Fey'li (World Guide, Sapient Species) (Patreon)

Fey'li

Of the known sapient races in the Maurae Galaxy, the feline humanoid fey'li are by far the most numerous, and by far the most politically powerful. Originating from the world of Fey'lin, at the heart of the civilized core of known space, the fey'li Empress rules over an empire of more than 10 trillion people dispersed over 250 homeworld, 1,450 rural, and 2,720 colony class planets on the southeastern galactic quadrant. The fey'li comprise  roughly 30% of the Imperial population, a percentage that has been slowly increasing for almost a millennia owing to their relatively high reproduction rate.

On average, male fey'li stand between 1.6 and 1.9 meters tall, and are very muscular. Female fey'li stand between 1.4 and 1.8 meters tall and generally have a built somewhere between athletic and smoothly curved. Owing to fey'li metabolism, they rarely become overweight, but do require considerably more food per unit mass than most other humanoids in order to maintain a healthy physique.

Fey'li natural lifespan is approximately 900 years. Both sexes show little sign of aging after reaching what most could consider 'middle age'. The average cause of death is simply getting tired of life, and fading away peacefully.

Fey'li fur coloration generally follows typical 'wildcat' patterns. The most common patterns are leopard, cougar, lynx, and lion. Somewhat less common are tiger, caracal, and jaguar patterns. Rarer are snow leopard, black leopard, and 'reverse' or 'black' tiger patterns. Fur patterns are generally passed down maternally, though occasional 'flukes' will result in paternal fur patterns being passed on, or even sometimes a fur pattern possessed by an ancestor within 4 prior generations.

Fey'li have a disparate birthrate relative to sex. For every male, there are roughly eleven females born.  This has led to the cultural acceptance of multiple or 'pride' marriage structures, typically involving 2-6 females forming a pride, generally, though not always, with a single male. Ever since the fey'li encountered other species, non-fey'li have been welcomes into prides, and mix prides are now the rule, rather than a rare exception.

Female fey'li do not require the participation of a male to become pregnant, and can induce pregnancy which results in a virtual clone of the mother. Lactation is continuous, beginning roughly at the age of maturity and continuing for life. Sexual endurance is quite notable, and copulation can go on until exhaustion and/or dehydration caused by constant lubricant production sets in.

Male fey'li are also notable for their sexual endurance. They can mate with several partners in succession, several times per day. As a result, and given the ratio of males to females, male fey'li are quite uncommon to see 'in the wild', as they're generally 'too busy' to be out and about running the world on a day-to-day basis.

Culturally, fey'li are far more open to exotic physical experience than most races in general. Physical transformation, even permanent transformation, has been common enough to be culturally acceptable for millennia. In modern times, this cultural attitude has become rather more publicly prominent with the legalization of domestic and foreign purveyors of such experience marketing their wares directly to Imperial citizens, within the Empire itself. Up to 100 million fey'li seek out such experiences each year, acts which are generally triggered by an early tiring with their current life, and seeking some alternative exotic enough to satisfy the need for a life that's sufficiently different.