Technology and Art

Example technologies

• Fire: Savannah kiarrcats can create fire using their innate abilities. Other species have learnt to start fires using mechanical means. Fire is obviously useful for keeping warm and warding off dangerous animals. It's also handy for cooking - while kiarrcats can eat raw food, cooked tastes better!
• Metalworking: Kiarrcats are capable of basic metalworking and most know of gold, silver, copper, and tin - and by extension bronze, the alloy of the later two. Most kiarrcats don't use weaponry as their claws and teeth are good enough, so metal tends to be used as tools, jewelry or for building purposes. The best metalworkers on Ryll are undoubtedly the Cave kiarrs, who are able to sculpt the material by use of their innate powers. Some Caves have managed to unearth metals such as iron, that melt at temperatures too high for any forges on Ryll to work with. Iron artifacts are highly coveted and rare, as the elusive Caves are the only source of this metal, and have attained something of a mystique amongst the surface dwellers as a result.
• Woodworking: This isn't common, as the species with most access to the material (Forests and Rainforests) can sculpt living wood themselves, but other species have learnt to cut and carve it. Uses range from vehicles, mechanics and building to carvings and sculpture.
• Stoneworking: as above. Caves, Deserts and Mountains can sculpt stone magically. Other species may use it as a building material.
• Bone carving: Useful for decorations and small tools.
• Gemworking: Kiarrcats like shiny things as much as any other cat! Most gems are polished using a tumbler until they attain a smooth, round shape. Gem cutting isn't possible using kiarrcat tools, but Cave and Mountain magic can manage an approximation.
• Writing: Kiarrcats are able to make paper and their language has a written script. Inks are common and derived from plants. Some individuals have been experimenting with a means of creating multiple copies of a work - in other words, printing.
• Cartography: Because of the influence of Air kiarrcats, many of whom are able to navigate the globe, kiarrcats have a good understanding of how Ryll is laid out. They understand that the world is round, and how its continents are arranged... or at least the unisolated do. This doesn't mean they have microscopic knowledge of the world, though - plenty of Ryll has yet to be explored on foot.
• Vehicles: these are simple vehicles, such as carts, sleds, and small boats. They are usually made of wood, and powered either by animals or the kiarrcats themselves. It's not uncommon to see a trader pulling along a small cart of goods behind themselves.
• Buildings: Most kiarrcats like to sculpt dens for themselves using their innate abilities, but in some areas such as the grasslands and savannahs, they will create shelters for bad weather and storage of goods. These buildings are usually simple huts - by contrast, magically sculpted dens can be quite elaborate.
• Machines: as with vehicles, these are simple creations such as levers, pulleys, water mills, etc.
• Cloth: Kiarrcats don't wear clothes as such, but if they're going somewhere too cold for them to tolerate alone, a thick cloak is a good thing to have around. They also make nice beds, or decorative wear. Techniques are variable but the most common is a thick felted material made from animal wool. In a lot of cases, the animals are the kiarrcats themselves - Polar and Mountain kiarrcats have thick coats that shed in the spring and make a wonderfully warm material, and they often trade these blankets to less cold-tolerant species.
• Domesticated plants and animals: This encompasses crops, meat/milk/egg bearers, and companion animals and ornamental plants. Kiarr crops are usually fruits or tubers, and grains are rarely cultivated. Many domesticated plants are specially bred, often with the help of magic, and bear little resemblence to their wild ancestors. These plants may give all manner of useful products, such as fibres, inks and dyes, and medicine.

Missing technologies

The following technologies do not exist on Ryll, either in the present or as "lost" technologies from the distant past:

• Gunpowder, explosives, firearms etc: though if you really want to make a big boom, you could try magic.
• Electricity: Some powerful Airs are rumoured to manipulate lightning, but that's it.
• Engines: steam, combustion, etc. If you want to get somewhere, you walk, swim, fly, ride a critter, etc.
• Large scale industry and mass production.
• Money: kiarrcats use a barter system. As they're able to take care of basic food and shelter needs using magic, they don't have much need for an economy.

(This is a story based limitation, there's no innate reason why they shouldn't work. Just trying to keep the tech level down.)

Art

Kiarrcats like the arts just as much as we do. Many of their artforms would be recognisable to us, such as drawing, painting, writing, storytelling, poetry, theatre, etc. Sculpture is common as well, although kiarrcats use their abilities more than tools to shape their medium. Other artforms would seem odd to us - Deserts for example may use their light based magic to create illusions, whilst an accomplished dream manipulator might put on a show whilst their audience sleeps. Use your imagination and see what artforms you can come up with!