Jylar

Jylar are a sapient species of felines native to the megaforests of Etharai. They tend to have tan fur with darker spots, and stand at around 3-4 feet tall. They tend to stay within the confines of their natural habitat, living high within the gigantic trees of their homes.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Jylar are 3-4 feet tall in height, standing on two legs most of the time, but four when they are jumping and leaping through the forest's trees. They have a long tail that helps with their balance, and whiskers that aid in their vision and help them navigate through their often dangerous environment.
Their fur colours can range between cream, tawny, tan, reddish-tan, reddish-brown, reddish-grey, and grey, but they are always distinct due to the solid black markings across their backs, sides, and heads. Their neck and belly areas are typically white or a light cream colour, depending on the darkness of the rest of their coats.
Their eyes range in colour fron green to brown, and while blue-eyed jylar are rare, they are not impossible. They have slitted pupils that change shape to become thinner or wider as the day progresses and they deal with more or less light from the sun.

Genetics and Reproduction

Jylar have a distinct mating season, which occurs during the summer. They reproduce sexually, with a male and female of the species capable of procreating. A jylar woman will generally have litters of 1-3 kittens at a time, and 2-3 litters in her lifetime.
Some jylar choose not to have children, a choice that is greatly respected by the jylar. Such jylar will instead practice magic or medicine.

Growth Rate & Stages

Jylar are a species that gives live birth, with their children not fully developed when they are born. They are initially blind, and require nurturing and guidance from their parents until they grow into adults.

Ecology and Habitats

Jylar live in megaforests, rainforest biomes with heavy rainfall and giant trees. They are some of the smallest species in their environment, with much of the megafauna of the region reaching much larger than 5 times their size. Jylar are, because of this, suspected to have not originally evolved in the megaforests, instead having moved there ages ago.

Predators

Jylar have a few natural predators that they have to look out for. Jylar young are often eaten by smaller snake species, and larger ones still have to watch out for the deadly gigantiboa, the largest snake species in the megaforests and the primary predator of the jylar.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Jylar are obligate carnivores, requiring some form of meat in order to survive. However, the available sources of meat within the megaforests are much larger than the jylar themselves. Because of this, jylar will form hunting parties that will group up and hunt down animals to feed their entire communities.
This does not mean that jylar cannot enjoy plant-based food, however. Despite it holding no nutritional value to them, jylar enjoy garnishing some of their dishes with jungleradish mustard, made from jungleradish, which gives their food an earthy sort of spice.
Jylar enjoy smoking their meats, as well as making jerky. Jylar restaurants will serve a wide variety of jerky options, often alongside one or two options for smoked meat dishes. They like drier foods, due to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere where they live, and so they enjoy salting and drying much of their food.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Jylar have a few distinct roles within most of their communities. These three roles are myoro, the young and unmarried folk who go out on hunting parties and provide food for the community, the roiyo, married and/or older folk who stay within the community, doing things like preparing food, making art, or doing other common duties. Lastly are the aiao, people well-versed in medicinal and heath-related care, who tend to the sick, the injured, and the old, and pass their knowledge on to those who wish to learn.

Expert Healers

Jylar are highly skilled at and often deferred to for medical assistance. In many places, the last resort in healthcare is to bring the patient into the megaforests, finding the nearest village of jylar and asking for their assistance. The jylar always provide this assistance, happy at the chance to practice their craft and often even happier when the strange visitors bring exotic meats for them to enjoy.

Average Intelligence

Jylar are fairly intelligent, though you may not think this when looking at them for the first time. They like to hide their intelligence, which benefits them as possible attackers will underestimate the danger of getting into a fight with them. They will often set traps to catch food, and they are highly adept at medical magic and herbal sciences.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Jylar have a naming system based on age and profession. When a jylar kitten is born, they are givin a name by their parents, a single-syllable word that often describes their appearance or behaviour. This is often something like Red, Mottled, Bramble, or Yowl. When they reach adulthood, they are given a second part of their name, decided by their community. Hunters recieve names such as Silverclaw, Yellowstrike, or Shrikepaw. Jylar that prefer to stay within the bounds of the village recieve names such as Thinberry, Orangeleap, or Tigerstep. Lastly, jylar that go into a medicinal field recieve herb- or plant-related names such as Spottedleaf, Sandysage, or Shadowdill.

Gender Ideals

While jylar do have a concept of sex, gender is not an ideal that matters much to them. To the jylar, as long as a person is able to do their job or provide something to the community, they are a valued member of the community they are a part of.

Average Technological Level

While jylar are incredibly talented and far ahead of any other part of the planet in herbal and medicinal sciences, they do not actually use much technology. The non-medicinal technologies that individual villages used are often brought to them as gifts in exchange for their medical services, and while they make good use of these technologies while they have them, they will make no attempt to replace them when they break.
While jylar do not actively reject technology, they do see it as unnecessary to their culture. They do not turn away the well-intentioned gifts of their visitors, however, nor do they take the time to explain that they do not believe in the use of technology, accepting them graciously and using them until they break or run out.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Most jylar speak dialects of a common tongue, Miauo, which only provides more substance to the theory that they were not native to the forests, instead immigrating at a later date.
Most of the Miauo dialects are fairly similar and mutually intelligible, though to outsiders learning the language it becomes somewhat difficult to learn vocabular due to all of the minor differences between the dialects.

Common Myths and Legends

Jylar have an ancestral religion, believing that their ancestors are responsible for what happens to their souls after death, and that the ancestors watch over them and grant them blessings as they live.
They will often pray to their ancestors, either for luck of the hunt, good fortune for survival, or for the gifts of the strange outsiders that come along every so often.

Cultural Clothing

Jylar wear loose clothing, often draped around their torsos and down to the ground. They will often keep the upper halves of their bodies unclothed so as to not overheat in the climate of the megaforests, but do wear jewellery and paint the upper halves of their bodies instead.

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Lifespan

50-60 yrs.

Average Height

3-4 ft.

Geographic Distribution

• Megaforest