Koumlat

Koumlats are an ancient, shapeshifting race. They range in color from black to white, and normally have red or pink eyes. They have large, hardened scales on their bodies, and sensitive whiskers to feel their surroundings.

Koumlats are one of the races native to the Highlands. They may not be the largest, but they are one of the most imposing, having monochrome colored scales and red eyes that seem to glow. Their long lived lives and command of natural magics enable them to warp their bodies and shapeshift into a chosen form, typically one they will be most comfortable in. Along with their affinity for magic, they typically have an incredible resistance to heat and cold built up, along with the fact that some swords can’t even pierce their skin. They need not breathe air, and fare well underwater or on mountaintops, also able to see in the dark well. Some Koumlats are colorblind, however.

They are usually portrayed as beings of legend and myth due to their long lives and the fact that they seemed to have been around since the beginning of time. Despite this, their numbers are small, and populations are far and few between.

Appearance
Koumlats are blessed with the ability to shapeshift into almost any form they desire, at the cost of time, energy, and magic. Larger edits to their structure, such as growing wings, can sometimes take up to a decade, while something minor like editing height an inch in one way or the other and compensating by becoming thinner or thicker can take a week. The more magic they expend, the faster to process is, but the more chance there is for an unwanted mutation. The more a Koumlat shapeshifts a certain way, the easier and faster it is to do so again.

Their scales range from pure white to pitch black, usually taking on a matte texture. Scales on their bodies are usually fine and flexible, like skin, but still able to stop some sharp objects from injuring them. Most Koumlats also have larger, tougher, less flexible scales that function and look like armor. These parts are called Shells. Each Koumlat has a Shell on their face, usually centered above their eyes called Crown Shells. Crown Shells are considered an important part of identification for Koumlats due to their shapeshifting ability, and it is considered taboo to shapeshift them into a different shape. Crown Shells are also incredibly difficult to shapeshift, considered the only part of a Koumlat that takes decades or even centuries to reshape.

A Koumlat’s eyes are the only part of them that contains any color, and is almost always a shade of red. Very few Koumlats have differently colored eyes, and even then this trait must be bestowed upon them by a Demigod, or a Deity. Their eyes are never grey, black, or white, even in death they simply dull down.

Fleshy feelers are the softest part of a Koumlat’s body, and contain important organs responsible for touch and sight. They usually hang from the sides of a Koumlat’s head, the first two by the face being necessary and most sensitive. Injury to these feelers, or even an unexpected brush-up against something, can cause temporary vision loss, temporary increased pain tolerance, temporary loss of feeling in the limbs, and even loss of consciousness for a bit. Koumlats who dare to braid their feelers almost always require glasses to see while their feelers remain this way.

Culture
Koumlat culture differs greatly between tribes and factions, but most tend to be polytheists. They believe that Deities and Demigods influence the world and fate itself, the former helping factions and the latter controlling certain aspects of the world. An example would be Hiirkoun, literally ‘Ocean’s Guardian’, the demigod of the ocean. Deities reflect the appearances of their faction’s leaders, while Demigods are Koumlats.

Each color has a meaning, both good and bad, to Koumlats, listed below: Due to these double meanings, some tribes tend to dislike certain colors and favor others. Very rarely, a tribe will even abandon hatchlings that are too pale or too dark, due to the meanings. Other tribes and individual Koumlats tend to scout out these hatchlings, adopting them and giving them a home.
 * Black: Good, Impurity
 * White: Purity, Evil
 * Grey: Stability, Monotony
 * Red: Life, Vengance
 * Orange: Warmth, Illness
 * Yellow: Light, Naivety
 * Green: Nature, Poison
 * Blue: Freedom, Cold
 * Purple: Luxury, Pain

Aging and Lifespan
All Koumlats hatch from eggs the size of a human’s forearm in radius, laid by their parent(s) in batches of 100. Despite the large number of possible children, never will all of them survive. At least one is certain to live and hatch, but there has never been more than 80 successful hatches in a single clutch. Some do not survive, and other eggs are simply empty. After a decade of incubating and growing, the surviving eggs will hatch, and the hatchlings will be named.

The hatchlings resemble their parent(s) trait-wise, having short tails or long tails, wings or no wings, and other bodily shapes and forms having been passed down to them. It takes 50 years for them to advance to adolescent stage, 400 years to grow to full size and be considered late adolescents, and 500 years to become adults.

A Koumlat’s average lifespan ranges from 7,000 to 12,000 years. Due to this fact, and the sigil’s abilities, Koumlats tend to instead choose a different route than respawn after a death, choosing instead to pass on to the spirit realm, becoming a ghost or entering reincarnation.

Around the 3,000 to 5,000 year mark, Koumlats occasionally start to see spirits of a parallel realm, very rarely even drifting and becoming only able to see spirits and those with strong magical auras in color or at all.