Kaia-Tani, the Wild Scholars

Know and be unafraid

Things have lived here before the first human ever ventured this deep and they'll remain after our last city crumbles.

— Talavāra, Kaia-Tani

Kaia-Tani are Kaia who specialize in the wild and dangerous animals of the dark and deep caves. From docile Khtam to ravenous Chiwara, the deep hold an abundance of life capable of cutting short any Kaia expedition.

Responsibilities

There are countless strange and hungry beasts out in the darkness. It is the Kaia-Tani who advise their team on the ones they encounter and help the other roles make decisions. They are trackers and scouts, able to identify the kind and number of animals by signs of scratched stone, tracks in the fungi-carpet or scat. A good Kaia-Tani can extract an seeming impossible amount of information from the smallest clues, while a bad one can lead their team right into a Chiwara nest.
Should they come face to face with any beast, the Kaia-Tani are experts at animal behavior. They know how best to act to frighten or at least not antagonize animals that aren't looking for a fight, and how to dissuade more aggressive predators from attacking. To the Kaia-Tani, the wild life is just another hazard of the deep that can be studied and understood. Most of them come to form deep bonds with animals and the wild, with few are able to appreciate the beauty of wild caves quite like they - perhaps in part because they are able to survive it.
The Kaia-Tani are also responsible for training and taking care of any animal the Kaia themselves are employing. They bandage wounds, feed and water the beasts and direct them through the caves and in battle. More than one Kaia group owe their lives to their untitled, bestial team members.

He won't bite. Well, he won't bite me, I mean.

— Talavāra, Kaia-Tani

Explorers of the Deep
Kaia are explorers and adventurers, daring to go where others fear to tread. Even with all the time that humanity have spent in the caverns, most of Araea is still shrouded in mystery in darkness. The Kaia-Tani make sure their team does not become a meal to some lurking horror in that dark.
Read more about the Kaia - The Explorers of the Deep

Example Kaia: Harahna

Harahna's journey from drunken vagabond to honorable Kaia have not been an easy one. She wears the marks still, from a crooked nose broken one too many times and a rough demeanor. She isn't one of the Kaia-Tani, but she is a good example of what a Kaia might be like in Araea.
Read more about Haranha, the Kaia

Animal Companions

Even in teams with Kaia-Tani, it is not common for Kaia to employ animals on their expeditions. Khtam are too slow and too large to navigate many of the caves the Kaia need to travel through. Few animals have the necessary combination of traits to make them worth packing the extra rations... But they do exist.
Some Kaia-Tani spend their off-time raising and training animals, though rarely the kind that can be called "domesticated".