As promised, here I am! It's time to talk about how I decided to handle the Felkin in my original world, after having fleshed them out a bit.
The World in General
Let's start of with a quick rundown of my world itself. Initially, then the humans and the human-similar races were on Pherica, and most of the furry races like Tabaxi, Dragonborn etc were on Geodeus. There was a Pherican exodeus to Geodeus in process because Pherica was experiencing Plot.
After the party's level 3 Wizard smashed the two planets into each other by sheer power of RNG and overconfidence, then that wiped out most Pherica races because they'd concentrated in the impact area during their exodus, and it quite thoroughly fucked over most of the furry races too.
Now, an important distinction: The furry races here were all of the ones that, while common and popular in furry art, needed to have actual species names assigned, rather than just being referred to as Anthro Wolves, Anthro Eagles, Anthro Cats, and so forth. I didn't place furry races that already had their own species on the main world, but rather on a parallel plane. From a game design standpoint, this is to make sure that my non-furry players had time to go through a graduated process of steadily more furry stuff without getting overwhelmed. Start with the official content, progress to official-adjacent homebrew, and then finally break out the Specifically Furry stuff.
The Broken Plane
So that brings us to where the Felkin are found within my setting: An alternate plane of existence known as The Broken Plane. Called as such for two reasons: Firstly, the flow of time there is distorted, and has a tendency to have small patches blink out of existence, jitter around, or warp forwards. Secondly, when Castoria was young, then a specific kind of dragon took a voluntary planar exile to this dimension: That being the Mercury Dragon. As Metallic Dragons, Mercuries are inherently good-natured, but this is at severe odds with their innate magic. Unlike other Metallic dragons, Mercuries in my world slowly poison the world around them. The only way to ensure they didn't render Castoria uninhabitable was to take themselves out of Castoria, to the least populated plane they could find.
Over time, several other races would also end up on the Broken Plane. Pink Dragons, which represent obession and love turned dark were defeated on a global scale and forced to flee here. And similarly, Obsidian Dragons brought so much danger upon the other Gem Dragons that they were also banished to this poisoned plane of few useable resources, to prevent them from scheming. But there was also a second voluntary newcomer: The Avali.
Avali within my world formed one of the proto-civilizations and were some of the first to understand Arcane magic. At the time, they looked much different and were seekers of biological advancement; evolution that would defy the need for time. To that end, they relocated to the Broken Plane, and their arcanists attempted to use a spell that would progress their race several hundred generations, as a way to evolve at hyper-speed. This spell however, was too much for a proto-civilization to ever handle, and in turn it destroyed the entire flow of time on the Broken Plane. The only Avali to remember this now is their god, also known as The Commander, but despite the catastrophe, they retained enough survival skill to live on as residents of the now Broken Plane.
Get to the point.
Fair enough. We've put all the relevant pieces on the board.
So, Obsidian Dragons want to scheme. They can't scheme, because they don't have the resources. So, one of the more powerful Obsidian Dragons invests her resources in creating the perfect livestock. Capable of being beasts of burden, guard dogs, a food source, trimmed for fur or skinned for pelts, slaves that can power machinery, and servants for castles and lairs. Intelligent. Not quite capable of independence. And most importantly, capable of feeding themselves off all the poisons of the Broken Plane. And after a great deal of design, then the perfect crossing point between a draft horse, a wolf, and a dragon was reached. Lo and behold:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Felkin_(5e_Race)
We have our first Felkin, about 700 years ago. (Playable template created by me, its' lore being a generalized draft of this)
Anyways, the Mercury Dragons find out about this, and decide 'Wow, intelligent creatures as livestock? Fuck that.', because they do in fact have morals. As a result, some of them band together and set the Felkin free into the rest of the Broken Plane, where unlike everyone else, they THRIVE. No need to cook meals for five hours to get the poison out!
In any case, they're intelligent, but they don't have hands. After about a year, they hit a population of 100, which is the normal population needed in my setting for one member of a race; the member that best represents its' ideal, to ascend to divinity. Deities draw power from all members of their race, so Sarga the Beast of Colours? Even if he grew bigger and stronger, still a very minor god at his moment of ascension. Only barely stronger than his own creator dragon if it were a 1v1, and there's no way you'll ever get to 1v1 an Obsidian Dragon. They will stick an army on you.
So what Sarga does is go to The Commander and propose an Avali-Felkin alliance. Being outright designed for farmwork and self-sufficiency, then their aid would be a huge boon to the Avali, and in turn, the Avali had the opposable thumbs and technological know-how to outfit the Felkin with medicines, armour, and shelter. Even if the two races didn't merge into one civilization, it became an extremely close alliance, especially since they covered each other's weaknesses so well- Muscle and Magic.
Felkin Culture
Right, so forwards another 690 years(nice). The Felkin have actually had some time to get established now, develop their own culture, find their place in the world.
What Felkin are great at on the Broken Plane is farming, travelling, and helping. Farms are always a ridiculously precious investment, especially for the Avali who count on them to grow the two 'miracle crops' that they derive their setting's equivalents to nanofibers and aegis gel from (Silkgrass, and Guardian Gel), but also for all the default crops of the Broken Plane, which are liable to become impossible to tend if you can't feed yourself while they grow, or get stolen by the desperate or imperious once they have grown. Felkin can manage a field with ease, feed themselves for free, and chase off even a small band of actual armed soldiers from an Obsidian or Pink Dragon that's gotten too big for their boots.
Similarly, as far as travelling goes, then unlike a horse they don't need grain, they're not liable to drop dead from a single issue, they can care for themselves, and they can memorize important routes for traders, doubly relevant when most Avali are semi-nomadic. A Felkin trader can outpace any rival that isn't using magic, and if you have magic, why on Castoria are you working as a trader?
And their ultimate trait? Even if the lack of hands often holds them back from a main role, they are some of the best supporters out there. They were made to be a pack animal that could do everything an animal could do. They've got the strength, the will and the natural skill for just about any task you can hire someone for.
But on a more individual level, what do they believe? Well, let's take a look at Sarga, the Beast of Colours. Twice the size of a normal Felkin, fur coat that's covered in swatches of almost every colour imaginable, and having taken the Harlequin Opal as his sacred material for its' resemblance to him. He lives in a secret grotto that allows him to watch over the heartlands of the Broken Plane for signs of trouble, wearing little more than a gold mantle set with one of his sacred gems, a nose ring, and a pair of golden anklets wrapped with Silkgrass cloth that complete the look. He keeps a pack of six Felkin at his side as both an honour guard and close companions, and as a holy symbol? Well, the Obsidian Dragons designed his race to default to gay, to make it easy to control how much livestock they had on hand. He decided that fuck that, it was part of their identity and that if you wanted to be able to channel his magic, you'd accept them- everything about them- hence his holy symbols always depicting 'acts of love' that would make the ancient greeks proud. And more than that, he also treasures his race's bonds to both the Avali and the Mercury Dragons, and he puts a genuine effort into maintaining that bond through thick and thin.
Much like Sarga, other Felkin also believe in the ideals of bonding into a pack, supporting the team, harmonic balance between wilderness and civilization, gay sex, and ensuring that one's team has the physical and emotional support needed to succeed.
Anything else?
Yeah I couldn't figure out how to work this in naturally, but the reason that Felkin and Avali both have extremely wide colour palettes in this setting? And often look absolutely crazy colours? Well, the Broken Plane's plants are all extremely brightly coloured as well. Even after getting the poison out, eating a crop from the Broken Plane is about the same as eating three cartridges of printer ink. Over time, then just like how flamingoes are turned pink by what they eat, the food of the Broken Plane eventually turns your fur (or hair) Fursona Colours.
