Ooooh stunning art!!
I know about "Star trek online" that has playable Caitians (and plenty of others) and i was wondering if somefurry play it haha

While I have played STO a little bit, I never really got into it. Doesn't help the Caitian's look, frankly, terrible. This character is from a text-only roleplaying group on Reddit.

Ouch a pity, i have been tempted to try the game but indeed the general look quality it's a bit... "plastic" somewhat?

Hey, I'm still waiting for that statistical analysis!

Cheetahs are still 60% awesome 100% of the time :3

Beautiful look!

Good!
*Love star trek*

Awesome work, Gene Roddenberry would be proud.

I'd always thought that Caitians were leonids but, I supposed they could be like humans, many races of the same species. So, cheetahs could be a race of the Caitians and there could be lions, tigers, margays, jaguars, etc.

I've written a lot of headcannon about the Caitians over the course of many years of creative writing involving this character.

In my headcanon he leonid variety of Caitian are by far the most common, comprising some 90+% of the homeworld and 70+% of the colonial Caitian. There are significant distinctions between homeworld and colonial Caitian, too, primarily in terms of diet and attitude to other species. The other sub-species include cheetahs, as well as cougars and tigers, all of which were, at one time much more common, until the leonid Caitian went through a period of 'ethnic cleansing' that's the species' most unpleasant period of history.

While the spotted and striped varieties are abundant enough to not have genetic problems, they are still a rare sight and tend to be more isolated, due to the history of persecution.

Kesh herself is not purely of cheetah-subspecies blood, as her mother was pure blooded and her father was mixed. Her birth is... rather complicated, and I still need to write up her entire backstory.

Interesting. I like what you've written here. Do you have it written more completely somewhere else? I'd love to read it.

Not in organized fashion, just tidbits in my writings over the years.

A few random items:

Caitian have two stomachs, making them largely immune to food poisoning. Their heart is separated into two chambers, located along their spinal collumn. Their brain has two sections, but one is located within the other.

Caitian metabolism does not handle most forms of sugar well, leading to a reaction very similar to drunkeness when consumed. Alcohol, on the other hand, tends to immediately cause symptoms similar to a hangover, making it very unappealing.

The fruits native to Cait, while able to be eatten, are used more for their body-oil removal properties than as food. As such, many Caitian will take 'fruit baths' on a regular basis to clear out dirt from their undercoat that's stuck to body oils. Said baths are extremely pungent and causes the Caitian to smell like a mix of durian and cheese whey for a day or two unless they also take a water bath or sonic shower.

Though Caitian can purr with ease, it's a sound they have never historically made use of, but rather learned was appealing to humanoids and, through use, was learned to be appealing to them, too.

The name 'Caitian' is a result of a misunderstanding. Soon after first contact was made, the first Caitian visitors to Earth studied human history, customs, and foods prior to the trip. In doing so they discovered they really liked cajun food, so much so they requested it everywhere they went, including Earth's ambassador, which misunderstood their intentions and thought they were giving their species name. Due to Caitian difficulty with human language, it was transcribed as 'Caitian'. On learning of this, most Caitian found it amusing and basically rolled with it.

Very interesting. I'm going to save this post and read it again when I have more time to absorb what you wrote. I especially like the fact that the Caitians like Cajun food. That tells me that they like their food spicy. (It kind of reminds me of the Oni in "Urusei Yatsura". LOL) The meeting of human and Caitian has given me a seed for a story.

I've mulled over ideas revolving around the reasons for liking spicy foods, but haven't had the chance to delve into it, so if you have any ideas, please do share. And thank you!

One suggestion I have about the Caitians liking spicy food could be for the same reason that many human cultures like spicy food. The spiciness of the foods could have originally covered bad tasting, or even almost contaminated, food. The spices also help to cook food by releasing natural heat in the oils in the spices.

Also, the pronunciation situation could be because the Caitians don't have a J sound in their language. (I do this in some of my writings where certain sounds aren't/can't be made by the species in question. For example, my Mory can't pronounce B or P which is why they call the protagonist Mvila instead of Bill.)

My thoughts on the spicy food is that capsaicin, the thing that makes good spicy, is either very rare or non-existent on Cait, leaving only isothiocyanate (What makes horseradish burn) the native spice. As such, Caitian tongues aren't used to it, making it desirable (to some)

I like your idea with the 'J' sound. It's considered a 'post-alveolar' sound, which includes R and SH, which I can see cats having a hard time with since their 'rrr' comes from down in their chest instead of their tongue.

Cool :D

True. My Mory are felids and, due to the shape of a felids lips, the B and P sounds would be all but impossible for felids to make. That's why I chose to remove those sounds from the Mory language.

I'm also in agreement with your take on why the Caitians would find human/Cajun spicy food delectable compared to their own.

Thank you for your input! I don't get to casually talk about this stuff nearly enough.

Oh, I love talking about creativity. It actually helps me with mine. The story I'm currently working on, and posting, was inspired by events that have occurred over the last 50 years, i.e. interracial marriage, homosexuality being legalized, homosexual marriage being legalized, etc. Having lived long enough to have seen these things, and having been brought up to believe these things are bad, I decided to write a story that used these things as a basis, only far in the future and how a human who grew up learning that animals were NOT sex partners had to come to terms with the idea that anthros weren't actually animals but they weren't actually human either and a relationship with them wasn't wrong.

My novel is about a human male that ends up flung far from Earth and in among a race of cat people, one of whom he ends up 'married' to in order to fix their own problems. His discomfort with cat people gradually changes as her adjusts to the differences and eventually comes to have feelings for her. I can't say I did an awsome job, but I like to think the book is compelling.

It definitely sounds interesting. Sometimes, these stories teach more than you can imagine, especially in situations where one character finds him/herself in an alien (utterly different) society and has to adjust to the society rather than the other way around.

Yes. Society certainly isn't going to adapt to one person.

cute suit

Why thank you :3

It's always nice to see some Caitian love. And in my favorite uniform, no less!