Kavaki
From Mizahar Lore
| "There is one basic rule most Kavaki tend to follow, and that is you cannot be friends with food. Which wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that everything is food to them." - Mizelio Takk, during a Summoning masterclass |
| Summonable | |
| Frequency | Rare |
|---|---|
| Threat level | High |
| Major features | Bipedal, exoskeletal, disproportionate head with three rows of teeth |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength and resilience, regeneration, digestive fluids |
Kavaki refers both to a world and the barbaric creatures that dwell there. The world is accessible through astral coordinates 6701984710485453-0491093550312866, using Fyrden's coordinates as a stepping stone, but only a minority of Summoners possess such knowledge nowadays.
The creatures known as Kavaki are humanoid brutes of unrelenting strength, known for their voracious appetites. Kavaki can literally eat anything, from people to rocks and including each other, with the notable exception of Kavaki excrements. Because of this, they are a plague not unlike a swarm of locusts and they have all but consumed their own home world. Kavaki are powerful and surprisingly cunning, are able to regenerate seemingly fatal wounds, and possess a very material sense of humor. Summoners must take great care when negotiating with them.
Contents |
History
Kavaki history is poorly understood at best. The earliest accounts of their summoning into Mizahar date back to about three centuries before the Valterrian, with Alahean attempts at organizing them into regiments for pitched battles ending in disaster, as the creatures were much too indisciplined to follow any kind of tactical master plan. They proved to fare better in smaller skirmishes, even though making them stop after the fight was sometimes harder than the fight itself. Alahean standard operating procedures forbade gathering more than three of the creatures at any given time and place, and even then, they were often under heavy Summoning leashes that halved their speed.
It is likely that the Kavaki themselves know little about their own history, because they keep spinning different tales about their origins. One version of the myth has them as the byproduct of a battle between Light and Darkness in which the two forces simultaneously ate each other. Another popular version among the creatures is that they are children of a dead goddess of hunger, whom they devoured from within the womb. No account of their history is overly pretty to listen to.
Appearance
Vaguely resembling a humanoid armadillo, an adult Kavaki is about 8' (2.4 meters) tall and weighs around 400 lbs (180 Kg), with no gender differences. Weight varies depending on how much they have fed recently; when going on a feeding spree, a Kavaki can gain 50% of its weight in a matter of bells. Their body is humanoid, with thick limbs, a barreled chest and a softer belly; the neck is almost non-existent. While the Kavaki body is a light, pasty color, most of the body is covered with vibrantly colored exoskeletal plates that only stop near the junctions and on the belly. The colors and patterns on the plates make it possible to tell one Kavaki from another, as they pretty much all look alike for the rest. As the Kavaki gains and loses body mass, the plates crack open and reform, thus quickly adapting to the creature's new size. Uncommon colorings are highly prized by the pavonine Kavaki, who always enjoy standing out from their peers. Kavaki also possess an endoskeleton that is more or less on par with a large human's in terms of sturdiness.
The head of a Kavaki is disproportionately large and elongated, somewhat like a horse's snout. The jaws can open almost a full 180 degrees, revealing three rows of razor-sharp teeth - a Kavaki has about 200 of them. In spite of that, they have a lip-like mucosa and a complex vocal chord system, allowing them to easily articulate words; their voices are deep and gritty, but not completely unpleasant. Their native language remains very difficult to speak (albeit possible to understand) to those without their particular physiology.
They have a single, circular nostril located on top of the snout. The most unsettling feature on a Kavaki's head is probably the eyes; they are strikingly human-like. They are also the creature's obvious weak point as they are not protected by the exoskeleton.
The creature's hand is four-fingered. Each finger has a short, retractable claw, but for the most part Kavaki enjoy mauling their opponents with closed fists. Having opposable thumbs, they are capable of picking up and using a variety of items, and they are certainly intelligent enough to do so.
A Kavaki has enough strength in its jaws to bite off a chunk of rock from a stone wall, and their mouths are large enough to swallow a slim human whole. They are also faster than they appear, with powerful muscles allowing them to march across difficult terrain and plenty of stamina to do so for a long time. Their speed is, however, affected by their eating; they become much slower if they acquire too much mass, too fast. Kavaki metabolism is a marvel of nature, as they can digest most substances over a period of a few bells.
A pregnant female Kavaki can grow to gargantuan sizes. The litter is enveloped by sturdy organic sacs that protect them from being digested by the mother's body through the sixty-day pregnancy. Instead of labor and delivery, the sacs simply start to fall apart at the end of pregnancy, and the Kavaki babies must eat their way out of the womb or be quickly dissolved by the mother's digestive fluids. Only the strongest survive, and out of the original litter of twenty or thirty, maybe two or three will finally pierce through the mother's belly, where they will be nursed with love.
Behavior
Kavaki literally eat all the time. When they are not eating anything else, they eat air, which can replace the act of breathing. They can eat soil, rock, wood, water, even poisonous substances and pieces of themselves. They often eat while sleeping, as well. Kavaki have a very hard time understanding the Mizaharian concept of "meal". The idea of a time set aside for eating seems alien to them, as it entails there's time spent not eating.
As a consequence, their defecation is just about as frequent, leaving their surroundings dotted with piles of their smoldering, toxic feces. On their homeworld, they actually use this as a construction material as it fulfills the basic criterion of being inedible. Entire cities exist molded in crystallized droppings, sometimes to grandiose scales. What with their world being constantly engulfed in a civil war of opposing clans, when a Kavaki refers to their world "having gone to shyke", they mean it both figuratively and literally.
They are, quite surprisingly, social creatures who are often seemingly lively and easygoing. They are organized in clans revolving around the proverbial food chain: one swears allegiance to another by offering them a piece of themselves to eat. Conversely, one releases another from service through a similar offering to the former servant. Family ties are important to the Kavaki, with family being interpreted as "folks not to be eaten unless absolutely necessary". An offense to one's clan is unforgivable, especially if perpetrated by food, and the only honorable remedy is consumption of the offending party. With names such as “Grundl All-Devourer” and “Svlahs Redtooth”, this should not come to a surprise.
Kavaki fancy themselves fine gourmets. While they find it useless to cook their food, they will ramble endlessly about the most savory food there is. Each creature has its own individual tastes, but most agree that living flesh is the best. As they are not the most disciplined species, it is highly unwise to stand near them, even when having them as allies; they might find themselves unable to resist the temptation of a nice morsel. Also, they tend to forget most races do not share their regeneration abilities, and as such the innocent snatching of a limb has more lasting consequences than they may think.
They are noisy, boisterous and love their practical jokes. A bored Kavaki is a dangerous one. When using them for tasks, Summoners should always make sure to somehow keep them entertained, usually by way of snacks and other sacrifices. Even so, accidents often arise when arguments break out or someone feels entitled to food that's not meant for them.
Abilities
The Kavaki possess remarkable strength, especially in their jaw muscles. They are also moderately intelligent, with a special talent for learning languages; indeed, most of them have at least a rudimentary understanding of the common tongue. They can be taught pretty much anything a human could learn, except they have little inclination for studying, and given a book, they would much rather eat it than read it.
Kavaki have notable regeneration powers. This is pretty much a requirement for surviving in their dog-eat-dog society where everyone wants a bite out of everyone else. Their ability privileges full restoration over speed, however. While they are able to regrow a limb or heal even messy internal wounds such as a helbard blow to the guts, the process can take many days or even a full season in the most serious cases. As a rule, they will either fully heal from a wound, or die to it. Heavy trauma to the head, decapitation, bisection and other drastic damage will kill them, as well as lesser forms of damage piling up over short periods of time.
The digestive abilities of a Kavaki are phenomenal. They can assimilate anything non-magical in a matter of chimes or bells, and even magical substances can be broken down in time. It may take them years or even decades to dissolve Isurian steel once ingested, but when they do so, some of the properties of what they digested may transfer to their own exoskeleton, granting it additional toughness. Cutting open a slain Kavaki sometimes turns out to be a treasure trove of unexpected items.
Kavaki feces are highly toxic to most anything alive. The substance is acidic and can burn the skin upon contact. Poisons can be crafted out of it. Once it solidifies, it becomes sturdy and is no longer dangerous, but does not lose its characteristic strong odor. A Kavaki will defecate anywhere, with little regard to whether they are in company or not, meaning that extra care should be taken, especially when sailing on a ship with them (which is ill-advised).
A few Kavaki actually employ magic at the lower proficiency levels. These are usually clan leaders whose help is not easily enlisted. Creatures with gnosis marks are rarer still, and play heavy roles in clan politics on their home world, often making claims to the title of King or Queen of their species. Of course, there has never been such a thing, which speaks of the chaotic nature of the race.
Summoning
Summoning a Kavaki requires knowledge of their world's astral coordinates. As the world is far away and the creatures are big, it takes an Expert Summoner to successfully bring one into Mizahar, and all but the best-crafted portals will collapse after just one Kavaki stepping through. Usually, they are drawn into a portal with a food offering and then negotiated with. Kavaki are eager to enter Mizahar, and deals are entirely possible with them, but whether they live up to their agreements is a different matter. Most often, they will work for food, and the promise of a new, rare delicacy will entice them to join any cause, good or evil.
Most Summoners will want to keep an astral leash on these beings, at least to start with. The leash decreases their speed, making them look like they are swimming underwater, but makes it possible to see the bites coming. The leash may be severed in the event of a battle, with the most favorable outcome being the mutual destruction of the Summoner’s enemies and the Kavaki. Once freed from the leash, a Kavaki is only bound by its tenuous sense of honor and the promise of better foods to come. A Summoner should also keep in mind that Alahea had good reason for limiting even its best mages to only three Kavaki at any given time: they get exponentially more riotous and unpredictable with every additional member brought into the fold.