Revised Neko Entry

Since Inus got a shiny and detailed new entry courtesy of Amaroq, it's time for their cousin, the neko, to get some love, too.  Their 9-line long entry is just starving for detail, after all.  I will be taking cues from Amaroq's entry, as well as many, many other references, mostly wikipedia, so if you notice anything, that may be why.

Physical Description

Nekos are a humanoid species possessing feline traits, such as cat ears and a sleek, slender tail.  In general, nekos are lithe and slender, and stand taller than humans in stature, although some species are taller and brawnier than others.  Their feline features include large, triangular cat ears on the top of their head, and a long furry tail extending from their spine, just above their buttocks, and slit pupils.  Depending on the species, however, the ears and pupils may be rounder, and the tail shorter.  Nekos possess long canine teeth, and their fingers and toes end in small, sharp, claw-like nails.  These claws are typically not strong enough to be used as weapons, though some members, either by quirk of birth or from years of honing, may use them to deadly effects.  Other features may include a coat of soft fine fur on some parts or on their entire body, stripes, or whiskers.  None of these last traits are universal, and both hair and eye color vary greatly.

Biological Traits

While clearly humanoid, their skeletal structure differ quite a bit from humans.  They are not only capable of walking and running on all fours just as efficiently as they can on two legs, but are also incredibly fast and nimble when doing so, able to leap great distances in a single bound and climb up trees in the blink of an eye.  Furthermore, their spinal cord is unusually flexible compared to that of other humanoids, allowing them to arch their back much more than humans with no ill effects.  While nekos are more agile and sometimes stronger than humans, they however have rather poor endurance.  Unlike inus, a neko's blood circulatory system is virtually identical to a human's, and pushing themselves to their limits for extended periods drain their stamina extremely quickly.  As such, nekos learn to conserve their energy and to only use the most of their abilities in short bursts if possible.  Some nekos take short naps after particularly strenuous activities to restore their strength.  The term "to take a neko nap" has started to appear in cities like Negav to refer to either resting by sleeping for a very short while or to sleep on the job.  Just like cats, nekos possess an incredible sense of balance, allowing them to walk or even sprint along a half-inch rope like it was a wide stone bridge.  Moreover, nekos are known to reflexively twist their body during a fall to right itself and land on its feet, provided it has enough time to do so.

Nekos have excellent night vision and can see at only one-sixth the level of light required for human vision.  In levels of low light, a neko's pupil expand to cover most of the exposed surface of the eye, increasing the amount of light in their retina.  While this improves their ability to see in darkness, they have lower visual acuity on average than humans when light is abundant, as their pupil close very narrowly in bright light, effectively reducing the amount of light in their retina.  Like inus, it rarely matters in everyday life and nekos can make for good marksmen with dedicated training.  Nekos have acute hearing and it is among the best of any humanoids.  While it is similar to humans on the lower end of the scale, they can hear frequencies up to 64.000 Hz.  Their extremely sensitive hearing is their most important sense when hunting, their large ears both amplifying sounds and helping them sense the direction a noise is coming.  Their ears can independently point backwards and forwards and even sideways to pinpoint the source of the sound, and once it has located it, the ears swivel in that direction.  Nekos have a stronger sense of smell than humans, and while not to the level of inus, it is nonetheless powerful enough to pick up even faint scents of spoiled or hated food.

Unlike humans, nekos are carnivores with their diet consisting primarily of meat.  They can consume fruits and vegetables, they do so generally only in small amounts to supplement their diet, as their digestive system isn't adapted to process large amounts of plant material.  Onions and garlics, are particularly hated as they are very noxious to their health.  They also have an aversion to theobromine, commonly found in chocolate products, but since this isn't as commonly known, nekos tend not to view having a chocolate product thrown at them as insulting as inus do.  Despite this, nekos are generally very fond of plants that contain high amounts nepetalactone such as catnip, and some tribes even cultivate such plants for use in certain... rituals.

Social Behavior

Nekos are highly sociable and are able to live in a wide range of environments.  They are known to use several vocalizations to indicate how they feel, such as purring, growling and snarling, hissing, and several different forms of meowing.  Similar to inus, nekos often subconsciously indicate their mood through body language, particularly using the position of their tail and ears.  For example, a raised tail while greeting denotes friendliness, flattened ears indicates hostility, and raised fur on the tail means anger or stress.   Humans sometimes believe that inus and nekos are natural enemies, which confuse both species as they generally have no innate enmity toward one another.  Nekos living in human cities like Negav, however, are used to using technology for solving their problems and tend to adopt the style of clothes, livelihood, and cuisine as humans, though their diet remain primarily meat-based.

Wild nekos form tribes around a source of food, within one neko usually being dominant over the others.  How they are organized, however, differ immensely from species to species.  In general, they are about as proficient as humans when it comes to magic, but less so with technology, preferring to rely on their physical abilities and instinct instead.  Nekos prefer to hunt in very small groups to stay as stealthy as possible.  These nekos tend to look down on their civilized cousins, seeing them as much weaker from years of "taming" by humans.  Being called "domesticated", i.e. having grown soft, lazy and/or complacent, in such societies is regarded as one of the biggest insults imaginable.  In human societies, nekos are famed as some of the best scouts there is, particularly Nekomurans, earning the respect of even isolationist colonies such as the Delurans.  These claims, however, are often contested by some of the more prideful elf clans, who view them as nothing but barbaric beastfolks.

Nekos often fight against one another for a variety of reasons.  Feral males often against each other to win the heart of a female, though sometimes the opposite is true, competing for dominance over a territory, for training, or just simple competition.  Kittens are encouraged to fight with their friends and siblings to build strength, practice the skills needed for real combat and hunting, and reduce any fear associated with launching an attack on another creature.  Neko fighting is very similar to wrestling, as it involves a lot of grappling and delivering powerful claw swipes and even bites once its opponent is on the ground.  Serious damage during such fights is rare, as they last only a short duration with the loser surrendering with little more than a few scratches to the face.  Intense rivalries, on the other hand, tend to last longer and often result in much more severe wounds to both participants.

Neko reproduction is very similar to humans, with pregnancy lasting about just as long.  Contrary to popular belief, nekos do not give birth in litters; they usually have only one or maybe two babies at a time just like humans.  Mothers are notorious for being very protective of their youngs, especially when they are very newborn.  Some nekos believe that one of the most terrifying things that can happen is to invoke a mother's wrath.  Kittens are well known for being very playful and lively, rarely standing still without playing some sort of game with its friends or its parents.  During infanthood, they primarily communicate through vocalization and body language, and move around on all fours before learning how to talk and move on two legs.

An interesting behavioral trait of nekos is that they are used to swallowing tiny living preys like mice, goldfishes, canaries, and even Tinies whole and alive.  Even nekos who live among humans find it difficult to resist eating tiny preys in this fashion.  This is a source of unease and sometimes tensions with humans when the latter realize they are essentially dealing with mini-predators.  Compounding this issue, there exist rumors of rare giant nekos in the jungle who wouldn't hesitate to gobble humans whole, of whom one is confirmed to exist.



I probably went a little overboard with the similarities to cats.  Oh well.  Anyway, thoughts?  By the way, shouldn't a link to Nekomura be added to the nekos' entry?  It only makes sense to me since it's an important settlement for them.

I really agree with you on the fact that a lot of entries on the wiki could use more detail, since that's what a wiki is, and I kind of like what you've done here so far.

I do have a few criticisms, though. First of all, I question the idea of nekos being obligatory carnivores due to not being able to process plant matter well. I think, from a writing standpoint, this would be seen as an unfair limit on the kinds of lifestyles a writer could choose for their neko characters. I think in this respect, you could be a little more loose on how closely you liken them to cats. Hm. Using an out-of-universe reason to argue a change to an idea in-universe. Looks like I just became a hypocrite. I apologize for my earlier statement, Karbo.

I'm also not sure about having the mothers be so senselessly defensive concerning their newborns. I could imagine her being a little more testy about things concerning her children, but not being able to be visited by even their closest friends because she might attack them? I think that might be overreacting a little.

Nyaha wrote:

I really agree with you on the fact that a lot of entries on the wiki could use more detail, since that's what a wiki is, and I kind of like what you've done here so far.

Nyaha and Shady Knight agreeing on the same thing? ITS THE END OF THE WORLD.

Okay but seriously, I agree too, but the whole "neko carnivores" thing is something I support. Cats are carnivores, and I think their mouths are evolved as such, to eat meat. Then of course their digestive system.

You also cant make everyone an omnivore, because then you just destroy all gray areas. Conflict, especially moral conflict is very important. Also biologically cats support Shady Knight anyway, so there's that too.

Well, here's the issue.  With the entry for Inus, quirks about about the digestive system of dogs have been made official, such as stuff like chocolate being noxious to them.  If we apply a similar principle to nekos, then they are primarily carnivores, as the digestive system of cats is great at processing meat, but not plant matter.  With that said, I will lighten the similarities to cat a little bit.

I realized I'm adding more and more flavor text instead.  Ehh... if this ever becomes the revised entry for nekos, Karbo can trim this down as he sees fit.

Are Shady and I's disagreements that well known? ^^; That kind of makes me laugh.

Fair point. If the digestive quirks are implemented for inus, why not nekos, too? Well, one reason could be that they simply aren't as common knowledge for cats as they are for dogs. There's also the fact that addimg that after many people have created neko characters, likely without that knowledge, it might upset people to see that their characters suddenly go against canon and would need to be revised to stay accurate.

Also, Bael, while I agree conflict is necessary (for stories, less so for RPs), I don't think allowing writers to have the freedom to choose their nekos lifestyles will lessen that conflict or make it less valid or anything. I feel like Felarya gives writers a lot of freedom, especially in their OCs, which is why I'm so against this part of what Shady's written.

While it is not common knowledge in the same way as dogs digestive systems, it should still be easily deductible. All the same, ignorance should not be an excuse not to change an entry. The entries should also not be limited to what may or may not offend people. If they aren't willing to put in the work, then that is their problem, and not something that should be compensated for. As far as writers go, Felarya is lax enough, and one more rule may actually improve the writing. Very few readers actually care if it follows cannon closely or not and many writers follow that same mindset. Little rules like this don't fix that, but they do help, and if nothing else, it makes nekos something more than humans that some internet goer wanted to make exotic and cute while spraying their cat emoticons over their RP speech. If more freedom is so very important, then choose a race that allows for it, like humans.

Nekos being carnivores is an interesting take. I've never actually seen cats eat salad or lettuce, and they usually eat anything that does eat those things.

I guess I would support it too.

Okay, I changed some stuff here and there. The part with what fruit, vegetables and nuts they can eat is gonna be a tricky thing to balance.

Okay, I made another slight change to the diet.  They can eat a little bit of whatever fruit or vegetable they get their hands on, except onions, garlics and chocolate, to supplement their diet, but their diet remain primarily meat-based.  I figure needing to be specific on what type of plant food they can and can't eat besides those last three would be too much of a headache.  So in short, while they can eat a salad once in a while, if you see a neko who claims to be a vegetarian, or worse, a vegan, then s/he's either insane or s/he's a big fat phony.

Alright, I'm convinced. Having them be primarily carnivores does give them a little more flavour, and I can accept them being able to eat some plant-based stuff as a supplement. I'm also happy with the changes that have been made so far. ^_^ I don't have any more criticisms at the moment.

Excellent job here !
I think you managed to give a really good overview of the whole species and adding a ton of facts about them. And it's well written as well ^^
I might just tone down a little the similarity with cats but it's a solid work

Thank you, glad you liked it.