Arthwyd Views on Cats
Ever since they arrived amongst the People during Ymarn's mortal life, the Arthwyd have considered the feline creatures to be sacred and that Arthryn herself sent them to the People. While it is technically not true, the Arthwyd had no reason to believe that isn't and Arthryn herself is not inclined to correct them due to the resulting dishevel from doing so.
As a result, cats hold a valuable place in Arthwyd society even beyond their duties as pest-catchers. With the Arthwyd communities value their cats greatly, the animal has managed to permeate itself throughout Arthwydish culture. Cat iconography is commonly used by the People due to the animal's association with the Arthrynite goddesses and cats have a place in many Arthwydish rituals.
Beyond their sacred nature, the cats also served a useful purpose in hunting down vermin and pests that would otherwise. With large amounts of farming and densely population settlements, this means the cats are particularly effective for the Arthwyd. The net result is that thanks to cats being widespread throughout their villages and farms, the Arthwyd are able to maintain a high rate of food production in addition to keeping down their disease rate.
In addition to the sacred nature of cats and their useful purpose to society, the Arthwyd generally enjoy the company of their cats. The creatures are viewed as cute and adorable and while they can be annoying at times, their antics and behaviour is viewed fondly for the most part.
Between their sacred connection to the goddesses, their usefulness in society and being downright adorable, cats hold a special place amongst the Arthwyd.
The Arthrynite Afterlife
Their afterlife is something that the Arthwyd know well, even while they still live for it is the place that their goddesses reside. While they are goddesses, Arthryn and her Daughters are still members of the People who died at the end of their mortal lives and reside within the same place as all of the other dead souls of the People.
There is only one afterlife for the Arthwyd where all of their dead go. The afterlife has no set form and what a person perceives around them in the afterlife is limited only by their imagination and knowledge. As a result of this, the dead generally experience the afterlife as something similar to what they know in life.
Within the afterlife, all souls are equal and have no power over another soul with the only exception to this rule being the goddesses. Arthryn and her Daughters are powerful enough that if they desire, they can impose their will on the souls of the dead Arthwyd. Amongst the goddesses, Arthryn stands above her daughters in terms of power as she can override them and can impose her own will over her daughters.
For the most part, the goddesses don't impose their will on those in the afterlife and when they do, it is primarily for punishment with the exceptions being Wyrn pranking those that are willingly to indulge her and Ymarn keeping tabs on her friends and family. When it comes to punishment, it takes the form of whatever the goddesses will and it endures for as long as the goddess wills. While Arthryn is the one who primarily punishes the criminals of the Arthwyd in the afterlife, her Daughters will sometimes punish someone who has offended them with permission from their mother.
Arthwyd Death Rites
Compared to many other cultures, the Arthwyd are quite relaxed when it comes to rites for their dead. While other cultures may worry about the fate of the spirits of their dead, the Arthwyd already know what awaits their dead in the afterlife. Because of this, the Arthwyd don't concern themselves as much how the bodies of their dead are treated as while they don't disrespect them, they don't need to do extra to ensure the wellbeing of the dead souls.
The end result is that Arthwyd death rites are quite tame and lacklustre to what they could be. There are two primary Arthwydish death rites, one for when the person dies within a settlement and one when they die in the wilderness or foreign lands. The first is to burn the body and then spread the resulting ashes at a shrine or another holy site within the settlement. The second death rite is for when the person dies away from a shrine, in which case, the body is buried and their grave is marked with a stone that is marked to signify that it is a grave.
These death rites are a mixture of respect and practicality. They show enough respect to the bodies of the dead, but they are also designed to minimise the resources used so that valuable resources don't get unnecessarily wasted on the dead. The person's soul has already left the body and with Arthryn and her Daughters in the afterlife so how the body is treated is not about the fate of the person's soul, but showing proper respect to another member of your community.
The Cateyes
The oldest branch of the Arthwyd military, the Cateyes were formed by Ymarn during her mortal life after the Arthwyd's first war. With knowledge or a lack of it playing a vital role in the conflict and ultimately being one of the deciding factors in the final outcome, Ymarn deemed it important that the Arthwyd not get caught off-guard like they were and they be prepared for future conflicts.
The end result was the formation of the Cateyes. Taking their name from the cat, a deadly hunter and an animal sacred to Arthryn, the Cateyes were originally the People's best hunters who knew the lay of the land as second nature. For the many centuries until Evalyn formed the Catclaws, the People relied upon their hunters to wage war for them as the hunters would turn their skills at killing animals to killing other people and in the time between the end of the Arthwyd-Merntir war and the formation of the Catclaws, the Cateyes formed the elite core of the Arthwyd military.
While they had no special skill at killing compared to regular hunters, the Cateyes are masters at living off the land and finding their way about the wilderness. They led the way went it came to war as it was the Cateyes who guided the rest of their hunters to attack either the enemy settlements or the enemy warbands and hunting parties.
Since the introduction of the Catclaws to the Arthwyd military, the role of the Cateyes has changed. No longer are they are most elite of the hunters, but are one half of the military. The Catclaws are the warriors of the People while the Cateyes are the scouts. While it is the Catclaws who fight the battles, the Cateyes track down enemy tracks, spy on them for information and lead the Catclaws to their foes.
When it comes operating, the Catclaws focus on the art of tracking down their foes and use both a mixture of traditional tracking skills and the divine magic of the All-Seeress to hunt down their enemies. Unlike the Catclaws who use a more varied amount of divine magic, the Catclaws are primarily focused on using the magic of the All-Seeress and only occasionally use the magic of the other goddesses.
The Catclaws
The newest addition to the Arthwyd military, the Catclaws make up one half of it alongside the Cateyes. The Catclaws are relative few in number compared to the warriors of neighbouring barbarians, but make up for it in being superior combatants. Not only do they train to a greater degree to their barbarian counterparts, but the Catclaws also wield the divine magic of the Arthrynite goddesses.
While they generally favour one or two weapons, the Catclaws train with a variety of weapons and devote their lives to the art of war. They will spend most of their day training to fight or learning how to wage both war and battle in addition to becoming proficient with the divine magics of the goddesses. While the priesthood and the Cateyes also wield divine magic, they tend to specialise and while the Catclaws may not match them in their chosen areas, they have a superior overall competence at all of the divine magics.
Despite their sacred nature and fulfilling a vital position within Arthwyd society, the Catclaws are viewed an necessary evil, even by themselves. This while they understand the dangers of war and the importance of being able to defend your people from outside threats, the Arthwyd view warfare as barbaric and deem anyone who sees war as a desirable thing to be a barbarian. Yet while they hold this disdain for war, it does not extend to the Catclaws who, despite their unfortunately profession, are highly respected by the People and almost as much so as the priests themselves.
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I haven't proofread it so there may be spelling and grammar mistakes.
