For generations, there was one thought that quietly haunted every catfolk family: What if I give birth to a blackcat?
It wasn't just superstition—it was anxiety passed down like an heirloom. Giving birth to a blackcat was seen as a curse, not because the child was evil, but because the world had already decided they were an abomination.
Most ordinary catfolk didn't hate blackcats themselves. They hated the idea of being connected to them, too afraid that simply mingling might "spread" the curse. Some swore it had happened before: two perfectly white-furred catfolk producing a black-furred child. In their minds, there was only one explanation: somewhere, somehow, the parents must have interacted with a blackcat. The same way, in livestock, two white goats might give birth to one with black fur, and village gossips would whisper: They must've grazed together… the darkness rubbed off.
