Mythic Origins

A great contest was held to determine who the fastest animal was. The animals trained and raced until only the antelope and cheetah remained. The antelope with its hard hooves was already equipped to run over the harsh terrain, but the cheetah had to borrow the wild dog's rougher paws to ensure she'd have a good grip on the ground. The elephant blew his trunk and the runners took off. The leggy antelope was ahead but stumbled and fell, which allowed the cheetah to speed ahead. Upon seeing that the antelope was injured, the cheetah turned around, returned to the antelope and asked what she could do to help.

The other animals were moved by this show of compassion. God was too. As a reward, the cheetah was declared to be the fastest runner, her form bestowed with long limbs, a light body, a long tail for balancing, and feet like those of the wild dog, making her perfect for swift runs.

The cheetah soon became the best hunter in the savannah. The people who lived there watched her in fascination as she hunted. The tribe's headman sent the young men to learn the cheetah's hunting tactics, but one was particularly lazy. After watching the cheetah, he had the idea to have the cheetah hunt for him, allowing him to enjoy the shade while still getting to eat. One day while she was out, the young hunter snuck into her den and stole her two cubs, intending to train them to hunt for him.

When cheetah returned, finding her cubs gone, she called and sought them desperately. In panic, she looked for them in every part of that vast land – across the grasslands, on rocky mountains, in the dense forests and in thorny scrublands. Her smooth skin now had deep marks and cuts, and the tears that rolled down her cheeks left a deep brown scar on both sides of her nose.

When the headman heard about Zandu’s evil plan, he ordered him to take the cubs back to the cave; as a punishment he had to hunt food for all the people of the village for a month. The mother cheetah was, of course, delighted to have her babies back. But the unfortunate incident left marks on her body and face for ever.

Leadership & Social Structure

A group of Werecheetahs is called a Banja and is a tightly-knit group, a family regardless of the backgrounds of those within it. Like Werewolves, the Banja is everything, with the group's welfare being more important than individual's.

Werecheetahs are matriarchal, led by a female Mayi who is typically a woman in her physical prime who also possesses the maturity of an older woman. She serves as both leader and mother to the group. Older woman are viewed with respect and grandmotherly affection, their importance in the Banja not diminished by age.

Males of all ages and ranks are important to the group, bolstering their overall strength and ability to protect the Banja, as well as providing masculine balance to femininity, logic to emotion, and the pillars of stability needed.

General Traits & Abilities

Werecheetahs are amazingly fast, not only able to run at speeds great enough run on water or up walls and other surfaces, but to move quickly as well. This enables them to employ blitzkrieg style attacks where their target is struck and the cheetah has retreated before the target has caught up. Some are able to further use this natural speed to confuse others with rapid speech.

In general, werecheetahs are resilient, able to endure long periods without food, water, sleep, or other necessities and to endure a variety of climates without ill effect. Cheetahs are also able to tug on the emotions of others to inspire specific feelings, and can deliver phantom caresses of pain or pleasure.