The largest species of kiarrcat, these massive felines look almost as if they might have a touch of polar bear in their ancestry. A Polar kiarrcat is well built, equipped with thick fur and a generous layer of fat under the skin to retain heat. Like Mountains, they shed much of this fur in the summer, but even their summer coats are thick and warm. They have massive paws, which aren't very good for manipulating objects, but help prevent the kiarrcat from sinking into snow, as well as propelling them through the water when swimming. The ears are tiny, and the tail practically nonexistant. As their native habitat is poor in land-dwelling prey, Polars are excellent swimmers. Though not as powerful as the Waters, Polars are graceful yet deadly underwater, hunting down all manner of swimming creatures. These tough, hardy kiarrcats can survive temperatures low enough to kill any other type and go for a long time without food, but they are immensely prone to heatstroke and are confined to Ryll's coldest regions.
Despite this limitation, Polars can be found in a surprising number of areas around Ryll. Almost all Polars are nomadic so as to avoid exhausting the limited food supply, but a few stationary settlements exist in comparatively richer lands. The largest concentrations of population can be found in the tundra, where game is plentiful during the short summer. As ice and snow melt during the warmer months, tundra-dwelling Polars will enlist the help of neighbouring Mountains to carve out dens, or make their own shelters out of animal skins. Tundra dewlling Polars, like Mountains, will often migrate to the taiga forests in winter, but they don't stay year round as they find the summer heat to be too much to bear. In the polar icecaps, meanwhile, Polars build their dwellings out of ice. Very few of these sculpted homes are used year-round, as the locals are always on the move, so they are left for the next clan to come along to inhabit and add on to. Over the years, these temporary villages have become quite elaborate as the inhabitants keep building up on what the previous inhabitants have made, becoming veritable ice palaces quite out of proportion to the population.
Finally, some Polars have settled on mountaintops, where the temperature is low enough for them to be comfortable. By doing so, they have been able to colonise parts of Ryll they would otherwise be unable to reach, even in the tropics. These islands of cold not only allow Polars to mingle with species they would otherwise be unable to, but they provide migration corridors for Polars wishing to travel between the northern and southern hemispheres.
- Average height at shoulder: 107cm
- Comfortable temperature range: -40 to 10C
Traits and Abilities
- Strength: Powerful muscles and a stocky build mean that Polars are probably the strongest species of kiarrcat.
- Stamina: Most Polars have to hunt for their food, and in the frozen lands, that can take time. A Polar can go for longer without sleep or food than most other kiarrcats.
- Swimming: Both of Ryll's poles are over open sea, and consist of floating icecaps. Polars will often dive and swim to catch their food underwater, where life is more plentiful.
- Cold Resistance: Polars are comfortable in very low temperatures, and can withstand cold that would kill other kiarrcats. This comes at a price, though, and polars are at high risk of heatstroke if they venture out of their homes.
- Slow: Polars aren't especially fast, except for when they're underwater.
- Clumsy: A Polar's huge paws make fine manipulation tricky.