Tagraxi

Fully adult tagraxi have a combination physiology between giant cats and snakes--they have long, winding bodies, and up to twelve pairs of legs. Their pronounced, whip-like tails add nearly a third of their total body length in themselves. Pauldron-like scales cover their shoulders and joints, from which juts out their impressively dense and bushy fur. The outer and over fur tends to be a pronounced color with differing stripe patterns, while the under (or 'belly' fur) is usually white, gray, or golden. As a whole, they are very colorful, sporting bright reds, teals, greens, yellows, and oranges. Their paws are each have three pronounced claws, spread out enough to really help their gripping power.   The cat head of a tagraxi is complimented by its unhinging jaw and blade-like teeth, turning it into a living funnel of flesh rending terror. Using their paws, they tend to move prey in and out of their mouths, scraping everything off they can get. What those cannot, their bristling tongues can lick flesh right off the bone. They have one pair of primary eyes, and two sets of secondary eyes set above and below their primary--all three pairs can look independently, giving them an incredible forward facing visual acuity. Notably, their stripe patterns tend to become random on their faces, a sort of visual fingerprint for every tagraxi. Old Nerzin tribal war masks are thought to have been made to imitate this effect and acquire the tagraxi's strength.   Female tagraxi are defined by their fur producing longer, wispier fibers and a neck-enveloping mane. Males, by comparison, are sleeker and their scales grow more for added protection. They each have a single pair of whiskers coming out beneath their triangular noses. These long, tubular strands have a curious 'lighter-than-air' nature, letting them float and sway in a mystifying way.

Cunning Predator -- Tagraxi have frightening minds able to plot ruses, arrange (rudimentary) traps, and otherwise manipulate prey to have a decisive advantage against them.   Redundant Organs -- Their impressive bodies house multiple redundant organs. They can effectively take lethal blows and come out still at high performance. A few captured specimens shed light that these extra organs are not utilized actively, meaning there is some sense of conservation going on.

Mating in the hot summer months and giving birth in the colder winter months, the females give live birth to generally small groups of kittens averaging four to six in size.

Tagraxi kittens stay with their mother for a few years. As they age, their bodies 'lengthen', growing each new section that is effectively more spine, organs, and another pair of legs. At around three pairs of legs, the adolescents leave to live on their own for the rest of their lives. Adulthood is normally marked at around nine pairs of legs. The oldest tagraxi are denoted at ten, eleven, and twelve pairs of legs.

At home in Nerzin, particularly its eastern territories. Tagraxi live in the pseudo-jungle and humid climate the dominates Nerzin, but can live quite happily in mountainous areas. Those who wander westward are rarer, as more open plains and settled territory can make it hard for them to sneak about. They are overtly fond of difficult terrain, as much to ambush as to give them something to move around in.

Carnivorous; tagraxi eat meat and lots of it.

Having long adapted to a relatively stable climate, the hot and cold periods really only mark their mating seasons. They do follow the migrations of their preferred prey, as the tagraxi have a large dietary demand for meat.

Tagraxi are martial milestones, and the bounty they offer is nothing to scoff at. Much of their bodies can be broken down and utilized for magical refinement, making them a premium product in markets or for magical needs. Bladed weapons forged from them benefit from rather powerful cutting properties, able to slash through metals as easily as tagraxi themselves do. Sadly there is not much for armor--their fur, however, is an exorbitant luxury and often considered one of the finest furs to have for clothing.