Wyldcat

Wyldcats are sapient felinoids native to Gapachon. They have very thin and light but very strong bones and highly efficient muscles, have almost no body fat (though some are very fluffy and appear to be fatter) and possess three pairs of legs, the hindmost being the longest. They stand roughly 8 feet tall when standing bipedal. Their tentacles are significantly shorter and thinner than their displacer beast ancestors and are far less effective as weapons (their jaws have also become less effective in this manner). They also lack the displacement effect, possessing instead a minor version that leaves a distinct but very brief afterimage as they move, which becomes very apparent when they move quickly. They come in a multitude of colours but most are blueish to jet black.

Wyldcats co-evolved several million years ago (fossil records are regarded as unequivocal) with several species of symbiotic plants that grew on their bodies and augmented their physical attributes at the cost of codependency. Part of this co-evolution led to horn-like growths known as osspoks that allowed the plants to attach both more securely and in such a way as to enable them to turn freely, the osspoks re-growing constantly to counteract wear caused by this movement. These turning plants constituted wheels and in this way early wyldcats evolved to be (literally) natural rollerskaters, navigating the rocky terrain of their homes at dangerous speeds (the size of their litters increasing as their lives became more high-risk). Over time, these wyldcats were superseded by the more intelligent wyldcats as they became increasingly proficient at developing tools and, ultimately, learned to be self-sufficient and began to move away from their dependency on the "wheel-plants" (a name that is largely regarded as a misnomer since it is applied to a number of plants that are genetically related to the actual plants that functioned as wheels but did not themselves have that function) by replacing them with carved wheels of various materials including but not limited to bone, wood, stone and a species of mushroom that crystallized upon death. This enabled them to move beyond the natural habitat of the plants, to adapt better to the changing conditions of the planet (the weather conditions being highly unstable with just one energy ring between the two halves of Gapachon) and to invent more complicated prosthetics.

The modern wyldcat, like their ancestors, is unable to function without some kind of prosthetics to support its body and augment their locomotion, which is otherwise slow and unstable. Nevertheless, they are the dominant species on Gapachon, with roughly one wyldcat for every twenty other sapient (living/material) creatures. They are in no small part responsible for the culture of cybernetically-enhanced sports across the world and the global urbanisation.

Osspoks are located on the feet of wyldcats (two per foot on the front four legs and four on the hindmost paws), on either side of their upper and lower legs, chests and hips and on either side of their head. Some wyldcats possess different combinations of osspoks. Osspoks continuously grow, shedding once a (Gapachonian) year (revealing smaller, partially grown osspoks covered in velvet within). For this reason, they must be carefully maintained to remain at their optimum size. Osspoks that are not regularly filed or undergoing wear from usage retain a soft, velvety layer. Wyldcats that display this were historically ridiculed, but in modern times are considered pretty sexy. The osspoks on their inner legs are pointed (though not sharp) and the rest are shaped more like belaying pins.

Ain't nothin' pisses off a wyldcat more'n wilderness

It is commonly said that "ain't nothin' pisses off a wyldcat more'n wilderness", in reference to both the fact that plants become tangled up in their spokes and the supposed shared emnity between the wyldcats and the plants that evolved from their once vital wheel-plants, which now bear a spiritual grudge for the lack of gratitude shown by the wyldcats. In fact, this so-called ancestral feud is almost entirely one-sided. Though many wyldcats have been extremely imprudent in regard to the urbanisation of the planet and disinterest in the plants of their forebears, this was almost entirely a result of their lack of caution rather from any ill feelings and for the most part they had long since forgotten the plants role in their history until long after they had caused catastrophic damage to the surface of their world (despite multiple attempts by druids to raise awareness of the consequences of their behaviour). Only when knowledge became readily transmittable between the people of Gapachon via a network of magical couriers did the gravity of their temerity truly hit home. Many wyldcats actually responded by trying to undo some of the damage they had done. Some became druids, adopting the ways of the ancient wyldcat, but for the most part there just arose a political divide between the wyldcats that wanted to try and prevent more harm being dealt to the plantlife of the planet and those that wanted to continue to pave everything.

Ultimately, the latter group defined the fate of the world. However, wyldcats are born into the burden of awareness for their crimes and rather than hating plants (in particular wheel-plants) almost all wyldcats worship a nature goddess (typically Lavendros) and/or local nature spirits and usually at least one wall in their home (assuming they have a stationary home) is devoted to a nature shrine in the form of a sheet of earth upon which a druid has performed a ritual encouraging wild plants to grow there. Notably, many wyldcats have been revealed for crimes against nature as a result of this, as the ritual fails dramatically (frequently destroying the wall in a pile of noxious dust) when it is attempted on the home of a wyldcat "hated by the wilderness". Although the inconvenience of travelling across a field of grass might cause frustration and thus lead to its usage by a non-wyldcat that witnesses this, the phrase is regarded as decidedly insulting to a wyldcat.