Quote:Well, okay, but keep in mind that these are intended for hentai fic, and there may be squick ahead. ^.^
That was actually the kind of thing I was looking for...
...The central concept of this setting, which hasn't got a name in my head beyond "the Three Worlds," is "what if Urotsukidoji were a romantic action-comedy?"
So: three planes of reality, loosely modeled after Urotsuki's ningenkai, jyuujinkai, and makai. But rather less nasty.
Ningenkai, the Human world, Earth as we know it. Humans are, unbeknownst to most, considered rather backward by the natives of the other two worlds as we have a species-wide inability to use magic. Only a rare few don't have this block, and even most of those will never happen to be in any kind of situation where they could learn magic exists.
Nekokai, the Cat World, in place of the Beast World. A remarkably Earth-like planet, biologically, except that the vertebrates wound up with a six-limbed body plan. A number of animals from this world have inspired human myths -- griffins, dragons, and so forth. Several large continents that are mostly open plains, savanna, veldt, et cetera. An unspoiled paradise.
Injukai, the Tentacle Beast World, subbing for the Makai. Makes no biological sense whatsoever, and the locals are just as puzzled (and downright worried) by that as any human researcher. A sexual nightmare world; life forms larger than insects are universally xenogamous, implanting eggs or larvae in other species (always without significant danger to the host), and most are psychovores as well (see description of Inju-ryu, below). Constant cloud cover, dimly lit during the day, not clear whether there's even a conventional universe out there. Natural weak points in the dimensional fabric occasionally draw humans and nekomata across; the Nekokai is now heavily warded against these.
Here's what I have so far on the Nekomata...
A note on names: Technically, the Neko-kai has names in its native languages. However, since those names all mean "Earth" and since Nekomata speech is utterly unpronouncable by mere humans, we must make allowances and simply use human designations. Japanese generally call the planet Neko-kai or Nekosei; English usage is less regular but "Heaviside" has been gaining ground due to the works of Eliot and Lloyd Weber. In similar vein, the Nekomata call themselves "humans" in their tongue, and are sometimes referred to as Jellicles (which leaves the Inju-ryu as Pollicles...). The word "Nekomata" refers to a Japanese folktale having its roots in contact with the catpeople--the legend has it that any animal that lives longer than normal for its kind develops intelligence and magical powers; a fox (kitsune) of this type can be discovered by its multiple tails, and a cat will similarly develop a fork in its tail.
Each of the Three Worlds is weird in its own way. Actually the Ningen-kai (Earth) and the Neko-kai are weird in exactly the same way, as their weirdness lies in their similarity to one another.
Parallel Earths are nothing new. With a lot of effort, really skilled wizards can even reach beyond the Three and visit more distant realities--this isn't common at all, but it happens--and a lot of those are a lot like the old familiar Human World. Same continents, same life-forms, more or less the same history. You also find worlds that have different geography and history but which are still inhabited by humans and Earthly life.
Earth and the Neko-kai have completely different continental layouts and different native species, so you'd think there wouldn't be anything particularly strange about their relationship. But there is.
Life on the two worlds is ridiculously parallel, you see, without any actual duplication. No single species of one world exists on the other (save through migration), but--with one broad exception--every species on the Neko-kai could easily fit into a family or genus of Earthly life, and vice-versa. It's as if Neko-kai's evolutionary tree is comprised of nothing but branches of ours that somehow wound up on another world but not this one. It's in many ways a more maddeningly peculiar situation than the standard duplication of species from world to world.
The broad exception above lies in vertebrate life. Although in most senses critters with internal skeletons still follow the rule above--there are fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, all of which could almost have been native to Earth--there is the one big difference common to every one of them.
Where Earthly vertebrates have four limbs and an optional tail, those of Neko-kai have six limbs. Six fins, six legs, four legs and two wings, whatever. The "extra" limbs are usually paired up with "normal" forelimbs, via a complex shoulderblade arrangement, but individual species may have evolved different placements. A lot of Neko-kai species resemble (and probably inspired, once upon a time) certain mythological animals of Earth--griffons, dragons (with some help from the Inju-ryu, who claim that name as their own), Sleipnir, etc. Another relatively minor difference: somewhere around the emergence of reptilian life, the vertebrate tail developed a fork--generally with two to four tips, it varies. Many species use this simply as part of warning or mating communication, but in some the tailforks have headed in a more manipulative direction.
The three great continents of the Neko-kai consist in large part of savanna dotted with stands of climax forest; this is a bit geophysically improbable, but at this point who's keeping track? Early Nekomata appear to have evolved on the fringes of the forest, using the trees as shelter from larger and more dangerous land-dwellers, which resulted in a situation almost like that of early humans...
Gender roles among the catfolk began to diverge early on. The males, already somewhat larger and more powerfully built than the females, tended to stay on the forest floor and the fringes of the plains and attempt to drive off attackers, while the females would head into the trees carrying infants. Over time this resulted in marked physical differences between them; modern Nekomata are sexually dimorphic to an extraordinary degree, and this has affected the sexes' relative intelligence.
To put it bluntly: Female Nekomata are bipedal and sentient. Male Nekomata are neither.
Females (who long ago ditched the flee-into-the-trees routine as intelligence arose, but kept their adaptations) are semihumanoid, with two legs and four arms plus a moderately dextrous three-fingered "tailhand." The tail, while as slender as that of an Earthly cat, is deceptively strong and prehensile--it can carry nearly as much weight as an arm. Their faces are quite nearly human, more anime-style than furry, although they are in fact furred all over (save for the areolae and genitals); eyes have cat-slitted pupils but are otherwise humanlike; they have hair rather than fur on the head; the soles of the feet and palms of the hands have "pads" as do Earth felines; they have retractable (and rather tough and sharp) claws on all six limbs. Fur may be of any color or pattern found in Earth's felines, and head-hair is frequently a different color (usually, though not always, solid and unpatterned color); they've been sentient long enough that whatever camouflage their coats might have once possessed no longer matters.
Here's a little-known fact: The number of nipples to be found in a mammalian species tends to be around twice that species' typical litter size. The "standard" Nekomata litter size is two. The logic is inevitable: female Nekomata have four breasts, two generally set slightly higher on the chest than in humans, two just below them. Cup size tends to be slightly smaller than human average but there are exceptions. With four arms, a female is quite capable of simultaneously nursing four cubs or infants while using the tailhand as a manipulator.
Female Nekomata are as intelligent as humans...if not more so. They are definitely more dextrous. They have no problems coordinating all five manipulatory limbs (their musical instruments are a wonder to behold, let alone hear). Nekomata who use "borrowed" human technology frequently adapt it to suit their physique; computer programmers have developed a system of four custom quarter-keyboards arrayed around the work area, with a small table behind the chair on which the tailhand can make use of a wireless mouse.
Male Nekomata are not catboys or even catmen... they're cats. Very large cats, six-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half feet high at the shoulder, with six legs... but cats. In build, something like a Bengal tiger with a bit of sabertooth mixed in. The only manipulative member is a rather clumsy tailhand without much reach. Males are not tool users, nor do they have the brains to be so; they're only about as smart as reasonably bright dogs. They can be taught a very limited subset of females' language, allowing them to communicate around the same level as a signing or symbol-touching chimpanzee. They're long-distance runners, and frequently serve as steeds for their mates.
Females are very much in charge of Nekomata society; partly because they're the ones with the brains, partly because they have conscious control over their own fertility--ovulation requires a deliberate mental effort. Because of this, because of their reproductive patterns, and because magic has completely wiped out disease among them, Nekomata sexual mores are very different from our own. (Most females do choose to bear children at least once.)
Children are nearly always born in litters of a single gender. One or two male cubs, two to four female infants, are the overriding patterns here. The social and biological bonds among littermates are incredibly intense; the empathic Inju-ryu confirm that the bond between human identical twins is weak by comparison. Nekomata, no matter what their personalities, simply cannot stand the thought of permanent separation from their siblings; the relationship lasts for life. Said relationship is very physical; incestuous sexual behavior is not only tolerated but expected among littermates. (Yes, this includes males. No, I'm never actually going to write about that. Anyone else wants to, fine, but be advised that I'll skip over the naughty bits. ^.^; )
Nekomata social structure is profoundly influenced by one factor not found in humans (at least not to the same extent): male territoriality. While they have no real say in whom with they may or may not mate, the males remain extremely aggressive toward any male not their own littermates. Adult males do not like being near one another, will engage in violent struggles for dominance if forced to remain in one another's vicinity, and will go into a berserk killing rage if they see, hear, or scent an unrelated male mating with a female--even if neither male nor female were previously known to them. Although modern magic can suppress this instinct to a certain extent, the pattern that resulted from it remains: Nekomata live in widely-scattered prides, usually seminomadic, and despite their level of sophistication have only a few permanent settlements, most of them located around the major Worldgates to Earth. (As a side note: male humans don't trigger the territorial instinct at all; they're the wrong scent and the wrong shape, and male Nekomata don't view them as any kind of threat even if they're having wild sex with the males' mates right in front of them. This can be a bit unnerving for the men in question. Inju don't exactly trigger said instinct either, but the males tend not to like their scent on general principle. Nekomata males don't particularly view human females as objects of affection/lust, but they can be taught to do so, and that still won't render human males threats in their eyes.)
Female Nekomata approaching adulthood typically leave their pride and set out to find mates; males are driven out when their territorial urges grow strong enough to interfere with their fathers'. The Journey is an important part of Nekomata culture. Females, particularly the rare singleton females (by birth or accident), may take some time off to visit Earth in disguise and learn of their neighbours' ways; many even attend human schools to gain an education that is in some ways superior to any available at home. A considerable amount of sexual experimentation tends to go on here, as Nekomata are fascinated by the idea of males who can actually think.
Finding a compatible mate or littermate-group can take some time; while nonsentient, males still have distinctive personalities and may not mix well with all females. A new pride will always have just one male or brother-bond, but depending on the number (one or two males, very rarely three) and their compatibility with various females, as many as three sister-bonds may adopt the brother-bond as their semipermanent mates. (Breakups happen, but with less fanfare and emotional distress than is typical among humans.) Thus a typical pride includes one or two males and two to nine females; the maximum size on record is three males and twelve females.
Very rarely indeed--less than one in five thousand births--a litter will be mixed-gender. These are invariably one male and one female. Mix-bonds are considered a great tragedy, as the ties that bind them are every bit as great as those among sister- or brother-bonds, but the male of the pair will still not tolerate the presence of unrelated males; this effectively eliminates the female's chance of ever bearing children, as the one and only sexual taboo in Nekomata culture is that against incestuous reproduction. (Not against incestuous sex, mind you.) A mix-bond may form the focus of a pride, but the male's sister will remain somewhat apart from the life of the others; more commonly, brother and sister remain alone for life. It has become common in recent years for mix-bonds to emigrate permanently to Earth, the sister using magic to disguise her brother-mate as an ordinary housecat. More rarely, a mix-bond may associate with Inju-ryu; bearing a Dragon Lord's spawn is not exactly the same thing as having true Nekomata children, but it can fill a need, and there is always the possibility of a close enough relationship developing that a true Dragonchild might be born.
(From my perspective after the fact, the females owe a lot to Alan Burt Akers' Scorpio/Antares/Kregen series; that world has humanoid cat-people (Fristles) with the normal array of limbs and a nonforked tail, and near-humans with four arms and a tailhand. And a host of others. The males are basically sha'um (Randall Garrett's Gandalara) with two extra legs and much less brain.)
More later...
--Sam
"If that's art, then art is dirty and weird!"