Sandy petersens cthulhu mythos (1) 20

II Mythos Races
then depart to live alone. A mother cat has a powerful

defend themselves as a race. An example of this is when

love of her kittens and will die to protect them. But

the Dreamlands cats’ militia preempted an attack

even for her, once a kitten grows up and moves on, that

by the zoogs. Dreamlands cats can very effectively

consuming love fades and is replaced by a lower level

fight in a coordinated fashion as demonstrated

of affection.

against moonbeasts.

The mother trains and teaches her kittens how

The cat vocal apparatus is not built very well to

to hunt, where to hide, and all about her habitat,

speak humanoid languages. However, cats are perfectly

so the kittens reach adulthood with a near perfect

capable of understanding these languages, and they

understanding of the area around their home and the

can learn any of the languages spoken in their home

creatures and wildlife that populate it.

area. Other people must learn the cat language to

Life Cycle
The age of sexual maturity varies from cat to cat, and
can range from 4–10 months. Most cats are considered
to have reached adolescence by the age of 5–6 months.
A cat’s pregnancy lasts 64–67 days, at which time
she gives birth to a litter of kittens. The young cats
are born blind, deaf, and helpless. At about two weeks,
their eyes and ears open, and the kittens begin to react
to their siblings and others. Usually, the kittens are
weaned around the age of six weeks, though they still
stay with their mother. At 12 weeks, though they are
not fully grown, they are fully socialized and able to
leave their mother.
A Dreamlands cat often mates with normal cats, and
any kittens it produces are normal kittens, though the
kittens, as with all cats, may later become Dreamlands
cats themselves.

Society
As normally solitary and often capricious hunters, cats

communicate with their fickle feline companions.
Fortunately, the cat language is fairly easy to learn. In
fact, most people who own a cat are probably halfway
there already. A one-week association with a specific
cat allows a character to understand that specific cat
without needing to learn the Cat language. This does
not allow them to understand other cats unless they
spend a week with those cats as well. The character
can spend one week with multiple cats and understand
them all after that week.
When a cat speaks, it meows or caterwauls, but
when humanoids speak to cats, they speak in their
normal tongues. It is quite a different situation
from most communication, in which both parties
must speak the same tongue to get anything done.
Communicating with cats is a combination of learning
what some of their meows and whines mean and also
understanding patterns of behavior. A cat understands
what party members are saying, and soon enough those
party members usually learn how to talk with the cat.

don’t really have a society in the humanoid sense of

Cats do not have any sort of written language,

the word. Cats are able to live in large groups, but do

but a Dreamlands cat is able to learn how to read or

not cooperatively hunt or organize. With their greater

even write, though its lack of thumbs does handicap it

intelligence, Dreamlands cats can work together

somewhat in this regard.

to go to war, gather for raids, and hold celebrations.

Otherworld Cats

Dreamlands cats have been known to form a militia of
sorts, including having military ranks, to proactively

Many other worlds have cat-like organisms of their
own. This is so common that many researchers theorize

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