KZINTI

100 points

ST +8 (90 pts)
DX +3 (30 pts)
HT +3 (30 pts)

Claws (15 pts)
Combat Reflexes (15 pts)
Damage Resistance - 2 levels (6 pts)
Enhanced Movement, 1 level (10 pts)
Extra Encumbrance (5 points)
Extra Fatigue (10 pts)
Fearlessness - 2 levels (4 pts)
Fit (5 pts)
Hard to Kill - 1 level (5 pts)
High Pain Threshold (10 pts)
Increased Speed +1 (25 pts) Night Vision (10 pts)
Sharp Teeth (5 pts)

Bad Temper (-10 pts)
Berserk (-15 pts)
Bloodlust (-10 pts)
Code of Honor, Kzinti Customs (-10 points)
Curious (-15 pts)
Delusion, That they can fool the Gods by wearing human masks (-5 pts)
Impulsiveness (-10 pts)
Inconvenient Size (-10 pts)
Increased Life Support, 5 levels (-50 pts)
Intolerance, Racial (-5 pts)
Odious Racial Habit: Eats other sentients (-15 pts)
Racial Reputation -2, As sneaky, brutal, merciless, uncivilized slaver foes (-10 pts)
Sense of Duty, Patriotism (-10 pts)

Average height is 7 feet tall, average weight is 350 pounds. Figure an individual's height and weight by using the racial averages and the Height and Weight Modifications Table.

DESCRIPTION

Kzinti look like lions standing on their hind legs. They have well-developed hands with retractable claws. Their fur ranges in color from a pale yellow to tan to light orange. Their eyes have the same range of color as do humans, however, Kzinti have vertical slit pupils.

Kzinti are carnivores, preferring fresh-killed meat; when possible they eat their prey before it has had time to cool below body temperature.

Kzinti males are very strong, very fast and have incredible stamina that makes them impressive opponents. Kzinti can carry heavy armor and still move faster than most cavalry units, and they can do it for much longer periods of time.

Kzinti tend to go Berserk when threatened; their instinctive reaction to hostile creatures is to instantly attack them, whether the Kzinti can win or not. This tendency becomes less pronounced after the first few battles in a war as the most enthusiastic warriors rush to the front lines and die while the more cautious (and intelligent) survive to perpetuate the race.

In spite of this kamikaze attitude, the Kzinti are capable of putting together well-organized and well-trained armies. Kzinti like warfare and they excel at it. Their eagerness works against them in one major respect; they always seem to attack before they are ready.

Kzinti females are at best semi-intelligent (IQ 6 or 7 and they do not even know how to speak) and are rather helpless physically. They will never fight, running mindlessly away from violence. Thus, they need constant protection and attention from the males.

There are usually at least three females for every male Kzinti. In Kzinti culture males die a lot, even in peacetime. If the males ever learn to settle their differences without fights to the death, the ratio might approach one-to-one. The females will usually each have three to six young.

A little arithmetic will reveal that only four to eight percent of Kzinti are adult males. Kzinti males have their work cut out for them; they have a lot of mouths to feed and bodies to protect.

ARRIVAL

Legends tell that long ago (several thousand years?) there lived a mighty wizard of extraordinary powers, who, as is typical of wizards with extraordinary powers, wanted to rule the world. This wizard commanded a powerful guild of mages and ordered them to search the worlds until they located a race that could help them conquer the world.

The requirements that were required seemed to fit the Kzinti pretty well. The Wizard and his group of mages began a Great Summoning Spell, possibly vaster than any other spell attempted up to that time. The result delivered a hundred square miles of Kzin (the Kzinti home world) complete with flora, fauna, five hundred feet of dirt and rock and ten thousand puzzled.

The Wizard and most of his mage followers survived the sky following on them, but they lost all their bodyguards, the Wizard's regular troops and several magical items. The Wizard lightning bolted the Kzinti who seemed to be the leader and demanded that the Kzinti submit and serve as his slave-troops. The Kzinti went berserk and attacked. Over 5,000 Kzinti died before the mages were rent into bit-sized morsels. Score one for Kzinti recklessness.

The Kzinti were confused by their strange surroundings, but they could take that. What concerned them most about the move was that their human neighbors worshipped human Gods who sometimes answered their prayers. The Kzinti had never had any prayers answered back on Kzin...

On the plus side, the Kzinti found some of the fallen mages magical items and were able to use some of them. They had never had magic before and it both fascinated and frightened them. Regardless, the Kzinti resolved to extend their domination all over the world and subjugate (or exterminate) all other intelligent races.

Many centuries have passed and the Kzinti now control a major portion of a large continent with large colonies on several other continents. The Kzinti have enslaved many tribes and nations of Orcs, Ogres, Goblins, Lizardmen, Trolls and others, including humans. Elves and Dwarves they have failed to enslave in any large numbers, but whole tribes, clans and nations have been exterminated.

SOCIAL ORGAINZATION

As Kzinti females are unintelligent (IQ 6 - 7!), all Kzinti social structures and patriarchal in nature. All adult male Kzinti are warriors. They are by nature hunters, and enjoy hunting and fishing immensely. Duels among themselves are very common, although the formality of human dueling is unknown. The combatants when annoyed just leap to engage with each other without bothering to choose seconds. These duels most often end in the death of one or both of the combatants.

The Kzinti society has an extremely rigid structure; Kzinti of average or low status have no names and are called by their profession. As a Kzinti gains status, he will be given a partial name (i.e., one Kzinti galley commander was named War-galley-Captain). Full Kzinti Names contain no reference to profession.

Social status also corresponds with superior fighting ability. Since names mean status, a Kzinti with a full name is important. Consider partial named Kzinti to be at minimum of Status Level 2, while Kzinti with Full Names are at least Status Level 4.

Kzinti culture does not correspond closely to other races, but other races who encounter Kzinti will try to define Kzinti social status in their terms, trying to convert each other's relative rank accordingly. For example, a human might consider a Named Kzinti equal to a lord; a Partial named Kzinti equal to a knight, while considering the Nameless Kzinti to be just commoners.

About the only way for a Kzinti from a non-aristocratic family to get a name is to do something spectacular. "Winning a name for yourself" has great significance for a Kzinti. Young Kzinti are continually searching for suitable quests to attempt in order to win a name.

Many Kzinti quests center around gaining magical items. Kzinti are impressed by magic but NONE are able to learn to cast spells or become mages, so their magical ability is limited to using enchanted items usable by non-mages.

To get these enchanted items, Kzinti go singly or in small groups to dungeons, abandoned castles, ruins, and other crumbling structures. This is where adventurers will most often encounter Kzinti.

Magic questing Kzinti are not always hostile to adventurers. They respect warriors of reasonably high skill and fear and respect clerics and mages. Clerics because the Gods seem to favor them and mages because of past experiences. Thieves are despised. Martial Artists are respected, but considered crazy.

Kzinti tend to think of non-hostile adventurers encountered in a dungeon as good cannon fodder. They especially like to send non-Kzinti party members ahead to find traps the hard way. Some can be sometimes be persuaded to treat everyone more or less as equals if there is someone in the party they respect a great deal.

Kzinti treasure hunters can be in any kind of armor including none and carry any kind of weapon from claws to blackpowder weapons. Their equipment generally corresponds to the military gear common to the nearest Kzinti settlement.

RELIGION

Kzinti religion underwent considerable revision after the Kzinti were kidnapped off of Kzin. The Kzinti decided that the Gods of this new place had power, whereas their own gods did not. The Kzinti do not particularly trust these alien Gods since they suspect that these gods do not really care about them. The Kzinti tend to suspect they are being used and they do not like it.

Since these gods appear to primarily interested in other humanoid creatures, the Kzinti clergy decided to misrepresent themselves as humans to their new gods by wearing human masks during church ceremonies.

FOOD

Kzinti eat a lot. An adult male weights in around 350 pounds and leads a very active life. Moving a Kzinti's body around all day takes a lot of energy. Feeding 3 females and 9 to 18 young also takes a lot of energy. Rough calculations indicate that an adult male needs 7 pounds of fresh meat a day; that is around 5 times the consumption of a comparable human family, and humans can eat a lot of things besides raw meat.

Another problem is that the Kzinti prefer their meat VERY fresh. It is difficult for a Kzinti to eat cold meat, and impossible for him to eat cook or dried meat. Kzinti need to always be close to a supply of live animals.

Kzinti population density is thus kept low by the necessity of being near food animals. Kzinti who live by raising cattle on prime pastureland could achieve a population density of two families per square mile (but only if there were no bad years and no cattle died of disease). A more realistic density would be one Kzinti family per square mile for PRIME pastureland; worse land would have fewer Kzinti per square mile.

One further complication, Kzinti aren't temperamentally suited to caring for animals. A Kzinti would kill any domestic animal that bothered him, and soon there would be no animals left. A Kzinti keeps slaves to tend his animals, which messes up their population density even more.

In contrast, humans could realistically expect prime pastureland to support ten to twelve families per square mile, assuming everyone was on an all-meat diet. Subsistence farming could support fifty or more families per square mile. The Kzinti will always be out-numbered.

Even so, there is much that the Kzinti do to boost their population density. A major stratagem is to take slaves to raise grain for animal (and slave) feed, which allow more cattle in a fixed area. Tribute in cattle and grain is exacted from their neighbors whenever possible.

The Kzinti also have the charming habit of eating members of the slave races (except for the cold-blooded creatures, which are considered inedible as far as the Kzinti are concerned). Slaves can thus form a good back-up food supply in the event that disease or drought reduces the animal population.

"WILD" KZINTI

Most Kzinti live in a semi-feudal society that concerns itself mostly with ranching and military conquest. But as with all societies, there are always some that go their own way.

Some Kzinti live the "natural life" in primitive hunting societies. These Kzinti usually live in small groups in wilderness areas such as forest and woodlands. They are semi-nomadic of necessity, as even a small group of Kzinti will hunt out any area in a relatively short time.

Because Kzinti who live a claw-to-mouth existence in the forest is in a much more vulnerable position than a Kzinti rancher under the protection of the Kzinti nation, the Wild Kzinti are somewhat less arrogant and xenophobic than their more civilized relatives.

A Wild Kzinti must hunt every day, and while he is hunting, his family is unprotected. Considering some of the creatures that inhabit a typical forest, this is a highly undesirable state of affairs. Carting the whole family along on the hunt is only a small improvement. Wild Kzinti therefore lead a precarious existence unless they find strongholds, allies, or both.

One solution favored by many Wild Kzinti is to ally themselves with a band of Elves. This odd alliance has many advantages for both sides. The Wild Kzinti can leave their families under the protection of the Elves, which leaves them free to hunt. The Elves gain valuable allies, and do not have to risk Elf lives while the Kzinti take care of some of the nasty forest creatures. The Elves also monitor the Kzinti's hunting and can usually convince the Kzinti to leave certain types of game alone, or to cull the herds of others. The Wild Kzinti do not really understand the Elves' attitude, but respect them for their fighting and magical abilities.

Wild Kzinti are generally not as nasty and vicious as their more civilized kin, partly because of the influence of the Elves, and partly because they are in a rotten position to do much more than feed themselves and their families. They have enough problems just surviving without looking for trouble.

That said, adventurers often find that Wild Kzinti like to accost travelers. They rob (and sometimes eat!) small groups take tolls from medium-sized groups and generally leave large groups alone. Merchants going through areas inhabited by Wild Kzinti usually pay a modest tribute, in return the Wild Kzinti guard their caravans. Wild Kzinti like protection rackets and sometimes "protect" isolated villages and holds. Payment is in coin or trade goods; Wild Kzinti are too proud to accept livestock as payment; they think it reflects badly on their hunting skill.

Wild Kzinti normally wear no armor and many use no weapon other than their teeth and claws. Because of the extremely low population density of Wild Kzinti, they will rarely be organized into formal military units. Civilized Kzinti, on the other hand, have a highly developed military organization…

KZINTI MILITARY

The Kzinti military organization resembles that of most humanoid races. Differences in out-look and size makes the auxiliaries rather unusual, but regular troops are organized in a fairly conventional manner.

Most Kzinti armies are composed of light, medium and heavy infantry, with a small force of super heavy cavalry and a few dragons flying air support. Normally there will be auxiliary units of slave troops although they could possibly include humanoid allies as well.

Kzinti infantry is very powerful and under skilled Kzinti leadership can achieve great feats of arms. Kzinti troops move much faster and keep moving a lot longer. In short they can usually run circles around most other humanoid armies…even fully mounted ones!

KZINTI LIGHT INFANTRY is composed of Kzinti who wear either leather armor or none at all. Weaponry varies considerably; broadswords, axes and claws are among the most preferred weapons. Missile weapons tend to be spears or throwing axes employed in the charge just before impact.

KZINTI MEDUIM INFANTRY is the backbone of most Kzinti armies. Preferred weapons are halberds, two-handed swords, broadswords, axes, and maces. Kzinti Medium Infantry with one-handed melee weapons will carry large shields and all will wear chainmail, scale or half-plate armor.

KZINTI HEAVY INFANTRY is truly awesome. Armored in heavy plate or heavy field plate (PD 4, DR 8 $10,000 150 lbs.), Kzinti Heavy Infantry is armed with two handed weapons best suited to killing heavily armored foes; haberds, two-handed swords, two-handed-axes, picks, two-handed maces and two handed flails are all common.

The deficiency in archers can be attributed to the Kzinti eagerness to get into the fray. Kzinti commanders consider missile fire to be mainly useful in ambush or siege warfare. Normally their slave or allied auxiliaries will provide missile support and while there have been many "friendly fire" incidents, Kzinti "justice" is such cases is so swift, brutal and complete that generally only the stupidest slave troops would even consider much less attempt it.

KZINTI CAVALRY

Kzinti cannot ride horses because of they are just two heavy. They do understand the value of cavalry, having many times faced knightly hosts. The Kzinti looked for a good substitute for horses. They chose mastodons.

Mastodons are mean, nasty, bad-tempered, vicious and hard to tame, but then so are Kzinti. The Kzinti eventually tamed large numbers of mastodons for use in warfare. A large mastodon can carry two heavy armored Kzinti into battle, but normally only one Kzinti will be mounted on one. Some mastodons are armored in heavy leather barding; these mastodons will only carry a single heavy armored Kzinti.

Kzinti lancers on mastodons are probably the world's best shock cavalry, but they never make up a large portion of a Kzinti Army (perhaps 10% of the total army strength at most). Kzinti Mastodon Cavalry units are small, mainly because of the huge cost in upkeep (pachyderms have the world's most ineffective digestive system causing them to eat enormous amounts of food). Figure one mastodon for every ten to one hundred Kzinti warriors, depending on what sort of forces the Kzinti will face.

AUXILARIES

Slave races can usually provide the Kzinti with cannon fodder for their campaigns. Human and orc auxiliaries are the most common, but the Kzinti will use whatever they can get, including Trolls, Minotaurs, Lizardmen, Goblins, etc.

These troops are organized into regular military units with Kzinti officers. Morale is much higher than normal for slave troops because they fear their Kzinti officers more than the enemy. Weapons and armor for slave troops are those normally used by their free kin.

In extreme situations the Kzinti have been known to eat their slave soldiers, starting with the wounded and weakest ones first. The slave units that fight the best survive the longest, i.e. the Kzinti eat the poorest fighting slave troops first…

HUMANOID "ALLIES"

If a country is strong enough to successfully resist a Kzinti invasion, the Kzinti will sometimes put forward an offer of alliance. These countries will gain the advantage of having a secure border with the Kzinti and the promise of Kzinti aid if their lands are threatened. In return, they must send troops if the Kzinti are threatened. Please note that threatened is not the same as invaded. This is not a defensive pact, Kzinti are quite willing to take part in aggressive operations that their allies attempt, and they expect their allies to take part in similar Kzinti plans…

So far the Kzinti have never broken an alliance themselves. They send small Kzinti armies, with auxiliaries to fight in their ally's wars. Such armies have been dispatched to several allied countries that have been attacked usually to the surprise of both their allies and their foes. The only payment the Kzinti have demanded for their aid is that all of the invaders be turned over to the Kzinti to do with as they please.

In most battles with the Kzinti, human and humanoid auxiliaries make up the largest part of the Kzinti forces. Allied units are much less controllable than Kzinti Regulars or Kzinti Slave Troops, since they are not directly under Kzinti command. They will sometimes ignore Kzinti orders and battle plans (Kzinti do make plans, they usually involve trying to hammer a foe into submission by frontal or flanking attacks), usually in order for them to gain some advantage for themselves. For instance, allied troops have been known to stop fighting to go off and plunder a baggage train or the enemy's camp while the real fighting is far from over. Allied troops are always under the command of their own leaders and can sometimes even be persuaded to desert the Kzinti before or during the battle (the Kzinti will take revenge on them and their homeland if able).

DRAGONS

Kzinti like Dragons, especially talking dragons. Dragons are everything that a Kzinti wants to be big, fierce, arrogant, and magical. Kzinti and dragons get along fine. Many dragon lairs will have Kzinti guards, either regular troops or Wild Kzinti who use the lair as a safe (for them) base. Often when a dragon decides to destroy a hamlet, it will often take along a few Kzinti since they are more effective at plundering the hard to get to places in the ruins.

This Kzinti-dragon Alliance results in dragons showing up for Kzinti battles, typically one dragon for every two hundred fifty to one thousand Kzinti warriors. So it is common for Kzinti armies to have dragons for air cover in battle.

Dragons like to have Kzinti deliver succulent human or elf maidens to them every once in a while. It works out.

SUPPLY

Kzinti armies are plagued with supply problems. Although they can often stretch supplies by eating dead or wounded opponents on the battlefield, and slave troops can always be used as emergency rations. Kzinti must either drive great herds of cattle wherever they go, or spend most of their time foraging. In many battles against the Kzinti, the main objective of the opposing general is to separate the Kzinti from their cattle.

In addition to herd animals, Kzinti supply trains will have many horse-drawn wagons for supplies and plunder. Kzinti like wagons for their versatility; if there is nothing for the wagon to haul, the horse and slave driver can always be eaten.

Supply problems also make the Kzinti lousy at conducting sieges that are any distance from home. They have little patience, so they tend to storm fortifications instead. Convincing Kzinti to attack a stronghold that they cannot take is a favorite trick in the countries that border Kzinti controlled areas.

REGARDING KZINTI AND LIONOIDS

Kzinti and Lionoids are similar in many ways and have very similar appearances, and in fact can pass themselves off as members of the other race. Both races are big, arrogant, aggressive, and oftentimes hostile if not downright rude with little or no apology for their behavior or actions. But, they are not related at all and have a completely different origin mind-set and worldview.

The Kzinti have a hard time dealing with intelligent female Lionoids, they consider the lazy male Lionoids with a certain disgust. Being ruled by Lionoid females, having lost their hunter instincts and however unwillingly serving those fluffy little Kat Royals while just setting back and talking about how they have been wronged without really doing anything about it. The Kzinti feel that the Lionoids have wasted their gifts and are not worthy of being true Kzinti.

Lionoids for their part see the Kzinti as dangerous bigoted savages whom are far from being civilized. They dislike the slave culture the Kzinti have embraced. Basically they dislike the Kzinti intolerance and their lack of flexibility in adapting to other cultures and other's ideas and beliefs. Lionoids feel the Kzinti have misused their gifts and do not care for or believe the Kzinti Culture is worthy

CONCLUSIONS

Kzinti are an interesting race, they are nasty, intelligent, vicious and very organized. Always remember the Kzinti temper, which is as hair-triggered as they come. Calling a Kzinti nasty names is dangerous; insulting his ancestors is usually fatal. Under no circumstances should you call out to a Kzinti, "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…"

Lionoids
The most regal of Kats, the largest and perhaps the most dangerous...

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