Ahklut
Document; Species
Excerpt from A Guide to Sihblosian Fauna: The Magical, the Mythical, and the Mundane
…the Ahklut.
Yupik and Inuit legend speaks of a man-eating, fearsome beast that takes the form of a wolf on land and an orca in the sea. Where pawprints end at the water, or begin coming out of it, the Ahklut has walked- and all those with good sense take care. Sometimes depicted as a hybrid of both animals -it’s most dangerous form- the myth says the Ahklut was born out of a man's obsession with the sea. This man was so enthralled with the ocean that it provoked a peculiar change in him. After spending so much time in his beloved body of water, he was unrecognizable to the people of his village; they exiled him, and he took to roaming the wild. The man discovered a pack of wolves, and out of desperate hunger transformed into one to join their hunt. But he could not resist his love of the ocean, and this longing drove him to return to the water. When he jumped into the sea, he transformed into an orca, finding that he was capable of becoming both wolf and killer whale.
Reality is no less fascinating than the legend.
The Sihblosian Ahklut is not a shapeshifter or an exile. And while they can be amphibious (packs that live around the unfrozen parts of Sihblos, those kept warm by geothermal activity, indeed spend a lot of time in the water and on the shore) most Ahkluts live on land. They are neither wolf nor whale, but do resemble the hybrid of legend in a number of fascinating ways, hence the name.
An addendum, before we proceed. Most of what we know about the Ahklut is incomplete. They are exceedingly difficult to study in their native environment, due to the rugged nature of the Sihblosian wilderness and the animal itself. Much of what we know comes from deceased specimens. Conflict with settlements and sapients has led to hunting and extermination in several regions until barriers were put in place, for while they do not actively prefer to hunt people, they are also not picky… and every calorie is precious in extreme cold.
Folklore has long hinted at the intelligence science only recently suggested: tales of systematic retribution against entire families for killing a mother Ahklut and her pups in their dens exist, and so do stories of respectful peace brokered between the brave (or foolish) and a neighboring pack, each benefitting from the relationship. Attempts to corroborate these stories have been met with mixed success. Shockingly, they can be domesticated, but not easily, as is the case with many large intelligent predators- and even so, it is a dangerous endeavor not for the faint of heart. To do so involves finding one willing to make the packbond with a sapient instead of its existing pack (see packbond details further below) and a sapient willing to brave a pack of Ahklut to try and convince one to do so.
However, it is said that a packbonded Ahklut is the most loyal, fiercest friend anyone could ever have. While this smacks of romanticism, it may actually be true. But those sapients who have managed the feat tend to be few and far between, and as hard to find for the making of this book as their other half, so we cannot confirm or deny such rumors.
We start with the basics of what we know. Ahkluts are large, highly intelligent mammalian pack hunters. They are apex predators and a keystone species of their environment. Equally adept in water and on land, their historical range is planet wide. In the present day they are found most commonly in more remote areas (see range map figure B1). The advent of the barriers has driven them further from most population centers. Packs of Ahklut are structured much like an earth wolf pack with a complex social-familial hierarchy and dominant bonded pair, often the parents, at the top. Packs exhibit male-male, male-female, and female-female pairings, with same sex pairings often taking on extra pups from large litters. This allows the young Ahkluts an increased chance at survival as the burden of parenthood is shared among these “aunts and uncles”. They are highly intelligent, along the lines of whales or dolphins; in particular their ability to communicate to one another with the packsong is a subject of much fascination. They are known for their intelligence and ability to hunt game much, much larger than they are, coordinating seamlessly to take down whole mammoths. Larger than the extinct earth direwolf, Ahkluts average over two or three hundred pounds and well over five feet at the shoulder, though there is considerable regional variation. Specimens of campfire stories in the deep north were said to be easily large enough for people to ride. Their incredibly dense fur has no less than four separate layers for weatherproofing in even the most extreme areas. The most common coloration is gray and white, but black patterned individuals also exist. Huge paws with webbing and fur between the toes make for built in snowshoes, letting them run across drifts instead of falling in, and massive claws act as cleats for gripping. Very small ears reduce heat loss. A large ruff, almost a mane, is present. Tails are long, strong, and fluffy. A deep bellows chest, large lungs, and highly efficient respiratory system involving a vestigial blowhole means they can run almost anything to the ground. The fur on their head is the most highly prized of all furs on Sihblos. This short one inch layer is twice as dense as sea otter fur and, as long as it is kept groomed with a special comblike dewclaw, utterly impervious to the elements, as it is so dense it traps air against the skin. Wind and snow simply cannot penetrate it. A large head and broad shovellike muzzle help them dig dens when needed even through hardpack or ice, and provides superior crushing bite power that lets them rip into frozen corpses or break and eat bones in lean times. The eyes are small, and their vision not the most spectacular, but they don’t need to be able to see well.
It’s their hearing that marks the Ahklut’s most extraordinary adaptation.
All Ahklut have a large, curved bone attached to the skull called an ossicle. This ossicle makes the oscular fin, a curved finlike head structure that is no fin at all. It serves as an attachment point for crushing jaw muscles, but it also serves as their primary auditory organ. Ahkluts don’t hunt by sight. They hunt by sound, specifically echolocation, which means that while other animals must duck and hide in the howling blizzards that wrack Sihblos’s surface, the Ahklut comes out to play. Even the darkest winter nights hold no threat to them, nor the thickest nearpine forest; they can hear animals hiding in the snow and under water or ice. Using the oscular fin and the ossicle organ it houses, they communicate to one another in a complex series of whistles, chirps, growls, warbles, clicks, and howls, some audible to humans and some not. This is the packsong. The impact of the packsong on an Ahklut is immense; while details remain unclear, Ahklut who have suffered injury to their oscular horn and who are unable to “hear” properly often simply stop eating, lay down, and die. The packsong is considered essential in the packbond that Ahklut share. This is less of a physical connection than an emotional or, in wilder claims, even spiritual or magical one. Whether simply the need of a social creature for company taken to an extreme or something more metaphysical, it is a documented phenomenon that packbonded Ahklut display an uncanny sense of each other. This includes mood, location, even if another Ahklut is in trouble or hurt. The essence of the packbond is mostly conjecture. What is known is that it seems to be formed after a pack or bonded pair “sings” together. Portions of the brain change afterwards and do not revert.
In temperment, Ahklut are incredibly tenacious, fiercely loyal, and startlingly intelligent. They have long memories and highly developed critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. As social pack hunters they prefer to be with their pack at all times and should never be kept isolated. Beyond these, data is once again lacking. Hearsay, however, reports a healthy sense of curiosity (common to many intelligent animals). There seems to be wide variation among individuals….
Ahklut Shamans
Shamans chosen by the Ahklut are as rare as their totems: they combine the supportive sociability of Dog and the fierce protectiveness of Wolf with a resourcefulness and emphasis on communication all their own. They tend to be group oriented in some way; even introverted shamans have a family, community, team, or other set of people or animals they hold dear and defend. They value clear communication while working together to achieve a goal. But for all the emphasis on communication and community, Ahklut shamans often find themselves called to violence. The Ahklut is an apex predator and unashamed of it, and their shamans are not afraid to fight. Ahklut shamans go where the pack does, and can manage large cities for short to medium periods of time, but most Ahklut shamans simply are not built for extremely urban life. Many Ahklut shamans also possess a healthy sense of curiosity and love of exploration, given their totem’s natural intelligence and large pack ranges
