Koiloks are a species of sapient bipedal ursines living on
Illangar, mostly in the northern forests of the continent. Some individuals are also scattered all over the world.
Biology
Koiloks are ursines in origin and therefore resemble bears. They are bipedal and walk on their hindlegs, but can, especially in sprint fall on their paws too. They have evolved an opposable sixth finger (pseudo-thumb), used to grasp and carry objects. It is not as versatile as the hand of a hominine and less gracile, yet fullfills similar tasks with only minor deficits. Their body is generally covered in hair, but of different length and thickness. Their faces are only covered in a short fuzz, but for a beard and a large mane on their head, running down to their backs. Their hands are almost hairless and their fur becomes thicker on their upper arms. Their stature, both of males and females, is slightly lower than
humans , reaching around 1.6 metres in height. Their physical strength however is much stronger than of humans. Vestigial claws and canines additionally make them more imposing on humans in terms of physical abilities.
The face of the Koiloks look considerable different from other ursines. Their snout of much shorter than of all other species. Their faces too lack fur mostly, except for the aforementioned fluff. They do display more sophisticated facial expressions, yet not as many as hominines do. The languages of the Koiloks are vocal in nature, although they are also capable of signed languages. Their articulatory and vocal apparatus however is considerably different from humans.
Lifestyle
Koiloks are far less social and much more individualistic than hominine species. They live in small semi-nomadic bands in the boreal forests of northern Illangar. These small settlements most often do not number more than twenty at a time. Larger settlements are rare and temporary. A crowd of over a hundred Koiloks in one place is almost unheard of and everything bigger than thirty at a time is considered incredibly crowded. Especially grown males often live amongst themself, while villages are
populated mostly by females, children and the elderly. Only a few times in recorded history larger groups of Koiloks have formed.
The only occassion of any regularity are gatherings to special festivals, often used by adolescents to find mates. The role of gender in Koiloks cultures is largely unknown. It is known however that they trace ancestry in both the male and female line and have a rudimentary clan system. Monogamy does not exist. They have no larger governmental bodies whatsoever. Authority is only carried by elders and charismatic individuals.
Habitat
The Koiloks likely evolved on the northern steppes or perhaps even in the tundra. Their homeland is often called the Forests of Dreams and the Land of Echoes. There is a chance that they were once more widespread over the world of Illangar, were became extinct elsewhere. At the current time they inhabit mostly forested areas, but venture also into the tundras to their north. There are around one and a half million Koiloks living in Illangar. They are spread out over the vast area of northern Illangar.
Interactions with other species
Koiloks aren't the only species living in the northern forests. Instead they live side by side with
humans. The human groups they have the most contact with are called the Denkatn. Another important species, especially for the development of the shamanic arts, are the eastern groups of
dwarves. Their relationship with other species is estranged, but friendly. The humans of the northern forests share their territory with Koiloks, but both groups avoid each other to avoid conflicts about access to ressources. Neither Koiloks nor humans are capable to speaking the language of the other, to communicate an auxillary sign language is used. Both humans and Koiloks have shamans who are in closer contact with each other than normal individuals. Shamans believe that their souls reincarnate in the body of the other species each.
Language
Koiloks speak a variety of languages of their own. These language are entirely separate and different in origin than the language of humans, dwarves and
elves, which are more alike and linguistically of the same origin. Humans, elves and dwarves learn and speak each other's languages with ease, thus the epithet of a particular "dwarven" language is wrong. Koiloks languages on the other hand are different.
Hominines aren't able to produce their languages due to a differing anatomy of their speech apparatus. The grammar of Koiloks language also seemed to have undergone a different process of glottogenesis. Koiloks languages are able to describe everything and every experience in their lifes, yet the way they do are different.
As for their articulation. Due to their snouts and muscles in their tongues they are incapable of full-closure phones, meaning they can’t articulate stops precisely. Labials
also do not appear except for labialisation as coarticulated features. On the other hand phonation plays a larger role in their languages. All their languages are tonal and also display varying degrees in length and other laryngeal features. Their auditive perception is also better than that of hominines, allowing them to percieve a wider range too.
There are around three or four primary language families of the Koiloks and a handful of isolate languages. These four families are called simply Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Koiloks. They coincide with the primary areas of Koiloks habitations. Isolates are found mostly at the margins of these regions or in regions of sparse population. Central Koiloks seems very uniform troughout and has a shallow time depth. It might be ultimately also a divergent branch of Eastern-Koiloks, which shows the highest variation. It seems that the dynamics of Koiloks language expansion are based on dispersion rather than large scale migrations. Similarities in languages themself also coincide with population density and dispersal. This observation is mostly true to Western and Central Koiloks. Western Koiloks languages become more uniform in areas of higher population density. Central Koiloks in itself is situation in one of the core areas of Koiloks habitation too. Southern and Eastern Koiloks are less uniform and more diverse.
Southern Koiloks is spoken further in the periphery, while Eastern Koiloks is expanding.
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