Kalar

Template:!Species InfoboxThe Kalar are a species of intelligent dragonlike reptiles, hailing from Carlea in the Cnara System. They are primarily located in Florathel, with only a miniscule percentage spread through the rest of Cosmoria. Kalar are known for their cooperative and peaceful attitude, but are powerful fighters when necessary, with Illuin's armies singlehandedly turning the tide of the War of the Last Alliance.

Brief History

The Kalar came into existence as a genetically engineered subspecies of the Varla of Veladris, who themselves originated as subspecies of the Isra of ages past. One of the most lush of the true Varla colonies of Ectabana, Carlea's environment incentivized flight and allowed a large body size, making the Kalar the physically largest of the Isra Tree. Carlea's perfectly terraformed conditions led to a comfortable lifestyle and prodigious population boom, the heights of which the species has still not returned to.

During the Alshunaman Rebellion, the nascent Kalar cut ties with Veladris' oppressive regime, siding with the armies of Alshaza. This led to the species experiencing unparalleled prosperity and peace under the Alshunaman Empire. During this time, many offworld colonies were established, including those at Selfar, Noleas, Myra, Azelis, and others.

Alas, this prosperity was brought to an abrupt end with the coming of Karith the Accursed. His armies brutally conquered the Alshunaman Empire. The Kalar people were described as fighting fiercely and stubbornly, and stood for years as the last Florathelian holdout against his Empire. When Carlea fell, his armies subjected the planet to an orbital bombardment, destroying much of the surface and nearly wiping out the species.

After Karith was killed and his empire disintegrated, the mostly depopulated Carlea was trapped on the borderlands between the newly formed Jamulsa and Kromva, the two most powerful states in Florathel. and Kalar colonies from other systems fled the poorly managed, unconvincing imitation of the Alshunaman Empire that was Jamulsa and the martial culture and oppressive rule of Kromva. By the time of the Years of Fire, the Kalar led a peaceful, self-sufficient nation ducking the random attacks surrounding states had a habit of aiming at each other in this time.

The Providence Union subjugated the Kalar, making them into a second-class species. Labor camps were established in the Cnara System solely for use as punishment. As the Providence Union's existence drew on, the oppressive rule of the dynasties at Revarea and Nerax grew ever more intolerable.

By the end of the Providence Union's time in Cosmoria, the Kalar had begun several small-scale rebellions. As the other outlying states began to separate from the central government at Kaslar, the Kalar rebellions rapidly formed a united front across the Cnara and Frealee Systems. The remote colony at Kavira formed a bridgehead for the final assault on Kaslar itself and the end of the war, leading to the final independence of the many nations of the former Providence Union.

The Kalar attempted several times to mediate peace talks during the War of Saiheran Succession, failing several times until the monumental signing of the Fifth Treaty of Providence in 95,629 CE. Having stayed out of the war, the Kalar and their sister species the Analar came out of that bloody time in history with the largest populations of all the species of Florathel.

Appearance

Kalar are blue-gray winged reptilian creatures around fifteen meters long. Their long necks are lined with structures that look vaguely like gills, serving as air intakes. A Kala's underbelly is covered by lighter, less stiff scales, and late in a pregnancy or after consuming a massive amount of food, these scales become slightly translucent after stretching over the distended abdomen. The long semi-prehensile tail of a Kala has a set of long, thin spikes which can be shot like arrows in the case of danger, but this capability is useless as of the modern day.

Biology

Respiratory System

Kalar have a relatively simple respiratory system evolved from their marine ancestors. Air travels in through vaguely gill-like structures to the lungs, where oxygen is extracted and carbon dioxide is put back in, then deoxygenated air is blown back out. Kalar lungs, being required to take in enough oxygen to sustain a creature of this size, are quite large and span the length of the neck.

A major benefit of this system is that it never interfaces with the digestive system. This eliminates the risk of choking, though it does cause a few limitations in speech, as the openings cannot be used as efficiently to articulate sounds. The whistling pitches of Kalar language, while shared with other species of the Isra Tree, are otherwise unique in Cosmoria.

Digestive System

Because of their huge size, Kalar need to eat a lot. To help facilitate this, Kalar evolved to have this odd-looking extendable jaw that can extend up to several meters from the individual in seconds, grab something out of the sky, and pull it back into the mouth. This jaw can "unhinge", allowing a Kala to ingest objects up to the size of itself. The esophagus is also rather stretchy, allowing for rapid conveyance of very large food items to the first stomach.

Kalar have a set of two stomachs in sequence, which conduct different processes. The first, much larger stomach can expand to roughly three times its original size before the tissue tenses. Instead of violently breaking down anything which enters it, the gastric juices of the first stomach are much more discriminatory in terms of what they break down. The fluids secreted by the first stomach are composed of specialized enzymes and a selection of symbiotic bacteria, entirely harmless to living tissue. Instead, these bacteria and enzymes target dead, nutritious organic matter as well as invading microorganisms, almost functioning as a preservative for whatever is inside.

Whatever is left over from this unusual step in the process can be sent along to the second stomach, which acts much more conventionally. It secretes an extremely powerful acid and enzymes, violently breaking down whatever enters it in a process which releases an unusual amount of oxygen. The remaining slurry can be quickly absorbed by the remaining length of the intestine. The gases produced by the digestion process of the second stomach can often travel back into the first stomach. Any undigestible waste is voided after everything of value is extracted from it.

This unique system gives the Kalar two interesting abilities. First, they can swallow enormous amounts of food, possibly live, and regurgitate it for their young. Back in ancient times, evolving on the savannas of whatever planet the roots of the Isra Tree came into being on, it was often necessary for a mother Isra (the initial precursor to the Kalar, ~10 million years ago) to protect her young from predators hoping for an easy meal or carry them on long migratory journeys.

Similar to the pouch present among species of the Taya Tree, species of the Isra Tree retain the capability to protect their young inside the seemingly useless first stomach, with the impenetrable scales of the adult repelling most threats. The stomach's harmless fluids kill germs and parasites on the child's scales, and the chamber is kept breathable, while the sphincter leading to the secondary stomach is too narrow for even the smallest newborn to slip through to their deaths. The stomach's high density of sensory nerve endings also allow for the adult to be aware of their child's state at all times. Of course, in modern times among the Isra Tree, this function is almost completely unnecessary due to the general safety modern society provides. It is still used, as the barely sapient newborn children often feel a need to be close to their parents before independence develops, and long travels can sometimes necessitate it.

Nervous System

Being intelligent species, Kalar have rather large brains. Due to the large size of their bodies, Kalar have evolved to have incredibly fast nerve impulses to be able to reach the other end of the body in a reasonable timeframe.

Senses

Kalar have six main sensory inputs: vision, scent, taste, hearing, touch, and a thing called "proprioception". The first five work about how one would expect, the only difference being that the Kalar visual spectrum is significantly wider than, say, Humans. Proprioception, the sense of things happening within the body, is much sharper than in most life-forms. No one's entirely sure why this sense evolved to be so sharp, although parasites prevalent before cohesive societies on Carlea could explain this.

Reproductive System

They reproduce ovoviviparously, which means that the eggs are inside the mother's womb up until a few days after hatching. This means that the eggs do not require hard shells. Kalar almost invariably give birth to sextuplets (roughly 97% of the time) with the next most common numbers being 4 and then 2, with any other number occurring extremely rarely. The Kalar gestation period is approximately 1.5 standard years long, though there is some variation either way with the shortest and longest on record a truly insane seven months, and four years respectively.

Demographics

Kalar are almost solely found in Florathel, especially within Illuin and neighboring states. The only known Kalar habitations outside of the region is the city of Karlastadt on the disk of Eos.

Culture

Kalar culture has been influenced throughout the millennia by their pacifistic nature and other important properties.

Religion

There are many minor religions scattered through space. However, most Kalar today and throughout their history are primarily atheist, as only 14% of the Kalar population follows any religion.

Language

The Kalar once had an incredibly diverse set of languages, but as the planet unified, many died out. Today, a single language is spoken by the vast majority of the species, with loanwords from hundreds of extinct ones. This language places heavy emphasis on the pitch of syllables, with a subtly incorrect pitch potentially drastically changing the meaning of the word. Due to the unique Kalar respiratory system, a translating computer is required for other species to speak to Kalar, and fortunately these devices are commonplace.