Merratet

Merratet was one of two divine realms in the Great Wheel cosmology  belonging to the Pharaonic   and Mulhorandi goddess of cats, Bast.

"Stretch, lick, groom, slink, stalk. Wait. Wait in silence, game comes. Sniff the wind. Leap run run run kill. Tear the hide, lick the blood, eat and crack the bones for the marrow. The kill is good. Stretch in the sun and groom bloody paws, then nap and dream about the next kill."

- The inner thoughts of a Merratet feline

Cosmography
This divine realm was located within the plane of Ysgard, in the layer of Asgard. It encompassed an earthbeg that was shared with Netaph, the divine realm of Anhur, which was on the far side of the ocean that bordered Vanaheim.

Planar Traits
The most noteworthy peculiarity of this realm was that the dreams of Bast seemed to echo throughout it whenever she slept, dreams of hunting and bloody feasts, and invade the minds of the sleeping. Merratet's local fauna were unphased by these dreams and its petitioners took them rather well, but visitors the realm found themselves restless and unable to regain their spells, whether they be mage or priest, waking up with the shakes every half hour.

These dreams strangely behaved differently in a city on this plane known as Besiris, involving the dreamer being stalked and killed. Over the course of a few days or weeks, the nightmares would induce a maddening paranoia, causing the dreamer to wall themselves up in their room until they died from lack of either food or water. Those who attempted to help one suffering dream madness were likely to be attacked by them.

Geography
Merratet was largely a wasting desert with a moderate climate, rolling hills, dense cover of thickets, and a dry savannah. There were also watering holds that animals gathered around at, but petitioners were typically too afraid to get near.

Flora & Fauna
The realm was home to a great deal of mighty and sleek felines, such as tigers, who preyed upon plump game animals that roamed it. Though they were also liable to attack a petitioner or other travelers. In the thickets, only the largest of animals were safe from being ambushed.

One of the unique species of feline that inhabited Merratet was a breed of black furred, green eyed housecats called Bast's Children.

Notable Locations

 * Bast's home was a large vineyard covered acropolis, located near the edge of Merratet's desert. Bast and the spirits that served her often had festivals, parties, and masquerades going on inside its halls.
 * A number of towns existed in this realm. It was rare to find them in the thickets and even rarer to find one in the realm's deserts or dry savannah.
 * Eowr, a small village of rather wise and arrogant celestial lammasu, who would tend to anyone that was hurt or sick. The lammasu also frequently spoke of lessons on humility, temperance, and virtue as part of an effort to convert travelers to the cause of Law.
 * Rummmm was a town in this realm that gradually developed into a city after its inhabitants discovered that the felines of Merratet would not attack them so long as they wore a mask on the back of their head. They freely sold masks to travelers, often at a price of one gold piece. They were also willing to take in anyone, so long as they could pay their way or provide its inhabitants amusing diversions.
 * The most mysterious settlement in Merratet was Bresiris, also known as the town of Dreaming Death. It stood in the center of the realm and was quite ancient in age, its every building sporting cracks or crumbling walls. The city was surrounded in rumor and was wrongfully thought by most Merratians to be haunted. One of the few facts known about Besiris was that any visitors to the city either never left or were driven out with horrible scratches and claw marks. Spoken of in rumors, the city was truly inhabited by werepanthers and ruled by rakshasa along with his sorceress concubine, though rumors only spoke of one or the other. The rulers of Bresiris would either kill or polymorph any dream hunter they found in the city into a pet, slave, or spy that kept track of visitors.

Inhabitants
Bast's realm was inhabited by petitioners and all manner of intelligent felines, such as tabaxi, sphinxes, weretigers, and a few wandering tribes of other varities of feline lycanthrope. The last of whom were known to offer sanctuary to travelers. In addition to those permanent residents, one could ocassionaly find various members of the Norse pantheon hiding in Merratet, such as Bragi and Loki.

The realm was best known for its dream hunters, felines who hunted down the dreams of Bast that plagued people (not the cats) in this realm, ensuring a peaceful sleep. They all possessed a variant form of precognition and spirit sense. Merratians widely acknowledged that the best dream hunters in the realm were typically Bast's Children, sphinxes, and tabaxi. The greatest dream hunters were said to be capable of even killing dreams, fates, prophecies or wyrds.

Dream hunters were common near all of Merratet's entrances and most towns kept one on a payroll to ensure that visitors weren't plagued by Bast's dreams. Some dream hunters hired themselves out to protect groups traveling across the realm, though their rates were steep, mosting charging a fee of twenty gold pieces or more per day. In Breseris they typically struggled against the onslaught of dreams and made only half-hearted attempts to protect dreamers from their madness.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Meuronna, a tall and lithe female tabaxi who was one of the dream hunters of this realm.
 * Mragatep, an androsphinx that was considered to be one of the greatest dream hunters in Merratet.
 * Shinora of the White Mane, the oldest and kindest of the lammasu that inhabited Merratet. She was quite talkative and had a fondness for cloves and sweet wine.
 * Skullbury, an enormous and intelligent male panther that could communicate with other creatures. Bast left control of Merratet in his hands whenever she left. He was perhaps best known for his habit of stashing kills within the closets, gardens, and wardrobes of Bast's palace.
 * White Shadow, a female weretiger and the leader of a pride of infamous weretiger bandits that operated on the outskirts of Rumm, known as the Half Moon Tigers.

Rumors & Legends

 * Some claimed that those restless from the dreams of Bast were more likely to be attacked by the plane's felines.
 * There were a number of rumors that circulated about the weretiger known as White Shadow. Some claimed that she had been gradually spending more time in the plane Gates of the Moon, free of her bloodlust. Those in Bast's palace spoke of her having a lover in that realm, having accidentally devoured at least two previous lovers during intercourse in Merratet after transforming into her bestial form.
 * It was believed that there existed several gates in Merratet that connected the realm to the Gilded Hall of the Society of Sensation.

Trivia
A book known as The Dark World of Dreams contained a chapter dedicated to Merratet's dream hunters.