creating the evolution and culture of a cat-like alien race

So I'm thinking about writing a story based on an alien world where the dominant species is cat-like and they treat their equivalent to great apes as dangerous beasts because they are a cross between great apes and big cats so I was wondering how that might affect their culture

I think we have to specify a bit further on what "cat-like" entails to help with the biology. So as for the questions:

• How close are they to cats?
• how close are they to humans?
• What traits do they share with either?

For example, I have a WIP setting where animal/human hybrids exist and those tend to resemble the likes of Centaurs, Cat Girl and other kinds of distinctly human types of chimeras that would characterize the typical examples on Cute Monster Girl and Little Bit Beastly, but that was specifically the result of genetic mutation by humans. As such they are also culturally closer to Earth societies despite living lightyears away.

More natural evolution exist, but they would have to begin with a feline (or feline-esque) ancestor. Foe example, the Saber-tooth tigers evolved into other felines, but not modern day apes. A cognate would also be needed for the Great-ape analogue as well, and likely for other species in this world besides. Results would vary on either case, as they would range from bipedal to quadrupedal and maybe beyond, ad would also likely vary in other traits, but they are more likely to be at the Beast Man level at best (so something around the ballpark of Warrior Cats), the ape anolouge would likely be more zoomorphed and would likely hover anywhere from the normal un-sapient state to maybe around Partially Civilized Animal.

As an aside I will also look into existing prehistoric cats for inspiration, as I am certain there are more than the ST-tigers despite that being my only known reference point for wildcat ancestors. I'll also suggest looking into how homo sapiens and neanderthals interacted as well.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jul 23rd 2023 at 12:33:09 PM

It would depend, I think, on just how they developed—and, as mentioned above, just how close to terrestrial cats they really are. And, for that matter, what sort of cats they resemble—house-cats? Lions? Cheetahs? Leopards? Something else...? Different cats have different traits, after all.

Presuming that they're descended from creatures just like our house-cats, then one thing that occurs to me is that cats, while social, don't have a "social survival strategy": each cat hunts on their own.

I'd imagine that their descendants would tend then to be highly individualistic: collectivistic philosophies would seem unlikely to take much hold amongst them.

In terms of apes, they might tend to culturally depict great apes much as we depict wolves or bears: often as villains or monsters.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jul 23rd 2023 at 9:47:25 PM

yeah i haven't really thought about the exact ratio between can and human let's say they have cat-like reflexes and diet and human-like hands and dexterity if that's not enough information how about you suggest some features starting from the "dangerous beasts"

like they're closer to big cats like panthers then house cats

Edited by Wild-Starfish on Jul 23rd 2023 at 2:58:55 PM

Okay, but that still covers a range of behaviours: for example, lions are social and actually hunt together, while leopards aren't terribly social; and in lions the males (given a pride) don't really hunt, while I think that all adult leopards hunt.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jul 23rd 2023 at 10:14:36 AM

Well first of all, consider what kind of traits you want them to have. Cats (or even, most cat-likes IE Feliformia) are solitary hunters. If they're not solitary, consider how they'd arrange groups. What's the sexual dimorphism like? If you don't know, pick some cat types you like and see how they work, then work backwards.

the second one is: what kind of culture do you want them to have? culture is heavily dependent on both context and history, and for a fictional species you can define both like what you want. Do you want them to be stereotypical cats? do you want something different? would their hunting instincts lead them to have an incredibly violent and warlike society or would organized society surpress that?

actually about that second one that's kind of what i was asking about

But culture doesn't drop from the sky. It's something that evolves as values and ideas that a species values or abhors. The Mongols weren't expert horse riders for fun, it was deeply tied to their nomadic lifestyle. They valued things like horse riding because it was important to what they did. Coastal nations value shipbuilding and sailing as skills because it's important to their lifestyle which involves trade and (frequently) conquest.

So it's difficult to think of what culture they have -and frankly, if they live across a planet they would not have a monoculture either- if you don't really have a good idea of what they even are.

So there's really only two options here: either you build culture from the ground up by figuring out everything else (species, planet, habitat, environment, history, etc) or you consider what culture you want them to have and then go backward.

Do you have a plot outline for your story yet? Because that's really the first step.

ok so actually they're magic i just didn't want that to affect the reach of this thread so they have the five element system that i already came up with to recap the elements are somewhat arbitrarily defined as light, which includes all things that produce light as well as the absence of light, ground, which is as vague as it normally is, air, which includes poisoned air and scopes into all things invisible including gravity as well as the lack of air, water, wihich includes ice (it's my least fleshed out element) and life, which includes animals, plants and souls

I feel that before we get to things like magic, it might be a good idea to figure out the fundamentals.

(Although noting that it may well be worth examining how—and whether—magic has had much impact on their culture. But later, I feel.)

So, building off of what devak said, how do you want to approach this? Do you want to build a culture from the ground up, or determine a culture first and then justify it?

If the former (which has seemed to be the case thus far), I'd suggest coming up with some specifics to work from:

To start with, what Earth species did their ancestors most resemble? (Specifically, mind you: not "a big cat", but an actual species: jaguar, for example, or lion.)

On which note, did their ancestor species differ from their Earth-analogue in any ways?

And next, where did their ancestors live—what was the geography and biome around them?

For that matter, where were they on the food chain? Not all big cats are at the top, as I recall.