Physical Appearance
The cubs look a lot like smaller versions of their parents, albeit somewhat chubbier and with tails proportionately shorter than that of an adult. They grow very quickly within the first few years of life, to about five (5) times their birth size, then grow more slowly until they reach their adult height at about fourteen (14) years of age.
Adult height range is from 6'02'' to 9'03'' for males, and 4'07'' to 5'10'' for females. This makes them a distinctly sexually dimorphic race (males consistently larger than the females). Weight range is from 198 lbs. to 675 lbs. for males, and 143 lbs. to 368 lbs. for females, respectively. Males have wider hand pads than the females do, allowing gender to be told from tracks if the individual had been on all fours at the time.
Pelt colour is usually a kind of dull orangish-brown colour, with plenty of black stripes. No two (2) amotekun's stripes are the exact same, as unique to each individual as a human fingerprint. These stripes appear horizontal then they are standing upright, and vertical when they are on all fours. Not only that, but the stripes are visible in the skin, and so even if they were shaved, the stripes would still be seen.
Amotekun have long cheek fur that gives the appearance of an extremely short mane, which is a pale orangish-white colour on the back, and entirely white on the front. The size of this doesn't vary between genders. Whiskers are white, fairly long, and very sensitive, able to tell an amotekun if a space is large enough for them to fit through.
Amotekun fur is long, and is white along the sides of the muzzle (though the upper sides are orangish-brown), the chin and underside of the jaw, the neck, belly, underside of the tail, and on the inside of each leg and arm, along with the pads of their hands and feet. Wherever there is white, the stripes are either faded or nonexistent, depending on how close the white is to the orangish-brown. Most have some white going from the rim of each upper eyelid to the start of their forehead. The eyes themselves have circular pupils, yellow irises, and reflect light in the dark.
The amotekun have small, roundish ears on the top of the head. These ears are orangish-brown with black tips, and have ocelli (white eyespots) on the back. These play an important role in visual communication among the members of their race.
It is very common for them to have webbing between their fingers and toes, which helps with swimming. Females are flat-chested unless currently nursing young, and even then it's barely noticeable and continues down the belly (just like with their non-sentient ancestors). Even in the females of the race, their arm muscles are very well-developed and powerful, able to pull several times their own weight.
Due to the amount of powerful muscle in their bodies, they tend to appear somewhat stocky, even with their sleek looks and large size, regardless of gender.
Unlike with their non-sentient ancestors, their tails are about half as long as they are tall (tiger tails tend to be a bit shorter than that), with the range being 3'01'' to 4'08'' for males, and 2'04'' to 2'11'' for females, respectively.
Skull length is a bit shorter than seen in their ancestors, being about nine (9) inches to eleven (11) inches in males, and about seven (7) inches to nine (9) inches in females, respectively. This is because their muzzles are a bit shorter, while their craniums are about roughly the same length as those of their ancestors. In order to compensate for the shorter muzzle, the amotekun have more scent receptors than their ancestors did.
Their canine teeth (fangs) are usually four (4) inches in length, meaning that the amotekun have the longest canine teeth of the feline beastfolk races outside of the
nolodi. This is about half an inch longer than the canine teeth of their ancestors. Amotekun can walk or run on either two (2) or four (4) legs as they choose, with their arms serving as the second set of legs when using quadrupedal locomotion. This means that their arms are just as long as their legs.
Unlike their ancestors, they have hands and fingers instead of forepaws. While not quite as flexible as a human's due to the pads, they are still more dexterous than paws. Despite this, their hands are still as large as the forepaws of their ancestors, and just as deadly when used as weapons to swat an opponent.