Kitsune tails symbolize alot about a kitsune. Besides knowing that a kitsune has more than one tail usually, kitsune tails symbolize prestige and power. The more tails a kitsune has the more prestige and power he holds above lesser tailed kitsune.
The tails are asumed to be obtained different ways to different people. Some belive they gain a tail once every 100 years. Some also belived they're earned through good acts or great feats of achievment or overcomming obstacles.
With each tail the kitsune's power increases. It is belived that a kitsune with one more tail than another is twice as powerful, which is what I belived. As Michati, who created Kitsune Xerion, found that some belive that they are 10 times more powerful. Most kitsune lore or stories seem to fit that due to kitsune to kitsune encounter. One kitsune seeing the other who is a tail higher than them seem to show alot of fear or revearence to the kitsune as if they could be decimated in one spell of the other.
The number of tails on a kitsune can range from 1 to 9, and supposedly the mother of all kitsune is rumored to have 10 or 10,000 tails. When a kitsune reaches 9 tails, that kitsune is belived to be the wisest and strongest of them all, and an equal to other 9 tails. Their fur changes to a gold, silver, or white color as well. When a kitsune reaches 900 to 1000 years they "die" and return to the spirit realm. The reason I say die in that manner is because kitsune can manifest themselves on the mortal plane and when they "die" they just return to the spirit plane. Wether or not these years accumulate or if they are reborn as new I am still not sure.
