Feliquine

To those who live in the Twin Worlds, magic is known as a part of life. Thus, magical creatures are also a part of life. Many of these are hybrids of natural animals, such as the hippogriff or sea cat.
The floating island of Tarador has two such creatures unique to it: the feliquine and caniquine. The Taradori love these creatures, and even use them to symbolize the island, itself. In particular, the feliquine serves as the symbol of the city of Corazon.

History

The origins of many magical creatures are shrouded in mystery, their stories known only through myth and legend. Hippogriffs have been written of since the dawn of human civilization long before the Second Rising, but nothing is written about their creation. The story goes when the sea elves fled the surface world they changed their cats as well, but the magic went wild and they became the leonine sea cats instead.
The creation of the feliquines and caniquines is just as mysterious as this. No actual scholarly sources found refer to their origins. Many belive they've existed in Tarador since before the coming of humanoids to the island, although this would raise more questions that have seemingly no answers
The Taradori would not be satisfied with that mystery, however, not when there is the possibility of a story to be told. They needed a story of love, betrayal, and loss worthy of the stage. As dramatic as it is, there are many Taradori that believe this story, even if no foreigner does.
The tale begins when the first grapes were grown on the island. An unnamed, but wealthy vintner desired a mount as extraordinary as he believed himself to be, and his arrogance was infinite. Since no mere horse would do, he commissioned a pair of transmuters to create something utterly unique.
These mages were husband and wife Elrondo del Mar and Rosalinda della Playa. It was said their marriage was blessed by Eariden, herself, so great was their love. They had no way of knowing that the love they thought unbreakable would be so tested by what seemed nothing more than a simple commission.
Both agreed that the horse would be the basis for their new creature, and that it would need to be combined with another creature. This is where the disagreements began. Elrondo adored cats beyond any other, but his wife greatly preferred dogs. Neither would back down or compromise their vision of their perfect mount.
Thus, their love turned to hatred and they sought to outdo one another. Elrondo created the first feliquine and Rosalinda the caniquine, and both presented them to their patron. The fight that ensued killed him before he could accept either creature. Thus, neither received the vindication they desired.
The mages both took the mounts they created for their own and made many more, desiring to destroy one another and their creatures. Both of the former lovers died and their creations escaped into the wilds of Tarador, where they remain to this day.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Like many other magical creatures, feliquines are a fusion of two different animals found in nature. More specifically, they are a synthesis of a cat and horse. A feliquine has the head, chest, and front legs of a horse, and the tail, hindquarters, and rear legs of a horse.
There can be a great deal of variety in the feline and equine features of a particular feliquine. The rear half can have a wide variety of hair colors and patterns while the front half can have the features of any cat breed. Most feliquines have the features of short-haired cats due to the generally warm Taradori climate.

Ecology and Habitats

Wild feliquines tend to be solitary creatures, much as many felines are. They seem to prefer open plains for their habitats, but they are adaptable creatures that can be found anywhere on the island. In the wild, feliquines and caniquines tend to avoid one another.
Feliquines are consumate hunters, and have a particular love of rodents and foxes. However, such small animals can't sustain a creature the size of a feliquine, but they can also feed on vegetation. They rarely graze as horses do, but prefer to find berries, instead.

Additional Information

Domestication

The story goes that feliquines were initially created as mounts, and they are still sometimes raised for that purpose. Indeed, they were once very fashionable mounts for foreign nobles, but this is no longer common. Occasionally, they are kept to keep pests like foxes and wolves away from farmers' flocks, but have an unfortunate tendency to eat their charges, themselves.
Compared to caniquines, raising feliquines is a mixed blessing. They are somewhat easier to care for, as they keep themselves clean and supplement their diet with farmyard pests. On the other hand, however, they are even more difficult to train as mounts than the already-troublesome caniquines. Feliquines and caniquines frequently fight if kept together, and so almost never are.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Much like their canine counterparts, the only wild population of feliquines live on the floating island of Tarador. Domesticated ones were once sold to the wealthy in other places, but even on the occasions when they escaped captivity, there weren't enough of them in one place to create a viable breeding population.

Lifespan

25 - 35 years

Average Height

5.5 ft. to 6.5 ft.

Average Weight

950 lbs. - 1,150 lbs.

Average Length

7 ft. - 8 ft.