The Khajiit are the ancient feline peoples of southern Tamriel, inhabiting the deserts, river valleys, savannas, and jungles of the lands later known collectively as Elsweyr. During the Late Merethic Era, they are already an old and culturally diverse people with established settlements, trade routes, religious traditions, and regional rulers.
There is no unified Elsweyr Confederacy in the campaign present. Khajiiti society is divided among local kingdoms, clans, temple communities, caravan networks, and regional powers whose identities are shaped by geography and the moons.
Khajiiti identity is inseparable from Jone and Jode, the moons known elsewhere as Masser and Secunda. Their movements form part of the Lunar Lattice, a sacred cosmic order that influences religion, timekeeping, identity, and the physical form into which a Khajiit is born.
The position of the moons at birth determines a Khajiit's furstock. As a result, Khajiit can differ dramatically in size and appearance while still belonging to the same people. Some resemble ordinary humanoid cats, while others are much smaller, larger, more bestial, or more closely resemble great cats.
These forms are regarded as natural expressions of the Lunar Lattice rather than separate races.
Khajiiti society is highly regional.
Northern communities inhabit drier grasslands, scrub, and desert, while southern populations live among dense forests, river systems, humid lowlands, and fertile agricultural regions. Coastal settlements participate heavily in maritime trade, while inland caravan routes connect distant communities.
Political authority can rest with monarchs, clan leaders, merchant families, priests, or local rulers depending on the region.
Later histories often simplify Khajiit into a single culture, but the Merethic-era population is better understood as a collection of related societies bound together by language, religion, and lunar identity.
Khajiiti religion preserves its own complex understanding of creation and the gods.
Many divine beings recognized elsewhere in Tamriel also appear in Khajiiti tradition under different names and relationships. The gods are often understood through family, rivalry, obligation, deception, and cosmic roles rather than through the more formal ancestral theology of the Altmer.
The moons occupy an especially important place because they influence both the structure of Khajiiti society and the form of individual Khajiit.
Priests, moon-readers, and other religious specialists interpret lunar movements, perform rituals, maintain sacred sites, and advise rulers or communities.
The many Khajiiti furstocks are one of the most distinctive features of their people.
Their forms are determined by lunar conditions at birth rather than solely by parentage. Two Khajiit of very different appearance can therefore belong to the same family.
Some furstocks are better suited to particular types of labor or warfare, but social roles are not determined entirely by body type. A large Khajiit may be a scholar, while a smaller form may hold religious or political authority.
Foreigners often misunderstand this diversity and may incorrectly assume that different furstocks are separate species.
Khajiiti settlements vary from desert towns and fortified caravan stops to jungle communities, river settlements, temples, ports, and regional capitals.
Trade is central to many areas. Khajiiti caravans move food, cloth, spices, dyes, crafted goods, medicines, luxury items, animals, magical materials, and information between communities and neighboring lands.
Their position between Valenwood, the Heartland, southern coasts, and interior trade routes gives many Khajiiti merchants considerable influence.
Markets are also important points of contact between different furstocks, clans, and foreign peoples.
Khajiiti daily life changes greatly with climate.
Southern regions can support intensive agriculture, fruit cultivation, fishing, and river trade, while northern communities rely more heavily on hardy crops, herding, hunting, caravan commerce, and irrigation.
Clothing reflects both heat and status. Light fabrics, wraps, jewelry, decorated belts, protective scarves, and regional ornament are common.
Ordinary communities include farmers, hunters, traders, priests, soldiers, craftsmen, laborers, healers, guides, sailors, and caravan workers.
Khajiiti civilization should not be reduced to nomads or merchants alone.
Khajiiti magical traditions are strongly influenced by lunar religion, spirits, divination, illusion, healing, and local ritual.
Moon-related magic can carry religious significance, especially among priests and scholars who study celestial cycles.
Khajiiti magical practice also varies regionally. A jungle temple may preserve traditions very different from those of a northern caravan community.
As with other cultures of the Age of Myth, magic exists alongside ordinary professions rather than defining every member of the population.
Khajiiti warfare reflects terrain and regional organization.
Desert and savanna forces value speed, scouting, mounted or highly mobile troops where appropriate, archery, and knowledge of open terrain. Jungle communities may favor ambush, concealment, lighter equipment, and control of difficult paths.
Different furstocks provide natural advantages in certain situations, but organized warfare still depends on training, leadership, supply, and local knowledge.
Khajiiti rulers also make use of mercenaries, caravan guards, scouts, and irregular forces when necessary.
The Bosmer are among the Khajiit's most important neighbors.
Relations include trade, border disputes, hunting conflicts, migration, and local alliances. The forests and frontier regions between their territories create frequent contact.
Neither people maintains a single permanent attitude toward the other.
One region may experience long-standing trade while another is shaped by raiding or territorial competition.
The absence of later centralized states makes these relationships especially local during the campaign.
Khajiiti communities also interact with Ayleid powers to the north and with maritime Mer through southern trade.
Ayleid merchants and rulers value access to southern goods, while Khajiiti traders can profit from Heartland markets. Political relations vary according to the ambitions of individual city-states.
Altmeri and other Merish observers sometimes classify the Khajiit among the Betmer, but this is an outsider's category rather than a Khajiiti identity.
Khajiit understand themselves through their own ancestry, gods, communities, and the Lunar Lattice.
Khajiiti languages contain extensive lunar, social, and religious terminology.
Personal names may reflect family, status, role, reputation, or local custom. Titles can change with circumstances and may carry meanings difficult to translate directly into Merish or human languages.
Regional dialects are common, especially across the wide climatic and political differences of southern Tamriel.
The Khajiit should therefore not all speak or name themselves in exactly the same way.
During the Late Merethic Era, the Khajiit are an established and diverse people occupying much of southern Tamriel. Their cultures are connected by lunar religion and shared ancestry but divided among regional societies rather than unified under a single state.