The second biggest continent in Thira is mostly populated by huge werecats of the Machairodontinae subfamily, those that co-evolved with their wild cousins of the Smilodon and Homotherium genus. This species is similar to the thirian werewolf in its upright posture and hand-like front paws, but otherwise fully kept to its feline roots. They're much more massive and rely on their body size for hunting, rather than speed and endurance – just as Smilodon, this werecat is an ambush predator specialized in taking down big prey.
Thira © Kajirra, tomoefuchs

My first try to do a were-feline, don't judge

Since both me and  Tomoefuchs agreed that we love smilodon Tomoe and we'd love to keep him canon within Thira too, the next step was clear; werecats in Thira!
I had the idea of putting more various were-species in Thira a long looong time before we came up with smilodon Tomoe, but back then Tomoe's reaction was "mmmeeeh" and I agreed. I already had a lion race in Thira before, with their own lands called Mal'Ishar, but I ended up disliking that culture and that part of the world in general, because it took away what Thira was always suppose to be – a cold ice land ruled by wolves. Plus, the lions never interested me enough to enjoy working on them. Putting in a new race with a whole new culture just forced me to sacrifice my time for something I didn't actually care about, even detested. I removed that whole concept of different races as quickly as I added it in, and was happy to have the old fashioned Thira back. Putting in more were-species back then would probably end exactly the same way.
Now, things are very different! There's several reasons why; first of all, this will not be a lion/tiger/leopard/any-other-modern-cat race, this will be purely a saber-toothed cat race. That might sound trivial but it's a very important detail for me, somebody who never had any interest in modern big cats and who doesn't care to have feline furry OCs, the Pleistocene sabers are a HUGE exception and I absolutely love them, as much as anything with a vibe of the prehistoric times! Another reason is that we have Tomoe as a saber now, meaning we have a really good motivation to work on the feline lore within Thira. And lastly, both me and Tomoe agreed that while we're more open to having more were-species in Thira, they will be incredibly rare and still very primitive compared to the werecats and werewolves, keeping our main focus on the two groups we genuinely care about <3

I can't wait to start working on these!!