Lanthrei
The panther strain, and the one that walked off. The Lanthrei are "a muscular and wilder prowling strain of the species. Being of an explorative and hunting tropical variation, they are reclusive naturally, but some venture within civilizations, and have been said to venture east." They keep no prisons and hold no titles, and the warden line regards them as having wandered off, which within this species is close to the worst thing that can be said about anyone.
They are the only Lathonians who swim by choice, and in a people whose other seven strains will not enter deep water that is the whole of their reputation. The river roads call them water cats. Anything sold under that name on a road stall is river game under a name the seller thinks is funny, and a Lanthrei who hears the joke will explain why it is not one.
Body
Sharp orange eyes in dense black fur, and the darkest night vision in the species, which in a people that already sees where a Nu'uman sees nothing is a considerable claim. Six feet and heavy through the chest, upright and long in the arm like all their kind, with the fur tight to the body and scarred over.
The hand is the species hand and the claws do not sheathe, so a Lanthrei carries the same four lines across its palms as any warden and tears cloth and paper the same way. Wet, the coat lies flat to the skin and the whole animal reads as a shadow with weight in it.
Country
The delta and river country is theirs, and they take fish, boar and caiman out of water that other strains will not enter. Some have been said to venture east. They keep nothing fixed: most are solitary or in pairs, they build no holds, and the warden societies have no address for a single one of them.
Faith
They keep the Kept Law in a stripped-down form with no Keyholder and no Telling. The world is still a hold and the term is still being served, but there is nobody in a Lanthrei's life to recite it to him once a year and no iron key on a cord anywhere in the strain. The other seven read this as the same desertion as the empty prisons.
Lore
Summary
Extended Lore
Still unwritten in the record for this entry.
- How far east the ones who venture east have gone
- Whether a Lanthrei ever returns to a warden hold, and what is done with him if he does
- What a Lanthrei does with the Kept Law when there is nobody to Tell it