The Olaká

"You've not met the bodyguard for our expedition? You've not met one better. Careful, they're not fond of yelling." -

The Olaká is the local name for an enormous species of self-aware beings that the Ars classify in their own Framework by the name of Mords. What the Ars are not able to explain is why these particular creatures familiar to them but endemic to the Castraversi Framework are self-aware, and how they repeatedly test the boundaries set by the understanding of what defines a Precept in the terms of Yirimoth academia.

Origin

The Ars have spent little time on seeking the source of this species, as they are a recent discovery after the results of the Incident. Some Ars have committed to believing that the Olaká are simply some sort of Vora mutation on endemic life. However, their natural pacifist approach and desire to communicate before conflict pushes a few to contest that view. The locals don't know much about their origins, having only recognized them from motifs in the carvings left behind by their ancestors. These carvings have told the story that they arrive from the ancient forests of the Yujiba.
Once The Erá started to return to the Maraine to seek the answers of their past, the Olaká took heed and visited them, surprising and initial encounters were naturally tense. The Olaká solved this by pointing out that they knew the petroglyphs and after time was spent to learn how their signing corresponded with the letters of eld, the Olaká led the Era to one of the last living Yujiba forests fiercely protected by their people, to teach them the lessons of the land.
This was one of the largest leaps of progress towards removing Ars control from the Planar and Selars of the Framework. The Olaká are extremely long-lived and have access to the earliest traditions, and aside from that are extremely resilient, bearing bodies covered in thick carapaces that are resistant to the typical venoms a Vora employs.
What is confusing is that they have the Ara word verb form "to test" which makes one wonder why the ancients would call them this strangely ominous phrase. It turns out their ancient role is that of sparring partners. A great amount of natural power backs their massive shielded frames and they actively pursue encouraging the Era to hone their martial capabilities for a final day where their defensive presence is no longer needed to resist the Vora.
Once an Olaká has taught their charge all that they need to know, that is considered the time they can lay and rest. For many years they've waited the day to teach the knowledge they've held onto from the Planar that gave them life, and will seek an Udo for miles. Some have been slain by Ars for invading Ars controlled structures for seeking their charges to protect.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The dominant feature of the Olaká is their large, powerful bodies, easily overshadowing the tallest Udo by a few feet. They have two sets of arms that end in sharp menacing claws, though said claws are more for extraction of their food source of choice, the sap of the Yujiba trees.

Growth Rate & Stages

The Olaká follow the same documented life cycles as the Mords that the Ars are familiar with, namely following the growth from an egg, to a larva, then creating a pupa before becoming fully adult Mords. However, the process of what can be recognized as an Olaká as being separate from the other varied species of Mords throughout the Yirim is usually via the process of consumption of tree sap from the Yujiba trees from their home territories. The process is still under investigation but through consumption of this particular sap, the Olaká go through a fifth growth stage, sealing themselves in a larger cocoon, where they emerge ambulatory and with poseable limbs as well as the ability to perceive and communicate.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Olaká follow their previous life as Mords in diet, namely subsisting on fruit and tree sap. However, with the results achieved from the Yujiba sap, their normal approach to food also becomes a source of learning. In other words, the sap they consume at this stage in their life is what allows them to understand and how to act in regards to the outside world. Different trees and plants impart different methods of understanding, and personality, as well as ideals, are formed from these meals. The Olaká treat their meals as a method of study and contemplation of their newly attained sentience in addition to nutritive benefits.

Civilization and Culture

Major Language Groups and Dialects

The Olaká do not speak but instead communicate in a form of signing unique to their people, in order to be able to communicate and interact with other cultures that encounter them. Among themselves, they've developed a method of silent communication based on both body language and scent, but a process that is all but invisible to anyone not of their species. Their unique form of communication precipitates from their feeding/learning methods, developed over years of contemplating the meaning of the physical forms around them and how best they could symbolize those meanings to people who don't understand their body language.
Signing of the Olaká
Due to their unique biology they don't have the means to vocalize sounds to speak, so over time as driven by the will of the Planar to protect the people, they've made a system of signing that they've taught to the ancient Ara back in the days that they were allowed to freely roam from the varied forests. Now, as the lands they lived on continue to be pressured by the rise of the Vora in Sector Maraine, the collective memory of the Olaká have faded from the people, and for the most part, they remain in the borders of myth and dream, due to very few Xalians remembering the Olaká and the meaning of their signing.