The Sulkan


The sulkan are one of the native species of Kuuandra. Strong, swift, and ferocious, the sulkan are fearsome leviathans of the sea. Highly magical but intensely isolated, the sulkan may just be the most mysterious Intalli within the realm of the Selvan.

Biology

The sulkan have lean, muscular bodies that taper into two powerful tail fins. While their heads are relatively small, their jaws are extremely strong. They have strong night vision along with highly sensitive hearing. Their most striking feature are the rounded lobes which protrude from their head and back. These lobes express excess amounts of magic and are used for communication and for display.

Abilities

Magic Wellspring

Unlike most Intalli, the sulkan lack any particularly flashy magical abilities. What they do have is magic itself- and a lot of it. Sulkan have the strongest pulsars out of any other species and are naturally inclined towards spellcasting of all types. It would take the most dire situation for a sulkan to run out of magic.

Ecology and Behavior

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Sulkan possess a pure gilder reproduction system, with all mature individuals able to externally fertilize and lay eggs. Mature sulkan only reproduce every ten years. A single individual is capable of laying thousands of eggs at once, leading to massive fields of eggs within nesting grounds. After laying, these eggs are promptly abandoned.

  • In contrast to their leviathan-like size in adulthood, newborn sulkan take on a microscopic larval form. Larvae school together after hatching, forming groups called kinships. After absorbing their yolk, they will leave the nesting grounds to be carried off by the current.
  • Sulkan are able to hunt the moment they've absorbed their yolk. Each kinship develops a unique hunting strategy for the group, and most sulkan are skilled and voracious hunters by 8 years old. By 6, juveniles will naturally form a unique language within their kinship. Adolescent sulkan will name themselves and/or their siblings in this language. They will use this language within their kinship for the rest of their lives and will never share it with others.
  • When a kinship is 10 to 12 years old, they are compelled to find and follow any mature individuals they encounter. While run-ins with mature sulkan are not uncommon prior to this, juveniles are instinctively fearful of adults and will flee until they are further developed. When they have found an adult, the sulkan in question will lead them back to their community.
  • They are brought into sulkan culture and taught about their society along with the local language. Language acquisition in teenagers is supernaturally fast and kinships will be given a collective last name in this new language to identify them as a group.
  • Sulkan are considered adults at 20, sexually mature at 30, and physically mature at 40. Their lifespan peaks at 800 years, however the average adult life expectancy ranges anywhere from 100 to 400 years.

    • Social Structure

  • Sulkan do not have a distinction between platonic and romantic relationships, and instead divide their relationships into family, friends, enemies, and strangers.
  • Sulkan live in groups with their siblings called kinships. Nomadic pods are typically made up of several different kinships and can range in size from only a handful of individuals to groups ranging in the thousands. Of course, there are also many established towns and cities, but these are typically smaller than communities on land.
  • Unfortunately, conflict within kinships is not uncommon. Most kinships possess hierarchies, with the strongest and largest member leading the rest. Smaller individuals are more likely to face bullying and abuse than their larger siblings.
  • Sulkan become extremely stressed out when isolated and deteriorate quickly when separated from others. Even encountering an enemy is preferrable to being completely alone. No matter how they were separated from their kinship, lone sulkan (referred to as being unwound) are almost always treated with pity. It is not unusual for highly fragmented kinships to invite unwound sulkan into their family- something that is otherwise unheard of.
  • However, sulkan who outright and repeatedly deny any form of familial connection are faced with far harsher treatment. They are often stereotyped as being mentally unwell and unpredictable. Most individuals are well known in their home region and thus are almost always chased out of the territories of local pods.
  • There is a reason that most sulkan who travel inland are alone.

    • Diet

    Sulkan are hypercarnivorous, with up to 90% of their diet being made up of fish and marine mammals. Cetaceans are a favorite, with larger whale and dolphin species making up the majority of their meals. However, if given the opportunity, a sulkan will eat just about any living thing it can catch. This includes crustaceans, sea birds, squids, and other mollusks.

    Hybrids

    The lutrophus are the only species that commonly interbreed with the sulkan. These hybrids are extremely common and rarely face any health or fertility issues. Most possess some level of future vision along with a vast level of magic.

    Due to how rarely sulkan are encountered out of the water, along with general lack of interest in sex, romance, or parenting, other hybrids are extremely rare.

    Psychology and Culture

    Ideals and Instincts

  • Sulkan culture, along with much of Kuuandra itself, heavily values strength and experience. Size is a major factor in the vision of the ideal sulkan. Larger individuals are typically considered better fighters, hunters, and even leaders. The most respected members of any group are the largest, oldest, and most heavily scarred.
  • Fighting is considered a fair way to judge right or wrong, even for petty disputes. Fortunately, most battles are highly ritualistic and rarely end in severe injury or death. All it will cost the loser is their ego.
  • However, Sulkan are highly protective of their loved ones and their community. The large majority of intraspecific deaths occur over territory and prey disputes. To care for your family, friends, and home is to be willing to kill or to die for them.
  • The sharing or gifting of food is seen as either a very intimate or a very condescending act. Normally, food is only ever shared with kinships, close friends, or any other sulkan who aided in the hunt. The major exception to this is the feeding of juveniles, the elderly, and disabled individuals.
  • To offer food to a sulkan who you are not familiar with is to imply that they are weak in the way a juvenile is weak. While some may be desperate enough to accept it, most sulkan will see this as a major blow to their ego (Even if they genuinely need it). Most will spurn the gift at best and react violently at worst.

    • Customs and Traditions

  • There is a very loose concept of personal space among the sulkan. A common greeting (even with strangers) is to circle around and rub against each other, originally stemming from a method of removing parasites. To deny the touch of another sulkan is a massive social faux pas, and is only ever reserved for one's most hated enemy.
  • One of the more striking traditions held by sulkan is the consumption of corpses. The concept of leaving a body to rot is horrifying, with a strong belief that the deceased's essence rots away with the body. Thus, sulkan cannibalize after death. Shortly after a sulkan has died, their loved ones will come together to take the first bites from the body (Typically from the most nutritious body parts such as organs). Afterward, the rest of their community is allowed to join in. Corpses that are not viable for safe consumption are to be as close to destroyed as possible.
  • Only the worst of the worst are not eaten. Most are left to float on the surface of the water, but if one is particularly heinous, their body is left on the shore. This essentially rids the ocean itself of their essence and ensures that they will not find comfort in the water.

    • Trivia

  • Predators of all sorts greatly benefit from sulkan larvae- including adult sulkan. Juveniles are not considered to be people until they have become a year old, and thus are considered to be "free game." Due to a high level of general predation, less than 0.1% of sulkan survive to adulthood.
  • The one creature that the sulkan are completely unwilling to consume are remora. Sulkan adore remoras and treat them as pets. It is considered a grievous insult to steal somebody else's remora, including if they entice it with food.
  • Sulkans hunt and consume so many cetaceans that they must have their numbers artifically replensished by Kiaae herself.
  • The majority of sulkan based languages are dependent on clicks, whistles, and song. Due to the fact that these languages are spoken with the mouth closed, it is very difficult for a sulkan to learn land based languages. They just don't know how to shape their mouth!
  • Most sulkan are claustrophobic and are easily made uncomfortable by closed off spaces.
  • Kiaae's current mortal vessel is that of a sulkan/lutrophus hybrid.