Chavrak

The chavrak are an underground species, notable for their wings, tentacles and scheming. Notable chavrak include Iesta, Thrace's fiancée.
==Trivia (Interactive)==
01. The chavrak organize themselves into Houses, which are structured like families. This tradition stems from a time when the chavrak were organized into family units, and the eldest female of the family had absolute authority over her relatives.
The most important ranks in a House is the Mother, Father, First Daughter, and First Son. Despite the names, these ranks can be held by chavrak of any gender. The Mother is the leader, and chooses the Father by marrying him or her, and chooses the First Children by adopting them.
02. There are four castes, the Inday, the Tadra, the Kerum and the Jaud. The Indays are slaves, the Tadra are craftsmen, merchants and soldiers, the Kerum are the businessmen, mages and military leaders, and the Jaud are the nobility.
A chavrak's caste is determined by their House, and a chavrak can rise in caste by being adopted into a higher House, or fall by being disowned. It's rare for a chavrak to move up more than one caste.
Illyria's reaction: This entire system makes her head spin. It's far, FAR more complex than the Old One system. (Which is based almost entirely on a combination of strength and birth order. Those two traits are mutually inclusive--an Old One of a higher generation is almost always stronger than a younger one.)
03. "Chavrak" is both a species and a nationality. Thousands of years ago there were several chavrak nations, but those that did not unify were eventually wiped out by other competing species. All chavrak are ruled by the Cavern Queen.
04. While Houses are based on families, adoption and disowning are so common that blood kinship is largely irrelevant. House Mothers and Fathers are not always a romantic couple, and there are many marriages in which the Mother and Father never have sex.
Despite this, there are several taboos that have their roots in the idea of blood kinship. It is legal for a non-chavrak to join a chavrak House, for two chavrak of the same gender to marry, and for a chavrak to marry a relative. However, all of those things are considered improper.
Illyria's reaction: Illyria can understand that system for marriage, but none of the taboos except same-sex marriage make sense to her. Marrying/breeding with relatives and beings outside their species is how Old Ones have always survived. She wonders if Iesta is disdainful of this, because of the difference from her own culture, but has never asked.
05. Chavrak are not naturally monogamous. It's considered unhealthy in their society to be romantically attached to just one person for a long time.
Illyria's reaction: She wonders how Thrace handles this information. After her first spectacularly disastrous meeting with Iesta, she decided never to compare her to Lycia again, but she is very curious if it's hard for him to go from having a faithful wife to one that sees fidelity as unnatural. Strictly speaking, Old Ones are not bound by any such rules, but one does get used to defacto monogamy in a society where all sex is procreative and one of the top ten criteria for marriage is to find someone that is perfect to breed with.
06. While many chavrak (mostly females) believe that sexism has been eliminated from their society, three-fourths of the Inday are male, two-thirds of the Jaud are female, and only one-tenth of the Cavern Queens in the last ten thousand years have been male.
07. Chavrak usually don't wear clothing, but the higher classes often wear jewelry.
08. There are noticeable physical differences between the castes. Jauds tend to have more reddish skin than the other classes, brown eyes are most common in Tadras, and Indays have thinner facial tentacles. There's enough cross-breeding between classes that this isn't absolute, but it's enough to create stereotypes.
09. The easiest way for an Inday to improve their life is to become the consort of a Tadra or Jaud. Consort-slaves usually live with their master, which is a vast improvement on the homes that Indays are usually assigned, and being a good consort is the easiest way to gain enough favor to have a chance of being adopted into a Kerum House.
Because of this, there's almost as much scheming and competing among the Indays as there is among the Jauds. Most Indays are obsessed with either gaining or keeping the position of consort.
10. The most serious crimes are punished by the offender being disowned from their House and forced into a House of lower class (or killed, if the offender is an Inday).
11. The natural lifespan of a chavrak is 300 years, but most die long before they reach that age. The leading cause of death among the chavrak is murder.
Illyria's reaction: This sometimes makes Thrace and Iesta's ability to identify with one another enough to be married make a lot more sense to her.
12. The chavrak have enhanced eyesight and an enhanced sense of touch. A typical chavrak can navigate their home caverns with their eyes closed, just by feeling the air around them.
13. As a defense mechanism, many chavrak become indifferent towards their children. They have as strong of an instinct to love their children as any other species, but being that emotionally attached to someone is a weakness that endangers both parent and child.
Dardani's reaction: She's been idly curious before about whether or not her mother loves her or her siblings, but it's never been pressing enough for her to ask.
Dersaii's reaction: She did ask.
=====Iesta's Reaction to Dersaii: "Not yet. I hope one of you will be worthy of it someday."
14. Jauds and Tadras usually have a distant role in their children's lives. They hire nannies and tutors, and send their children to boarding school, all of which makes it easier to be emotionally distant (and also increases the chances of the child becoming someone the parent can afford to care about).
Kerums and Indays can't afford nannies or boarding schools, so they often end up becoming attached to their children during the process of raising them. That attachment is ruthlessly exploited by their enemies.
Denna's reaction: "There are underground boarding schools?"
=====Satrai's Reaction to Denna: "If you find that to be unusual, perhaps I should show you the underground fast food restaurants."
15. There is no such thing as a chavrak with no enemies.
16. Chavrak have no conscience, and no empathy for people they don't personally care for.
17. The average reign of a Cavern Queen is fifty years. It usually takes at least two hundred years for a chavrak to gain enough power to take the throne, and they are often assassinated
18. While many chavrak leave the Chavrak Caverns to visit the territories of other underground races, most chavrak never go aboveground. This has led to a lot of misconceptions about the surface- for example, many chavrak think everyone aboveground is blind.
19. The chavrak have a deep appreciation of beauty, and the Chavrak Caverns are visually stunning- to chavrak eyes, anyway. A human would probably think they were horrifying.
20. The following things are considered art forms in chavrak society: Lies, betrayal, assassination, and vengeance. The chavrak appreciation of beauty extends to them, and a well-told lie or well-planned revenge is admired (though, naturally, less so by the victim).
Illyria's reaction: She understands appreciating only half of these.
Dardani's reaction: She is torn between wanting to be perfect at these things and being horrified by the mere concept of using them (specifically, betrayal and assassination--when would she ever even have cause to use them?).
=====Thrace's Reaction to Dardani: He thinks that she'll have ample opportunity to use both. Thracia has many allies who might not always be useful and therefore could be betrayed, and many enemies who can't be faced in direct combat and therefore could be assassinated.
==Section heading==
Write the second section of your article here.
Category:Chavrak
Category:Species