Source Interstellar Species pg. 142
The vlaka home world is dying. The already frigid planet Lajok orbits a fading sun and grows steadily colder each year. Eventually, not even the thick fur of the wolflike vlaka will be able to protect against its bitter chill. But until that day, the vlaka stand together. On a harsh world like Lajok, with a population who has different ways of physically experiencing the world around it, it takes community to survive, and vlakas view their many circles of trust—from family to social circles to crewmates—as both a source of strength and the key to their long-term survival.
Ability Modifiers +2 Wis, +2 Cha, –2 Int
Hit Points 4Size and TypeVlakas are Medium humanoids with the vlaka subtype.
BuoyAs a standard action, a vlaka can spend 1 Resolve Point to restore 1 RP to an ally within 30 feet. A vlaka can’t use this ability again until she has taken a 10-minute rest to regain Stamina Points. This is a sense-dependent, mind-affecting ability.
Cold ResistanceVlakas have cold resistance 5 that stacks with one other source of cold resistance.
CooperativeVlakas gain a +2 bonus to skill checks for the aid another action and to attack rolls to provide harrying fire. A creature using the aid another action to assist a vlaka gains a +2 bonus to the skill check.
PerceptiveVlakas gain a +2 bonus to Perception and Sense Motive checks.
VersedVlakas can speak, read and write their native language, Vlakan. They also know the signed and tactile versions of this language.
Vlaka SensesVlakas can be born with one of three possible sets of senses. During character creation, determine a vlaka’s senses by choosing from those available. A vlaka born with functional sight or hearing who becomes permanently blind or deaf does not gain the abilities of a vlaka born with blindness or deafness.
Blind: A blind vlaka has blindsight (hearing) with a range of 60 feet, blindsight (scent) with a range of 30 feet, and the blinded condition. The vlaka is naturally sightless, so the blinded condition can be removed only by effects that grant sight to creatures with no natural vision.
Deaf: A deaf vlaka has blindsight (scent) with a range of 30 feet, low-light vision, and the deafened condition. However, this condition imposes no penalty to initiative rolls or opposed Perception checks that are not based on hearing. The vlaka is naturally without hearing, so the deafened condition can be removed only by effects that grant hearing to creatures with no natural ability to perceive sound.
Hearing and Sighted: A vlaka who has hearing and sight also has blindsense (scent) with a range of 30 feet and low-light vision.About the VlakaPhysical DescriptionPhysically, vlakas resemble bipedal wolves. They stand between 5-1/2 and 6-1/2 feet tall, weigh between 175 and 250 pounds, and have a thick coat of mostly white fur, often with scattered patches colored brown, grey, or pale blue. Two-thirds of all vlakas are born on a spectrum of deaf, blind, or deafblind, with subtle corresponding fur patterns and scents; the remaining one-third are hearing/sighted.
Vlaka don't generally walk on four legs except during their first year of life, before reaching maturity. Not only is walking on all fours thought to be childish (a reason that “four-legged” is often the vlaka word of choice to describe something immature or reckless), but the length of a vlaka's torso compared to their extremities also makes four-legged movement somewhat awkward and uncomfortable. Still, some vlaka scientists believe that the species did once live on four legs, using the tendency of modern vlaka to balance on their toepads instead of their heels as evidence.
Home WorldLajok's sun, Sota, is slowly fading, bringing increasingly cold temperatures and bitter icy winds to a world of vast, semi-barren plains and frozen topsoil. Vegetation on Lajok is mostly sparse and consists of low-lying shrubs, mosses, and bushes in muted colors. This changes during the planet's relatively warm season, called valai, when shallow lakes appear across the surface and marshy plants heavy with berries quickly grow, reproduce, and die, leaving their colorful imprints and distinctive scents across the planet's surface. Traditionally the season for farming, foraging, and hunting, valai grows shorter every year, and the food supply on Lajok is now made up mostly of imports from other planets and crops from greenhouse farms. Cities Densely populated and circular in shape, each city on Lajok is ringed by tall buildings designed to conserve heat and protect against wind and ice storms. Vlakan cities are time-tested; only one, Falore, has ever fallen to the elements. Its frozen-over ruins remain a cautionary tale to anyone who might think of putting personal interest over the protection and maintenance of their city's outer walls.
Within each city, streets and buildings are arranged in concentric rings, each corresponding to an area of interest or profession. Rings are connected through numerous passages and alleyways and ordered differently in each city, with two exceptions—the outer ring of every city is always its ring of defense against the ravages of the weather, while the innermost core is dedicated to plant life and agriculture. While the placement of other rings varies by city, each type utilizes a consistent paving style throughout the planet which, in conjugation with the underlying scents distinct to each district's societal function, ensures that all vlakas raised on the planet can always determine their own location both by smell and the pattern of the ground beneath their feet.
The separation of vlaka cities into rings is both a reflection of the important role circles of trust play within vlaka society and a holdover from the days when each city had its own area of expertise. While remnants of that history can still be seen today in the many libraries of Horjan or the repurposed hospitals of Tekir, the loss of years of scientific research with the fall of Falore led to a push for cities to include space for each major area of interest within their walls. Vlakas who can't find room to work within their preferred ring in their current city can either use this as motivation to move elsewhere or build down into the ground. The recent discovery of an extensive existing cave system beneath the city of Aarul has many vlakas debating whether and how this expansion by excavation should continue, with some wanting to preserve and explore the caves and others wanting to seal them off, concerned that further exploration might weaken the structural integrity of the buildings above. The Space Between While the vast majority of vlakas on Lajok live in cities, a few prefer to explore the frigid land outside of city walls, known as The Space Between. Their reasons vary—some search for new ways to use the planet's resources, some map sites for potential new cities, and still others mark the changes in the planet's climate from year to year. A few from the Circle of Journeys have even attempted to excavate the ruins of Falore in search of the knowledge lost beneath the ice. In recent years, though, many have turned away from overland exploration in favor of exploring the newly discovered Aarul caves, which may hold clues to vlakan survival during The Gap.
Society and AlignmentThe harsh environment on Lajok naturally drives vlakas to put community above all else—there is strength (and warmth) in numbers and interdependence is key. Cooperation and communal living also help vlakas benefit from the different ways that deaf, blind, deafblind, and hearing/sighted members of the community experience the world, with each group bringing their own perspectives to everything from a search for food to a new scientific discovery. Today, though technological advances have lessened the immediate dangers of the environment and made communication easier, vlakas still believe strongly that the communities they belong to—called circles—are the most important source of any individual's support, knowledge, and overall well-being. Circles Each vlaka may belong to many circles, from the immediate family of their birth pack to the crew of a starship on which they serve. The process for joining each circle ranges in formality. Some, like birth packs and cities of origin, are innate. Friend groups or social packs are often informal, naming themselves at will and having undefined membership criteria. Circles of profession, on the other hand, most often have their own processes in place for application and acceptance. Vlakas believe it enriches the spirit to belong to a wide variety of circles, so there is no limit to how many a single individual can join, but they must be chosen carefully. Once a vlaka belongs to a circle, they're expected to come to its aid if the circle or one of its members needs their help, no matter how much it may inconvenience them or how they may currently feel about their fellow members.
Birth packs include both a vlakas' immediate siblings as well as the children of their parents' childrearing circle. Vlakas usually join their first circle outside of their birth pack at the first valai festival held after they reach the age of physical maturity. These festivals are a time of celebration: one marks the day the “warm” season historically began, one celebrates its midpoint at what was once the warmest day of the year, and one marks its conclusion. After celebrating the start of valai in their own cities, young vlakas group up to make the trek to cities nearby, having spontaneous celebrations wherever groups meet in The Space Between and learning first-hand the need to have a strong community around them to complete the journey. By the time the young vlakas reach a new city at mid-valai, most have found a circle to call their own. Some older vlakas now object to this tradition, as the increasingly cold weather during early valai has led to the stranding and occasional injury of young vlakas during their trek, but they have been unsuccessful so far at convincing traditionalists who hold the valai travels as an important part of vlakan culture to say nothing of the young vlakas eager for their first tastes of independence.
Formal circles are led by councils made up of a few trusted and long-standing members. These councils each approach leadership differently. Some make decisions by consensus, choosing a leader from among their ranks only when internal division or external pressures demand it, while others always have a leader, but regularly rotate the role between council members. This is true even of the Circle of Lajok, the closest thing the vlaka have to a planetary government, which consists of representatives from every circle with either significant membership, broad influence, or a track record of creating meaningful change.
The process for making the choice of leader or council member varies from circle to circle—some vote, some come to consensus during open discussion, and a few use games of chance or trials of skill. Whichever method is used, a circle leader marks themselves by shaving off a ring of fur around their collar known as the Leader's Band. Once it grows back fully, it's considered time for the leader to step down from their role. Most vlakas consider the idea that a single individual would lead a group for an extended period of time to be a bit odd.
RelationsAmong other species, vlakas are generally known for their quiet joie de vivre and pragmatic wisdom. They tend not to be overly flashy, and they prioritize listening well over speaking quickly, adding their thoughts at the moment when they will do the most good. This, along with their tendency to avoid power grabs, offer support to their shipmates, and look for the win-win solution makes them popular with other travelers.
Vlakas' ability to get along with others is helped by their sense of smell, something they often rely on in understanding the motives of members of other species. This is made easier by the extensive reports made by vlakan explorers about the species they meet, going back to the days before the Absalom Pact was signed. Over time, these field reports have been compiled into a vlaka database of offworlder pheromones and the emotional responses they correspond to, called the pheromap. While not used by all vlakas, and frowned on by some who think of it as an emotional cheat, the pheromap can be an invaluable tool during first meetings and tense situations.
Vlakas' congenial relationship with other species is also due in part to the influence of the Circle of Salvation, which sponsors and prepares the vast majority of vlaka who take to the stars. The Circle's hope is that the key to saving Lajok from its slow death will come from other worlds. They emphasize to all who seek to go offworld that it will benefit the entire planet if they lean into the type of community building that has helped vlakas survive for generations. While some explorers believe this has led to vlakas being taken advantage of by other species, others note that while a single vlaka may have an unpleasant experience, the knowledge they bring back to Lajok is worth the cost.
Most vlakas who leave Lajok do return eventually when they “catch the scent of home,” a feeling that combines homesickness and a sense of obligation to the home world. Vlakas who communicate frequently with Lajok or who have a strong circle of support around them are less likely to experience it and can weather it better, but if ignored the scent can often lead to irritability, unnecessary risk-taking, and mild depression. Aside from this though, vlakas tend to make even-tempered and positive addition to any group, eager to bring their sense of community to the stars.
Vlakan CommunicationVlakan communication has been shaped by the fact that vlakas may be deaf, blind, deafblind, or hearing/sighted, and thus it uses multiple senses whenever possible. Traditional written Vlakan is grooved so it can be read by touch as well as sight— in an era of technology, this grooving is replicated on haptic touchscreens and often supplemented with audio description. Vlakan sign language has two variants, visual and tactile, with the touch-based variant dominating within close circles and other intimate settings. The visual variant is used for more formal group occasions, where vocal description can be provided for the blind. Most vlakas, especially if raised on Lajok, sign and speak simultaneously and interchangeably. Those who explore with mostly non-vlakan crews sometimes even teach a variant of basic signed Vlakan to their crewmates once they feel they have formed an intimate enough circle.
The two senses that almost all vlakas share are scent and touch. While touch is used primarily in tactile sign language, scent is a crucial form of non-verbal communication. Scents are incorporated into everything on Lajok from construction materials to clothing, though their complexities are typically not noticed by those without a vlaka's keen sense of smell and knowledge of how to interpret the various layers of a particular scent.
In all forms, vlakan communication has two primary modes— terse and direct, typically used when stakes are high (and often useful in cutting through the minutiae of a diplomatic situation), and symbolic and metaphorical, with a heavy reliance on scent and touch as descriptors. The latter is less well-known outside of the vlaka community, and vlaka explorers have been amused to find “Vlakan poetry” on other worlds that is in truth nothing more than a to-do list or mundane scouting report.
NamesVlakan first and last names are determined by their birth pack. Different circles of childrearing have different approaches to the first name, with the three most common being that the parents determine the names of their biological offspring completely independently, parents determine the names within guidelines agreed to by the whole circle (such as names starting with a particular letter or incorporating a specific syllable), or the circle decides names as a group, either through discussion or random draw. Everyone born to the birth pack will share the same last name, chosen by the childrearing circle when it originally formed. As vlakas join new circles, they sometimes are given a nickname by the circle and add it as a middle name. In addition, on first meeting, vlakas will usually list their circles as an extension of their name, to let strangers know which communities they belong to. Thus, a full vlaka introduction might be “Jilavo Daran Two-Hands Tak, of the circles Tak, Aruul, Snow Skaters, Silver Wings, and Salvation,” shortened to Jilavo for most purposes. Sample Vlaka Names Alaza, Carok, Delevana, Jikant, Kalvek, Kapleth, Parva, Poskari, Tarnat
Vital StatsAverage Height 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 ft.
Average Weight 175–200 lbs.
Age of Maturity 3 years
Maximum Age 30+4d10 years
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