Ekurin (ek-ur-in)

Summary

An aquatic species of water-aspected humanoid bipeds, the ekurin live in Veltrona's various oceans and seas. There's some debate if the ekurin are a single species, or a union of very similar ones. They all exhibit the same dominant characteristics, but the fine details remain distinct enough to call them 'separate'. The name 'ekurin' won out as the common name of choice among traders, seawomen, and others who do business with them.
If the shermadi swam through the oceans, the ekurin traversed the corals and rocks below. Lacking the agility or speed of the shermadi form, the ekurin instead embodied hardy durability and physical power. Living the life of opportunistic huntresses and scavengers, the ekurin learned to utilize their strengths and smarts to survive. The oceans of Veltrona contain uncountable dangerous and mysterious encounters, leaving one either quick-witted or something's meal.
In time, the ekurin learned to exploit their cleverness. They harnessed the power of corals, communing with them to create houses, workshops, temples, and more. They took to the veltron beneath, carving out rock, creating masoned bricks and stonework to fortify their homes. Great underwater plant farms interwove through their cities, becoming bountiful fishing and farming grounds alike. They fashioned cities that could withstand even the dreaded leviathans, the titanic rulers of the waters few even imagined possible to kill.
While the other species of the oceans have their strengths, the ekurin's new frontiers changed everything. Their workshops discovered means of 'cold forging' with metal magic, creating both mundane and exotic materials. With those followed better weapons, armors, and various other inventions they could work with. Other ekurin, having heard rumors of 'fire forging', sought out their local underwater volcanoes and magma vents. Despite the incredible dangers, they learned how to harness such heats for even more forms of metal processing.
Once word of their accomplishments spread, many others within the oceans soon discovered, or were taught, such crafts themselves. It opened an entire new dimension of possibilities that, until then, most resolved through magical arts instead. The two together, in many respects, catapulted the ocean civilizations to new heights as comparable, or better than, the land-walkers. Their oceanic adaptations can be quite strange to figure out, given how very different their environment is, though.
For the ekurin, their clever inventiveness suited well to the prospects of engineering and design. The more they tamed their homelands, the more they changed in many respects. Unburdened by the likes of the Relentless Herds and Packs, they eschewed the overly sophisticated fortifications for verdant wildernesses, vast farmlands, and beauteous oceanscapes. Leviathan invasions or great wandering swarms of predators were the most they ever had to fear. At least, until war and strife took root.
Myriad reasons ever form the foundations of war, but the end results are almost always identical. The ekurin took their fantastic technologies to genocidal heights, eradicating each other in bids for complete domination. The different species and their civilizations, too, became caught up in these brutal wars. So it was the Forsaken swelled to frightening heights, turning countless great cities into vast tombs filled with hateful beings. It was only by the last millennium, with the help of others, the ekurin have managed to quell most of the Forsaken.
Battered, bruised, and having lost the heights of their greatness, the survivors saw to rebuilding themselves again. Their individual nations ultimately ended up intertwined with their neighbors, and much of their cultures changed as a result. While a few maintain their militaristic pride and history, many understood the horrors of what they'd done, and sought a different path. What that would become for the many ekurin isn't clear, and some fear they'd invariably return to their old ways.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Bipedal humanoids, with a head, torso, four arms with five-fingered hands, and two legs with four-toed feet, the ekurin are a species that embody being 'soft' and 'hard'. Anatomically, they share similarities to other arthropod-like monsterkind, such as the rachtoh and urni, by having an exoskeleton that is covered in a flesh-like analogue. The exterior-facing portions of the ekurin body is hardened into stronger, more durable carapace. A good example of this would be their torso.
The backside of the ekurin is often made of homogenous, segmented carapace plates. This allows them their full range of motion, while giving natural protection against sharp teeth and biting. Some have carapaces in very large segments, others in many smaller, interweaving ones similar to scalemail. However, the carapace itself starts to terminate at their sides, and disappears entirely at their front. This means their belly, breasts, and so on are all soft tissues and muscle.
This theme is consistent across their body: the exterior, danger facing sides are carapace armored, while the interior sides are tissues and muscle.
Their upper arms and forearm carapace cover the outside, with the carapace terminating at on the topsides of their hands and fingers. This leaves the interior arm and palms as exposed. Similarly, from their hips down to their knees, the outside facing part of their thighs are armored. It terminates at the topsides of their feet, leaving the soles exposed. Their butts, while they some carapace at the edges, are not covered at all. It is an unusual weakpoint from behind they have to protect with skirt armor.
Incidentally, this skirt armor's traditional design is, as called by land-walker seawomen, the 'lobster butt'.
Smaller, almost decorative carapace scales adorn their face, particularly atop their noses and along their jaw-line. Their looks are, otherwise, very human-like, with two eyes, a nose, mouth, and slightly recessed fin-like ears alongside their heads. Their pupils are vertical slights with slight wavy tapering at the tops and bottom, and their sclera are usually a light blue color. Their iris colors are almost anything that's possible, but they're always vibrant and highly saturated, so very 'noticeable' under water.
Their hair comes in the form of long tubes that have wavy, kelp-like fins growing off of them. Like the shermadi, this form of hair helps in thermoregulation, and can be considered a kind of organ unto itself. They're quite bendy and flexible, making them easy to style in a variety of ways. However, do not mention 'cutting one's hair' around them, unless you meant to 'trim the frills'. Their hairs tend to be the same colors as their carapace, with the stalks being darker and the frills being brighter, attention-grabbing hues.
Their four arms are equivalent in size and capability, and are proportionally sound. The primary pair of arms are in the normal location for a humanoid torso, with the second pair located underneath. Both pairs of arms have a surprising range of flexibility, easily able to reach behind themselves as needed.
Ekurin have natural 'vents' in their carapaces which function as highly specialized magical organs. These vents control the intake and expulsion of water mana, creating natural water jets that propel an ekurin around. Using them is extremely taxing, but they offer incredible bursts of speed in their aquatic environments. Whether to survive an ambush, ambush something in turn, or even manuever particularly challenging grounds, the vents are important to their way of life. There are two on the upper back, hips, and one on each forearm and leg. The upper ones propel them sideways, the hips propel them forward, and the arms/legs propel in the direction of the limbs.
Their color ranges can vary greatly, and represent bright, respledent, or highly colorful arrangements. Having evolved to live in their verdant coral regions, the vividness of the ekurin is at home in such places. Their carapace and skin are made from contrasting colors, clearly identicating which is carapace, and which is skin. The two can blend together at the body borders where they meet.
The skin of an ekurin is smooth, but can be patterned with all kinds of colorful markings, motley spots, and other beauteous marks. Their carapaces can vary significantly, being smooth, bumpy, covered in small spikes, having large towering spikes, or otherwise. Both of these are more indicative of lineage, as there is no significant difference in the sexes.
Overall, they are mildly sexually dimorphic, with the females having larger hips and enlarged breasts. As a species, their physiques are similar and have no real difference in musculature. There is a noticeable trend that females tend to be more vibrantly colorful, but it's not a hard rule as some variant ekurin don't do this.

Biological Traits

Water Jets – The ekurin physiology adapted a natural form of water magic, in the form of their body's water jet vents. It is something they can all instinctually use, even when on land (albeit, with mixed results).
Durability – Eschewing speed for durability, ekurin can take an unusual amount of punishment compared to many other oceanic species.
Crushing Strength – Ekurin have strong muscles, and their arms in particular emphasize crushing as a form of power. Beware shaking their hands; or getting a hug.

Civilization and Culture

Relationship Ideals

Ekurin societal norms tend to be criss-crossing intersections of circumstance and lifestyle. Romanticism, as a result, mirrors this. Being self-sufficient, ekurin look for 'interesting' engagements with their partners. Common hobbies, professional work, and intellectual curiosity all blend together in a confusing, but understandable mixture of intrigue. How this all aligns together is what creates the 'frigid' impression the ekurin become somewhat notorious for.
Like everything else in their life, the ekurin try to arrange things in actionable cycles. Spending time with friends, family, or romantic partners is, itself, something they try to 'schedule'. How this manifests differs between ekurin and their social circles, though. Some prefer strictly rigid meetings, others blending in and out as things happen. For those used to close intimacy and regular contact, it can seem utterly dispassionate.
Nothing is farther from the truth. As the ekurin say, 'absence swells desire'. They come to greatly cherish and value the times they do have together. Moreso, they can become extremely over-energetic and passionate with partners they enjoy. These fiery emotions explode out, but in time, simmer down and quiet to a pleasant heat. How ekurin manage this, too, varies; some crave the highs and lows, others the constance of a presence.
Their relationships, as a result, are often informed by the choices of their scheduling. Marriages, lifelong partners, and otherwise tend to meld together into a shared schedule of sorts. Traditional ekurin marriages is analogous to partners having the same, or nearly same, schedule. So, the same interests, jobs, work they're doing, and more. The further diverged this is, the more unusual it seems to them, but it's not unacceptable in itself.
How one arranges the intersections of their own life, and that of their partners, is the core to forming a successful bond.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Resourcefulness is the ancestral legacy of the ekurin, for they made use of everything they could. To do otherwise may have let starvation, famine, disease, and endless predators run rampant throughout their homelands. From resourcefulness came inventiveness, and so their clever minds beget so many more things. It suited their huntresses well, and in time, their budding engineers, farmers, scholars, and other sophisticated workers. The essence of this permeates all their cultures, and serves as a unifying theme throughout the species.
At the surface, the ekurin appear meritocratic. They place great value in being able, doing, and producing results. The importance of the task is mostly irrelevant; stitching together baskets is as well-regarded as smithing out metals. They give special acknowledgement to those who, however, risk their lives in the pursuit of their professions. The likes of guards, warriors, huntresses, danger foragers, chemical workers, and so on.
Once, the ekurin cared only for greatness and their achievements. They discarded the weak and downtrodden, scorned the disabled and infirm, and despised those who were different. In the aftermath of their downfall, these things became regarded as the roots of evil. The survivors saw that family, friends, and being together were truly the most important aspects of life. Not even the lowliest of them, feeble and ignoble as they are, should be left behind.
Hence, their desires for achievements blended with their newfound values of family and community. One should strive for greatness, but not forget those who will end up behind them. To do more, was to give to others. To give to others, was for all to share in greatness together. Some aspects of collectivism emerged as a result, but it would be better to call it a societal dictohomy. Pursuing one or the other, and managing the differences, is an important aspect of being ekurin.
With their 'always doing something' mentality, the ekurin almost always have something they do to occupy themselves. Many end up with a variety of different skills as a result, making adult ekurin quite varied in their life stories. It lends to a better understanding of each others' jobs, as well, which helps to value even innocuous contributions. It's a norm to have one or two 'specialties', and then a range of 'generalities' as far as one's hobbies or productivity goes.
To outsiders, an individual ekurin may seem like they have quite a lot of 'jobs' they work. While true to some extent, it is lacking in the understanding of how ekurin themselves 'work'. It is a way of expressing themselves, their skills or talents, and connecting with like-minded people. It both helps others and their own, and so is regarded in a positive light.

Inspiration

Crustaceans like crabs/lobsters

Lifespan

100 years

Average Height

Medium: 5-6.5ft / 152-198cm

Average Weight

Moderate: 105-190lb / 47-86kg