Tabaxi

Tabaxi, also known as jaguar people or cat-men, were a race of feline humanoids.

Description
Tabaxi were taller than most humans at six to seven feet. Their bodies were slender and covered in spotted or striped fur. Like most felines, Tabaxi had long tails and retractable claws. Tabaxi fur color ranged from light yellow to brownish red. Tabaxi eyes were slit-pupiled and usually green or yellow.

Tabaxi were competent swimmers and climbers as well as speedy runners. They had a good sense of balance and an acute sense of smell.

Etymology
Depending on their region and fur coloration, tabaxi were known by different names. Tabaxi with solid spots were sometimes called leopard men and tabaxi with rosette spots were called jaguar men.

The way the tabaxi pronounced their own name also varied; the "leopard men" pronounced it ta-BÆK-see, and the jaguar men tah-BAHSH-ee.

Personality
Tabaxi were a reclusive people who often avoided interaction with other intelligent races. However, as each tabaxi possessed a specific feline trait, some had an innate curiosity that compelled them to travel and seek out stories, artifacts, new experiences and knowledge, never remaining in the same place or obsessing over the same piece of lore for too long.

In general, tabaxi did not care for wealth, but they had an almost obsessive interest in ancient artifacts, relics and magic items, but not for the items themselves, as much as the stories and secrets they held. Once an item had been thoroughly examined and studied, and its secrets revealed, it would lose its allure and the tabaxi would quickly lose interest and pass it on.

Not all tabaxi were motivated by curiosity to leave their homeland, however. Some found safer ways to satisfy their fleeting obsessions by becoming traveling minstrels and tinkers, often accepting interesting objects and stories as payment for their services.