What I know of Tabaxi from Volo's Guide and previous editions is that they come from Maztica (which wasn't "discovered" until 1361 DR), and only (relatively) recently began venturing from their homes there. I curious what an in-universe reason there would be for there to be "old" statues of Ubtao in Tabaxi form in Chult. Am I wrong in thinking that Tabaxi weren't around the eastern continents more than 150 years ago? Did Ubtao just choose a mysterious form of a race from the other side of the world to appear as? Perhaps the "old" statues are actually only a couple decades old? I'm sure there's a lot of wiggle room when giving my players an answer when they inevitably ask about it, but I'm not sure which explanation is closest to the official accounts.
It's because of an old mix-up from previous editions. There used to be a tribe of humans known as the Tabaxi that lived in Chult and there were also the Tabaxi cat-people that moved in later. Between various editions this distinction became even more convoluted to the point where we are now. As far as 5th Ed material is concerned, all references to the Tabaxi refer to the cat-people, and the human tribe has been pretty much ignored.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
The story is a homage to Columbus discovering native Americans and named the Indians. The explorer saw a Chultan Tabaxi-Tribe member wearing their traditional jaguar skins from behind and asked another what that thing was. The answer was Tabaxi, then he assumed that all Cat people where known as Tabaxi.
But in ToA almost all native tribes have been eliminated by the plague of undeath and unified as one Chultan people in Port Nyazaro.
So now we have a more clear distinction between Tabaxi-Tribe (probably extinct) and Mastiza catfolk Tabaxi, since only one lives now.
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What I know of Tabaxi from Volo's Guide and previous editions is that they come from Maztica (which wasn't "discovered" until 1361 DR), and only (relatively) recently began venturing from their homes there. I curious what an in-universe reason there would be for there to be "old" statues of Ubtao in Tabaxi form in Chult. Am I wrong in thinking that Tabaxi weren't around the eastern continents more than 150 years ago? Did Ubtao just choose a mysterious form of a race from the other side of the world to appear as? Perhaps the "old" statues are actually only a couple decades old? I'm sure there's a lot of wiggle room when giving my players an answer when they inevitably ask about it, but I'm not sure which explanation is closest to the official accounts.
It's because of an old mix-up from previous editions. There used to be a tribe of humans known as the Tabaxi that lived in Chult and there were also the Tabaxi cat-people that moved in later. Between various editions this distinction became even more convoluted to the point where we are now. As far as 5th Ed material is concerned, all references to the Tabaxi refer to the cat-people, and the human tribe has been pretty much ignored.
Yea that is strange indeed. One of my players wanted to play a Tabaxi, and when reading the lore I got incredibly confused.
I just ruled that Tabaxi have lived in Chult before the spellplague.
The story is a homage to Columbus discovering native Americans and named the Indians. The explorer saw a Chultan Tabaxi-Tribe member wearing their traditional jaguar skins from behind and asked another what that thing was. The answer was Tabaxi, then he assumed that all Cat people where known as Tabaxi.
But in ToA almost all native tribes have been eliminated by the plague of undeath and unified as one Chultan people in Port Nyazaro.
So now we have a more clear distinction between Tabaxi-Tribe (probably extinct) and Mastiza catfolk Tabaxi, since only one lives now.