Roots-of-Life is a cat genetics-focused RPG set in North America.
It follows multiple cat colonies and their residents, all of which are created by members of the group.
Roots-of-Life is currently on hiatus until January 1st, 2026, but prospective new members are welcome to join our server and get acquainted with the group in the interim!
Peaceful Times
With the fall of the Flytrap Colony and the end of Foxglove’s reign, the colonies are beginning to rebuild what they’ve lost. The colony cats mourn the loss of their friends, allies, and loved ones. Those who had been held prisoner in that basement are now deciding what path to take—whether that’s returning to their homes and making up for lost time, or moving on to a new chapter of their lives through a different colony or as outsiders.
The colonies can finally breathe a sigh of relief and focus on recovery and creating a peaceful future together.
Autumn
The trees begin to shed their leaves, painting many forested lands red and orange.
The air is pleasant and crisp, with the gentle scent of rain accompanying it. Storms are a common occurrence now.
Resources are plentiful.
Check out our Discord server if you're considering joining the group!
Roots-of-Life can also be found on Toyhou.se and DeviantArt! We also encourage our artists to tag their RoL works with #rootsoflife on any platform if they wish! Please come and show our artists some love when you have the time.
Our Shop has been updated:
Submission forms have been updated and added to the website (previously contained within channel pins.)
How animations are rewarded has been clarified and tweaked.
Various clarifications have been added to the site.
Players must now include the word count (excluding headers) for literature when submitting it.
Abstract art has been added as a rewarded item.
Our yearly Secret Santa has been removed from the Gift Bonus and given its own bonus instead.
Added our global age limits regarding litters to the Rules page. Also updated the minimum age for mateships & litters to 16 months.
Fawn caramel is now known as "mauve"! Accordingly, blue caramel can now be referred to as just "caramel." This brings blue/fawn caramel in line with taupe and apricot.
Amber-russet, amber-carnelian, and russet-carnelian have updated descriptions. You may try and combine the appearance descriptions, but do so knowing that we have no information on them. Until we get examples of a combined phenotype, you can simply pick one or the other to design.
Added missing combinations to the wideband/sunshine section.
Fixed the description of carnelian & carnelian carrier, in line with new information. (Carnelian now only shows on gold and silver tabbies when carried.)
Clarified terminology regarding intersex variations.
Added a list of seasonal bonuses to the shop page; also clarified the order of operations for bonuses.
The ability to rehome kittens is now undergoing a trial period.
Rehoming rules for kittens and adults have been established/proposed. Please see the relevant announcement for more details.
Reminders and extensions for deadlines have been officially tightened up. Please use the public deadlines list to keep track of your mandatory update due-dates.
Added a new form to the #rewards channel, to streamline tallying rewards.
Added a gift art bonus to encourage drawing other members' cats.
Added #polls-discussion to prevent burying polls underneath chatter.
Age-based Colony ranks will now have their age range listed next to their name on the Sheets roster.
Standardized descriptions for phenotypes on both rosters.
Updated formatting on the site roster.
Large trees are no longer restricted to a 4-sided die when doing litter rolls.
Added "Remove a Kitten" and "Smaller Dice" items to the shop.
Added a reaction role for shop design pings.
Updated our allowed content and content warning rules:
Robust descriptions in histories now need a content warning (CW) and a summary of the content.
Summaries should be short and adhere to our original content rules.
CWs and summaries should be placed directly before/after the warned content. The warned content should have indicators placed at the beginning and end.
Carried carnelian has been temporarily ruled as optional; it does not need to show on any cat.
Added 14 new achievements.
Shop designs now earn a +10 sprouts bonus when submitted for rewards.
Extensions now must be requested via ticket; staff will no longer DM members to prompt them for extensions.
Added salmiak (wsal) and celestial blue eyes (DBEc).
Changed rules for blue eyes caused by white markings. White markings (Wd, ws, wsal) must be present on the face; the cat must be colorpoint/albino; or the cat must have a DBE gene in order to have blue eyes.
Updated the charcoal gene due to new studies. Dissolved the midnight/twilight distinction, and changed ApbApb to plain agouti (with faint charcoal markings allowed.) Twilight charcoal cats who clearly appear charcoal must update their genotypes to Apba.
Colony reservations are no longer indefinite; if a member is inactive in the server and we cannot contact them for 3 months (3 pings, 1 per month), we will dissolve the reservation.
Updated the auto-aging formula on the Sheets roster.
Website overhaul based on member feedback!
Restructured organization of pages.
Joining and Genetics dropdown categories created.
Navbar dropdowns are no longer also pages. They are just dropdowns.
Added Character and Colony creation guides. Moved most character- and colony-specific rules to these pages.
Added Research Notes page. Rules for creating disabled and intersex characters moved to this page. Tweaked guide to writing a research note.
Added RoL basics page, with a guide to ticket categories and genetics for newcomers.
Design guide overhauled. Now features an explanation and photos of every gene we have.
Added Changelog (hi, you're reading it!) to the front page.
Removed references to rules and channels that no longer exist.
Made some information more concise, and clarified some information.
Standardized formatting across all pages.
Content warnings (CWs) are now allowed in histories. Certain topics that used to not require a CW now will need one. The same general scope of topics is still all that is allowed.
Added Minty and Nova as staff helpers!
Mica gene (mi) removed as it does not exist. All mica cats will become glittered cats.
Glitter gene (gl) updates — now considered a fur type gene and not a color gene, now allowed on any cat (previous restricted to cats with Bm only), phenotype changed from "with glitter" to "glittered", and moved to the front of phenotypes and genotypes.
Added satin-rexing (sa).
Colony population counts now live on the Sheets roster.
Added defined size categories for colonies. 25 square miles is the average size for a colony. Enormous-sized (50+ square miles) colonies now require a specific organizational structure to be created.
Colony ownership may now be transferred to another player if they have an open colony slot.
Instituted yearly activity check for colonies. Colonies must update their documents to remove old references, and update their histories to present time.
Members can now only have one new colony ticket open at a time; this includes territory reservations. Members must wait for their colony cooldown to finish before claiming a new territory.
Clarified co-ownership rules of colonies. One person is the "lead owner", and the colony is listed under their name + one of their colony slots is taken up. Other co-owners are considered "vice owners". Staff will contact the lead owner for all approvals, and it is up to the lead owner to disseminate information to vice owners.
Tickets system split into Character, Colony, and Events categories.
Added Colony Slot item to the shop, for members who want more than 3 colonies.
Chimeras may now have all of their relevant genotypes listed, not just one. Chimeras can now breed from all of their genotypes, if listed. Chimeras can update their applications to add their other genotype(s). Chimeras can have more than 2 phenotypes/genotypes now.
Rare Traits page added.
Added Hawk, Pumpkin, and Rift to the staff team!
Ownership of the group transferred from Peep to Snow.
Reorganized server some.
Google Sheets roster created.
Achievements spreadsheet created.
Mateships are no longer restricted to a hard one-year age gap. Age gaps are now variable depending on the ages of the cats involved; staff will use their discretion to approve or deny age-gap mateships.
Character limit of 30 cats per colony has been removed. Members may have an infinite number of characters.
Added Extra Kitten and MYO Litter items to the shop.
User lookup added to the Bank and Achievements spreadsheets.
Clarified some gene descriptions on the Genotypes page.
Wideband and sunshine are now part of the same locus (the CORIN locus). Extreme wideband (wb+) re-added; extreme sunshine (wbeSIB) added.
Promoted Snow to a full staff position.
Discord server has been reorganized.
#questions and #design-help can now only be answered by staff, to prevent confusion.
Added tickets system; reviews will no longer be DMed to staff.
Shop updates:
Rebalanced shop rewards. Clarified reward descriptions.
Re-added character multiplier (backgrounds are counted separately and unaffected by multipliers.)
Story events now give 25 sprouts for participation.
Achievements system created!
Disabilities, scars, accessories, and mutation traits no longer require purchases, and are free to add to any character. Hairlessness, sparse fur, and albinism no longer require purchases.
Rare traits item added — covers chimerism, vitiligo, and other abnormalities. Members get 3 rare trait slots for free, and can buy more in the shop.
Litter reroll item added.
Shop designs added.
Non-members can open a bank account (get 100 sprouts, 3 colony slots, and 3 rare trait slots for free) by asking a staff member.
Genotype updates:
Genotypes page has been reorganized. Clarified gene descriptions.
Ticked tabby has been simplified to tata, Tata, and TaTa.
Wideband has been simplified to WbWb, Wbwb, and wbwb.
Exotic agouti (ApbA) is now just agouti carrying charcoal; no longer adds rufousing.
Bobtail is now properly incompletely dominant.
Rules updates:
Intersex characters are now allowed with a research note.
Redesigns should now be verified with staff.
Added a FAQ section to the rules page.
Redesigned Pinecone, the group mascot.
Added Snow to the moderation team.
Introduced research notes for disabilities.
Added PluralKit and some corresponding rules for usage.
Gave all members a third colony slot; added a 2 month cooldown to colony creation.
Roots-of-Life reboot! Shifted from using Google Docs to this Google Site. New application format for characters and colonies.
Updated colorpoint genes, added ringtail (Rt) mutation
Broken tabby changes — now properly does not affect classic tabby; removal of broken classic and sparbled. All genotypes will stay the same.
All cats must now list the "basic 3" patterns (mackerel, spotted, ticked) in their genotypes.
Added bengal modifier (Bm) and the midnight charcoal phenotype.
Overhaul of ticked tabbies — added genes specifically for rufoused (TiaTia) and un-rufoused (TiaTi+) unpatterned ticked tabbies.
Wideband is now properly recessive.
Rewards overhaul — updates to backgrounds, added fullbody/halfbody/bust distinction, changed some groupings, removed character multiplier.
Added hairless (hr), sparse fur (spf), albino (ca and c), and karpati (K) genes.
