It envisions a world in the near future where the genus felis evolves at a tremendous rate for several generations, rapidly becoming the alpha species on the planet. Mankind tries to kill them all, of course, cause thats what we do when this sort of thing happens.
After the war (we lose, soundly) humanity fades to the background for generations, and the Khatnu* empire rises up. The story so far follows Brothis, a empresses son who breaks the tradition of execution after siring a litter, and escapes into the wilds to live.
Brothis is damned enormous, he's over seven feet tall and built like a wall, but his best friend Thurka is a wildkin, a descent of one of the rare big cats to survive the evolution. Wildkin are generally larger and more powerful than ordinary cats. Thurka stands at about 3 meters (or almost 4 tails, depending on your standard of measure).
Lots of fun to write, it has some underlying social themes that are important to me, but aren't really available in the modern westerner's dialog.
* I've spent more time on the Khatnu language, either in direct translation for dialog, or for the RIDICULOUS intention of writing their holy book in its entirety (The Path of Four Feet)
Khatnu is not quite as cheesy as it sounds for a race of giant cats: it borrows heavily from human languages when its own extremely rudamentary limits are met.
Khat is Khatnu for Cat borrowed from English obviously.
Nu, one of their own words, means essentially "the ultimate source", it is their word for God, the number 1, and womb.
Khatnu then, is essentially "Cats from before" (they believe that that the period of time that they spent in their more primative form was a punishment for a crime against Nu that none of them can remember, and that they were hominids before that time as well).
Khatnu is also the name of their language, which was simply "Khat" until they discovered other cat populations with unique languages, then it became Khatnu... or Khat Prime...
Brothis is from "Bro hopht this (Old Age Arrives or something similar)", royal Toms are named by their fathers, before their ritualized sacrifice. Brothis' father was something of a thorn in the side of the establishment, and took the opportunity to give the boy a name that would continue to annoy to empress long after his death.
Thurka is from "ThkRkan'ut (Hunter)" which in turn comes from "Thekn R'kan Ut (Think Claws One)" or "One who thinks with claws"... Thekn comes from olde english, R'kan and Ut are native Khat words... Much like japanese, but more formalized, syllables that repeat or can be slurred, usually are.
Thurka is named after one of the big cats that inspired the book, a ridiculously enormous tiger named Hunter that I met (and fed... with kitchen tongs... through a fence) several times at a big cat park in Arizona.
Big cats make a chuffing sort of noise, they say "phbbbt" to each other when they pass each other... sort of a "hows it goin, I'm not here for trouble" statement.
I was sitting by Hunter's enclosure one day... just... enjoying the quiet park and the nature of it all... and Hunter, who was getting familiar with me at that point as I had been there a while, said hello to me... It was a little shocking and awesome...
The story almost imediately started to come together in my head. Phbbt was the first word of Khatnu that I wrote down.
Seriously, though, why the hell aren't you working on this? Time you got the ball rolling again. It'll be a heavy bastard to begin with, but once you overcome the inertia you'll be glad you did (sez the man whose ball has ground to a halt in the past few days).
It envisions a world in the near future where the genus felis evolves at a tremendous rate for several generations, rapidly becoming the alpha species on the planet. Mankind tries to kill them all, of course, cause thats what we do when this sort of thing happens.
After the war (we lose, soundly) humanity fades to the background for generations, and the Khatnu* empire rises up. The story so far follows Brothis, a empresses son who breaks the tradition of execution after siring a litter, and escapes into the wilds to live.
Brothis is damned enormous, he's over seven feet tall and built like a wall, but his best friend Thurka is a wildkin, a descent of one of the rare big cats to survive the evolution. Wildkin are generally larger and more powerful than ordinary cats. Thurka stands at about 3 meters (or almost 4 tails, depending on your standard of measure).
Lots of fun to write, it has some underlying social themes that are important to me, but aren't really available in the modern westerner's dialog.
* I've spent more time on the Khatnu language, either in direct translation for dialog, or for the RIDICULOUS intention of writing their holy book in its entirety (The Path of Four Feet)
Khatnu is not quite as cheesy as it sounds for a race of giant cats: it borrows heavily from human languages when its own extremely rudamentary limits are met.
Khat is Khatnu for Cat borrowed from English obviously.
Nu, one of their own words, means essentially "the ultimate source", it is their word for God, the number 1, and womb.
Khatnu then, is essentially "Cats from before" (they believe that that the period of time that they spent in their more primative form was a punishment for a crime against Nu that none of them can remember, and that they were hominids before that time as well).
Khatnu is also the name of their language, which was simply "Khat" until they discovered other cat populations with unique languages, then it became Khatnu... or Khat Prime...
Brothis is from "Bro hopht this (Old Age Arrives or something similar)", royal Toms are named by their fathers, before their ritualized sacrifice. Brothis' father was something of a thorn in the side of the establishment, and took the opportunity to give the boy a name that would continue to annoy to empress long after his death.
Thurka is from "ThkRkan'ut (Hunter)" which in turn comes from "Thekn R'kan Ut (Think Claws One)" or "One who thinks with claws"... Thekn comes from olde english, R'kan and Ut are native Khat words... Much like japanese, but more formalized, syllables that repeat or can be slurred, usually are.
Thurka is named after one of the big cats that inspired the book, a ridiculously enormous tiger named Hunter that I met (and fed... with kitchen tongs... through a fence) several times at a big cat park in Arizona.
Big cats make a chuffing sort of noise, they say "phbbbt" to each other when they pass each other... sort of a "hows it goin, I'm not here for trouble" statement.
I was sitting by Hunter's enclosure one day... just... enjoying the quiet park and the nature of it all... and Hunter, who was getting familiar with me at that point as I had been there a while, said hello to me... It was a little shocking and awesome...
The story almost imediately started to come together in my head. Phbbt was the first word of Khatnu that I wrote down.
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Seriously, though, why the hell aren't you working on this? Time you got the ball rolling again. It'll be a heavy bastard to begin with, but once you overcome the inertia you'll be glad you did (sez the man whose ball has ground to a halt in the past few days).
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But I'm swinging back that way after... years... so that is good.
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