Korats

These are Korats - tan male, Tew, and red female, Lyuru.

Pronunciation~ KOR-at [at as in cat]

Plural and Adjective~ Korats - Koratian

Height at Shoulder~ 3.5 to 6.5 ft. The breeds, from shortest to tallest, are usually reds, tans, blacks, whites, although tans can be shorter than reds or taller than blacks, and reds can occasionally be tall.

Coloration~ There are four breeds. A stocky red, which is actually reddish tinted with sienna or indian-brown -- their colours range to pale red-brown to nearly-black red. A long-limbed and graceful black, whose shade varies only from blue-black to black. A lean tan, whose fur can be nearly white down to a deep, rich gold or dark cream. And a heavily-muscled, long-furred, and long-legged white, whose fur ranges from whites, pale greys and silvers, and may be tinted with violet or blue shades. Koratian eyes can be blue, green, violet/purple, yellow/gold, silver/grey, or brown. Usually, the contrast of their eyes to their fur will tell you a bit about their personality - the more difference, the more unpredictability and contradictions within. It's very rare that a sport, a 'mutation', occurs, but when it happens, it happens in the form of stripes. Either tan, red, white, or black stripes against a tan, red, white, or black hide. It's never been black against black, or etc.

Temperament~ Usually calm and in control of any situation, Korats show an adaptability beyond all others. For them, the old quote stands solid: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." They'll follow that to gain some unexpected allies and advantages. Korats are often very unpredictable and cannot be counted on an average to act by. They're simply too varied, and need to be judged individually. However, the four breeds do differentiate. Reds are more loners, tough and rugged and often overly violent and quick to anger. Blacks are cool and suave, very social but deadly calm fighters. Tans are passive or energetic, lightning-fast warriors or the weak link, if you will. Whites are rugged and silent, often arrogant as in their arctic homes, they meet few non-Korats who earn their respect. From the Old Days on Lavana, where every Korat no matter the breed was an unbeatable warrior, admittedly they've fallen a bit, but there is still the deadly mind behind the razor-sharp claws, blade, and teeth. So beware if you decide to make an enemy of a Korat!

Physical Description~ Korats have broad-muzzled canine heads, with upright, pointed and cupped ears. Their jaws are incredibly powerful and wider than most canines, as well as the jaw bones being very tough. Their eyes are somewhat slanted, round-pupiled, and more feline than anything. They have long bunches of whiskers, though many warriors regularly trim their whiskers to avoid having them sliced off during battle. Their teeth are shark-like; they have proportionally short, heavy-duty fangs, then the rest of their teeth -except for a few blunt molars way back in their long jaws- are just as sharp and rather fang-shaped as well. Their incisors are sharp and curved backwards, as are all their teeth, with vicious points - the row of them acts as a row of fangs. Their necks are hugely muscular, thick and rounded, and at the least, three feet long. However, they don't carry their heads high. Compressed into a tight S-curve, Koratian necks almost appear jointed, the way they carry them folded. It takes a powerful muscle spasm to 'unlock' or 'unfurl' their necks and stretch them out, but they rarely do this, even in fights. Their throats are center-throats - all vital parts, like esophagus and jugular vein, are close to their spine, wrapped in layers of heavy muscle. If you're going for the throat with a Korat, you'd better just chop their heads off.

Their shoulders are either bony (tan), rounded (black), or burly and hunched (red and white). Their torsos are barrelled, with a deep chest and a proportionally thick waist. Their spine is supported by extra vertebrae to handle extreme weight, pressure, and is almost jointed to allow a lot of twisting. Their forelegs, compared to their hind legs, are slim and agile, with toned muscles rippling under the thick, short fur. Extremely mobile and flexible, their forelegs are deceptively powerful and lightning-quick. Their forepaws, usually referred to as forehands by Korats, are simply two long, three-jointed 'fingers' that end in sharp, retractable, curving claws. Their paw pads are rough, but their 'palm' is very small, in a V-shape with the V extending into the two digits. Their hind legs, however, are a different story. These big, powerful limbs are constantly slightly-bent, always ready to spring to attack or run. Like dogs, they have a dewclaw on the inside of their legs, but this extra toe is jointed once and the claw arrowhead-like and sharp, though not used in battle much. Their hindpaws are absolutely vicious. Do you remember the Velociraptor's hind foot, the one with the upright toe-and-claw combo? They have that, with the longclaw, as they call it, on the inside, and two other long toes (like their forepaw toes) on the outside. This longclaw varies from breed to breed. With tans, it is sharply curved and razor-sharp, but thin. On blacks, it is scythe-like and sharp, heavier than a tan's claw. On reds, it's a bit shorter, less curved, and even a bit duller, but the force with which the heavy claw is wielded makes up for the bluntness. On whites, it is long and razor-sharp but almost straight.

Their prehensile tails are proportionally short, usually their body length for females and a foot or two beyond that for males. Now, the tail varies not only from breed to breed, but male to female as well. Red tails are short and heavy, black tails are longer and more toned, tan tails are far longer, leaner, and simply sonic in their speed, and white tails are long, powerful, and deft. But that's not the main difference. Males' tails are slender, leanly-muscular and fast, and end in a scythe-like blade that can reach 1.5 feet in length. (The blade branches from the tail tip; the tail does not extend directly into blade.) Female tails are far heavier, thicker, and blunt-tipped, without the blade, but able to knock another Korat out cold with one blow. However! Occasionally, a female will be born with a tail blade - she's destined to be an exceptional warrior. (All three Originals have tail blades.) The most likely breed to have bladed femmes is red, then white, then black, and very rarely do tan females end up with blades. This doesn't mean, though, that their tails are longer or leaner - simply that the heavy, kick-esh tail that all females have ends in a blade.

Koratian fur is thick and short, usually glossy and shining healthily in good light. However, whites, as they live in very cold and icy weather, have long, dense, layered fur which is very difficult to slice through. There's a downy layer for insulation, then a "regular" layer akin to human hair, and the top layer is long and wiry. Koratian senses are excellent, far surpassing anything known on Earth. Able to stop their hearts for up to three minutes, and hold their breath equally as long, they use such techniques to sneak up, unheard, on those creatures that have also incredible senses. However, usually those tactics won't work on another Korat, seeing as when one approaches the other, once a distance of less than ten meters is attained, Korats can hear the very blood rushing through the other's veins. Now you see why they need to be able to stop their hearts! A heartbeat is a very obvious noise to a Korat who is constantly listening. Now, this doesn't mean that their ears are incredibly sensitive to loud noises, either. They can stand an atomic bomb going off as well as, say, a human. It's the range of sound which is impressive, not the sensitivity to individual pitches or volume.

Red Korats can run at up to 100 mph for a short time; blacks up to 120; whites up to 130; and tans can exceed 200 mph. Even though that is for only a few minutes at most, all Korats can travel at least 60 mph with ease and long endurance, able to lock their bodies into a flowing running motion and stay that way for hours on end (excepting tans; they have the worst endurance of the breeds). Korats live in almost any environment, from the cold icy poles (whites) to the harsh mountain peaks (reds) to the lush forests (blacks) to the rolling plains and scorching deserts (tans). They also are good settlers and often travel with Olashi to other worlds.

Healing~ Koratian healing systems are some of the best-designed on Lavana, with many small details to make it almost impossible to kill a Korat through a long battle. First, they have the 'normal' system of very advanced blood clotting, stopping bleeding very quickly. They also have a special chemical in their blood that rises to the surface on wounds and begins to grow and form as new skin. In their saliva is another chemical which enhances their healing systems further and also acts as an antibiotic, so when they groom their wounds not only are they cleaning them but also helping heal faster and prevent infection as well. Their tissues rejuvenate very rapidly, hence any flesh wounds are very quickly healed. Broken bones and internal injuries are few, seeing as all Korats do not have a rib cage; they have a rib wall. This massive oval sphere of bone has thousands of tiny openings for blood vessels to travel through, and is about 2 to 3 inches thick, circling a Korat's entire organ area. Their heart is also unusually large, allowing for efficient blood pumping and rapid circulation of healing chemicals and compounds to a wound. Any bone wounds will heal very quickly, considering the high calcium content in their bodies, so that there is extra to flow in the blood to any breaks. Also, all Koratian bones are very dense, making them hard to break. Korats shed their claws about every year, so a broken claw really isn't much more than a temporary set-back. They also shed their blades about once every three years, unless a deformity prevents them from doing so. Teeth are also shedded about once every four to five years, depending on the need. However, should any of these keratinous parts be completely lost (shattered, ripped out, etc.) a new replacement will immediately begin to grow. Normal claws take only a week to grow back; longclaws take a month; teeth take two or so weeks; blades take two months if the root remains, far longer if the root was also removed/broken.

Family Life~ Families are very important to all Korats. Making up for their somewhat small size and almost average abilities, they are one of the few species on Lavana that breed well and will make a point to find a mate sometime in their long lifespans, which are usually 120 to 160 years. All Korats over 100 -called elders- are officially past their prime, though the ages before that are usually not bothered by any aging nuances. Any two breeds may mate, and all four colors can be found in any litter. (I.E. a red and white pair can also have black and tan cubs in their litter.) Stripeds, the mutations, are NOT the result of two certain colors breeding. Two blacks may end up with a red-striped tan, who knows? It is random, as the Koratian genetic pool is immensely diverse. Litter size is small, varying from two to six, with fewer cubs being born to younger parents, and numbers increasing as the parents become mature adults. Which colors are born is randomness at its craziest. Every pair has the genes to produce cubs of all four breeds. It's nearly unheard-of for a large litter to be all one color, even if the parents are the same, though a red pair producing two red cubs (for example) for their very first litter isn't overly rare.

Cubs are grown in three years, learning to hunt and fight as they pass their first year. It's rare that cubs will talk much before being half-grown (1.5 years old) - this time is spent learning the language(s) that they hear... and only after it is good and well-learned do they begin to speak it. This makes Korats very impressive linguists and those cubs raised in Centers usually have a wide repetoire of tongues memorized. Cubs are born with only fangs, a small dull tailblade if they have one, and tiny, blunt longclaws. As they grow during their first year, their other teeth and claws will grow in, their tailblade and longclaws will lengthen and curve. At birth, Koratian necks are slender and long but not jointed as adults carry them. By the end of their first year, however, cubs resemble adults in that they hold their neck furled, and their claws, teeth, and blade are in the correct shape, sharpness, and proportion. Cubs are exceedingly active, brave, and curious creatures - their most common killer is their own bravado and insatiable curiosity. Parents must keep a close eye on their cubs until they're half-grown (a year and a half old), for once they past the half-grown mark, cubs suddenly develop a healthy sense of caution and wariness. Cubs are considered cubs for their first two years, and the third year is considered adolescence.

As for mates, Korats exemplify a Lavanian cultural enigma (or so humans would see it). The deep, emotionally-intimate type of love we humans reserve for our significant others or grown children is far more common with Korats -- what we might say is our best friend, spouse, or sibling (despite blood relations) is often called a soulmate... or, if blood-linked, a soulsister or soulbrother. Soulmates transcend genders and species; a Korat and a Night Cat, for example, could be soulmates, as could two male or two female Korats. In Koratian society, there really are no gay/straight/bisexual categories. Mating is for the express purpose of producing cubs and while enjoyable is never done for any other reason than to start/expand a family between a male and a female Korat. (Yes, Korats don't obsess over sex... unlike most humans. >,<) One last thing on this to add; one can have more than one soulmate, and in fact most settled, fairly social Korats do have a few soulmates to rely on. Spouses are always soulmates as well; otherwise they wouldn't be a mated pair.

Aging~ Korats age at a different rate than we humans do. It's easiest to just show you, so here's a table.

Human Label	Human Age	Korat Label	Korat Age
newborn/infant	0-1 yrs	infant	0-4 months
baby	1-2 yrs	cub	4-6 months
toddler	2-3 yrs	cub	6-12 months
young child	3-6 yrs	cub	12-15 months
child	6-9 yrs	cub	15-19 months
preteen	9-12 yrs	cub	19-24 months
young adolescent	12-14 yrs	adolescent	24-28 months
adolescent	14-17 yrs	adolescent	28-34 months
mature adolescent	17-18 yrs	[mature] adolescent	34-36 months
young adult	18-23 yrs	young adult	3-28 yrs
adult	24-40 yrs	adult	28-40 yrs
middle-aged	40-55 yrs	full adult	40-65 yrs
...aging	55-65 yrs	mature adult	65-90 yrs
senior citizen	65-80 yrs	???	90-100 yrs
senile ~_^	80+ yrs	elder	100+ yrs

History~ A Korat is, by Creation and nature, a hard-core Lavanian. As one of the first species Created, they have a long-standing reputation, and have adapted to life on a dangerous planet well. They are the only species on Lavana to have more than one Original. The first attempt to create an 'average' species resulted in the pale tan Korat, who was the female Kaili. Due to an illness (due to an interfering Creator) her Shadow could not be broken to create the rest of the First Fifty. The Creators decided to kill her off but failed as she was quite able to defend herself with magic, one of the few in those days who could. They let her live after a very small attempt at her life, and Created the second Korat, a black, called Ana. The interfering Creator had plans for her as well, and as a cub (which she shouldn't have been in the first place) a tree fell on her, breaking her back in several places. Through an ambassador's healing skills, she lived to see the next dawn. The Creators deemed her, a cub, a failure, and again made a weak try to destroy her, which failed again. The third time seemed to be a charm. It resulted in a massive, reddish-colored Korat by the name of Redwood, this one also a female. Created with no problems, no interference, she became the true Original of the Korat species, and her Shadow was stolen to create the First Fifty. She, as Original, was a natural leader, yet shared the reins of power and title with her two sisters, Ana and Kaili. The Korat species, under their guidance, has become one of the most successful races of Lavana, and one of the most populous and widespread. A few thousand years after Redwood was Created, some Creator must've decided they needed a fourth Korat breed, preferably to inhabit the only climate where Korats didn't already live - the arctic wastelands of Lavana's north and south poles. So they Created a fourth and final Original - the gargantuan female Glace, a white Korat of huge proportions and stunning appearance. The method of her Creation was, however, definitely unorthodox. Mind you, Kaili, Ana, and Redwood had already lost their shadows in Creating the First Fifty Korats. However, they gained them for one day to only lose them again. Their shadows combined, just like before, to Create fifty Korats, only these were specifically whites. That's how the fourth and last breed of Korats was born.

Here is a table showing obvious breed differences.

Attribute	Tan	Black	Red	White
Height	petite to lanky	tall	usually short	large
Speed	sonic	very fast	fairly fast	very fast
Strength	weak/wiry	very strong	incredibly strong	incredibly strong
Endurance	little	very good	untiring	very good
Intelligence	high	high	average	average
Sociability	high	extremely high	low	average
Habitat	deserts/plains	anywhere	mountains	arctic places
Female Tailblade?	rare	not uncommon	common	not uncommon
Teeth	narrow, sharp	curved, sharp	thick, crushing	long, sharp
Tailblade	long, curved	average, curved	short, straightish	long, triangular
Longclaws	long, very curved	average, curved	short, straightish	long, barely curved
Claws	thin, curved, sharp	thick, curved, sharp	thick, curved, duller	straight, triangular
Preferred Sense	hearing	sight	smell	smell
Muzzle	long, narrow	lupine/canine	short, blocky	long, heavy
Limbs	lean, long	toned, long	muscular, short	muscular, long
Favorite Weapon	tailblade/tail	everything	raw power/teeth	claws
Attitude Towards Fighting	pacifist	likes fighting	worships fighting	couldn't care less

Stripeds, the Mutations~ Ah, a touchy subject. Let me start off with their own peculiar facts and history first. Stripeds began appearing soon after the Dark Wars ended, and they were the most sickly and weakest Korats alive. Most died as infants, many were stillborn, and so few survived to even adolescence that it's no wonder that they're so rare to begin with. Korats do not like weakness, then as now. They took note when a striped's cubs are all unhealthy and unable to survive on their own, despite the breed. Lavana is a harsh mistress, and Korats want their race to be the strongest of them all, despite the danger of life. It was begun as a simple common sense matter to kill stripeds at birth, not only to preserve the genetic integrity of the Korat species, but to prevent a striped's often... 'different'... mind from suffering through a life almost impossible to survive. It was mercy in its purest form. Only in recent years -the past century or so- have stripeds had better physical and mental chances at surviving to adulthood. And by that point, even though they would've had a less torturous life, Korats were accustomed to eradicating stripeds. No longer common sense, it has become genocide. That's still how it is, except for precious few individuals who know better, most of those mothers. However, some young adults and mature adolescents are surviving to prove the world wrong. They exploit their interbreed qualities to keep them alive, often turning out to be superior warriors with supremely keen senses, due to being hunted all their lives. In a part, this stereotypical hatred and genocide is making the striped variety of Korat a far stronger, more hardy, and more skilled group than anyone could've imagined. It's also twisting their minds. There is self-pity, self-destruction, a death wish, and angst where there never was before. Korats aren't built to deal with these feelings, as they were never intended to have them. Stripeds are more than just genetic mutations... they are also psychological mutations.

Stripeds nowadays have so much variety in build, height, strength, speed, endurance, agility, appearance, and mentality that it often surpasses the two colors found on their pelts. There are slender red-striped whites, massive black-striped tans, speedy white-striped blacks, and slow tan-striped whites. Though still very rare, it's come to show that striped females are born quite often with bladed tails; perhaps evidence of abhorred evolution at work. They've begun to congregate together, traveling in hunting groups (loose, often nomandic alliances) or packs where stripeds form a majority. No striped is Of the Line; the Lineage is genetically shattered in a hybrid. They are beginning to become less rare; some think this supreme will to live is because of a certain myth.

The Myth of Cawralla and Hope~ This myth gives stripeds hope and pride in themselves, instead of the hatred and shame that they were raised to feel towards themselves. Strangely enough, this legend did not originate among Korats, but among Night Cats, mostly, with some Nigias and other well-known Lavanians. They began whispering amongst themselves when stripeds first came into being. Stripeds began showing up in litters, very rare but still enough to be noticeable. Other Lavanians had ideas as to why this might be, due to the oddity of Korats having more than one Original, but they said naught to Korats for the longest time. It was the stripeds themselves, those who survived and were harbored amongst other species, that began to hear this rumor. It was and still is said that there are not four Originals... that there are five. This fifth is called Cawralla, a striped female of all four breeds. Though stripeds came before whites, she is part-white, and thus indicates to us that the Creator who made Redwood (and unbeknownst to most, over whom she held considerable sway) had planned whites for a long time. It would not surprise me had it indeed schemed and thought this out long before Creating Glace. Cawralla is thought to be the striped Original, though her place and method of Creation is unknown to all, except perhaps Redwood herself. The Creator who deals solely in Korats is a shrewd figure and a genius mind - he knew that Korats would one day become more numerous than almost any sentient Lavanian and would eventually grow out of our Tri-System. Though this has not happened yet, a few thousand years in the future will tell. Thus Cawralla was Created to be the epitome of Korats and everything that they are. Her First Fifty were all stripeds, and the traditional weakness attributed to mutations was not present at all. They truly were the best of the best, mixing two breeds into both physical and mental perfection. However, the Creator had specific plans for Cawralla and placed her on a planet he had made not far from the Tri-System, but far enough so that no communication would be possible, and the Olashi would not know. The theory is that, when stripeds began showing up in our genome, Cawralla had been Created using small parts of the other four Originals' long-gone shadows somehow. Pieces of her genome slipped over into theirs and thus into Korats as a whole, producing erratic mutations that were truly lesser stripeds than the actual powerful hybrids. This planet that Cawralla and her breed are supposedly on is referred to simply as Hope and only spoken of in whispered tones. It is Paradise to all stripeds who live in this prejudiced, terrible world that, long ago, common sense created for them. Only on Hope might they rest and heal from life-long torture.

Skills, Talents, and Training~ Most of these concepts are relatively new, arising only in the past fifty or sixty years, many because of an infamous black male named Wureshi. This Of Ana's Line black found as many true Koratian warriors as he could, starting at a very young age, and learned from them all they would teach... and then slaughtered them. Insanely talented to begin with, this mass of knowledge that he accumulated before destroying the source quickly made him one of the most powerful Korats alive... strong enough even to challenge Redwood and Ana and live through it (though he never bested the sidifir oerri and refrained from killing his own Original). In direct response to the threat posed by the black, who began spreading his genes in a hostile, totally new way (taking many mates, forcing them to bear cubs, and then killing them once they ceased to produce healthy offspring), many younger Korats began seeking out the few remaining masters left to train themselves in preparations to someday kill Wureshi. However, Wureshi is now in his 70s and possess literally hundreds of grown cubs that he trained himself, most as naturally skilled as their cruel father, and there are only a handful of masters still alive with a chance at winning against him.

However, in striving to increase their physical capabilities enough to best Wureshi, many Korats discovered that their species' limits had never truly been pushed; the last time they had struggled this hard to live and improve themselves was the Dark Wars, thousands of years ago. Thus the concept of 'training' entered the Koratian mind, a way of pushing themselves past their own personal breed and species limits and finding strengths yet untapped. The most famous masters, now, are a group of four Korats that hold a large territory on the continent of Penyns. Shula, pack leader, is the red grandson of Redwood herself; his pack seconds are all Of their respective Lines and all male. Black Atumi is the most feared of them all, his temper and skills unmatched. Tan Tew and white Erashun are less known but equally skilled in their own areas of expertise, though several isolated white packs know Erashun's philosophies, as the white spreads his thoughts wherever he may travel. There are several other solitary masters, some with powers to rival one of these four, but none are as well-known. Shula and his 'seconds are devoted to training students to a level of excellency previously unheard-of... and they welcome stripeds.

There are some basic skills and talents that have been known for centuries, if not longer. Telepathy, while not common on Lavana, is certainly understood and widely used by many different races; Korats, being linguists, are especially proficient at this mind-to-mind communication. The range of telepathy and the intensity of mental voice varies with the user's expertise, but many times emotions can be passed along if the link is strong enough; it's also possible (if not exactly easy) to telepath to more than one individual at a time. Telepathy can be learned by anyone, though it may take more effort with some than others to master.

One of the rarest and hardest to initiate and learn techniques is the Olde Kusani. Named after the old, well-known poem that claims that the Phoenix of the Flame created the Tri-System and its inhabitants, not Creators, the Olde Kusani lies latent in a select few Korats' veins. When discovered, huge black, leathery, draconic wings sprout from the Korat's flanks and spine and are proportioned to be able to lift the individual, no matter breed or weight, into the air for flight. These wings are never 'left out', so to speak, but reabsorbed into the body once they're no longer needed. The 15-second process is painful, requires intense concentration (often aided by a mantra, chanting, or a simple wordless roar), and cannot be done many times in a row due to the immense energy that it requires. There are rumors that there's a hybrid form of the O'Kusani with grey, thinly-furred draconic wings, but this has never been proven; theoretically, it's learned by only the most powerful Koratian masters and does not require being born with the skill.

Sensory techniques are both old and new. The concept itself dates back to the Elder Days, before the Dark Wars, but techniques are constantly being modified and created to better serve this purpose. Stripeds are especially adept at these types of techniques, as through keen senses they can stay alive by avoiding those beasts who would slaughter them for being two-colored. These techniques have three purposes - to hone all senses in a natural, alert mindset; to hone one sense to supremity when in a trance-like state; to expand all senses in a trance-like state to become uber-aware of one's surroundings. The first and last purposes are usually accomplished by working at the second. Concentration and willpower play a major role in beginning simplistic exercises that, once repeated over some time (months at least) will begin to sharpen each sense. As these exercises are continued over the years, there has been no limit yet to how keen each sense can become... though there are some logical limits to stop at, considering with a light trance-like state (akin to what Korats use to do major healing) can further increase sensitivity and range. Often, through using these techniques, a Korat will find their sixth sense (intuition) greatly increased.

Though present for centuries, energy techniques were little-known until Wureshi came to power as a racial threat. Though it's an accepted fact that life-force can be manipulated by willpower (as evidenced by Erauqs, Jrix, and a few other Lavanian races, as well as various individuals of many species), few Korats have ever mastered the art of either using their own energy (internal, limited energy) or gathering and manipulating energy of nature and their surroundings (external, unlimited energy). Atumi is possibly the most proficient Korat alive with both internal and external energy, able to draw from any natural object and possessing a great store of personal energy as well; his keen mind is easily able to form and direct such power for various effects... often used in battle. Energy attacks can take many forms, though most commonly are used as a blast or bolt from the mouth or a ball formed in the forehands. There are various ways to learn how to use energy, but in the circle of those well-versed in its usage, it's a well-known fact that drawing too much from internal power is often deadly, as most individuals have a set amount of energy and no more. An advanced technique involves drawing from one's own energy and letting one's body absorb new energy from the environment, thus creating an energy flow. Energy tends to have life-lengthening properties and the more and better one uses it, the younger they appear and the longer they probably live. (For example, Atumi is in his 50s and appears about 20.)

Korats to Know~ There are several (in)famous Korats that you should probably know. The first four are, naturally, the Originals. All females and considering themselves sisters, in order they are: tan Kaili (ever the pacifistic diplomat), black Ana (a noble mother-warrior), red Redwood (the 'one true Original' in most Korats' eyes, a fierce warrior and leader), and white Glace (the least-known). They all have titles and last names: Kaili Cadaver is vesefir aorri, meaning tan-Korat ancestress; likewise, Ana Exilic is korofir aorri, meaning black-Korat ancestress. Redwood Bane is sidifir oerri, red-Korat mother, and Glace Frore is ladafir oerri, white-Korat mother. All four are honored with the greatest respect (and in Redwood's case, fear) when met in person, which is more often than one might expect as all four travel quite a bit to keep track of their wide-spread race. Another Korat to know is Cawralla, though many non-stripeds have never heard her name -- theoretically, she is the striped Original, titleless and without a last name to speak of. She has all four colors on her pelt and is the epitome of the Koratian race... if the myth is true.

Four other Korats are those masters we've already discussed; red Shula, black Atumi, tan Tew, and white Erashun. They all have their specialties, and Shula is Redwood's grandson. Never take these four males lightly. ^_^ Wureshi is the infamous black killer who has fathered what amounts to a Koratian army, training them himself after gaining most of the knowledge in existence before slaughtering most Koratian masters. Only a few bested him or escaped his notice.

You should also know Drael and Edric. Known more commonly as Black Drael, this huge male is Redwood's current mate (being semi-immortal, she's had quite a few) and a nigh-invincible warrior. Edric is Kaili's current mate, a tan warrior in and of himself who is more impressive than he even appears. Raff, though now deceased, was a black male who invented the first Koratian/Lavanian game, Keep-the-Rod. Caleway, also dead, was a massive red mercenary whose fighting skills rivaled those of the best; he also possessed the Olde Kusani. After fighting Akartis, Redwood's tan son, he found himself unable to win and thus committed suicide, denying Akartis (Shula's father) the honor of the kill.