Reference Information: Beast Princess' Pride

Refer back to the (previous reference) information for a basic overview of the setting's baseline, and to cross-reference for differences if you'd like. This post is about this specific branch of the timeline.

General Notes
Leopard-Folk: The Leopard-Folk are a rare species of demihuman. They are typically solitary and nomadic by habit, existing as small family groups or lonely wanderers. The only gathering of any appreciable size exists due to the ambition of Artram of the Armelian Forest, thus making him the de facto 'Beast King' of the Leopard-Folk. However, this title is honorary at best and represents no real authority.
Expected Lifespan: Slightly-Below Human, largely due to the dangers of lifestyle and habitat. It's unknown how long one could live if it didn't die in battle, or to illness, or malnourishment...
General Reputation: Dangerously sociopathic thugs: capricious mercenaries as liable to **** you (and, per some nastier rumors, even eat you) as barter with you.
Dietary Requirements: Semi-omnivorous, with obligate carnivore tendencies. Despite the rumors, they do not eat sapient beings. It is storied to bring bad luck, disaster, and reprisal from the Gods.
Innate Traits:

• Their tell-tale hallmarks are their catlike ears and spotted leopard-tails. Though they may also occasionally sport patches of fur that form various patterns across their body, their bodies are mostly furless and otherwise indistinguishable from humans.
• Exceptional physical prowess and dexterity. They are similarly as above the average human in ability as your typical 'big cat' in physical power, but combined with humanlike intellect... they are ultimately more dangerous.
• Leopard-Folk tend to be very prideful of their constitution, physical fitness, and capability. Consequently they never developed a stigma against bodily exposure as their home environs lack weather severe enough to noticeably inhibit them, and their physical capability renders need for protective garments unnecessary in most general-use cases.
• They do, however, think clothes are interesting and can be visually appealing. Thus they treat them similarly to how humans treat accessories, and will frequently wear 'clothing' which covers far, far less than it ought to by human sensibilities... simply for style.
• Certain kingdoms, groups, and individuals find leopard-folk's straightforward bloody-handedness useful when combined with their prowess, and attempt to lure them in for use as mercenaries through various means, and with various levels of fairness. However, it is generally understood that dealing with a leaopard-folk is dangerous in much the same way as dealing with a normal leopard in spite of their capability for reason, and thus should be considered only with caution and expertise.

Characters
James Jordanson (BstPriPrd)

Age, Race&Gender: 23 yr/old human male.
Societal Status: Anonymous Mountain Hermit
Class: [?]QmVhc3QtU3VtbW9uZXI=[⸮]
Innate Traits:

• His magic phone will tend to find its way back to him, so long as he's himself.
• His magic phone can only be used once per subject, but he has yet to discover this.
• Due to his place of origin completely lacking in magic, he's much more sensitive - and susceptible - to it, for both good and ill.
• He has some stair-related trauma after nearly falling to his **** pre-isekai.

Background Notes: A man from modern Earth who abruptly found himself in this fantasy world. He was studying at Paidshow University (see: Exit: Take a Selfie) and a classmate of Paul Matthews. Thus, he was 'studying' about lewd streamers and online entertainment from a school filled with expert women specialized in titillating their viewers. Consequently, the man is... probably even hornier and more ignorant than the average young college male.

After using his magic phone to remake the Kingdom's Princess in the image of one of his erotic fantasies, he found himself living with her within an isolated hut upon a mountain... which neither he (due to his foreign nature) nor her (due to her being summoned by him) know anything about. Fortunately, while not experienced with Mountain Climates, the beastwoman he turned the princess into is at least a generally experienced survivalist.

Arma of Armelia (BstPriPrd)
Age, Race&Gender: 18 yr/old leopard-woman.
Societal Status: Tribal 'Princess' of the Armelian Leopard-Folk
Class: Guardian-Beast

Opinion of James: The man who summoned her and bound her via magical contract to serve him - Her future, her happiness, her destiny, her Master. The loyalty of a guardian beast should absolute once the contract is established: that is the myth of the Beast-Folk, and it is the pride of the Beast-Princess, Arma of Armelia, to turn that myth into reality.

• As a previous target of the phone; Arma is immune to its effects, and any non-situational aspects of her Prompt will remain unchanged regardless of what James does with the phone. If he's in another room and changes the location, she will remain at the same relative distance. If she's in the same room, this will remain the case even if the room changes, but she will not notice in either case. She cannot be directly or indirectly changed by the phone, even if the resulting change is simply a matter of her relative proximity to James.
• Innately kind and good-natured... for a leopard-woman. She is inclined to treat others kindly, but due to her upbringing, general isolation from other races, and pragmatic way of life she is just as likely to kill a random stranger as assist them, depending on the opportunities available in either case. However, she will always make it a clean kill, and she will never kill without reason. That is to say: she is not cruel, but also has no particular notions regarding moral rights or wrongs outside of her tribe, her Master, and whatever troubles her actions may bring them vs the benefits gained.
• She possesses exceptional magical capabilities, but the leopard folk are not known for the arcane traditions and so she has never consciously tapped into them. It is to the extent she is shockingly resistant to magic and may subconsciously enhance her physical capabilities, but that is all.
• However, if her Master is in danger, she may find herself intuitively performing certain spells related to her class. Primarily, healing, barriers, support statuses, and the like. She lacks experience with using magic of any kind, so she is likely to be quite clumsy with such things until practice is acquired.
• As a leopard-folk, she may struggle with more advanced words and tends to speak in a very direct manner. This does not make her stupid or incapable of learning - it merely represents her lack of worldly experiencing beyond her forests and tribe.

Background Notes: The supposed Beast 'Princess' of the Armelian Leopard-Folk. It is a title most of society would consider pretentious, given the beast folk's nomadic and largely tribal nature. However, to Arma's family it is a title of great importance, marking their pledge to one day unite their people so as to prevent their gradual eradication. Arma was carrying out the tribe's traditional 'walk of solitude' in which she would, on her own, venture from the forests they call home to survive in the grasslands for a period of several weeks (determined via divination). If she were to fail to return, then it is clear she would be too weak to survive and contribute to the tribe. If she were to return early, then it is clear that she lacks patience and temperance, and thus may hinder the tribe.

This important tradition was interrupted when she was suddenly whisked away by powerful magics to a remote location, wherein she met with a human summoner who called himself 'James Jordanson of Hopsville.' By fortunate coincidence this circumstance mirrored the beginning of one of Arma's favorite folk tales, and thus she pledged her undying loyalty to her summoner and thusly sealed the contract of her own initiative, even though truthfully neither party had any idea what they were doing. This resulted in her class changing from 'Beast-Huntress' to the mythical 'Guardian-Beast' which, if she were to ever learn of this via a status-scrying spell, may lead her to conclude that perhaps there is more truth to the folk tale than most believe...

The following characters exist within Arma's history, but are physically far removed from James and Arma, and thus not likely to appear in the story again for some time.

Artram Armelia (BstPriPrd)
Age, Race&Gender: 38 yr/old leopard-man
Societal Status: Tribal 'King' of the Armelian Leopard-Folk
Class: Beast-Lord.
Innate Traits:

• Fundamentally concerned with, by, or for his daughter in almost every timeline.
• Very strongly tied to his class.
• Arma takes after him a great deal.
• A man who struggles to grasp his vision of the future: Artram dreams of a day wherein his people may live a stable life amongst a peaceful society where their children no longer need to risk themselves in the wilds, learning to hunt and gather, to survive. Where they are not scattered amongst the winds to be hunted, exploited, or forgotten... but he lacks the knowledge to attain this.
• To the end of achieving his dream, Artram has taken some scholars and nobles of other races under his 'protection' - in return for the debt owed by saving their lives from various circumstances, they will live under his personal protection amongst the tribe. This is a one-sided deal, but it is one he deems necessary to achieve his vision. Any resentment caused by such a thing, he believes should be solved by the blood-oath sworn by those parties.

Background Notes: Presents a stern and unyielding front: A big softie inside, particularly towards his daughter but also towards his people. He is willing to do nearly anything to achieve his dream, and lacks the wisdom to foresee the longer-term issues that may come from some of his actions. This is a common flaw of the leopard-folk, and a root cause for their lack of social unity to begin with. With the loss of his daughter during her traditional voyage, he now reluctantly seeks a new mate with which to court so as to secure a new heir for his bloodline, so that his dream will not die alongside him.

Cheryl of Woodvale (BstPriPrd)
Age, Race&Gender: 18 yr/old human female.
Societal Status: Former Maid of House Paran / Indefinite "Guest" of the Armelian Leopard-Folk
Class: Maid
Innate Traits:

• Doesn't handle stress well.
• Prone to daydreaming, and a little scatterbrained.
• She's not sure what she was thinking when she agreed to take Artram up on his blood-oath ritual, and frequently believes she should have just run away... but for some reason, it just 'felt right' to do so at the time.
• Her easily startled nature made her one of Arma's favorite 'guests' to interact with, and one could say that the two had something resembling a friendship so far as the circumstance could allow.

Background Notes: Was part of a caravan alongside the prodigal noble heiress Lilian Paran, when it was attacked by a great wyvern near the borders of the Armelian forest. In the chaos, the guards were decimated and Cheryl was about to be killed alongside her lady when the leopard-folk intervened. Their warriors forestalled the wyvern, and their king offered a deal. Accept a blood pact to come live with him as a guest of his people to teach them the virtues of human society, and he would guarantee her safety thereafter... or take her chances with fate after he and his warriors finished with the wyvern. Knowing the road ahead's dangers, and driven by peculiar intuition, Cheryl accepted this pact.

Within the tribal settlement, Cheryl was given freedom to do whatever she liked so long as she held to her word of attempting to teach the leopard-folk improvements to their way of life. In return, she was guaranteed her safety in every respect Artram could foresee, ranging from being provided her own chamber, a personal guard, and even martial instruction if she sought it. However, she was forbidden to leave, and attempting to do so without Artram's blessing would trigger backlash from the pact.

Lilian Paran (BstPriPrd)

Age, Gender: 21 yr/old female.
Societal Status: Lesser Noble of the Kingdom of Targlia, presumed dead / Extended "Guest" of the Armelian Leopard-Folk
Class: Noblewoman

Innate Traits:

• An exceptionally talented learner: She is makes for a very reliable retainer.
• For all her skill with political manipulation and navigating high society, she possesses ironically poor social awareness and has nearly endangered herself by offending her hosts more than once.
• Even so, her breadth of skill and knowledge coupled with Artram's sworn oath has seen to her safety amongst the leopard-folk. For now.
• She was requested to tutor Arma in statecraft and made her best efforts to do so... but, in Lilian's terms, the girl was unfortunately too much of a 'meathead' to really grasp what Lilian was attempting to teach. Lilian laments that Arma was already so old by the time Artram introduced the two, as it meant that the supposed 'Princess' had already internalized many habits and biases which Lilian simply could not figure out how to correct.
• It was almost a relief when Arma disappeared, except Lilian is not so ignorant as to be unaware of what losing his only daughter might do to Artram's mentality and policies. Thus, she carefully keeps her thoughts now to herself and waits for the other shoe to drop.

Background Notes: An ambitious, talented, and unfortunately tactless young noblewoman. She was well on her way to reorganizing her house and improving its various practices so as to perfect the balance between the needs of the state and the capabilities of its people but, unfortunately, her caravan was intercepted when traveling between baronies, thus leading to the situation wherein she was **** to choose between the leopard-folk's questionable hospitality... and almost-certain **** or worse when she inevitably encounters some other creature or ne'er-do-well operating out of the Armelian forest. Reluctantly, she swore the blood pact and now serves Artram in a similar capacity to Cheryl, albeit with more responsibility and 'authority' given her greater experience and knowledge. After the loss of Artram's daughter, Lilian no longer trusts in his promises and seeks opportunity to escape the pact.