I have a few questions on the vastayashai’rai
What are they?what did they look like? Were they/are they basically animals? Is neeko a vastayashai’rai? Are they rare? What distinguishes them from the vastaya?
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It was already confirmed several times that Neeko is not vastayasha'rei (though she likes to think she is), although the Oovi-Kat vastaya are one of the closest vastaya tribes to the vastayasha'rei that still exist today, having likely kept a lot of the vastayasha'rei's shapeshifting traits due to their chameleon nature.
That said, it was also confirmed that apparently any vastaya have the ability to shapeshift into a fully-animal and fully-human form, with varying degrees of difficulty. For example, Neeko would obviously have the easiest time doing this, and it probably wouldn't be as hard for Ahri either, but it might be more challenging for someone like Rengar. This does make me very interested to see what they look like as full humans or full animals, especially ones that lean far toward animal or human in their base form.
Other vastaya tribes also have varying degrees of other shapeshifting abilities, and one example is how Rakan can shapeshift his feather cloak to be just right, hence his quote "I got my cloak right, I got my moves right, time to show it!".
And as for the other questions, we have no idea as of yet. My guess is that they were either a type of physical spirit (like Yordles, but totally different) or a tribe of Ionian mages with shapeshifting power so great that it allowed them to shapeshift into almost any form.
They are intelligent creatures that have a deep connection with Ionia's magic and can shapeshift.
Since they can shapeshift they probably didn't have one uniform look.
Depends on how you define animals. By biological definition, yes, but so are humans.
Neeko is a vastaya, although her tribe has less outside influences than most other vastayan tribes. She calls herself vastayashai'rei, but that is false.
They might not exist anymore. If there are still vastayashai'rei out there, they probably live in a secluded and isolated area.
Vastaya are offspring of humans and vastayashai'rei, although it is unknown how exactly that happened. Because of that Vastaya have lost some of their shapeshifting abilities, while gaining a human form they usually combine with an animal that best represents the personality of their tribe. Vastayashai'rei are pure from such human influence.