The Felana are a race of catlike people who live in the northern reaches of Samara and the very southern edges of Aleron and Melanos, primarily in the areas where moisture from the ocean brings to life a tangle of vibrant jungle.

The bodies of the Felana are built, for the most part, like that of a particularly compact, lithe, fit human. Their legs, however, resemble the hind legs of a cat, muscled heavily through the thighs, jointed once at the knee and then again in a hock or the heel of an elongated foot, then continuing down at an angle to a foot more like a large cat's paw, complete with retractile claws.
Their forearms are those of a human, except that their fingernails are a little thicker than those of a human, and are retractile like the claws of their feet. Their faces tend to look more human than feline, but the bone structure tends slightly more towards sloping foreheads and high cheekbones, and their noses tend to be somewhat flattened and catlike. Their eyes are green, green-gold, amber, or (very rarely) blue, and have the slit pupils that the eyes of cats have. Rather than human ears, the Felana have the triangular, up-standing ears of cats. Their bodies are covered by a short, fine coat of fur, colored in the coloration of some big cat--orange-and-black striped like a tiger or striped white-and-black like a snow tiger; tawny gold like a lion or cougar; darker tawny with the black spots of a leopard or the smaller spots of a panther or ocelot, or inky black like a black panther. Their hair has this coloration as well; males and females alike usually wear their hair short, though some of both genders grow theirs into leonine manes or smoother, sleeker falls. And, of course, they have the sinuous, flexible tails of cats, sometimes with a lion-like tuft of fur at the end.
The Felana are hunters and tend to prefer to wear soft, supple leathers, though they also wear lighter woven fabrics, usually dyed rich, deep colors. Their jewelry tends to involve feathers and beads of clay and glass and wood, though they wear more conventional jewelry as well. Most Felana are warriors and are usually seen with some manner of weapon on their person.

The Felana build sprawling, somewhat chaotic towns of stone, usually far removed from the communities and travel routes of others. In this, they are much like the Llowra, but unlike the Llowra, the Felana are more independent of one another as well, and their 'towns' generally cover quite a bit of ground, with each dwelling separated from the others by a fair amount of land. Shops and public buildings are closer together and generally at the heart of the town, and this is where almost all interaction between the Felana occurs.
The Felana are ruled, town to town, by one dominant male or female. As with the Llowra, the dominant of the community can be challenged for his or her position and, if defeated, gives over control immediately. Unlike the Llowra, however, the Felana are as apt to use trickery and wit to defeat each other as they are to use simply combat skill.
Dominance battles are frequent among the Felana; if one is dominant to another, they are higher in social rank and entitled to a certain amount of prestige. Wealth does not mean too much to the Felana, although they like to hoard it for their own comfort.
The Felana are almost exclusively carnivorous, and are not noted for being too picky about how their meal was prepared--or if it was prepared. They are, in general, hunters, and though they have their share of artisans and a small number of scholars and historians, most of them are trained in some measure of combat. They are unable to learn magic, though all of them have some instinctive ability to make themselves hard to see and to capture someone with their eyes and a hypnotic tone of voice. Their eyesight and hearing are very keen, and their senses of smell are superior to those of humans.
The Felana care little for other races and nations, and not many non-Felana travel to their towns, though they bring leathers and furs and art objects to human cities for trade fairly often and there are always some Felana who choose to travel to other lands and see the world.

Copyright © 1999 Abigail Laughlin and the members of the Circle of Stone.