Because You Asked: A Cat May Look At A King.

Does this mean that theoretically, a changeling of uncommon ability (for values of "uncommon" approaching "snowball's chance in Hell") could be a Monarch of Cats?

Thank you so much! I have no words for how much I love these books, and I'm the sort who can never get enough background information.

That also explains a question I forgot I had, ie, why Tybalt says his (living) brother's son is the only Royal cat other than him in the court. When I assumed it was a family thing, that confused me, but with this explanation, I suppose there's no particular necessity for it to be a bloodline-related thing. (Though I imagine there's a higher chance of having all the required skills/powers in some families than others?)

And if I can get one follow up, would this imply that Royals without courts are generally not encouraged to reside in the courts of royals *with* courts, if the ruler has no interest in stepping down near-term?

Drat. My only question/comment is silly -- is a "Manx" cat-form "legitimate," or do the Cait Sidhe consider that a flawed transformation? (What about bob-tails? Or if you're a cat-changeling who was born sans-tail?)

...I wonder how many "totally normal" cats have a touch of Cait Sidhe in their far-back ancestry? (Maybe my little "peculiar" did have reason to think that he was going to grow up to be a human someday! *wry sad smile*)

(* I already had a "familiar," so my little hand-raised kitling was my peculiar. I miss him still.)

So far, we've only seen Tybalt's Court. Are all Courts of Cats urban* or are there rural Courts?

* That is, are their ties to the mortal world are in urban places?

Wait, didn't Toby know Julie from Darien (...I think I have that name wrong, argh), or am I misremembering? (I'd check, but my books are currently 5000 miles away in England so my partner can read them.) Assuming I'm not misremembering, why wasn't she in the Court?

Also, do Cait Sidhe - 'normal' ones that can shapeshift or ones with only cat form - ever mate with ordinary cats? If yes, how common is it? How likely is the one sleeping in my lap - whose mom got out and mated with a tom nobody ever saw - has a bit of Cait Sidhe?

In re: Julie, I think I remember Toby saying that the two of them were friends before *she* ran off, and that Julie followed her. iirc, Toby said that was why (she thought) Tybalt disliked her so much; because cat changelings didn't run away from the court, generally.

Cait Sidhe don't handle succession the way the regular Courts do, in part because they accept all their changelings as full members of their society. And from above" Yup! If you can do all the things a King or Queen needs to do, and you can defeat the current monarch, you get the throne. Regardless of how human your ancestors may have been.

From AAN, Raj's dad: "If he can't defeat her, he can't hold the throne while she lives...Her blood is mixed. She can't be a Queen for this Court or any other. But she can still stop him from being King."

The comment by Raj's dad implied to me that a changeling couldn't be a King or Queen of Cats. So is the "mixed blood" he refers to lack of the magic skills necessary to rule, rather than mixed human/fae/cat blood?

Also, if Tybalt was looking for a Prince, and Raj's parents were auditioning courts, then it was the parent's decision that Raj someday try to inherit, rather than Raj's idea. Gives new meaning to "stage parent." Can Raj get out of it anyway other than being defeated since he is now designated as Prince?

There would also be an implication that Cat magic skills manifest early. Otherwise, how would Rag's parents know he was Prince material? Are young Cait Sidhe somehow screened for the necessary skills? If Raj is old enough to fight Julie to hold his position, could he simply have said to Toby, "I'm going home now" and led the young Cait Sidhe back to Tybalt's court on the Shadow Roads? (I know Toby accepted the responsibility to bring them home, but Raj seems to not be able to get home without her help once he's out of Blind Michael's lands).

Finally, I'm assuming it is a prerogative of the King to stop any fights, even though the other cats wouldn't do so? That might be one way that Kings protect their Princes until they grow old enough and strong enough to challenge for rule.

I'm going to have to do a massive re-read in the next 10-15 days. All this information is making me ask questions/question my memory or simply want to put it all back in context.

For this I adore you and may whisper a little curse at you since there is no where near enough time in the day to read the new stuff and re-read the old stuff and take care of the small people, the kitty-boys (Magnus and SkippyJon Jones or, in Charlie's world, Sippy and Mag-us) and that man I'm married to. Sigh. Oh, and my job. Whatever.

How come it was Raj parents that held auditions? I would have thought that it would be an honour to have your son be Prince and Tybalt would have the pick of the litter.

If Tybalt doesn’t have any real brothers then why does Julie call him uncle? How many nieces and nephews does Tybalt have?

If succession fights are rare then what is so violent about the Cat courts?

My opinion, for what it's worth:

Raj's parents had a son who could be King of Cats anywhere. That's a valuable commodity in Toby's world. There's no reason to have Raj be King of the Cats to some unimportant, middle-of-nowhere court if they get an equally good or better offer from Tybalt. This is trying to get their son the best possible future (an important thing, if the Q&A on fostering is any indicator) as well as looking at the best possibility for themselves.

Raj probably is the pick of the litter; he has the potential to be a King of Cats.

Ooh, this is so interesting! Since Cait Sidhe can mate with ordinary cats, if this occurred in successive generations (Cait Sidhe/housecat mix x full Cait Sidhe), would it reach a point where the offspring gained sentience? How many generations would it require?

I guess what I'm asking is, I can see how Cait Sidhe/human changelings would work, but if you're 3/4 Cait Sidhe and 1/4 ordinary cat, for example, how does that manifest itself? Are you then a Cait Sidhe who's very cat-like, or are you still basically a cat? Or is it that the offspring of a Cait Sidhe and a cat is a sentient Cait Sidhe, but if those offspring continue to breed with cats, eventually there will be a generation of housecats.

/curious

If Julie challenged Tybalt and won, then, by the laws, is he still king of that court, if she can't do all the things a royal Cait Sidhe is supposed to be able to do? If he isn't, again, by the laws -- I don't want spoilers -- is she? Is Raj?

What is the current relationship between the Cait Sidhe and their Firtsborn?

Okay, so, odd breeding question, here. IIRC, you've established that three-quarter fae changelings are or can be considered fully fae. And that Cait Sidhe can get children on humans and cats. Has the situation arisen where a 3/4 CS/cat fae and a 3/4 CS/human couple have spawned? Does that work? Is that special?

And are there limits to how much of a cat a cat has to be in order to 'qualify' as acceptable stock to the Cait Sidhe? Are hybrids in the woodpile at all? I'm not developing an RPG based on Toby's world and building a liger Cait Sidhe changeling, promise!

If the royal family isn't necessarily bloodline dependent, would it really be a problem for Raj to be dating Helen? Or would some of the purebloods object purely out of sheer snobbery?