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Anatomy

​Cheetahs are digitigrade. They have short muzzles, pointy ears, and fluffy cheeks. Their pupils are round and their eyes are colored with no discernible sclera. They have sharp teeth and round, barbed tongues. They have hands with each three fingers and one opposable thumb with very good dexterity. Their paws have four toes each. Both hands and paws have paw pads for better protection and grip, with retractable claws, and they have long tails. Some cheetahs may have long fur, even though they have long ago been pushed out of colder areas.

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Male cheetahs tend to be taller and more muscular than female cheetahs, and have broader shoulders. Female cheetahs have permanent breasts after puberty, though cheetahs of either sex have 6 to 8 nipples from their chest to stomach.

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A cheetah's fur can be yellow, orange, red, grey, turquoise or sky blue, as well as any desaturated, bright or dark variant of these colors - though these colors are never excessively vibrant. Except in the case of melanistic or albino cheetahs, cheetahs have at least two colors, usually one main color and a lighter or darker color along their front and underside of their limbs. While some cheetahs do not have patterns, most cheetahs do, either spots or stripes, which will cover their back and top side of their limbs, as well as the top half of their face.

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A cheetah's main fur color may have up to three colors/shades blended into soft markings. Their patterns will be either one or two different colors. Their underside color will be a single color, to a max of six total colors. Patterns will not cover the underside color.

 

Cheetahs only have one type of pattern, these are; solid (cheetah), stripes (tiger), ink (king cheetah), blotch (leopard), marble (jaguar), snow (snow leopard), cloud (clouded leopard), and plain (no pattern). Cheetahs without eye and 'tear' markings are called 'maskless'. Maskless cheetahs may still have patterns.

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A cheetahs irises can be any color except for white, black, or colors and shades too close to these. They may have heterochromia to add a second hue to their eyes.

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Their skin (lips, nose, paw pads) will be pink, red, or brown. It may be lighter or darker, including black, but not white. They may have two-toned skin, either marbled or soft gradients. Their claws will be white, black, soft pink, or bone-colored. They may have differently colored claws, up to two colors.

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Cheetahs may grow manes, or hair, from the back of their head and neck which drapes down their back or can rest over their collarbones. The hair does not grow from the top of their head or forehead and as such will not cover or hang in front of the ears or eyes. It starts from between the back of the ears and covers the back of the neck. The hair may be two-toned (striped, fade, etc.) and has the same colors as the rest of the fur.

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Cheetahs are non-magical... mostly. Extremely rarely, a cheetah will be born with magical abilities for unknown reasons. Due to the association of magic and dragons, these cheetahs may be ostracized.

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Lifespan

Cheetahs are born in litters ranging from 1 to 8 kittens, with a usual average of 4, though first time mothers may only have 1 or 2. Usually about 1 in 4 make it to adulthood due to illnesses or more pressingly, dangerous wildlife.

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Newborn cheetahs are very small and are vulnerable for a few years. Nursing mothers will often nurse another mother's kittens while she is resting or working. Children start helping out in the tribe as early as 5 years old. Into their teenage years they start learning harder tasks like hunting and fighting. At around their 18th year they are considered adults, which is marked by ceremony. Unlike dragons, cheetahs usually reach their full height in the 18-25 age range. Cheetahs start getting elderly at 60, and usually don't live longer than 80, though a few have lived as long as 110.

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Habitat & Tribes

As of 3016, cheetahs live exclusively in the Quiet Tropics to the far west of Warfang mainland. Historically they have lived primarily in Avalar Valley and Twilight Falls, though these territories they have lost to dragons.

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Where there were once dozens of tribes, there are now only 7 still standing. This is a result of millennia of being relocated and pushed back by dragons, and the failed retaliations due to these. When cheetahs went to war with dragons in 2974, they lost several more border tribes.

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The current tribes, in order of size, are Cold Sword, Ebon Sand, Frozen Star, Silver Eye, Arcane Claw, Stone Stag, and Falling Arrow. The average member count is ~3000, far higher than their tribes usually have been, due to tribes being destroyed and their surviving members being accepted into other tribes. There are about another ~8,000 tribeless cheetahs living outside of tribe territories as small family units, wanderers, exiles, and raiders.

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Though the surviving tribes historically have had feuds, these conflicts have been put aside to address the larger threat; dragons. The tribes organize their warriors into into a joint army to fight where they're needed most... but even then, swords, spears, bows and arrows stand little chance against the dragons and their flight and destructive magic.

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Due to the war, virtually no cheetahs live outside of the Quiet Tropics on Warfang mainland. They are persecuted by civilian dragons and the military alike, and often captured or killed. Likewise, a dragon on cheetah lands will be attacked on sight, whether or not their intentions are hostile.

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A non-insignificant number of cheetahs have sailed to the Shattered Vale, as this has in the past been done to do trade with the apes. The two species still maintain a positive relationship, and apes mostly welcome the refugees.

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Culture

Cheetahs are hunter-gatherers first and foremost, but do a small amount of farming and animal husbandry. Although the Quiet Tropics is not ideal for farming, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is culturally and spiritually significant for cheetahs.

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There are many roles inside a cheetah tribe. There are hunters, foragers/gatherers, healers, warriors, chiefs, crafters, and caretakers. These roles are not gender exclusive, but different tribes tend to have certain genders overrepresented in certain roles, such as Cold Sword having more male warriors but more female hunters, and Ebon Sand having more female warriors but more male healers. Universally however, caretakers are overwhelmingly female, as they must be able to nurse the kittens of mothers who are in roles requiring them to leave the tribe for extended periods of time.

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Beliefs

Cheetahs believe in ancestral spirits much like dragons, but also in the spirits of nature. Any given species has a collective spirit, and there are spirits of the skies, the rivers, the mountains. Cheetahs do not view these spirits as being godly and moving with intent, but rather as essential aspects of nature that must be respected and preserved as they are. Different tribes tend to dedicate themselves specifically to certain spirits, often the ones they live with, such as a river tribe revering the river spirit.

 

Cheetahs believe that when they die, their spirits will become a part of the spirit they dedicated themselves to the most in terms of prayer, rituals of song and dance, and offerings (crafts). Some tribes see dedication to the spirits as required (Silver Eye, Arcane Claw), while others are generally more lax. Most cheetahs believe in the spirits but not all do more than acknowledge them. 

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Naming Conventions

Cheetahs are named after aspects of nature or their species; Meadow, Fern, Oak, River, Rain, Sky, Blossom, Moss, Bone, Stalker, Hunter, Prowler. Some names are slightly altered words; Prowlus, Rivera, Winterin, Staris (words with suffixes of -us, -a, -in, -is). These are usually given with words in the current dialect ('english') but may use old dialect ('non-english').

Certain names are not given, such as Warrior, Killer, Animal, Spirit, Ghost, etc.

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Clothes

Cheetahs wear clothes made of fabric, pelts, and leather. They do not have pants or sleeves but clothing akin to sleeveless tunics tied around the waist with leather belts. The bottom part of the tunic is cut into four 'flaps', one in front, one in the back, and one on each side.

 

Some cheetahs may wear capes, and/or bracers on legs and/or arms (this is most common with warriors and hunters) - alternatively wraps of fabric or leather. These may also be put on the tail along with decoration. They incorporate beads, rope, and metalwork into their clothes, and will often etch patterns into leather. Due to the open bottom of their tunics, cheetahs may wear loincloths underneath.

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Cheetahs also use beads and rope in their hair.

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Male cheetahs may go with only the bottom part of their tunic, bare chested, while female cheetahs will at least have a piece covering their chest. When breastfeeding they will have the whole front torso covered. Covering these areas of the body is not motivated by shame or taboo but rather the belief that revealing the natural, mature body is a gesture exclusive to lovers or for courtship, and doing so carries the same implications even if both cheetahs are male or both female.