The first problem is how the Founders and the Protectresses begat the race of people. The Founders are men with beast heads. The Protectresses are the daughter of Eiritha and the Good Shepherd (although the Cult Compendium p84 qualifies this by saying he was the father of many and that most were killed). Their description is not given so we don't know how beast-like they are.
What I think to be the case is that the Founders surrounded by Hunter or Warrior societies that took as the Totem a particular beast (Bison, Impala etc). Most were humans although the more magical appeared as minotaurs. They had a taboo against their chosen animal but were quick to make sport of the totems of rival animals.
The Protectresses were a native Eirithan cult of humans that followed the herds and protected them with their lives. They didn't do it for food or anything, they did it because they had vowed to protect their chosen holy animals. They are the origins of the Herd Sisters.
Now the Golden and Storm Ages are periods of plenty and so I think that both the Founders and the Protectresses are a minority of humans living in Genert's Garden. There's little need to follow the herds for food if rabbits came freely to the eating etc. Most humans lived in what later became the oases, practicing their own special magic.
Now it's the Chaos Age. Genert's dead and there's a lot of humans wandering around starving. The Founder cults are around fighting against chaos and the darkness but they are unable to provide. The herds are scattered because the Protectresses are gone. Waha comes along and does something about it. He frees the Protectresses, thus ensuring that the herds grow in number. He assigns the humans to one of the herds using various contests (midgets go to the Impalas etc) and inducts the men into the Founder cult of that herd and the women to the worship of Herd-Eiritha. Then he teaches the men how to kill animals for food. Once was once a minority practice on the plains has now become the dominant culture.
But what about the Morokanth? I think that the Morokanth were one of the few fully intelligent Eirithan beast species before the Great Darkness and Waha assigned them the irredeemably stupid humans in the Survival Contests. But since both Men and Morokanth have limited memories of the Survival Contests, they have different myths about what the contests were meant to achieve.
--Peter Metcalfe
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