Special Equipment:

Cat’s eye, a necklace set with nine different gems.

Appearance:

Felia is a diminuitive, dark woman.  She is a little thin, but moves with an unparalled grace.  She is a fastidious creature by nature, and dislikes being very dirty.

Her cat form is a black and white queen that has a notched ear and a kinked tail.

Background:

Years ago, two mighty sorcerers fought with each other for control of the throne, as the monarch had left no heir, and had no other relatives.  They were evenly matched, and fought to a stalemate.  Seeing that direct conflict was useless, they made a wager.  One would choose a creature, any creature to be her champion, and the other sorcerer would endeavor to destroy that champion utterly.  The sorceress would influence her champion, and the sorcerer would try to counter that.  The sorceress picked a cat as her champion, for a cat has nine lives, and it would prove a gruelling campaign for her opponent.  The other accepted this, and stated his conditions.  In every life, the cat would be doomed to be betrayed and die badly. 

The nature of the wager meant that a third party needed to mediate the final decision.  If it was determined that the cat’s spirit had broken, or if her deaths had been worthless, the sorcerer won.  If not, the sorceress did.
And so the cat was given a human form for each life.  Because it would affect the outcome of the wager, the cat had no knowledge of the wager or previous lives.  Nine lives passed, and the curse took its toll.  Nine times she was betrayed, and nine times she died. 

Finally the mediator made his decision.  None of the cat’s deaths had been in vain, and her spirit had not broken.  The sorceress won.  But what no one knew was that in order to judge fairly, the mediator had been present in each incarnation, and had seen the suffering the poor creature endured first hand.  He ruled that since the sorceress had not been willing to suffer for the throne herself, and had instead forced it upon an innocent creature, and since she had chosen a creature that would be forced to endure nine times that suffering, she was unfit to rule.  He named the cat the rightful heir, and gave her a tenth life.  This life had knowledge of the previous lives, and also had the power to travel back to each life and affect things slightly.  She could also change from a human to her true form at whim.  The mediator gave her the name Felia.
The two contestants were enraged.  They declared a truce, and slew the mediator on the spot.  They would have killed Felia, but she escaped them.  She now is in hiding, and working to reclaim what she has earned, as well as desperately wanting revenge.


Roleplaying Notes:

Cat’s Eyes, the necklace, is what allows Felia to time-travel to each life.  Each gem represents a life.  She cannot affect her own fate, but she can take actions to affect others, and possibly change their destinies.  Perhaps the PCs are present in one of her incarnations…  While in the past, Felia is restricted to her cat form to avoid a paradox.
The two sorcerers are currently ruling together, but it can’t last as they hate one another.  Felia might take advantage of that situation, perhaps by hiring a convienient group of mercenaries.

Felia knows of the curse she was under in her nine previous lives, but she doesn’t know if it’s still in effect, so she is constantly on her guard, and trusts very few people.
The mediator, who was always Felia’s ally (and might even have loved her), might not be dead.  He may only be imprisoned or under a spell.

Felia is truly the queen, but the two sorcerers do their damnedest to prevent that from becoming common knowledge.  Someone who did know would be a target for assassins.  Maybe the PCs would have to protect that person, if it wasn’t them anyway.

As things stand, Felia is probably wanted, and a substantial reward might be offered for her head.