Kalicrysonth

The Kalicrysonth (abbreviated the KCS) are an alien race only known to ever populate one world, the heavily forested planet of Taeryneus. They are physically significantly similar to humans or elves, and are a bipedal and highly intelligent species that are highly cultured. They tend to have one larger culture over their entire race, sharing many of the same rituals and language, with dialects and unique local cultural details differing between settlements.
An unusual feature about the KCS compared to many other humanoid races is that in their home environment they are not considered the apex predators. They are in fact preyed on by several species and are the favorite food of one particular species called the Agyrwin, large, muscular winged predators that are also highly intelligent. The Agyrwin tend to find KCS settlements and guard them jealously from other predators, as well as keeping track of their numbers to make sure that they are not overhunting them. Naturally, this means that the relationship between the KCS and the Agyrwin is a rather complicated one.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Kalicrysonth have overall the same structure as humans, but there are a few key recognizable differences. Externally, they can be easily distinguished by their pointed ears. They have four limbs, two arms and two legs in a bipedal formation, and hair on their body is mostly found on top of their head but can be found in patches other places, some depending on what region they're from. They have similar facial features to humans, with the main difference being that the coloring of their eyes can change over their life time depending on their lifestyle. Ones that spend more time inside or out of direct sunlight tend to have much paler, lighter eye colors while those that spend a lot of time outside generally develop much deeper tones.
The other main difference is in their reproductive systems, with female genitals being housed further toward the back of their pelvic cavity and their rectums more centrally located. The main difference in males is that their genitals are housed in a sheath inside the front of their pelvis, and unsheath themselves when stimulated.
Internally, their differences are much more significant. Their bones are durable, but have a very different structure that makes it so that they can flex significantly when force is applied in specific ways. This flexing allows the KCS to contort significantly and makes them able to fit through much smaller gaps and into smaller spaces than other species the same size. It also makes them able to go through significant trauma without bones shattering, except for their skulls, which are still significantly more rigid than the rest of their bodies in order to protect their brains. They share many of the same organs as humans, but a couple are in slightly different places- the heart is slightly differently shaped and tends to nestle to the opposite side from humans, and their organs are not firmly trapped in one place, with a bit of give around them, allowing them to move to avoid damage when squeezing into small areas. In addition, they have a number of glands that produce pheromones that are significantly larger than those of humans, and have corresponding structures in other places for receiving those pheromones. The producing glands tend to be flat and thin, making them hard to spot as differences from the outside. They have these glands in their forehead, the outside of their shoulders, their lower back, and the outsides of their hips, while they have the soft receiving structures under their chins, at the back of their skulls along their necks, in their lower backs near the glands, and at the insides of their thighs.

Ecology and Habitats

KCS technically prefer to live underground, but if they cannot find easy places to dig out homes they will move earth and make mounds to live under. While they very much tend to rely on forested areas for food and survival, they prefer to make their settlements in more open areas with access to woods nearby, and are very at home even in things like tall grass prairies. They will form homes out of caves and deep depressions if they seem viable, but are most comfortable with small hills that they can retreat back into, sometimes with one or two openings for natural light. Despite this, in places of large settlements they will build buildings and make homes out of above ground structures, depending on what kind of resources are available. They are generally most at home in or near temperate wooded areas, but will make do with what they have in other regions as well, including rocky coasts, mountainous regions, tropical jungles and scrublands, but they tend to do a bit less well in climates as extreme and inhospitable as deserts and permafrost tundra.

Dietary Needs and Habits

KCS, like humans, are fairly omnivorous, adapting to whatever food they need to live in their environment. They are good agriculturalists as well as hunter gatherers, with most regions consisting of stationary settlements rather than nomadic tribes, making stores for over wintering during the harvest season. Cooking is a large part of it as well, and many KCS use various methods to cook and prepare foods to keep themselves safe from any negative effects of their food. It is an area that is very well explored into even for as low tech as they are as a race, but it keeps them very healthy as individuals.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Their senses tend to be considered fairly comparable to humans, though they may have a bit sharper hearing especially, and a wider range of smell. Part of this 'smell' is the ability to detect and interpret pheromones more consciously than humans, and they tend to communicate emotional states especially through pheromones along with body language, allowing them to understand and be comfortable around each other more easily, and communicate alarm or satisfaction without having to even have direct line of sight with each other or make noise. Their noses are especially tuned to the scents of their environment, and they are extremely sensitive to a couple of smells, mostly those of their predators.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

As a species, their tech tends to advance in plateaus and bounds. It advances slowly for a long time until someone particularly inspired finds some incredible things, at which point it tends to leap up quite a bit over their lifetime. It happens this way in different areas of tech, so overall they are always advancing in some manner, but it can take a long time for significant lifestyle changes to take place.
They are an advanced agricultural society, with irrigation technologies being developed for significantly more than just subsistence farming, glass, paper, and thus more records and writing being recorded and stored in things like libraries. Larger cities have things like waterwheels, pumps, and can even support mines and mills, while most smaller settlements have to do with simpler things like plows and simple iron tools and candles. Creating their own clothes from plant and animal fibers and some animal skins is commonplace, with dyes sometimes used as they were found to be available. However, they were quite limited in military and weapon technology, as there was a tendency that any major advancements sought out in it would be destroyed in one form or another by the Agyrwin, mostly only succeeding in having fairly simple melee and ranged weapons, including staffs, knives and bows, though the traditional KCS weapon is a spear with a crescent blade. Places at the height of scientific discovery have things like water clocks, astrological maps and mechanical models, large buildings with some decorative architecture, many uses of all sorts of colorful and unique materials for decoration, and even a semblance of fashion. Medical science is mostly still with traditional and herbal healing, though physicians have become and important profession in some of the more populated areas, though they have just begun to understand the inner workings of the KCS body due to limited dissections of the deceased.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

The language that they speak is simply referred to as Kalicrysonth, as they are the only race that speak it, but the different dialects are known to have their own names as well.

Conservation Status

This is a very rare sapient species, having not achieved any manner of interstellar or dimensional travel, meaning that they are only found on one planet except for a few very rare cases, and in fact in recent past history have been driven near extinction due to a cataclysm on their home planet. It is unclear if there's much that can really be done to ensure the survival of the species.