【 Lore 】

Overview

The colonies are four separate groups who identify together as one larger collective. Borders are unstrict and many cats wander daily into different territories either to help out with jobs or just to be there(for comparison they’re like different little towns within a county). Each group has a main camp, but the importance of this area varies depending on the colony. In every colony except O’Grove, most cats have a den they made themselves a little farther away. Some cats know where others’ dens are; others make an effort to be more secretive. Lots of cats are nomadic additionally–many nomadic cats sleep in tunnel dugouts and may be tunnelers.

City cats are frequent visitors to the colonies and vice versa. They enjoy working together and participating in one anothers’ events. City cats may come and decide to join one of the colonies and colony cats may decide to go and become city cats–living with shufflers or not. Colony cats tend to enjoy a good bowl of kibble or wet food. A free meal.

General Culture

A lot of colony cats can understand human speech–though they obviously can’t speak it. This is due to the fact that there’s a “city”(more a large town than anything) very close to the canyons.

The colonies use a system of counting years in "turns". They see the seasons as taking turns throughout the year and use the term "turn" or sometimes the full "return" in place of the word "year" as it does not exist in their culture. The concept of using the term "turn" comes from the idea that the seasons are returning each year.

The colonies value entertainment in their society and often organize into groups that perform plays or music. They also have ceremonies at times, but these are fairly rare as usually it's the joining of two mates who are becoming chirps or something else very important.

When cats are born, they’re typically labeled with a dual set of pronouns. AFAB cats use She/They and AMAB cats use He/They pronouns until the individual decides they would rather use a different set(if they do in fact decide this). It’s unknown where this plan came from, but it has the clear intention to provide a choice for young cats in deciding which pronouns they’d like to use and dispelling rigidity. Because of this system, They/Them pronouns are typically most prevalent in the colonies, being used by most cats.

The Outlands

In addition to the four colonies, there is the area of the canyons surrounding the territories of the colonies. These areas tend to be far less populated in terms of plants and animals, and are rumored to be where ghosts live.

So called “ghosts of the outlands” are typically just ex-colonists who’ve decided they no longer wish to be in one of the colonies. They have instead chosen to live out on their own. These cats are often called “ghosts” because they’re hard to spot and disappear as soon as they’re noticed; additionally, they may be called this as it’s unclear if the cats who go out to live in the outlands are alive anymore or not–sometimes they’re simply presumed dead, pushing forth the ghost label.

Ghost stories from journeys into the outlands are a commonality amongst colonists. Parents in Valleyford and Hillmoore especially push these stories to keep their kits from wandering into the bordering Outlands.

Despite the spreading ghost stories, colonists have been exploring farther out into the Outlands in recent turns. These expeditions were made to see what resources these areas have to offer and also to work on the large project of trying to make a second exit to the South.