Kuna
The Kuna are the rockstars of Dunia, in every sense of the word. Charming, attractive, socially apt and terrible at being alone, they navigate any social situation with ease and have no problem swaying the masses to their favor. Almost every popular singer is a Kuna and they are heavily overrepresented in professions like politics, corporate leadership, media and journalism. Kuna are also heavily overrepresented in social scandals, broken relationships and gossip news. Tall, slender and incredibly expressive, the Kuna are a great choice for a social character.
Appearance
Kuna are canine-like in appearance with a wide, strong chest, thin waists and usually slender limbs. Their thighs are muscular, allowing the kuna to be quick runners, especially if they forgo civilised manners and run on all fours. They have fur covering their entire bodies that is longer on the back, tail, cheeks and underarms. They have five dextrous fingers on their hands that end in sharp claws. Their feet have four toes that also have claws.
Natukep, Kunaupti and Nihatmaturu
The Kuna are primarily made up of three subspecies: The kunaupti, the natukep and the nihatmaturu. Collectively, their species' proper name is "Natukunaupti", but everyone shortens it to kuna. There are rarer subspecies of kuna, but these are rarely seen and many believe them to be extinct like most of the dru'un subspecies. The three species are so alike that most non-kuna don't even consider them different species. Genetically, they are incredibly similar and are considered phenotypes rather than species.
The natukep are hyena-like in head structure and facial features, have shorter, stubbier noses and broader, slightly more rounded ears. They also often have brown or black fur on their snouts and their fur is generally multicolored. The kunaupti are jackal-like and have longer, thinner snouts and sharper, pointier ears. Their faces and furs are more often uniform in color as opposed to the more speckled natukep. The natukep are also slightly stockier than the kunaupti. The nihatmaturu are rarer than the others and are foxlike in features, with narrow, sleek snouts and bodies, triangular, furry ears and prominent fur cheeks. Nihatmaturu have the longest fur out of the three and are often single-colored, even though there are patterned individuals. White fur is the most common among the nihatmaturu, as opposed to the darker natukep and kunaupti.
Facial features
Kuna have lively faces with articulate facial muscles and expressive eyes. The eyes are usually green or yellow, set under pronounced brows. Kuna ears are long, triangular and pointy, but as previously mentioned, Natukep usually have shorter, more rounded ears. The fur on their cheeks is longer than the rest of the face giving some of them a foxlike appearance. Kuna have sharp Fangs they can use in melee combat.
Biology
Slender, dextrous and tall, the Kuna are excellent sprinters and can easily outpace any of the other species in a dash. Despite their slender builds they are quite tall, often reaching over 2 meters if they stood straight. However kuna have a naturally hunched posture, which makes them to appear somewhat shorter than they actually are. Their ears are sensitive and kuna have good hearing, on par with vindral. They also possess hypersensitive noses and can identify individuals on their smell alone, smells too faint for other species to even pick up on. They can also detect smells from further away than other species. Kuna unfortunately do not have good eyesight. They are both myopic and partially color blind, being unable to see clearly further than 5 meters without eye correction. Corrective surgery, optical lenses and ocular implants are very popular among the kuna population.
Dimorphism
The kuna have a notable sexual dimorphism where female Kuna are, on average, about a foot (~30cm) shorter than the males and have an even slenderer build. Their facial features are also more delicate than the males, who by comparison are rougher.
Beautiful voices
Kuna have soft and beautiful voices with relatively small variance. Other species' voices vary more than most Kuna. The men have deep, barytone voices and the women have breathy, fragile voices. Both are perfect for talkshows and singing, further advancing Kuna in the entertainment business.
Gelsir
Gelsir, an ancient word meaning "rage" or "fury", is a congenital condition carried by all Kuna. Few ever develop the symptoms, but those that do become progressively more aggressive and violent, eventually losing all sanity and reverting to a feral state. Kuna who are in late stages of Gelsir are referred to only as "Gelsir" to differentiate them from healthy Kuna and also help build a detachment to them as people. Treatment of Gelsir Kuna is something incredibly morally gray and anything that can be done to blunten the feel of moral ambiguity is welcome.
Kuna with Gelsir symptoms are required by law to have medical exams every 6 months and if their Gelsir state is considered too progressed, they are banished to the wastelands to protect the rest of society from their violence.
Gelsir is a neurodegenerative disease with genetic origins and is not contagious and not found in any other species.
Mannerism
Kuna carry their emotions close to their skin and are emotionally expressive. It is easy to read a kuna's emotional state by observing their body language and facial expression. Thanks to their articulate facial muscles, their ears and lively body language the kuna seem like an open book. They are excellent socializers and often work with marketing, journalism or popular entertainment.
The kuna enjoy socialising and are usually the ones to call for large parties and social gatherings. They enjoy having many friends and families with kuna parents, or at least one kuna parent, on average have more children than other constellations. They crave social interaction and can start to feel anxious and vulnerable when left alone for too long. kuna also have a need for emotional conenction, which means it's rare to find a kuna who doesn't have a partner. They are especially vulnerable to rebound relationships and psychologist speculate that this is because of their origins as a pack species.
History
The kuna have been a part of civilisation far beyond recorded history. The are believed to have evolved in the far south when that area were lush jungles and open plains. Genetic evidence suggest that there were multiple subspecies of kuna, but only two have any significant presence in the modern world. The kuna were one of the three original species to form the first pan-species alliance, the other two being the illim and the vindral. Together, these three species formed what was to become modern civilisation, calling themselves Kykr.
Beauty Ideals
Kuna are overall not that beautiful in the eyes of other species but they make up for it with striking charm. Common beauty points are eye color, fur color, fur markings, nose and ear shape as well as hygiene. Well-groomed kuna have greater success in finding a mate than those that neglect their fur.
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Elias Redclaw
Now that was quite the read! The way you described the Kuna are amazing! The little lines of description make perfect sense to me and allowed me to clearly visualise a kuna. The part about the Gelsir was a nice touch as well! The only question I had though was how different are female kuna from male kuna and what are their societies like? Still congratulations and keep up the great work!
Tobias Linder
Good points! The Kuna is the only species that has notable sexual dimorphism, I should probably have mentioned that. Going to add that now. As for their society, as with all my settings, the races live intermingled together in one civilisation, so "Kuna society" is no different than "Vindral society". It's all the same.