History according to Lancette
This entire section was originally written by Lancer for an earlier document describing the felin. It has been reproduced here by Kawa with slight edits for readability and such so that it may serve as a base for newer works, be they stories or canon documentation.
Before Blackshard
For the sake of Lancer not killing himself an easy life, we'll say that this all started on the year sela. On Mirhul, 1 Atlawhura 0000, some cave-kibby walked out of his hole in the ground during a thunderstorm and was struck by lightning, thus inventing fire by becoming the fire. Well done!
About 25 (25? 25 sounds good) years later, another special little fur ball would decide that he was tired of sleeping outside when all his buddies had caves, so he invented the tree house. This also came in handy for avoiding predators.
Soon after these tree houses catch on, early felin decides he/she/they/ugg decides that living close to the people he fucks is easier than walking to where they live. Groups of tree houses start popping up, usually around amenities like clean water or sources of food. However, evidence shows that early felin still likes to travel, with a mummified neolithic felin being found in a peat bog in the north with a stomach full of root that is native to the south. This may be why the felin language is so similar all over the planet.
Next is the written art. Early felin begins to smear red earth in shapes, representing things like his friends or family, or his prey. Felin begin to associate different grunting sounds with these pictures. Soon, felin decides that he's fed up with playing Pictionary every time he wants to tell his partner du jour what's for dinner, so he simplifies his language to make it easier to communicate.
Early felin start to notice that they don't get pregnant unless they really want to. This is the first example of their fertility control. Unfortunately, it's shit at the moment, and all these advancements are causing more and more kits to survive to reproduce. This causes a population boom, increasing the diversity and causing certain genes to become more prominent, forming fur patterns and coloration based on local geography.
Before now, the early felin have hunted with their bare claws and teeth. But now many felin are starting to use sharp flint spears and knives not only to hunt but to also cut their meat. They can also use flint to start fires. Now, early felin can begin to shape his surroundings to his will, cutting down trees to make hollowed out boats and timber for more advanced houses. Soon, he notices that he can draw metals out of certain rocks using fire. The first metal he tames is gold. Then he discovers copper, as he learns to make hotter fires with ovens and enclosed mud-brick furnaces. He finds that these metals last longer than flint and stone tools. Soon he's breaking the earth to make farms, growing the food he likes best from seeds he's found in fruit. Soon he tames animals, and begins to breed them himself.
Finally, felin begin to weave fabric from plant fibers. They make clothes to combine with their furs to make them better, easier to wear and nicer to look at.
It's a nice day, almost 2000 years after the first felin decide to burst into flames for kicks. A tallish farmer stands on the hill, wielding a copper hoe and wearing leather and cloth clothes and shoes. He puts his hand over his eyes, looks over the village and his farm below and for the first time, utters the words…
"Sah, teslunt'el."
This is the modern felin.
Now, it's 2000 BB, and felin doesn't need to live in a tree anymore. He's got things like towns, roads and walls to protect him from predators. Other clever little kibbies have invented things like "currency" and "power". Now the planet divides into north and south. In the north, the land is ruled by barbarian warlords who are one part Alexander the Great and two parts Ghengis Khan. These warlords are dour and brutal, but there's an odd nobility to them, and there are none greater than Myrion the Destroyer, who unifies all the land above the Khasani River into a single nation: Kletha. In the south, Japanese style daimyo run the place. They're cultured and reasonable, but are also treacherous and deceitful, the most prominent and largest domain being Laetharuf, south of the Khasani River.
Keep in mind that the council hasn't shown up yet. A proto-council exists, and in 912 BB they try and intimidate Kletha into joining, and Kletha likes that not one bit. This starts the Klethan-Laetharuf war, and it lasts until 1012 BB when Laetharuf surrenders and the Klethans agree to come to the table, and the first planetary council is formed.
This council was formed because the felin fucked to the point that bloodlines and families of power became almost pointless. At this point, felin is still mastering control over his fertility, so it's a case of mabebabe but they're getting there. In the feudal age, felin mastered things like advanced farming with tools such as plows, and machines that beg for the creation of knowledge like the printing press, with the propagation of the written word making the first council possible. It's at this point where the felin invents fun new ways to kill his fellow cat. This age gave rise to inventions like gunpowder and steel swords.
After the council, and its first "face" (a particularly powerful lord who pretty much fought his way into that position game of thrones style), things began to coordinate. With the creation of large ships and compound telescopes, the felin began to explore like it was damn near instinctive. The first mechanical clock was built by an unnamed creator in 1342 BB, and while it was crude it was the first time someone measured the passing of events accurately. This meant that we could gauge progress, allowing us to perform the first physical experiments, like measuring gravity and momentum. In 1388 BB [name] wrote the "book of motion" (bilites wra proh). It was the first book designed to teach students at monasteries and guru-ships, effectively the first textbook. Textbooks like this gave rise to new ideas, spurred by the curiosity of an age of discovery. In 1456 BB, the supreme council, like a god, built other smaller councils in it's image. Councils for the regions, councils for towns. In 1477 BB, they crapped out torturous prolonged agreed on the "grand law", the closest thing they were getting to a constitution. This would dictate how the felin council would operate (and still does, save for a few changes) for long after.
In 1683 BB, [name] created the first pair of corrective lenses for spectacles. Lenses had been made before, but now the felin understood that they could use technology to correct themselves. This led to advances in surgery and medicine all through the 1700-1800 BB on a wave of medical technology that culminated in the accidental invention of an incredibly potent herbal anesthetic. Unfortunately, the creator didn't know how powerful it was, so he dumped it into the lake, where it seeped into the groundwater supply. Long story short, it put an entire town to sleep. Permanently. This formula was later sold as surgical anesthetic for medical purposes, and was a welcome addition to a time when surgery still involved saws.
After Blackshard
At 2000 BB, (our new year 0, please mind) some big shot at a small monastery had a bunch of ideas about the way felin learn. This started what was known as the First Age of Genius, giving the felin things like organised education and early scientific methodology.
After this came such inventions as metal casting, printing and mass production. The first vaccine was discovered after this, prompting a new wave of medical research. Across Firrhna, new academies, schools and universities opened, with many monasteries abandoning spiritualism for rationalism. Sanitation, economics and the beginning of industrialization gave the council more power than ever over the ways that they could influence the lives of the average person, until the felin were solidified as a planetary government — One race, one claw, one creed: to seek out new discoveries. With this end, felin began to look up at the night's sky and it's many stars, with one goal in mind: to find life and fuck it's brains out.
Compressed steam, once the toy of Scholars, is now harnessed as workshops turn to factories and in 1479 AB Crafters go absolutely fucking crazy. Manufactories churn out new products for the newly born mass-market. Rifled guns, steel, petroleum products. Railways and steam ships cross the globe as modern chemistry brings a revolution to farming, food and industry.
Soon after, in his dingy basement laboratory, Teslithan will be the first to harness lightning in 1534 AB, as sparks fly from generators and motors, and bright flashes crackle at the top of copper spires. At this point, the Felin work out that water doped with minerals can be used to conduct electricity, and power travels to homes in pipes instead of pylons. Chesna will make his first powered flight in 1563 AB, and the Cohlira Brothers show moving pictures on a screen in 1570 AB. New lines cross the globe now, as Lehro makes his first wireless radio transmission in 1593 AB, bringing music to the masses and communication to the military.
Now we're in the age of Laenathin, the Second Age of Genius. Advanced flight makes world travel possible, as heroes take to the skies, battling air-pirates in the Klethan gulf. Advanced ballistics mean that guns are more accurate than ever. Plastics and advances in electronics mean that in 1645 AB, the first picture is sent by wireless in the first televised play, and in 1657 AB the charming face of Kaer Syrel is seen in homes across the globe.
Now the average felin doesn't need to do math. He doesn't have the time, with taxes and shopping and getting the kids to school. Fortunately, the first digital computer comes online in 1662, putting thousands of accountants out of a job.
In 1664, the world watches as the first nuclear warhead is dropped on the Kaska Plain, with felin having the power to destroy themselves. In 1678, just over a hundred years since Chesna's first flight, the first felin walks on the surface of Mira. In 1700 AB, the first telecom satellite is launched, making communication easier than ever before.
