I get a lot of questions about my characters and their their lore so its past time I explain for everyone.

Picture a universe not too different from ours. Lots of aliens, maybe some synths, maybe even an earth somewhere out there.
Now zoom out, keep going, and going, and going until eventually you're in the middle of nowhere. So far beyond the rim of civilization, known space, sailing lanes, and charted stars that the only 'maps' are scrawled drunkenly on the back of a grease stained napkin that some madman at the diner insisted was critically important. No one believes them.

Out that nowhere a long time ago came the ships. One ship wandering curiously into known space, and then more. The first recorded encounters with them were far back into space-fairing history when many races were still advancing beyond simple chemical propulsion to more sophisticated designs. For generations they were an enigma. Passively watching the space lanes, hovering over planets, landing on barren rocky satellites flexing and stretching out under foreign suns, like giant skates or rays come to rest. Slow and careful study revealed them to be peaceful, curious, and maybe even playful, however they eluded communication. One thing was certain, they appeared to be alive.

One day it all changed. One of the living ships landed and for the first time someone emerged. More accurately, some thing emerged.
It too was alive, although not quite like any of the life forms that greeted it. It was a cat.
After studying the life forms of known space many times longer than any living memory the ships had finally come to an answer to a question they had faced silentely for ages. They were far too foreign, too alien to the local inhabitants to communicate with them. So after lifetimes of work they created help an intermediary.
The Ships and their Cats were both alive but in a way foreign to the rest of civilization. They defied known biology.
The cats were not quite organic but not mechanical. A synthetic pseudo-organic construct that could connect and communicate with their ship hosts, but also walk, talk, and interact with more traditional kinds of life.

So for most of spacing history they have remained an enigma. A welcoming and playful pair of species traveling known space seeking to satisfy their endless curiosity.

Socially the Ships' Cats typically live in smallish family units. They are not typically monogamous and are known to share partners and practice recreational sex within their species and with others. Family units typically contain between 2-10 members not including offspring who may either join or split off from the family. Bonds are not permanent nor are separations from family units. They practice little social inhibitions to pairing and relationships even with other species.
The cats can reproduce independently without aid from the host ships however the Ships retain the ability to create new Cats. Carbine is one such purposeful construct, designed to be extremely durable, highly observant, and in an extremely compact body profile. Most cats are natural born from family units. They do not reproduce frequently, and seem to have significant control over their own fertility. The birth (and subsequent crewing up) of a new ship is one of the rare occasions multiple Cats will be actively reproducing at the same time. The Cats are no longer dependent on the Ships but primarily choose to live on and with them in a happy symbiosis despite having long ago evolved to full sentience and independence.

The cats pseudo-organic construction is still largely a mystery to modern science. The Cats are typically born appearing similarly to their "genetic" lineage but they are fully modular and capable of changing their appearance and 'construction' to an extreme degree. They frequently exhibit 'seams', glowing 'lights', connection ports and wires (for connecting with their Ship hosts) that appear largely mechanical but they are undebatably living breathing creatures (although if they need oxygen for whatever internal processes they posses is yet another mystery). Some study has been granted but they are largely shy on in depth study by outsiders.
The Ships themselves seem to be similarly constructed, although far more complex as would be expected of a space borne life form. They happily take on passengers to travel and study with them . The Cats and the ships provide excellent hosting and are quite happy to explore space, meet new life forms, and appease their endless curiosity with company. Travelers be warned, the Cats are very welcoming, social, and frequently sexually open, but it is an open fact that travelers who partake of intimate feline company are genetically sampled and studied by their Ship hosts. Though no ill intent is meant, and they simply enjoy wandering space, compiling a vast genetic archive of all kinds of life.

Carbine, Auro, and Salem are one such family unit living with several other small families aboard a ship. Carbine is my primary fursona, a nonbinary androgynous cheetah. Auro and Salem are also Fursonas of a sort, both embodying more directly masculine and feminine thoughts. And of course allowing me to bang OCs together without bothering my friends.


Much of my setting has been a gradual work in progress since before I fully designed Carbine in 2014/2015. I have taken much inspiration in the works of Ian M Banks, Star Trek, Farscape, and inescapably Star Wars although I picture much of my setting largely peaceful and in a state of happily spreading post scarcity.
If you're interested in 'lore accurate' art or interactions with my characters please feel free to contact me. I typically just wander casually and unseriously into new settings as if appearing over a new uncontacted planet. I do not typically practice hard setting rules, and frequently tweak things. Art is a living thing.
Interactions with my characters are welcome but if you'd like to make a Ship's Cat please contact me first. They're not a closed species but Id like to talk ideas with people if they want to be 'official'. My universe is large and free enough for any eventuality though.