About Rabbits
The rabbits in this game are European rabbits, which dig burrows and live underground. Male rabbits are called bucks, and females are called does. Rabbits prefer to eat in the evening and usually eat grass, though if leafy greens or vegetables are available, those are preferable.
Infant rabbits are called kittens, and are born hairless and helpless. Typically a doe digs the burrow in which she will give birth, and she lines her nest by pulling out clumps of fur. In an overcrowded living situation, pregnant does may reabsorb their kittens due to stress. Bucks have little to do with the raising of kittens, and most bucks do a poor job of digging burrows. They just haven't had much practice.
It is common to live in warrens, though there are maverick rabbits who live on their own. These rabbits typically don't have burrows and instead are wanderers who live by their wits.
Rabbit Culture
Rabbit society is organized in a hierarchy. The Chief Rabbit is at the top, and if they have a primary mate, that mate gains some of their status. Under the Chief Rabbit are Hoplites and the Warren Watch, two elite groups of rabbits who serve the warren and the Chief. Then are any common rabbits with special status (such as favored storytellers who don't have the physical skills to become Hoplites). Then, ordinary rabbits. At the bottom of the totem pole are young adult rabbits who have not yet earned any status or found their place in the warren. In a crowded warren, these young rabbits would typically live on the outskirts, and may not even have burrows of their own.
Watership Down groups all elite rabbits who keep order in the warren, alert the members to outsiders, and serve as messengers or errand-boys for the Chief Rabbit into one group, called Owsla. For the purposes of this game, we break them into two categories: Hoplites and Warren Watch. Hoplites are clever and fast, and typically act as messengers, scouts, diplomats, and spies. Warren Watch rabbits patrol the area near the warren and alert the rabbits to any dangers. They are also responsible for keeping internal order, for example stopping mutinies against the Chief Rabbit.
Among rabbits, storytellers are highly prized. Rabbits have vivid imaginations and love stories, especially stories about rabbits tricking other creatures.
Rabbit Abilities
Rabbits can count up to four. Anything greater than four is "many." The notion of scale isn't totally lost on them, though. They can tell when there are many more in one group than another, but the difference has to be significant. A rabbit can't really tell the difference between a group of five and a group of seven, but a group of twenty-five is more (though the rabbit would not be able to explain mathematically why they think there are more).
Rabbits have limited engineering abilities, but there are some very clever rabbits who can solve problems in humanlike ways, for example by simple tool use, or taking advantage of human-created objects. Very skilled rabbits can weave simple pouches for carrying items, and some are even trained in the use of herbs for medicinal and adversarial purposes. Humanlike creative and mechanical skills are bewildering to any rabbit unfamiliar with them, though if some unusual ability is normalized within the warren, the rabbits can come to regard it as legitimate and useful, even if most of them don't understand it. Otherwise, incomprehensible behavior may be looked down upon or even persecuted depending on the social atmosphere of the warren.
In the same vein, some rabbits are said to have supernatural powers, to know when bad things are coming, perceive some creature's intent before it's made manifest, or even heal a wounded or diseased rabbit through supernatural means. Few rabbits claim to have met anyone who had such powers, so it's hard to know if they are real. Occasionally low-ranking rabbits will pretend to have extrasensory powers in order to gain influence in the warren. Such imposters are a known phenomenon, and sooner or later they are found out and expelled.
Dealing With Other Animals
Of course, rabbits aren't the only creatures in the world. Other species are "people" much the same as rabbits, though they speak different languages and may have significantly different motivations. Carnivorous and omnivorous animals tend to be enemies of rabbits, or at the very least opportunistic toward the sick, weak, and wounded. Herbivorous animals (and others too small to do any harm to a rabbit) tend to be neutral.
Neutral animals are sometimes willing to do favors for rabbits who offer something in return. After all, predators are everywhere, and we're all in this together.
There is one type of animal that is so incomprehensible as to be considered a monster: humans. Human behavior can sometimes be predicted, but it can never be understood. In general, it is safe to assume that humans are hostile.