountains have also begun to run out of conquerable territory, as they have encountered the well-organized cat federations of Eastern Inahng.
As warriors, the Ketarune cats rely on poisoned claws, traps, and magical support.
Naming Traditions
Unisex names
Ketarun names stick to conventional traditionalist naming but with a more lax approach to what constitutes an acceptable prefix or suffix. Prefixes in traditional naming are a personal marker (often tied to one's appearance of the dreams of the parent for the child) that transfers with one's rank, while suffixes denote one's rank or specialty within the community.
Suffixes include: -star for the leader, -prince for the deputy, -knight for elite warriors, -claw for warriors, -foot or -stream for scouts, -leaf for druids, -cloud for doctors and poisoners, -storm for sorcerers, -heart for tinkerers, -flower for community leaders and enforcers for the elites, -fang for game wardens, -eye for foragers, -step for builders.
Prefixes can vary from basic plants and natural features (such as pine for brown or green, water or sky for blue, fire or sun for red, ash or shadow for black, berry or dusk for purple, bark or hawk for brown, shimmer or warp for coats that change colors, etc) to ideas such as "autumn", "ever", "risen", or "glory".
Culture
Shared customary codes and values
Ketarune cats tend towards conservativism and tradition: tradition and conformity are seen as essential defenses against chaos and lifelines to the cat heavens. There is some flexibility assigning roles and navigating one's role, but once your position is entrenched, you must do your duty and put the clan before the individual. Deviations from the rituals, matchmaker system, and clan rules and regulations are dangerous heresies that imperil everyone. Cats outside of the Ketarune and Starry Ketarune are also heretics, and those who reject traditionalism are the worst cats of all.
Most cats fall into one of the following roles: Lord (leader), Deputy, Spellpriest, Medicus, Knight-Warrior, Warrior, Scout, Tinkerer, Game-Warden (farmer), Forager, or Builder.
Common Dress code
Ketarune cats wear small trinkets to designate their rank and role. Druids wear green cloaks; warriors wear basic hide armor.
Art & Architecture
Ketarune cats live in fairly small villages, and their buildings are mostly camouflaged tree-houses and excavated underground dens.
Common Myths and Legends
Historical figures
Sparkstar the All-Mother (aka Kezema of the Bladed Plains): Legendary founder of the Ketarune cats, Sparkstar was actually born to a band of Liberated Path Kivish North of the Kingdom of Hain. Sparkstar, born under the name Kezema, learned a great deal about humanoid society but was never able to fully integrate. Lost between humanoid and cat worlds and unwilling to expose herself to radiation to find a new station in the group, she asked her parents to leave her with the Hainish hill cats. Her parents obliged, but paid the local Hainish druid to watch over her and keep her safe. She struggled to integrate with the cat traditionalists, and fell between cat and human worlds several times during her years with the clan. The druid took her in when she had nowhere else to go, and she was able to learn druidism from him over the years. She proved a quick learner and natural druid, and she became something of a mystic among the local cats when her training was complete. The cat heavens took notice of her, and smiled upon her love of traditionalist cat life. When the Kivish Empire invaded in their scouring of Hain, Sparkleaf was given a prophetic role to save the clans, and she was given a great power: to draw the souls of dead cats into Ederstone beasts. Sparkleaf united the clans into the Ketarune (Hainish for the Kingdom of All Cats), and was elected leader. She brought the hill cats, city cats, forest cats, and wasteland cats together and snuck behind the Kivish lines to destroy their army and save their home. For her service fighting the Kivish, Hain recognized cats as fully sentient and her as the empress of all cats - all pets were freed, and the Ketarune were invited into druidic groves to live in peace. Sparkstar died not long after the settlement with Hain, but she is still remembered as the Mother of Ketarune.
Autumnstar the Conqueror: Autumnstar, a supposed descendent of Sparkstar the All-Mother, was a grand cat conqueror, explorer, and ruler who began the conquest of the Adira Mountains. Autumnstar began his life groomed for power as a master druid and leader in the Ketarune community known as Riverhome (in modern day Varasa ), and was selected as deputy at a far too young age for political reasons. The prior regime of Riverhome fell to internal drama and Autumnleaf was exiled with a group of warriors and poisonmakers. He began touring as an adventurer, using his druidic status to interact with humanoid society more than tradition would normally allow. He gathered warriors and exiles to retake Riverhome (which was 'rightfully his'), but Cat Heaven whispered to his medicus and told him to find a new home instead. Ever-pious, Autumnstar wandered East to find a new home and headed along the trade route towards the Empire of Calazen. He searched out the largest cat community of the border-region, a group of cat heretics known as the Rockborn, and conquered them with his army, magic, and a little interference maneuvered through humanoid allies. Autumnstar forcibly converted the new cats and renamed Rockborn cavern to Starcastle. Starcastle drew many rowdy young warriors to its banner, and from that base the piecemeal invasion of the Adiran cats began.
Ideals
Courtship Ideals
Ketarun Cats have strict codes governing relationships. Most cats are coupled by clan matchmakers, who work to prevent incest or the intermingling of more mutated bloodlines (and to keep the social classes separate in some clans). When a matchmaker decides that two cats are likely compatible, they are given a courtship period to live together and test compatibility before the pair is confirmed. While the Ketarun doesn't demand arranged marriages, the community leaders have unlimited power in banning a pairing. The priesthood can also issue Oaths of celibacy to cats, as punishment, an isolation tactic, religious reasons, or otherwise.
Young cats often fixate on and romanticize the matchmaking process, and the period of matchmaking testing is hyped in many clans as an exciting and special time of self-discovery and romance. When first introduced to a potential mate, both partners engage in the "First dance", a ritualized back-and-forth intended to probe one another's interests and attitudes. This introduction takes place one week before the testing period, and typically is followed by a "secret night" where both partners "covertly slip away" to get to know each other in a private setting, with each partner bringing a "lookout" from among their friends to act as protector/wingman. This false elopement gives a sense of agency to both parties, though it is socially ritualized to remove any taboo behavior or danger to social cohesion; many young cats gossip and plan how they will show off to their partners during this false elopement, either through costume or gesture.
Relationship Ideals
Relationships are monogamous and require a priest's involvement to secure a divorce. Adultery is a punishable offense.
Related Organizations
Related Locations
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