Lyrror

Lyrror (LIE-roar, roll or flip the first R) are the fur-bearing, quadrupedal race native to the world of Trycanta, which they share with the winged, scaled mazor. Note that I did not say they share nicely. A cat-like race which prefers grassland and a draconic people who like forests should be able to co-exist on an entire planet, right?

Wrong. For reasons which probably boil down to something along the lines of a badly timed yo-mamma joke, lyrror and mazor have been trying to exterminate each other almost as long as either race has existed. The war ended (mostly) with the arrival of humanity on Trycanta, but that is another story and shall be told another time.

Lyrror generally resemble house cats, but like mazor, are approximately the same size as human beings. Males, or lyrrer, tend to be larger and have solid-colored fur, which can be white, black, or almost any warm color in between. Females, or lyrrir, are more delicately built and have patterned fur, striped, spotted, or variegated.

The combination of fur and a four-legged gait, meaning that lyrror literally walk on their hands (the fifth digit on their front paws is indeed opposable), de-emphasize the need for clothing in lyrro society, though jewelry is popular. In many places, lyrror wear particular styles or colors of ear-studs to signify their marital status.

As mentioned above, most lyrror prefer to make their homes among rolling hills or "on" plains--the quotation marks are necessary because lyrro cities, by long tradition, are located underground. The lyrro gift of Shifting, moving objects without touching them, helps greatly when digging out new homes or public areas.

The areas above lyrror cities are generally devoted to both herding and farming. Lyrror did evolve from obligate carnivores and can still survive by eating only meat, but such a diet tends to foster quickness of temper in the average lyrro, while a leavening of plant-based foods helps to encourage calm and thoughtfulness.

Lyrro society operates generally on the principle of laissez-faire. Once individuals reach the Age of Thought, which can be determined by a number of birthdays or a series of tests, they are officially considered adult, and accepted practice for such is to bid their parents a loving farewell and establish their own homes in another city.

These young lyrror, newly freed from parental oversight, will often embark on trial relationships, sealed by a ritual similar to a human handfasting. While they retain separate living quarters, the relationship is temporary and can be ended without fault by either; only when the pair combine homes should the wedding party be planned.

Bearing or siring children within one of these temporary relationships, though not the social sin it once was, is still frowned upon, if only because the custodial parent in lyrro society is the same as the parent from whom each child inherits, and the issue of inheritance in lyrro society is, to human eyes, an unusual one.

Family names and tribal allegiances among lyrror (each lyrro city was once the homeplace of a particular tribe, with a distinctive color to the males'  fur and pattern to the females', but intermarriage has all but erased this) travel in alternation. Fathers bequeath their names to their daughters, and mothers to their sons.

Many humans consider lyrror the more comprehensible and approachable of the two Trycantan races. This could stem from their vocal speech (the words the races use for one another come from the lyrro language of Linmyra), their mammalian appearance, or the fact that the senses of humor of the two races coincide more often than not.

Lyrror, for their part, tend to welcome human guests to their cities, so long as the humans are willing to deal with low ceilings, dim lighting, and creatures which appear predatory and find it funny to sneak up behind unsuspecting visitors. Humans, after all, are the original purveyors of a wondrous variety of substances called cheese.