The Scourge

To non-cats, their arrival is marked by the sudden decline in predators- in snakes, bobcats, wolves, and other creatures, which sometimes are left mutilated along the road. Dogs go missing. Sometimes, unaccompanied children dissapear from the woods. To local cats, the Scourge's arrival is clear as day: first they send a diplomat to demand the local cats swear eternal fealty, then they send the invasion. Their cats cover themselves in the claws and teeth of the predators they've hunted; they are covered in scars and burn marks from the many trials they inflict on their subordinates. They are brutal, without empathy. They call themselves unnatural names, such as "soldier", "captain", "general". They are the Scourge of our World, sent to destroy all who oppose cat-kind and strengthen the weak and decadent cats of Ekraht.
The Scourge as a political entity is a military federation. They dominate cat-politics in Northeastern Ekraht from central Zerua to the eastern plains. While they claim to be one united Army of Catkind, they have no leader at the moment. Instead, they form into "armies" led by "generals", which "occupy" land in patchwork federation. Scourge-cat armies carefully delineate their territory with clearly marked borders, which they send their tributary-cats to mark and watch over. Each army is led by a "General" and their "Deputy General" second in command, along with the "Magisters Military" war council. The Scourge prefer not to fight one another, and if they do they prefer to have their upper-echelons fight duels for dominance. The Army of Catkind must remain united against the Enemies Abundant.
As a way of life, The Scourge divides catkind into two categories: the army and the civilians. The army of catkind is the superior entity, but is supported by the civilian cat-clans. The Scourge tax local clans, impose laws and regulations, and force them to collectively store their food (often using human food preservation technology, such as stolen salt or smoking fires). They also do "levy taxes" where they collect the best warriors of every tributary-clan to integrate and indoctrinate into the army. In emergency situations they will also conscript local clans to fight with them against major threats. They are militaristic, hierarchical, and authoritarian- some have even forced local clans into abandoned humanoid buildings to create little cat fortress-cities.
As an ideology, The Scourge believes that cat-kind is under attack by the world and that they are the chosen of Cat Heaven to fight back. Every predator must be hunted, for those who do not kill become the killed. The strong must rule, for it is by the decadence and weakness of the modern clans that the cats went from being Lions and Tigers (ancient, massive heroes who ruled even the humanoids in an eternal worldwide empire).
As a military force, The Scourge is unique in its utilization of Dhampirism and the Way of the Open Paw - the "gift of heaven" and the "path of strength" respectively. The Way of the Open Palm is said to be the greatest and most glorious of the two- as it is unlocking one's ancestral power and beginning the transformation back into a Lion-Tiger. The power of the open-paw allows these cats to kill even armed humanoids, as well as bears and wolves. Other cats don't even stand a chance without careful planning.

History

For most of Ekraht's history, cats have been but cats. Sometimes cat despots arise over others, but the status quo always returns. Loyalty to Cat Heaven and its ancient code has been a staple of life there for millennia. But cats have been on the retreat. From volcanic eruptions to ceaseless urban development, their natural habitat has receded. Some clans have tried to adapt to urban living, but in the chaos of the city many of the old traditions decayed or were forgotten. The forest-cats rejected the city-cats as heathens who turned their backs on the old ways, and rejected them as unclean. And so the divide grew over time: the lost cats of the growing cityscape, and the xenophobic traditionalists of the forest who refused to open their eyes to their dwindling way of life.
In 1890 Tizi (or "tiny") was a cat born to a low-income domesticated urban cat household in the outskirts of the city of Corrigo in the region of Iziko. Corrigo was a massive lakeside metropolis with a massive urban cat population. Cats lived either with owners or in violent and often temporary street bands. A group of religious cat cults had taken over the dockside area of Corrigo and formed something more permanent, but their takeover had ruined what few urban cat institutions existed there. The cat-alliances were gone and anarchy reigned, and a cycle of violence had escalated throughout the city. When Tizi was driven out of his house by his siblings, he wandered into a terrifying new world of cat-eat-cat violence. At first Tizi trie to flee into the woods, but the local cat-clans captured and nearly executed the young cat before he escaped back into the suburbs. Tizi then wandered into a small band of alleycats led by the twin warlords Brick-n-Boulder and Boulder-n-Brick. Having tried to use a dogtooth to remove their collar, Tizi was mistaken for a houndslayer and adopted into the band. Through luck and courage, Tizi rose as the leader of the band.
In 1893, Tizi decided to actually try and organize a hunt of a particularly dangerous stray dog- an aggressive and infamous creature that even become a problem for local humanoids. Tizi and his band cornered the creature, but were no match for it and Tizi was spared only by the intervention of local humanoids that had been hunting it as well. Tizi was picked up and taken to the local temple as "the cat who sought revenge for the child-killer dog". "Justice cat" as Tizi was known as, was taken in by the eccentric priest there. Knowing that Tizi was sentient, the priest taught him a powerful art: The Way of the Open Palm. This was done as an experiment, and with the hope that Tizi would teach the cats the religion of Kamada. But Tizi cared little for their gods, only their power. When he was sent out to spread the Good Word, he assumed that Good Word was justice by force.
From 1893 to 1895, Tizi honed his art on the urban cat warlords and the predators that hunted them. From the crazed warlord Chimney-Flame, he inherited the Pit of Despair (a hole in a roof over a kennel for dog-fighting dogs) and he began forging the Amulet of True Power (a necklace of predator-fangs). He taught his fellows his art of the Open Paw, and together they launched an invasion of the Cat Cults of the Lakeside Docks. They bowed to him, and named him Child of Lions.
In 1895, another petty despot arose in the nearby woods like so many before: a cat named Lionsire, a xenophobe who hated even cross-tribe mixing, had conquered the surrounding tribes and claimed to be a half-lion demigod. But Lionsire's victories never fully consolidated his control, and his political position was shaky. And so, he sent a representative to the nearby city of Corrigo to try and raise an army of feral city cat mercenaries to subjugate the rebels and make his victory complete. In his foolishness, he invited Tizi into the woods and Tizi marched an army in.
Tizi quickly made an example of Lionsire, stringing him to the trees and taking all nine of his lives. He named himself Scourge, and his army was the Empire of Blood. Through his magical prowess, he defeated the rebels and militarized the woodland cats. City and forest bowed to him, and he began his Scouring of the World. He organized his cats into an unstoppable army, and from this was born The Scourge.
On his deathbed, Tizi gathered his five closest disciples and forced them to promise to keep his vision alive. Fight not one another, but the world, he said. And while they did their bit of squabbling and politics, they ultimately did uphold his vision. Part of this was on purpose, part of it was because they accidentally went too far: they hunted all hunters, including humanoids. The militias that came after them were a threat like never before, and they were forced to flee from Corrigo temporarily. They make an oath to avoid killing humanoids until they were truly ready for what has become known as The Last War.
While most of the Scourges history is a fairly monotonous string of conflicts, one more important figure arose in 1960: General Houndslayer, the Scourge of the East. In 1960, Houndslayer used trial by combat and careful diplomacy to unit the armies of Catkind for a grand invasion. In the East, the Cat Heavens had used prophecy and guile to organize an army of heavenly resistance, which had broken the Scourge's armies thrice now. The Houndslayer united the Scourge in their destruction, and in the meadows of Saraf in 1961 was fought the largest battle in the history of Ekraht's cats. Thousands of cats perished and the battle went on for three days before the Houndslayer carried the day, rounding up the surrendered heavens-cats and carrying them Westward in bondage. The East was taken by force all the way to the great plains, where the Scourge now battles large numbers of larger predatory cats for dominance.
The Houndslayer is also important because his invasion drew forces away from Ibaisha whose cats were able to defect and unify against the Scourge. Ibaisha is now one of the great battlegrounds of cat-kind, as the woodland traditionalists there have made peace with urban city cats to form a united front against the invaders.

"Hunt Or Be Hunted"

Founding Date

1900

Type

Military, Other

Alternative Names

The Scourge Clans, the Clan-breakers

Location

Ekraht