The Sulkan

The sulkan are the native species of Kuuandra. The sulkan are the hulking leviathans of the sea, the largest and most magical of any intalli species. Survival drives the sulkan to ferocity, yet kinship is what they value most. Intensely isolated from the mainland, the sulkan are the most mysterious members of the intalli.

Biology

The sulkan are enormous, fearsome beasts. Rivaling whales in size, sulkan may reach up to 50 feet (15.24 meters) long. They possess long, muscular bodies which taper into two powerful tail fins. While relatively small, their heads boast immensely strong jaws with bone-crushing teeth. Long, rounded lobes protrude from their head and back. These lobes are made to dispose of excess magic from the body. They are somewhat prehensile and may be flared out for communication and display. Mature individuals will grow in smaller baubles from their chins as they age. They have enormous front fins and small back fins, allowing for agility in the water. Their fins have partially separated clawed digits, allowing for a shocking degree of dexterity. Sulkan will use their fins to clean their skin (or the skin of their podmates) of parasites. Their tail is split into two horizontal fins, with each one able to move independently of the other.

Sulkan do not possess nostrils or external ears. Sulkan completely lack an olfactory system and have no sense of smell. Instead, sulkan are able to sense minor magical pulses from other creatures, allowing them to track down their prey. Sulkan also lack gills and instead possess fully developed lungs. They are able to breathe underwater through their corpora magic instead.

Abilities

Potent Pulsars

Unlike most intalli, the sulkan lack any major distinguishing magical ability. Rather, they possess magic itself. The sulkan have the strongest pulsars out of any of intalli species, carrying enough magic for multiple other intalli combined. Strangely enough, sulkan face more difficulty in learning and casting new spells than their intalli brethren. The majority of sulkan will only specialize in a select few spells in their lifetime.

Ecology and Behavior

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Sulkan possess gilder reproduction systems with all mature individuals capable of fertilization and production of eggs. Mature sulkan reproduce every ten years, with different regions and ethnicities having different breeding cycles and seasons. A healthy sulkan may lay up to 2,000 eggs at once.

Sulkan do not participate in courtship, romance, or even sexual relationships. Every ten years, sulkan will begin to experience strong urges to hunt and consume as much prey as possible. This instinct allows them to bulk up and prepare for spawning, with the amount of eggs a sulkan produces reliant on their nutrition. Finally, every sulkan in an area will come to a local nesting ground to spawn, laying their eggs first and then externally fertilizing the eggs of others. After spawning is complete, the eggs are promptly abandoned. Sulkan nesting grounds may have millions of eggs.
Sulkan eggs take only a week to hatch after being laid. In contrast to their leviathan parents, newborn sulkan are microscopic. Sulkan larvae will quickly form groups known as kinships, with the members of each kinship considered to be broodkin. After they have absorbed their yolk, kinships will leave their nesting grounds to be carried off by the currents. Larvae are capable hunters from birth, consuming zooplankton and other microscopic prey whilst drifting in the ocean currents. By their first birthday, juveniles will have grown to several hundred times their original size. At this point, they will begin seeking out new hunting grounds in shallow, tropical waters.
Broodkin pods are extremely coordinated, with each group forming their own unique hunting strategies. Over time, these packs will naturally form their own unique language and names. While often crude, this language is used between broodkin for the rest of their lives. It is very rare for such languages to be shared with unrelated individuals, no matter how close they are to a kinship.
Juvenile sulkan are naturally skittish and will instinctively flee from larger creatures including mature sulkan. However, by ten years old, sulkan lose this inherent fear and may begin to seek out the presence of adult individuals. It may take months or even years to find a receptive group, but the majority of kinships will join an adult pod by 12.
The arrival of new adolescents to a pod is a grand event and is celebrated immensely by all members of a pod. Kinships are immediately immersed into the greater culture, values, traditions, and language of their new community. Sulkan, especially adolescents, have near supernatural language acquisition. A kinship may be able to grasp their new language within only a month of their arrival. While they will retain their broodkin names, kinships are often given a collective last name in their new pod language.
Sulkan are considered adults at 20, sexually mature at 30, and physically mature at 40. While their life expectancy sits at 250 years, their lifespan peaks at 800.

Social Structure

The sulkan have no distinction between platonic and romantic relationships. The only lines which sulkan carry are that between their broodkin and unrelated individuals. Sulkan are expected to have a far stronger relationship with their broodkin than anyone outside of their kinship.
Sulkan communities range heavily in size. Some nomadic pods may possess a dozen individuals, or a few thousand. Mass nomadic pods have loose boundaries, with kinships joining and leaving on a whim throughout their travels. Established, sedentary pods are typically much smaller with strict territory boundaries and tighter bonds.
The majority of communities have loose hierarchies with the strongest and oldest members leading the rest. Smaller individuals are rarely taken seriously and may experience light teasing to severe bullying from others within the same pod or even kinship.
Sulkan become extremely stressed out when alone and will deteriorate quickly when separated from others. Even encountering an enemy is preferable to complete isolation. Sulkan who have lost their kinships are treated with pity and horror. It's not unusual for highly fragmented kinships to invite lone sulkan into their families. They may not be able to regain broodkin, but they can try.
However, the majority of lone sulkan are met with mistrust. Those who are intentionally podless are often considered to be mentally ill and unstable. Such individuals are often well known in their home regions and are often chased out of the territories of local pods.
The ocean can easily be a death sentence for a loner; be it by failed hunts, predation, or other sulkan. Most sulkan who travel inland are alone.

Diet and Cuisine

Sulkan are generalist hypercarnivores, preying on just about anything which calls the ocean its home. Common prey includes fish, marine mammals, squid, sea turtles, seabirds, and even sulkan eggs and larvae. However, their main quarry are cetaceans, beasts too intelligent or too large to face without a pack. Blue whales, right whales, and orcas are often favorite meals. Sulkan almost exclusively hunt with the aid of their broodkin, although they may invite other kinships to join in for especially treacherous prey.

As there are very few ways to process food underwater, Sulkan consume their prey raw. While smaller quarries are often consumed in whole, sulkan have far stronger preferences when consuming cetaceans. Especially successful kinships and pods will often only consume the tongues, livers, and hearts of larger whales before abandoning the kill. The larger the prey, the more likely it is to be abandoned.

Sulkan which have befriended mainlanders will often bring gifts such as whole whale livers, much to the shock of their newfound allies. Such enormous gifts can feed an entire ship of sailors, owing them the name of Ocean's Boon.

Hybrids

Barring the lutrophus, sulkan hybrids are incredibly rare. This largely stems from the sulkan's disinterest in sex and romance, a lack of parental instinct, and their immense rarity on land. Additionally, sulkan mating habits are rather incompatible for the majority of land-dwelling species.

The lutrophus are the only species which commonly hybridizes with the sulkan. Sulkan-lutrophus hybrids are incredibly common and face no inherent health or fertility issues. Besides the lutrophus, the sulkan experience the most reproductive success with the phyoren.

Psychology and Culture

Ideals and Instincts

The sulkan value strength, smarts, and experience. The most respected members of any pod are those with the size, strategy, and scars to lead a successful hunt. Cowards are scorned and bullied for their weakness.
Sulkan are incredibly protective of their hunting grounds and are naturally wary of new and unknown things. Curiosity is rarely rewarded in the depths. Young sulkan are often reprimanded for their impulse to explore beyond the beaten path. Despite their size and strength, a lone sulkan can still be prey.
The sharing or gifting of food can be seen as an intimate- or rather condescending act. Food is typically shared between broodkin or fellow hunters, with the major exception being juveniles and disabled individuals. To offer food to an unfamiliar sulkan is to imply their weakness. This is incredibly disrespectful and is considered to be a massive blow to one's ego, even if genuinely needed. Most will spurn the gift at best and react violently at worst.
Magic is considered a highly volatile but wonderfully useful thing. Juvenile sulkan have very little grasp of their magic and may accidentally create spectacularly disastrous spells on a whim. In adulthood, sulkan are taught to reign in their magic. Most sulkan specialize in incredibly niche spells which are often used for hunting, defense, or healing. Attempting to learn new spells beyond your specialization is seen as precarious at best.
The sulkan have very little interest in shapeshifting. While sulkan may shift to mauhnic form for dexterity, hands or legs are rarely seen as a worthwhile investment in the sea. Some sulkan may never shapeshift in their lifetimes. As a result, most sulkan find unusual difficulty in shapeshifting compared to other intalli. Sulkan who travel inland may take weeks or months to get used to their new form, often struggling with gross motor skills such as walking, running, or climbing.
On the other hand, reception towards seafaring land-dwellers is mixed. Some pods may actively aid ships in their journey, while others may ignore them completely. Some particularly infamous pods are known to hunt down and destroy any seafaring vessels they encounter, often spurred on by ancient grudges. The most popular sea routes travel through the territories of sulkan happy to aid and protect their allies from hostile pods.

Customs and Traditions

Sulkan are an incredibly touchy species and have little to no concept of personal space. A common greeting consists of two sulkan circling each other before rubbing their sides together. While originally intended for parasite removal, this caress is incredibly important for bonding, even between strangers. Sulkan greatly enjoy gently biting one another and will often mouth on friends, broodkin, or even just an acquaintance. To deny the touch of another sulkan is a massive social faux pas and is typically reserved for one's enemy.
One of the more striking sulkan traditions is the consumption of corpses. It is believed that decomposition causes the soul of the deceased to rot away with their body. Thus, sulkan will eagerly consume the deceased. Shortly after a sulkan has died, their loved ones will take the first bites from the body, often consuming the organs first. Afterwards, the rest of their community and any travelers are allowed to join in. A sulkan is consumed until there is little to no flesh or the body has begun serious decomposition.
Corpses that are not viable for consumption, often through disease or poison, are to be destroyed as much as possible. Only the most vile and reprehensible sulkan are left to rot. The majority are left to float on the water, but some particularly heinous individuals may be left on shore.

Trivia

The majority of sulkan die before their first birthday. A vast array of predators will consume sulkan eggs and larvae, including older sulkan. Furthermore, less than 0.1% of sulkan will survive to adulthood.
Ancient myth claims the sulkan to be protectors of the lutrophus and the sea itself. In modern day, the lutrophus are one of the only species that sulkan eagerly interact with, with some pods even taking on an amphibious lifestyle to join their shore-dwelling brethren. Sulkan greatly value lutrophus and their visions. It would be a vile crime to consider them prey.
The sulkan were created in June 2022, the first intalli species to be created for the selvan.