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Kahlo

 
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According to at least one source, Kahlo may have been written in D'ni year 8343 by a young writer named Jamen. Regardless of who actually wrote it, the Age became the home of a popular D'ni sport.

The sport was so popular that D'ni pubs were often devoted to it, such as the Kahlo Pub found in the Tokotah II building on Å'gura Island. The pubs had viewers that showed still images of the games and, according to one document, live broadcasts of games in progress. It's never said if the D'ni placed wagers on the games, but people being people, it wouldn't be a surprise if they had.

The DRC found a Kahlo linking book fairly early in their attempt to restore D'ni, and it was in Phase Four by AD 2003. It was suspended by that year due to the DRC's usual reasons; the lack of money and manpower to continue the work. It remained in that status until the DRC had to leave the caverns in 2004.

They returned in 2006 after securing a new source of funding, but after a short time in the Age, work there was again suspended by Dr. Ikuro Kodama and Michael Engberg before it reached Phase Five.


The Age:


The Age of Kahlo was set in what was described as a rough wasteland that was subject to winds which were said to reach speeds upward of two hundred miles per hour at times. Most of the life of the Age was found in narrow canyons and depressions that provided shelter from the worst of the gales. The Age was named for the prevailing weather; the word kalo means wind in D'ni.

This is a sound clip of the wind over the wastelands.

This is a sound clip of the wind in the canyons.

The game field used by the D'ni was established in a depression that seems to have once been the body of a gigantic animal of some kind. It was probably buried in magma, since the area is still volcanically active and produces geysers. When its body decayed, the rock covering it collapsed forming a large hollow that two seed pod plants took root inside.

This is a sound clip of one of the geysers in the game arena bubbling.

This is a sound clip another, more energetic geyser in the game arena.

One of the more notable features of the Age were the bones of animals that grew so large that even the largest of Earth's dinosaurs would have appeared to be dwarfs beside them. The bones were scattered across the landscape of the Age.

This picture shows the area below the hive that the D'ni used as their game arena.

Kahlo

It's unlikely that Kahlo was ever the home of a native human race, but there was a species of flying creature there that may have been at least as intelligent as Earth's dolphins and porpoises. The creatures were social, living communally in a large structure the DRC called the hive. The creatures were named kåmkenta by the D'ni Zoological Society. As their web site is now defunct, I don't know why that name was chosen.

The hive was a multistory structure suspended among the bones of one of the Age's giants, and the kåmkenta entered it by flying up into a hole in the bottom. The spherical part is where the queen lived..

The hive

This picture shows close-up of the structure.

The Hive

This picture shows inside the hive. Several kåmkenta can be seen near the bottom opening.

Hive interior

A Bahroglyph of kåmkenta can be found near the Journey door in Eder Kēmo.

Bahroglyph

In the Museum Pod Age, a freshwater ray that looks somewhat similar to kåmkenta were given the same name.

Dereno

It is unknown if there was more than one kåmkenta hive. It's likely that there are more, but only one is shown in the sketches and photographs of the Age. The hive had a queen, and this picture shows her although her appearance is not very clear.

Kamkenta Queen

This sketch shows the queen in a less confusing manner.

Kamkenta Queen

It is not known if she had a major role in procreation. The other kåmkenta had genders and were differentiated by color. The documents do not clearly say which are which, but the females may have been blue and the males yellow. This was convenient for the D'ni, who could form up into teams based on their kåmkentas' coloration.

Blue KamkentaYellow Kamkenta

The kåmkenta had a large number of vocalizations, and the tones between males and females were fairly distinct. This is a sound clip of a male vocalization.

This is a sound clip of a female making the same type of vocalization.

The following pictures show some of the type of terrain found within the game arena.

Kahlo

Kahlo

Kahlo

Kahlo

Kahlo

The Marsh


The Game:


The popular sport involved two opposing teams that rode upon kåmkenta-back. It's unknown just how intelligent the kåmkenta were, but there are hints that they were partners in the game rather than an animal that the D'ni had tamed.

The goal of the game was to gather charges of different colors of plasma from geysers scattered throughout the playing field. The opposing team would try to intercept the player carrying the plasma charge, and there were places where gusts of wind would disperse the charge if the player flew through them.

This is a picture of one of the areas where the plasma charges were gathered.

Geysers

The charges were carried to large plants on opposite sides of the field, with each team needing a specific color of plasma to feed their plant. The appropriate charges caused seed pods in the plants to mature. When one of the of seed pods was charged, the seeds were sucked up through the plant’s stems and expelled violently out of a flower at the top.

Seed pod plant

For the kåmkenta, that was the reward for playing along. The riders were the ones who could gather and carry the plasma charges. The kåmkenta had no way of moving them on their own, and had to rely on random chance for a charge to reach the plants naturally. The seeds that the plants discharged were a favorite food of the creatures, and when a plant ejected a batch they'd swarm to catch them as they fell. Not only would they eat some of the seeds themselves, they also gathered them to carry back to their hive to feed their queen and their young. That made the game mutually beneficial. The D'ni were entertained by the sport, and the kåmkenta got the food they loved most.

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