Recently the dominant native people of the planet Ardelve, the Korlo are a humanoid species occupying that world's northern hemisphere in a system of scattered tribes (known as dvarman). The planet's angle of rotation creates a deep polar night, plunging much of the hemisphere into darkness for half a solar cycle; highly sensitive to light and particularly to ultraviolet radiation, the Korlo are most active during this dark season, and enter a form of hibernation during the remainder of the year. They are traditionally predatory, feeding off the life force of other organic beings, but not all Korlo find this way of life to be ethical or sustainable. Disputes regarding, among other things, the morality of this form of predation resulted in a massively destructive civil war in IPA 2441, which cast the society into a pre-industrial dark age for more than two hundred years.

In 2656, the anti-hunting factions, with the help of both extraterrestrial allies and the Kafshu (Ardelve's other native sentient species, who at that time lived under the Korlo's oppressive rule), were finally able to stage a successful rebellion. A tense peace is now in effect as the Korlo factions, ranging from friendly to the new state of affairs to bristlingly hostile, and the Kafshu — themselves hardly a political or cultural monolith — struggle to build a new society after millenia of brutality.

the korlo were originally created by exosolar. please contact volumes before holding a member of this species.

Biology and Abilites The Korlo are humanoid in appearance, with a comparable range of sizes and forms. Many bear a notable pallor of the skin, although variations exist between and within populations. Their lifespan, senses, reflexes, healing rate, and athletic ability are generally elevated above the human average; their healing process particularly is distinguished by epimorphosis, the regeneration of tissue which has been lost or destroyed.

While their low-light vision is excellent, exposure to high light levels always causes discomfort, and, if prolonged, can lead to debilitating migraines and disorientation. High levels of UV, as from sunlight, cause severe allergic reactions akin to burning.

The ability to plant suggestive thoughts in the minds of most humanoid species allows the Korlo to perform hypnotic persuasion, ranging from a gentle emotional nudge to the imposition of a deep, almost trance-like compliance. The deepest hypnosis can only occur after protracted immersion, which requires immense exertion of which only the oldest and most powerful Korlo are known to be capable. Not all efforts are effective, and persons with mental shielding, be it neurogenic or based on conventional training, are more likely to be able to identify and reject persuasion before it takes root. Excessive or prolonged use of these abilities can result in confusion, exhaustion, and mental vulnerability in the practioner. Mild persuasion between Korlo is an accepted part of most forms of interaction, and is considered enjoyable when employed in artistic applications such as music, storytelling, etc.

While they can survive by eating food in the usual fashion, Korlo are much more powerfully sustained by feeding off the energy of other living beings. Electrochemical receptors in the skin and heavily concentrated in the teeth are voluntarily activated to draw energy from prey upon physical contact. (Involuntary energy capture occurs extremely rarely, usually due to overwhelming intoxication or severe illness, and is far less efficient than intentional feeding; danger to prey in these situations is usually low.) All of the Korlo's unique abilities are greatly enhanced in those who consistently feed in this way — epimorphosis is more rapid and robust, their hypnotic abilities intensify, and their sensory and physical strengths increase. Regular feeding also extends a Korlo's lifespan, which, for those with constant access to prey, can stretch into many hundreds of years. (At present, there are insufficient data to determine the average lifespan of a Korlo fed entirely on a non-predatory diet.)

The Korlo are obligate hibernators, entering a depressed metabolic state for half of their year. During this time, most wake for a couple of hours every day or two, but only have the capacity to attend to low-energy tasks. Excessive wakefulness during hibernation, or being unable to hibernate for any reason (such as living off-world in conditions where hibernation is impractical), leads to fatigue, irritability, irregular sleep patterns, fogged thinking, and wasting or accelerated energy usage. Pharmaceuricals have been used with some degree of success to combat these symptoms, but treatment is at this point based only on sparse and anecdotal evidence.

ArdelveArdelve is the lone habitable planet in its solar system, with a single, sizeable moon. Its northern hemisphere is characterized by extensive taiga forest, often mountainous, with occasional rocky steppes stretching toward the equator. While in the depths of winter its lakes and rivers frequently freeze solid, the interior waterways are otherwise generally navigable. Due to its unusual rotation pattern and the attendant degradation of its ozone layer, Ardelve's southern hemisphere is extremely inhospitable, and has historically remained unpopulated, except by those willing to risk a great deal to escape notice.

There are two native sentient species — the Korlo and the Kafshu, whose interactions throughout the millenia have ranged from tense cooperation to brutal domination and war. Coevolving with one another, they each gradually developed biological traits allowing them to compete and co-exist (for instance, the Kafshu are able to communicate telepathically, an ability related to but distinct from the Korlo's capacity for hypnosis), and each feature prominently in the other's cultural corpus. At various points, the Korlo have outright hunted the Kafshu; sought their cooperation in conflicts between dvarman; joined the Kafshu in their own internecine clashes; and, during the most recent Khovoizij, relegated the Kafshu essentially to a serf class, an arrangement which was supposed to (but, of course, did not always) ensure that, in exchange, the Kafshu would no longer be fed upon.

Until the twenty-fourth century, Ardelve was completely isolated in the galactic community. When the first extraterrestrial visitors arrived in 2304, Ardelve's societies were still entirely pre-industrial. Exchange with more technologically advanced peoples led to a rapid and uneven adoption of modern conveniences across the planet, often without the infrastructure to support them; a rudimentary spaceflight program made possible largely by outside expertise formed in the late 2300's. A very small diaspora of Korlo left for the stars, but their further expansion into the universe was cut short by a cataclysmic civil war beginning in 2441, which thrust the planet once again into a technological dark age.

After a visit by a mission of the Interplanetary Alliance of the Penglai system, another large-scale conflict led to the establishment of a Kafshu Council, which soon requested (in a very divisive vote) the intervention of interspecies peace officers and diplomatic rights & equity consultants out of Eluvet. Ardelve is now rebuilding its technological capacities and systems of government under this temporary supervisory administration, but remains largely reclusive, preoccupied with its own very tenuous peace.

Social Structure Korlo society consists of seventeen hereditary DVARMAN, historically residing in distinct territories and jealously guarding their hunting grounds from incursions by their neighbors. They are each led by whoever can hold power, which is, almost universally, their oldest and most powerful members. The dvarman themselves fit into a shifting tribal hierarchy, with weaker groups seeking alliances and protection from stronger allies, and the most powerful tribe presiding as overlords (known as the Khovod) until their Khovoizij can be toppled, usually by force. For roughly six hundred years before the recent rebellion, the Khovod were the Voivod, taking tribute, twisting arms, and keeping inter-dvarman contentions to a cold war; now, their ranks having been the most sharply decimated of any by the rebellion, they are among the least populous and influential.

Sjimkhod, or tribal leaders, usually preside in pairs or trios (a more stable arrangement than as a single ruler, although some especially popular leaders have managed solo reigns in the past), often as a married unit, but only slightly less frequently as siblings, or groups of other close blood relations. Sjimkhod may be deposed at any time, generally the same way they themselves rose to power: violently.

As a predatory and extremely long-lived species competing for fixed resources, the Korlo reproduce relatively infrequently, and view having children as a decision upon which the entire village is entitled to have an opinion. Among the higher-ranking members of any given dvarman, there may be formal restrictions dictating who may and may not produce offspring, often decided by political favor and financial clout. The general population faces no such limitations, but those seen as building excessively large families may face the disapproving (and, indeed, often violent) attentions of their tribemates.

The basic social unit is therefore rarely centered on procreation, and takes various shapes; some Korlo marry in pairs, others in higher numbers, and some find their most fundamental relationships in what are essentially hunting lodges of five or six, which may include extended family and a variety of other relationship dynamics. Wealth inequality within tribes is high, and among the lower classes, these groups may be shaped as much by the practical benefit an individual can bring as by love or affinity. Romantic unions between all genders are considered normal, and the Korlo have no gender-based distinctions in any of their hierarchies. Populations tend to be geographically centered around a main castle or fortification, with smaller villages clustered around outlying estates. Communes in the wilderness are not uncommon during the winter, and range from small family camps to lavish courts, but for the hibernation season almost all Korlo return to population centers for safety in numbers, and to take advantage of the extensive underground complexes offered by larger structures — digging out a cellar in Ardelve's northern hemisphere is no small project.

Without many offspring with which to forge forward-looking political or financial alliances, tribal leaders often directly incorporate into their households their favored nobles or members of other allied dvarman whom they choose to honor. These unions (known as veklezij) are subordinate to the relationships between Sjimkhod, do not confer the same rank, and can be quite numerous. They may have romantic dimensions, or may be purely friendly or professional. The heads of a reasonably powerful dvarmu might have between them eight to ten veklesye, some joined only to one head, others to both; these members of the family are often responsible for day to day operations of the castles and estates. Some may hold important council roles, having been sought out for their wisdom and experience; others for their more practical skills in the traditional arts or household management; and some are simply chosen to honor an ally, or for beauty, or sometimes, of course, for love.

History The remembered history of Ardelve stretches back some seven thousand years, recorded on the Korlo side first in stone paintings and carvings lining hibernation shelters, and then in tapestries and more refined arts as technology progressed; the first preserved writings are roughly forty-five hundred years old, and in modern history books are widespread and highly valued. Records suggest that the relationship between the Korlo and the Kafshu was, during pre-agricultural history, purely one of predator and prey. As the Kafshu organized into non-nomadic societies, the relationship between the species grew more complex, though never friendly. The Voivod established themselves as Khovod in IPA 2009 in large part due to an alliance they were able to strike with many Kafshu tribes, assuring them that they would not be preyed upon under a Voivod Khovoizij, and promising a safe, if limited, life of serfdom. While this promise was routinely broken, preying upon the Kafshu did become a less frequent and much less open practice.

Ardelve experienced first contact in 2304, when a private exploratory mission in search of mining opportunities happened upon its system. The new arrivals, keen to establish friendly relations with a world so full of untapped natural resources, provided technological expertise and an avenue by which Ardelve could purchase from the galactic market. (Whether these visitors were persuaded to take such an amiable attitude by a certain amount of hypnosis, or cowed by the Korlo's intimidating abilities, is not known; the Korlo have never been enthusiastic recordkeepers, and logs from the visiting ship were destroyed.) This set off a century of ad hoc, uneven progress, as a world which had barely harnessed electricity began rapidly incorporating advanced communications, transportation, and other systems into daily life. The infrastructure undergirding all of this new development was patchy at best, and local knowledge of how to manage and repair it was poor.

By the late 2300's, however, a rudimentary spaceport and starfaring program had been established, allowing contact with the wider galaxy — although only at shocking expense, available exclusively to the most wealthy. Even taking into consideration the cost, the number of Korlo who left Ardelve was extremely low — perhaps due to the social stigma attached to the act of leaving one's tribe — and even those who ventured out on merely temporary travels were considered suspect and eccentric. Estimates indicate that approximately one hundred Korlo left and never returned. A more precise reckoning of these numbers is impossible due to the wholesale destruction of the spaceport's archives in 2442.

2390 — Present:

Technology was not the only import from outside systems: with new visitors came exposure to novel philosophies. Ideas which had been considered fringe or which had not existed at all in Korlo thought began to find purchase among certain groups. Some probing minds, influenced by alien theories about ethics and fundamental rights, began considering the implications of nutritional technology, looking toward the possibility of a more humanitarian way of being not predicated on taking energy from other living things; others turned their eyes to the stars and saw a hunting ground more expansive than been imagined even in fairy tales, full of entire planets of species who had developed no defenses against the Korlo's predatory tactics.

Inevitably, these incompatible points of view about the Korlo's place in the universe came into conflict as both camps became more organized. The anti-hunting factions (adherents to an ideology which would become known as vihrelya) grew deeply concerned, believing that they could not in good conscience allow their less civilized brethren to launch themselves out into the galaxy at large to harvest systematically whatever they could. The pro-expansion factions (adopting for themselves the flashy moniker the yumantozhdan, literally, the sky-seekers) — among them the ruling Voivod — began attempting to shift attitudes among leaders and other influential persons, many of whom were still deeply wary of off-world travel.

A third, less populous movement was taking root, too. A small wing of extreme traditionalists held nothing but contempt for any outside influence whatsoever; they were steadfastly against giving up hunting, flying off into the stars, or engaging in trade or communication with other species. Having learned from their starfaring visitors that Ardelve was full of extremely valuable fuel minerals, these ultra-conservatives (who needed no name for themselves, but by their frustrated enemies were sarcastically called the Khuldyim, the silver ones, a color associated with age and purity) were convinced that any outside contact could lead only to destruction. Once outsiders could easily access Ardelve, they would bring their more powerful weapons, and their greater numbers, and conquer the place for themselves. It would mean disaster for the Korlo.

A failed palace coup in the heart of the Khovoizij was the fuse that lit all-out war in late 2441. Voivod Vernay, one of the Sjimkhod of the Voivod and a fervent convert to the vihrelya cause, attempted to depose his two fellow leaders, but misjudged the strength of his support. He escaped with his life, and went into exile under the protection a distant tribe — who immediately, of course, were thrown into open enmity with the Voivod. It was no longer possible for any dvarmu to avoid choosing sides. The Korlo split along expansionist and anti-hunting lines, and fell headlong into a raging civil war. The anti-hunting faction was unquestionably the smaller one, and while it had within its ranks a couple of reasonably powerful tribes, it could never hope to prevail on its own. And so, its leaders embarked upon what most of them considered a deal with the devil, and which all of them would come to regret: they allied with the traditionalist wing. They plotted with the conservatives to destroy the spaceport and all its infrastructure, to cut off at the knee any possibility of the expansionist factions staging an emigration from Ardelve.

The spaceport was destroyed. The manufacturing and development facilities supporting it were burned. And, because the traditionalists had none of the gentle humanitarian bent of the anti-hunting bloc, the vast majority of those who had worked on any of those projects, Korlo and alien alike, were ruthlessly murdered. Databanks and libraries of technological knowledge were razed to the ground. All across Ardelve, modern installations — whether they had anything to do with spaceflight or not — were ripped out and demolished. If there was anyone left who knew how to recreate them, they were too terrified (or too intelligent) to say so; and the few outsiders who escaped carried only rumors and oral accounts of the massacre. Most said nothing, simply vowing never to visit Ardelve again.

Having achieved their objectives, the traditionalists immediately ceased cooperation with the anti-hunters, with whom they had nothing else in common. The expansionists, recognizing that their goals were now out of reach for the foreseeable future, stopped any talk of moving off-world (at least in public) and realigned themselves with the hardline wing. Some gave up hope of ever expanding into the galaxy, while others planned to bide their time until another opportunity arose, unwilling in the meantime to kick up trouble and risk angering a brutal enemy with avid popular support. The anti-hunters were now soundly outnumbered, and even the dvarman who had been sympathetic to them were forced to see the writing on the wall, and to cut ties and declare their allegiance to the Voivod. The anti-hunting leaders were now little more than outcast rebels, and were forced to flee to live in the wilderness wherever they could. Although fighting continued for the next three years, it was relatively small-scale, and soon fizzled into a cold-to-frozen war.

Some decades later, the Voivod made the traditionlists a proposition which they found palatable, and which the expansionists secretly hoped would eventually facilitate their dreams of hunting in the stars: they would use their very limited remaining comms infrastructure to research and then invite small delegations of suitable species (i.e., species whose physiology suggested they would make edible prey) from other systems. These delegations would be summoned under the guise of cultural exchange, but would ultimately be consumed. Some traditionlists were suspicious — but the tantalizing thought of novel prey was a difficult one to refuse, particularly when they would be coming in such small numbers that they could hardly pose a threat. The agreement then in place with the Kafshu was also creating a shortage of easy prey, which perhaps pressured some otherwise reluctant traditionalists to agree that careful, narrow research to find one population to prey upon might be prudent.

The delegations came — but they almost never went. The scheme was largely successful, save a few occasions on which the Korlo discovered they had invited someone they could not consume — or, once or twice, whose energy was actively toxic to them. In those cases, they did their best to eliminate the delegations, and all evidence of their arrival. (At least one species's energy was so repulsive that the Korlo did not even bother trying to feed on them; they simply had to go through with their promises of cultural demonstrations, putting together a hasty and rather awkward showcase, and then glumly allowed them leave.)

During all this time, the rebels were amassing what strength they could in their safeholds in the forests and the south. They joined with secretly militant Kafshu groups, and spent their time trying to build alliances, gather tech that might help give them the upper hand, and help Kafshu and Korlo who were suffering under the Voivod regime. Their accomplishments were rarely visible, but they were sometimes meaningful.

Finally, the Voivod invited the wrong guests. When the human delegation arrived aboard the IPA vessel Endeavor, it provided the spark that allowed the rebels to make a real stand. Once the Voivod leaders were defeated, it was easier to call other dvarman to join the cause, and the rebels began accumulating victories all around the planet. While there are still significant communities hostile to the new way of being, Ardelve is now currently under the administration of a council of Kafshu and an advisory Korlo panel, guided and supervised — at the request of a slim majority of the Kafshu Council — by galactic diplomatic peace officers who specialize in building governments in conformity with intragalactic treaty protocols.

Cultural Notes

• Hunting carries great cultural importance, and training from a young age in stealth, wilderness survival, fighting, etc., is widespread; these skills may be more ceremonial or practical depending on one's station in life and the attendant need to find one's own food.
• The Korlo worldview is fairy bloody-minded and severe: justice is often cursory, meted out without great ceremony by the most important person on hand, and physical consequences are more freely dispensed than in species where limbs don't grow back.
• High value is placed (at least in words and theory) upon survival of the fittest; there is great emphasis on self-sufficiency and not being a burden to one's tribe. Tribal loyalty is given much more importance than loyalty to immediate family ties.
• Deference to those of higher rank is expected and sharply enforced — a self-fulfilling value, as it is justified, after all, by the belief in the supremacy of might.
• Practices around energy feeding are elaborate in some contexts and vary to some extent between dvarman; hierarchies assert themselves in seating arrangements and serving orders at more ceremonious affairs, and allowing another Korlo to feed from oneself can signify many different things depending on the circumstances, but generally denotes respect, affection, or deference on the part of the giver.
• The ideas of death and fire are deeply intertwined; the traditional evil/destruction figure is the pyavkechu (loosely, sun wolf).