Volokatchen
The Volokatchen are a soft-bodied, ten-limbed sentiant species on Parllos and the most abundant cepholapods on the planet. They dwell mainly in cities off the eastern coast of the main continent, but can be found everywhere within the waters of the God's Cauldron ocean. What is knwon of the Volokatchen comes mostly from the Malgrove who can openly communicate with the fiercely solitary creatures and have learned some about them over the eons.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Volokatchen are an aquatic species and one of only two sentient species to live under water full time. They are a boneless species, the only hard part of their body being the beak at the bottom of thier roughly meter long head. Attached to the head are ten tentacles that can reach three to five meters in length a piece, used not only for propulsion under the water, they act as arms and gripping appendages for manipulating the Volokatchen's environment.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Volokatchen names are not possible to pronounce, theirs being a visual and tactile language indicated by textures and color tones produced by the skin. So a name, as it were, might be twelve blends of a color under a smooth, spiked skin surface, or a tentacle twisted in a particular way with a special hue. In fact the word Volokatchen isn't what the species call itself, instead its the term given by the Karn to describe the race.
Beauty Ideals
While it's not in the nature of the Volokatchen to wear clothing or other garments for non-work or war, it is however customary to wear metal bands at the base of one's tentacles. These bands come in all sizes and are decorated in all manner of jewels and accent trinkets and are representative of that Volokatchen's collection, having more bands means a larger collection and higher status in society.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Volokatchen communication is non-verbal and based on changes to the color palette and texture of the skin, as well as specific manipulation of the tentacles in hand-jesture type actions. As a result of this, very few from other species can easily or properly converse with Volokatchen, save for the Mur and the Malgrove who have an inate ability to speak with all creatures of Parllos.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Volokatchen are a very materialistic species, so it is common for it's members to present thier wealth within and without it's dwelling. Known as gardens the Volokatchen will decorate their houses and hovels with the spoils of their actions and labors. This includes stealing from the gardens of others if one is brave enough to try.
History
Little is known about the history of the Volokatchen, like the Mur their civilization was ancient before the Ash Age collapse. Though we do know that after the cataclysm the Volokatchen started starving and dying off when the ash was thickest, from all across the God's Cauldron ocean towns and villages were abandonded as the remaining survisors converged on the Marsh Coast and capitol city of Shavolocast. Marsh Rivers War War of the Sunrise
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Mainly through interactions with Humans and the Karn the Volokatchen are seen as a violent irrational species who brutilize thier precieved enemies after the slightest provication. However, to some species like the Malgrove and Mur, who can communicate with the Volokatchen, they are seen in a different light, as a species who is highly self-sufficient and prone to real violence only when threatened and after multiple attempts to communicate.
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