Regarding Akalak

[Sulaiamas]

I’m interested in creating an akalak player character, and over the past few days I’ve just been reading and lurking. I’ve a few questions, though. Most are on the logistics of two personalities sharing a body, and I feel like I had a few more questions on this, but I’ll worry about them when I remember. I apologize in advance if these questions are already answered in the lore page and I just need to squint harder.

- Why do fathers have to “immediately seize their sons from the birth mother” if an akalak’s second personality typically appears when they are at least ten years of age, especially since the lore describes them as “well-balanced until their secondary soul emerges”?

- The akalak as a whole are described as “teetering on the brink of losing control,” which I assumed to mean losing control of their bodies to their less dominant personality. However, this implies that the darker side is always trying to take control. When I read that the akalak are meant to “strike a balance” with their second personality, I assumed this meant coming to terms with each other and sharing a body for equal amounts of time, but in retrospect it sounds like the lighter side is always expected to be in total control of the body and instead deign to allow the darker side to control their body half the time. The second personality sounds more like a dog the first personality has to learn to control rather than, say, a co-pilot. Is this true?

- If one personality trained himself in archery and the other personality didn’t (when he had control over the body), would the other personality still be equally competent in archery?

- (Is the plural form akalak or akalaks?)

[Caelum]

1. They do this because the secondary soul can emerge at any time. This is done especially when the birth mother is also not going to be raising the child such as with some nakivak situations.

2. The darker personality is, by definition, dark. They are often wilder, devious, ill-intentioned, etc. There is the Cerulean, those whose darker personalities have taken complete control, and many are in a state of working exile with the rest of the Akalak community. The Akalak struggle to maintain balance, but they in practice define that balance by the lighter soul being the dominant one.

Admittedly, I don't know the most about this race, but I think that will be helpful.

3. Regardless of which personality is in control, the other is still present. Therefore, a skill or lore earned would apply to both.

[Sulaiamas]

1. That makes sense. It’s just that the lore page states that an akalak’s second personality usually emerges at ten to twenty years of age, so it seemed a little strange to be worried about an infant getting out of hand. I’m assuming then that this means an akalak’s second personality emerging at birth is exceedingly rare, but still a possibility.

2. A quote from the lore page:

The light personality, which is often mistaken for ‘good,’ is actually the dominant personality that is normally exposed to the world or ‘in the light.’ The ‘dark’ personality is the Akalak within that is less dominant and often remains concealed or ‘in the dark.’

This quote implies that the dominant personality isn’t necessarily “good” and that therefore the less dominant personality isn’t necessarily “bad.” I’m beginning to think this is another case of the wording of the phrase tripping me up though.

[Caelum]

You are correct. I failed to state things clearly.

In the case of the Akalak (and, in fact, of the Mizahar lore and world view), light does not equal good and dark does not equal evil. It is -- haha -- not black and white here. The light personality is not a saint and the dark personality a demon.

The light personality does tend to be kinder, more forthright, etc. The darker is more secretive, suspicious. One is not good and the other bad. They are both good and bad and do good and bad things just as any other soul in existence.

The Akalak souls, when they have achieved their perfect balance, work in a beautiful harmony with each other. Neither soul is actively in control more time than the other. They slide in and out, balanced, in communion.


However, this is a degree or balance that it typically takes a century or more to obtain for an Akalak, hence why I say that in practice the lighter soul is often the more dominant. Most Akalak PCs are young, and they do not have that amazing balance. As a society and a people, though, that is what they aim for and excel at.

[Sulaiamas]

That cleared up a lot for me. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question!