Cat

Field record

Cat's family has lived in the Ancient village longer than anyone can trace. Unofficial historian, self-appointed guardian, reluctant social coordinator — Cat knows every hidden passage, every loose stone, every buried conduit, not from studying the Engine but because cats explore everything and Cat has had generations of territory to memorize. Cat was the first to notice that the temple's decorative carvings were actually circuit diagrams. Nobody listened. Cat started keeping a private map.

When the cascade hit, Cat guided panicking locals through hidden passages while the architecture rearranged around them, and refused to leave the village entirely. The map became the difference between evacuation and burial.

The Warden of the lower temple is Cat's grandmother — the previous guardian, who mapped even more than Cat has and never came back. She seals passages using techniques only the family knows. Cat's endgame is reclaiming that inheritance: knowledge as guidance, not control.

Known associations

• Dog — The oldest dynamic in the region — they bicker constantly and are completely inseparable in a crisis.
• Volt — Cat pretended Volt was annoying but always materialized when Volt was lost; Cat would deny the favors under oath.
• Owl — One of the very few beings Cat defers to; Cat visits the caverns when they need perspective, even if decoding it takes weeks.
• Chameleon — A standing game of hide-and-seek in the village — Cat's eyes spot Chameleon four times out of five.