Ulan
To most the ulan resemble large, oddly shaped cephalopods. The ulan head-body is 4 to 5 feet long tapering oval-shaped structure ending in eight arms, two longer tentacles and a beaked mouth. An internal, dorsal chitinous skeletal process runs from above their eyes to the end of their head-bodies. From this rib like processes extend laterally, partially enclosing their body in a protective, supportive skeleton.
Their eight arms end in finger-like bifurcations. Their two tentacles are split into six-fingered manipulators. The arms are used mainly for locomotion or protection and are thick and muscular. Their eyes are large with horizontally shaped pupils. Though they appear mouthless, their black beaked mouths are located in the middle of their arms. Their bite delivers a paralytic neurotoxin strong enough to kill small animals or temporarily disable larger animals.
Ulan are normally violet with varying patterns of electric blue on the sides of their head-body. However, Ulan can change the patterns and colors of their skin at will. Those experienced with ulan can read their moods or intent from their skin. Most ulan are 10 feet long from head-body to the tips of their arms.
Most ulan live on the continental shelves of Torvalen’s continents, usually making their home in coral reefs environments, but also kelp forests or even mangrove swamps and river estuaries. Estuary and mangrove dwelling ulan were the first to interact with surface species in Torvalen and still make up the bulk of Ulan found on the surface.
Traditionally ulan live in communes of 30 to 200 individuals ruled by an ama. The ama is a female Ulan that is four times as large as other Ulan and lives permanently underwater. An ama is the mother of most of the Ulan in her commune. She cannot move on land or breathe air. Nearly all other Ulan in the commune are males, who serve the community as workers, protectors and consorts.
The few females born to the ama are raised to adulthood then urged out of the community to start their own communes. Ten to twenty of her brothers normally accompany the young female and males from other communes will join to become mating partners. After females mate for the first time, they grow to become amas. Males live only 1 year after mating. Being chosen as consort is considered the honor of a lifetime and afterwards males begin to age rapidly, becoming listless, their minds and bodies deteriorate. This is called the Great Waning and they are treated with loving care and attention during this time. Normal lifespan is 120 years for non-ama females and non-consort males. Ama life spans are believed to extend into multiple centuries.
The homes of reef dwelling ulan are constructed of carefully tended and shape trained coral, which they manipulate to grow into intricate living cavern systems. These caverns are lit on the inside by bioluminescent aquatic plankton. Mangrove ulan live in submerged tunnels underneath the mangrove marshes. The tops of the caverns are constructed of living mangrove roots compelled to grow woven together, giving structural integrity to the cavern system. Like their reef cousins, mangrove Ulan light their caverns with specially bred bioluminescent plankton, and also bioluminescent fungi.
Ulan venerate Bright-Water as well as the spirits of the three moons, who they call the Sisters. All amas are powerful servants of these spirits. Some males are also divine servants, usually acting as assistants to the ama during ceremonies.
The semiotic arts are rarely practiced among the ulan. Those who do study these arts generally cultivate their talents inwardly and tend to be very aesthetic. Instead of the words and motions commonly used by surface practitioners, the voiceless Ulan developed intricate dances synchronized with changes in color patterns.
Members of Ulan communes spend most of their time hunting, making tools and weapons, creating art, playing games, raising their young, and maintaining their homes just like most other intelligent species. Some ulan are also sent to trade with the surface races, usually for beautiful things to decorate the ama’s cavern or useful tools and weapons that can only be made on the surface. Metals being prone to corrosion, they are partial to the expert stone, keratin, bone and laminate weapons.
Some ulan make the radical decision to live a life on the surface and undergo a traumatic, painful and irreversible metamorphosis gifted to them by their ama in order to do so. These ulan are called the Changed. Unlike other ulan, the Changed regularly wear clothing adapted to their unusual morphology.
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