Homebrew Cadriths Species Details
Cadriths
A feline based creature, similar in appearance to a Sabertooth cat. Their coat is short, and often neutral browns and greens mixed depending on their environment, with small moss like patches that are luminescent green and glow in the dark. This is because more often than not their body is covered with the growing plant life of their habitat. Moss, bushes, fungi etc.
Identifying Features:
Cadrith’s can be told apart by their tails. They all have a different way of having plants grown on them. Whether it be just thorny vines or long stem flowers that coil around the tailbone.
Weaknesses:
Fire, Barren terrain, pollutants, poison
Diet:
Fresh and Decaying flesh, plants, fish- basically anything organic. Their saliva can help speed up the decaying and disintegrating process of their food, activated as they chew. In desperate times they may shrink in size and rely on the photosynthesis of the plants on their bodies for nutrients
Sizes:
Based on the health of their habitat.
Cubs: 18-19 inches long 5-7lbs
Weakened/ Starved State: 9.5 inch tall, 18 inch long (Without tail) 9lbs (4.08 kg)
Average: 7.10-8.10 ft tall from foot to shoulder,18 ft long-20 (Without tail) 4,500lbs-6000lbs
Paradise/Elder: Unknown/ Not Recorded
Females vs Males
Unlike Many species there are few differences between males and females when it comes to sizing, having the same range in sizes.
The key differences between the sexes are mostly physical feature based
Males:
Males tend to be less floral, preferring moss and dark shrubbery growing on their bodies, especially thorny plants that they have along their spines and down their tails. The upper canines jut down bast the lower jawline on a male. Their fangs are used for scraping up and tilling the earth for plants, as well as nipping and massaging a female’s neck when courting.
Females:
Females go for more colorful plants growing on them to show off the fertility of their bodies and attract a mate. Unlike males it is the female’s bottom canines are the pronounced ones, used for digging up soil and scooping up their cubs if need be.
Social Behavior and ranking
While Cadrith’s have their own territory for displaying their power, they do have a similar mentality of that of a pack animal and are sociable with relatives and potential mates. The younger Cadrith’s are responsible for expanding the forest for the benefit of the ‘pack’ as a whole. The deeper you go into a forest, the larger and older the Cadriths. The ‘heart’ of the forest is where all Cadrith’s meet when there is a time of crisis. The ‘heart’ is where the Elder Cadrith lives. There is always one, in a forest and they have aged and grown over time, to the point where they are mostly dormant in slumber with trees and much larger vegetation growing on them. The Elder is only awoken in times of potential danger to the pack and the forest.
Mating and Offspring
Mating season is in the fall and happens once every 3 years. The females try to show off the plants feeding off their bodies having not wilted or died or started hibernation compared to the rest of the forest around them as a sign of their fertile and healthy bodies and attracting a mate. A female will aim for a specific male they desire and show off, though another male may still try to challenge for a chance.
Gestation lasts the three months of winter while the Cadrith’s go into hibernation. A Cadrith can average a litter of three to nine cubs though the first litter is often only one to three. The cubs stay with the mother for two years. At birth they are deaf and blind and their fur is much fluffier and resembling moss. When there is a need to move the cubs for safety they will be put on their mother’s back, curled up in the roots and vegetation to get some sunlight and also be protected from predators.
0-3 months of age (Spring)
Blind and deaf, feed off milk and sunlight. Only their puffy moss like fur and only a small bunt of a tail and no prominent fangs.
4-6 months of age
Eyes are open and hearing is developing. Their fur becomes more coarse and prickly as they shed the mossy fluff. Still nursing and relying on mother for transportation, but are starting to stand and practice walking.
7-9 months or age (Fall)
Weaning off of mother’s milk and starting a diet of small insects, mushrooms and other things found on the forest floor. There is little to no mossy fur left on their bodies and their fur is thinning out as they start to learn how to let plants grow on their bodies. Their tails have grown longer as well. They will eat almost double their body weight in the following weeks before their first winter.
10-12 months of age (Winter)
During their first winter they hibernate with their mother. During this time there is a major growth spurt. Their claws and fangs thicken and grow, becoming more prominent and extending past their lips. Their vine-like woven tails grow out as well to final length.
13-15 months of age (Spring)
Still on average half the size of their mother, they will still stay close and learn how to fight, hunt, keep the forest balanced and bring fresh seedling and saplings further out to expand the forest. Their diet has expanded to larger prey as well as fruits and fish.
16-18 months of age (Summer)
Around this time, the mother will give more advanced lessons. Not only becoming more physical with their combat training and helping less with hunts, but also understanding the health of the habitat and how to heal and tend to sick or injured plants. During these months the cubs will start to explore the mother’s territory solo to build their confidence and will even test crossing borders into other territories.
19-21 months of age (Fall)
These months are the most difficult. The mother must make sure the cubs are ready to survive on their own. She will not hunt or share food with them. Sometimes the mother may charge or attack them at random to help the learn to keep their guard up. While the cubs may still stay in their mother’s territory, they will be pushed to leave it and explore others and try to claim their own.
22-24 months of age(Winter)
The mother will distance herself from her cubs and focus on her own hibernation. While some cubs may try to share a den with her once she is asleep, they by now have been pushed out of their mother’s territory and expected to claim their own territory and den. Some cubs have been seen staying together for at most an extra year.
*If they do risk hibernating with their mother, they best wake before she does, because she will become aggressive and chase them out of her territory.
Dangers and Threats
The luminescent fur of Cadriths is highly sought after because even after being detached they will hold their glow for months. This is often found useful for travelers and even some wealthy humans who use them for decor. Some have even been tempted to capture Cadrith’s and sell them to wealthy buyers or royalty to place in their palace gardens and show off. Though it is rare for one to live its usual long lifespan under such conditions because of the low amount of vegetation in comparison to their natural habitat, as well as their defensive nature leading to attacks and having to be either released or the more commonly resorted to method, euthanized.
Under distress and and lack of nutrients, Cadriths will shrink in size to conserve energy and needs, though can only go for short periods of time in that form and cannot reproduce or have much growing on them other than perhaps mushrooms and weeds like when they were cubs.
Cadriths Traits
A large feline race known for: Camouflage, Symbiosis with Plants, Fluorescent Moss like fur, Shapeshifting, Healing BloodTalk to Plants
Because of the symbiotic relationship between Cadriths and plants, they have the ability to use plant related spells and cantrips. Spells still need to obey the character level restrictions.
Plant Sacrifice!
When a Cadriths get down to 20% or less of their HP, as a bonus action and/or reaction, they may absorb the life out of 1 plant either on their body or within 5 ft of them, rolling 1d6+2 of HP
Dexterity and Constitution Bonus
Being a Cadrith gives you a +2 to DEX Ability Score, and a +1 to CON Ability Score
Environment Impact
The size of the Cadrith is impacted by the environment. In barren/ drought conditions, the Cadrith will shrink down to the size of an average house cat. When this happens STR and CON mod is changed to -3
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