Ihkt (ɪɦˈkt)

Ihkts, also derogatively known as "devil spawn", are humanoid from the planet Taskke. Adapted to live on a hothouse planet with high volcanic activity, ihkts are powerful and sturdy, but many find them intimidating as a result. Evolved to survive regular eruptions and ash storms, ihkts are very tough, can handle heat well, and are even somewhat fire resistant.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Rather frightening, ihkts are large and muscular humanoids. While the visibility of their muscles varies, some being slimmer and others buffer, they are all built of solid muscle and one can definitely feel this if they touch an ihkt. They also sport a pair of large horns on their heads, which grow steadily during their youth and reach full size around 25 years old, their final stage of maturity. These horns vary greatly in shape, with various shapes mostly (but not exclusively) determined by race. In addition to their horns, ihkt skulls are thick and solidly built, and they are capable of delivering devastating headbutts.
Their ears are pointed, with length varying from barely longer than a human’s to reaching the top of the skull. Their tongues are black and thick, with the tip split into two ends, and their teeth pointed and sharp, with larger canine teeth. Their eyes are cat-like, slit pupils which a tapetum lucidum, providing them keen eyesight in both dark and light; they are colored in monochrome, varying from white to gray to black; their sclerae are typically not visible. Their nails are blunt but harder than normal for humans, and black in color.
Ihkt hair is wavy and usually dark in color, though on rare occasions it is, instead, very light. Besides the usual head hair, ihkts also have long hair on elbows, and pubic hair, but little body hair outside of this. Male ihkts may grow facial hair, but it is somewhat uncommon.
To even the balance with their heavy set of horns, ihkts possess long and somewhat thick tails, which end in a plume of long hair.

Biological Traits

Ihkts have relatively little variance between their sexes: due to their sexual selection method, both partners must be roughly equal. Though there is variance in appearance, it is rarely bound to the ihkts' sex (bar normal humanoid traits, such as wider hips in females, and breasts).
Varying traits among all ihkt individuals include 'buffness' (how visible their muscular nature is), horn shape, ear length, coloring (skin, hair, eyes), height, and life expectancy. Though they are adapted to the high degree of ash and potential toxicity in the air from volcanic activity, ihkt who live away from their planet (or who are raised without visiting it) tend to live longer and moderately healthier lives.

Genetics and Reproduction

Unlike most humanoids, ihkts are induced ovulators: female ihkts do not ovulate unless they reach a set point of arousal. Combined with their biological quirks, it is almost guaranteed that if she has sex (with a fellow ihkt, at least), she will get pregnant. As a result, ihkts are very strict about sex: they don’t have it unless they plan to have children.

Growth Rate & Stages

Ihkts age at the same rate, and with the same stages, as most humanoids. They reach their full (physical and mental) maturity at 25, which is also when their horns stop growing; this is the same as in most humanoids, including humans, though most reach physical maturity earlier.

Ecology and Habitats

Originating on a hothouse planet with severe volcanic activity, they prefer warmer climates over colder, but ihkts can keep themselves warm well enough if need be. Much like most humanoids, they live just about anywhere habitable, though ihkts are fairly limited in how much impact they make on their environment: they built very little and built it to last, knowing that a single eruption could wipe it all away.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Primarily carnivores, ihkts can’t process most plants, such as leafy greens. They do, however, feed on energy-rich fruit and nuts if they can.

Additional Information

Social Structure

As humanoids, ihkts are highly social creatures. What this social behavior looks like, however, varies per culture: some prefer large groups, some prefer smaller groups with regular interactions, and so forth. A large part of this stems from the harsh conditions they have evolved to live with: areas with especially frequent eruptions pose too big of a risk to eliminate all resident ihkts if too many of them gather in one place.
Of course, in modern galactic culture, most of these concerns have been wiped away. Though some still retain their preferences, they're just that: personal preferences. Especially on a galactic scale, away from their homeplanet, there are so few ihkts that they tend to stick together, especially with how many find them intimidating or scary.

Domestication

Ihkts keep several species of animals as livestock, depending on their area of living. These animals serve not only as source of food, but also provide additional materials such as leather. They also farm, partly to feed their animals and partly for additional materials (fiber for clothing and ropes, and such).

Facial characteristics

As humanoids, ihkt facial characteristics are mostly human-like. Points of variance which differ in appearance between individuals are their pointed ears, whose length varies, and their horns, whose shape varies greatly.

Average Intelligence

As humanoids, ihkt average intelligence is equal to that of humans.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Ihkts have keen eyesight and, thanks to their tapetum lucidum, have equally keen eyesight in the dark. This helps them see not only in the dark of night, but also when forced to withdraw into caves and tunnels, and in the murky darkness of an ash storm. Though their sight is their main sense, ihkts also have human-level hearing and taste, though their sense of smell is somewhat degraded.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Ihkt naming traditions vary per culture, though they tend to use at least two names: a given (first) name, and a family name. The latter often combines the last names of both parents in a recognizable manner, though some cultures have the child inherit one of their parents names alone. This emphasis on family names exists due to the constant separating and mingling of ihkt groups: they must ensure family lines can be traced back well enough to check that interested couples aren't related. After all, one of their grandparents might've come from a different group before they were forced to break away, only for the grandchild to later meet them again and unknowingly become interested in a relative.

Beauty Ideals

Ihkt beauty is very strongly bound in what interests them in relationships, and thus, to strength. This is not necessarily bound to visible traits, but to things like the feel of their muscles, and their ability to wrestle. Scars are also considered highly attractive, physical marks of endurance and what the ihkt has survived.

Courtship Ideals

For ihkts, sex is an important but early part of courtship. As it is almost guaranteed to lead to pregnancy, it ensures that both parties are equally willing to commit. But the ihkt rituals around sex also ensure that both parties are equal, that one can't force the other to do things they do not want.
If a pair of ihkts are interested in one another, they will first lock horns and wrestle. If they can’t lock horns for any reason (mismatched horns shapes, one of them is missing at least one horn, etc.) they instead press their foreheads together. If they are not well-matched (one of the two easily overpowers the other), they abandon the attempt: both partners must be roughly equal.
Continuation into sex

If they are equal, the wrestling will naturally transition into sex, with their attempts at overpowering each other continuing even during this process, including rolling each other over, pressing their partner into the ground, and so forth. When both partners are aroused, their genitalia bloat up; the female’s vagina tightens which, combined with the flanges on the penis of the male makes it almost impossible for them to separate until both have reached an orgasm. As this is also the trigger for ovulation in the female, it is almost guaranteed to result in a pregnancy. Their ‘lock’ also ensures that their wrestling, no matter how enthusiastic, does not separate the partners; the male can’t ‘waste’ the attempt by releasing outside of his partner.

Relationship Ideals

As courtship is almost guaranteed to lead to pregnancy, relationships among ihkts are serious business. The couple must be prepared to have a child together, and both parents will be considered responsible for the child. As 'accidental' children are thus impossible--as they must always expect it--the way the parents will prepare for their coming child is considered an important mark in their relationship. Learning to live a shared life, and preparing to share said life with a child, will make or break their bond. If they prove unable to manage it, they will split apart, raising the child separately, with each parent taking care of them roughly 50% of the time. In this, they are often--but not always--assisted by friends, family, or both.
If the couple has lasted to see their child born, the child continues to be a central point of their relationship. An ideal relationship has both parents taking equal care of their child(ren), also equally sharing the rest of their work (keeping the house in a good state, ensuring food happens, etc.). In the latter, they are usually also assisted by friends, family, or both: children are a big deal in ihkt culture, as the couple has clearly chosen to have a child.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Ihkts have low raspy voices due to generations of exposure to smoke. Even those who grow up away from Taskke, and without any exposure to smoke, continue to have these voices.

History

One of the many species of humanoids genetically altered and introduced to a terraformed world by the Progenitors, ihkts were already a sapient species before they were ever ihkt, specifically. A decent population of them was spread across their homeplanet, Taskke, with some genetic adaptions already in place. From here on out, they were pushed to their limits by the perilous environment, driving them to evolve further while any less successful variants died off. In the end, ihkts as they are in their current form evolved, and later, thrived.
As part of their survival, and why they managed to outlast the other descendants long enough to establish a lasting society, ihkts managed to spread further across their planet. Being able to make the most out of a variety of environments, including underground tunnels if the surface became too heavily affected by ash and storms, allowed them to survive cataclysmic events that wiped out other developing species. And, any who proved to be equally well-adapted, naturally hybridized with any other surviving people, as they were all descendants of the same species. Through this process, in the end, only one species remained: the ihkt.
Spread across such a large portion of their planet, there was no way to stay in constant contact. Not only were they simply too far away, their planet was ever-changing: one eruption could not just wipe out one of their cultures, but also cut off ways of travel or contact. As such, the many groups of ihkts developed countless vibrant cultures, eagerly exchanging them with their fellows. This way, even if their group died, some parts of them might live on.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Though ihkts are seen as scary by many of the other sapient people of the galaxy, they are overall on fairly good standing. The state of their homeplanet frightens many, and is often considered a good 'explanation' of why they are the way they are. Additionally, their inherent strength and toughness makes them appealing workers for physical work, as bodyguards or mercenaries, or even as entertainment fighters such as boxers or gladiators--though never as wrestlers, due to the sexual nature of wrestling to ihkts.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Humanoid

Scientific Name

Homo infernalis

Origin/Ancestry

Taskkian

Lifespan

70 years (Taskkian), 80 - 90 years (galactic)

Conservation Status

Least concern (LC): Though many see them as scary, but ihkts are overall fairly well accepted in greater galactic civilization.

Average Height

2.0 - 2.3 meters

Average Physique

Muscular, though how visible it is varies per individual.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Skin: light to dark variation, non-human overtones: fiery (red), sulfur (greenish yellow), or abyss (blue).
Hair: usually dark (black, wine red, brown, or navy), rarely light (pink, blonde, sky blue, silvery white)
Eyes: monochrome, white to gray to black, no sclerae.

Geographic Distribution

• Taskke

Related Organizations

• Circle of Fire