Tabaxi

We had a Tabaxi come through once, a few winters back. She kept the taproom packed each night with her stories and spent most days napping in a chair in front of the fireplace. We thought she was lazy, but when Linene came around looking for a missing broach, she was out the door before I could blink an eye. -Toblen Stonehill, innkeeper

Hailing from strange and distant lands, wandering tabaxi are catlike humanoids driven by curiosity to collect interesting artifacts, gather tales and stories, and lay eyes on all the world's wonders. Ultimate travelers, the inquisitive tabaxi rarely stay in one place for long. Their innate nature pushes them to leave no secrets uncovered, no treasures or legends lost.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

Tabaxi have the physical appearance of humanoid cats, their bodies are slender and covered in spotted or striped fur. Like most felines, Tabaxi had long tails and retractable claws. Tabaxi fur color usually ranged from light yellow to brownish red, but greys, blacks and whites are not uncommon. The fur colour and broadness of limbs can usually denote the origins of the Tabaxi's clan. Tabaxi eyes are slit-pupilled and usually green or yellow.

Tabaxi are competent swimmers and climbers as well as speedy runners. They have a good sense of balance and an extremely acute sense of smell.

Ecology and Habitats

Tabaxi are most at home in the warmer parts of the world. They especially enjoy temperate forests or jungles, where their natural agility can be fully utilised.

Tabaxi settlements are often designed to be temporary, following a planned migration cycle as the seasons rotate, or a nomadic route through the world. Tabaxis's that desire a more permanent place to call home will typically try to integrate within an existing settlement or society, preferably one with a warm climate, and ample opportunities to make a living.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Each tabaxi has a single name, determined by clan and based on a complex formula that involves astrology, prophecy, clan history, and other esoteric factors. Tabaxi names can apply to both males and females, and most use nicknames derived from or inspired by their full names. Clan names are usually based on a geographical feature located in or near the clan's homelands.

The following list of sample tabaxi names includes nicknames in parenthesis.

Cloud on the Mountaintop (Cloud)
Five Timber (Timber)
Jade Shoe (Jade)
Left-Handed Hummingbird (Bird)
Seven Thundercloud (Thunder)
Skirt of Snakes (Snake)
Smoking Mirror (Smoke)

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Tabaxi treasure knowledge rather than material things. A chest filled with gold coins might be useful to buy food or a coil of rope, but it's not intrinsically interesting.

In the tabaxi's eyes, gathering wealth is like packing rations for a long trip. It's important to survive in the world, but not worth fussing over. Instead, tabaxi value knowledge and new experiences. Their ears perk up in a busy tavern, and they tease out stories with offers of food, drink, and coin.

Tabaxi might walk away with empty purses, but they mull over the stories and rumors they collected like a miser counting coins. Although material wealth holds little attraction for the tabaxi, they have an insatiable desire to find and inspect ancient relics, magical items, and other rare objects. Aside from the power such items might confer, a tabaxi takes great joy in unraveling the stories behind their creation and the history of their use.

Wandering tabaxi are mercurial creatures, trading one obsession or passion for the next as the whim strikes. A tabaxi's desire burns bright, but once met it disappears to be replaced with a new obsession. Objects remain intriguing only as long as they still hold secrets. A tabaxi rogue could happily spend months plotting to steal a strange gem from a noble, only to trade it for passage on a ship or a week's lodging after stealing it. The tabaxi might take extensive notes or memorize every facet of the gem before passing it on, but the gem holds no more allure once its secrets and nature have been laid bare.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Curiosity drives most of the tabaxi found outside their homeland, but not all of them become adventurers. Tabaxi who seek a safer path to satisfy their obsessions become wandering tinkers and minstrels. These tabaxi work in small troupes, usually consisting of an elder, more experienced tabaxi who guides up to four young ones learning their way in the world. They travel in small, colorful wagons, moving from settlement to settlement. When they arrive, they set up a small stage in a public square where they sing, play instruments, tell stories, and offer exotic goods in trade for items that spark their interest.

These wanderers keep to civilized realms, preferring to bargain instead of pursuing more dangerous methods of sating their curiosity. However, they aren't above a little discreet theft to get their claws on a particularly interesting item when an owner refuses to sell or trade it.

Tabaxi reluctantly accept gold, but they much prefer interesting objects or pieces of lore as payment.