Aarakocrans

> "I've been around a lot, you know. I've even done it with those uptight birdheads" - *Atmos Slibard*
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The aarakocrans or aarakocra (Common transliteration of Aarakocran: *arag gukra* meaning "winged clans") are a collection of various mountainous tribes and clans belonging to a diverse avian race of peoples in the southern peaks of Dongxi Lu. Often rarely seen outside of the mountains, they are an insular and closed-off group who have retained their ancient religious traditions for centuries, relatively static and unchanged.

## History

The origins of the aarakocra are unknown, but descriptions of "bird-like people in the Southern Mountains" have been recorded by famous medieval Dongxi-region travelers such as Lang Zhou Ren and Ferdos e-Barg.The collective species described today as "aarakocrans" are thought to have originally been a group of different bird-like races that once spanned more of the Dongxi region.

## The Aarakocran Identity

Historians believe that the singular "aarakocran identity" came about upon the rise of the Dongxi Lu Empire at the late medieval and early gunpowder age. With the consolidation of power under the singular Divine Crown of Dongxi Lu, many of the "barbarian races" on the "Four Corners of the Divine Crown" were threatened with destruction or capitulation to the empire.

The ancient indigenous beliefs of the monastic and feudalistic mountain bird races were consolidated under the various High Monastic Lamas to develop a singular aarakocran identity and aarakocran religion. The High Monastic Lamas established deals with the Dongxi Lu aristocratic court to keep and gain local power and isolation, while in turn developing an ideological religion built upon indigenous beliefs that served to keep the Lamas in power, show deference to the Divine Crown of Dongxi Lu, and ensure that the new aarakocran identity is grounded to the mountains so that the Lamas may maintain their power over the people through religion. This belief system intertwined with the monastic aarakocran lifestyle is known as **gokgur tangbuul**, or the **Teachings of the Clouded Sky**.

## Philosophy

The Teachings of Clouded Sky is the central aarakocran philosophical, spiritual, and religious system. Central to its base are the Three Eternal Pillars:

* **Dolobor gurdo**: the *seven-winged wheel*, which refers to the seven precepts of Life Under the Clouded Sky:
	+ *Cycle*: life and death are held as equal and cyclical. Aarakocrans die and their bones become one with the mountains, and grow to become new aarakocrans.
	+ *Clouded Sky*: suffering is a necessary part of life for aarakocrans, and must be accepted with an understanding that it is a part of the cycle of aarakocran life.
	+ *Rejuvenation*: the culmination of holy deeds in an aarakocran life allows one to be reborn as a High Lama in a next life. Holy deeds involve supporting aarakocran life
	+ *Non-break*: a holy aarakocran born into their clan may not attempt to break from their holy clan role as divinely ordained by the tertung morgok and the High Lamas.
	+ *Deference*: deference to the clan patriarch decisions and the decisions of the High Lamas, along with doing monastic duty towards prayer of of the tertung
	+ *Homepeak*: aarakocrans live and die by the mountains, their eternal homeland for all time in the past and the future, as these mountains are old aarakocrans and new aarakocrans are born from these mountains, and aarakocrans may not leave them nor fall to the temptation to use their wings to fly above them.
* **Tertung morgok**: the names of specific tall mountains that are essentially worshipped due to their holiness as past High Lamas. The passing of High Lamas who do particularly exceptional deeds allows them to be ordained as peaks, as if they have been reborn as the mountains themselves.
* **Batzong**: the complex system of monastic serfdom that exists based on the aarakocran clans. The High Lamas claim Batzong to be divine and eternal to ensure that all aarakocrans can maintain their society and lifestyle in the face of encroaching outsiders from Dongxi Lu.

The Teachings of the Clouded Sky are a relatively new synthesis of the High Lama lines from the different indigenous aarakocran races.

The High Lamas claim the Teachings to be have been eternal, but in reality they came about as a kind of deal between the old monastic leaders and the aristocracy of a newly united Dongxi Lu. As long as the High Lamas kept the bird-people of the mountains at bay and away from the rest of the Dongxi Lu empire, then the Dongxi Lu aristocracy could guarantee that the monastic families would be able to maintain their social power and the autonomy of the aarakocran community in the face of the wiping out of other "barbarian races" in the early days of the consolidation of the empire. As a result, the High Lamas present this synthesis as a "necessity to maintain harmony and self-actualization for all aarakocrans under the threat of destruction from Dongxi Lu", and have banned other forms of spiritual worship.

**Dalangbit gurdo** or the Winged Waterwheel is the philosophy adopted by the dalangtzai Drungpo Khagtse. An ancient philosophy that predates the Teachings of the Clouded Sky, and indigenous to the race once comprising the Clan Khagtse, dalangbit gurdo similarly deals with notions of reincarnation and karmic retribution for a better life, but explicitly rejects the need to disconnect from flight, believes in individual and community self-actualization outside of deference towards the tertung morgok or the High Lamas, and outwardly rejects any Batzong-like systems of ordained-from-birth religious roles. Instead, the idea of the Cycle in dalangbit gurdo refers to the idea of the "evolving cycle", where the freedom and determination of practitioners "cyclically evolves" as contradictions between clans and among society cyclically build up and collapse, allowing society to continually reach a higher stage until it ultimately beings a collective "tertung morgok" i.e. divine and self-actualized existence.

## Society

Aarakocran society is decentralized and built around the *dzong*, fortress-like mountain manors that host a High Lama of Clan Lama and aarakocrans of different clans that hold different roles in the dzong. These dzongs are dotted around the mountains and are primarily self-sufficient, with mostly the High Lamas of the dzongs travelling around to meet each other. Based on the batzong system, aarakocrans can be divided into three classes, which further subdivide based on the traditional aarakocran clans.

* **High Lamas** are the monastic leaders of dzong and have religious duties to enforce the duties of tzongzodzai and maintain divine contact with the tertung morgok. The High Lamas enjoy many special material and divine privileges, and maintain a tenuously close connection to Dongxi Lu.
	+ *Lama*: the only aarakocran clan of High Lamas, the Lama clan is the only clan that cannot explicitly be traced to a particular old aarakocran sub-race, instead consisting of powerful monastic families in the pre-Dongxi Lu age that grew into an endogamous, high-caste grouping divinely ordained to control the land. They are disproportionately the wealthiest clan. Clan Lama are based on *house crows* (Corvus splendens).
* **Tzongzodzai**: the "people of the dzong", consist of the majority of aarakocrans, grouped into six clans with distinct roles, who do not own any property and few material possessions but are requested to work the land and maintain the dzong in exchange for protection and shelter.
	+ *Gyangdo*: Clan Gyangdo maintain mountain crops and other agricultural business, acting as "land serfs" directly working on mountain crops. Clan Gyangdo are based on *black-headed cranes* (Grus nigricollis).
	+ *Tzering*: Clan Tzering are a trading class, that, besides the High Lamas, are able to trade between dzong, but produce little of their own and are often some of the least protected by individual dzong. Clan Tsering are based on *grandalas* (Grandala coelicolor).
	+ *Huungzur*: Clan Huungzur consist of warriors and defenders of the dzong, forming the dzong guard and under direct command of the High Lama and the Lamas. Clan Huungzur are based on *ibisbills* (Ibidorhyncha struthersii).
	+ *Bondo*: Clan Bondo consist of mountaineers and miners who deliver metals, ores, and stone to maintain and engineer the dzong under the direction of the Lamas. Clan Bondo are based on *bar-headed geese* (Anser indicus).
	+ *Khagtse*: Clan Khagtse consist of undertakers, grave workers, and garbage collectors, dealing with the "divinely polluted matter" and often feel the most neutral about death, deeply accepting of the idea of the cycle. Clan Khagtse are based on *griffon vultures* (Gyps fulvus), the principal carrion birds in Tibetan sky burials.
	+ *Drongpa*: Clan Drongpa consist of butchers, tanners, and livestock maintainers. Along with Clan Khagtse, members of Clan Drongpa are typically the likeliest to become Dalangtzai and are considered less trustworthy by the Bondo, Huungzur, Tzering, and Gyangdo. Clan Drongpa are based on *bearded vultures* (Gypaetus barbatus).
* **Dalangtzai**: the "people of the skies" who are considered outcasts, rejects, and "untouchable" aarakocrans that are exiled from aarakocran society. Not forming a coherent clan grouping, the dalangtzai are typically the "mentally unwell" or "religious rejectioneers" who believe "spiritual animist systems that have no place in reality" (usually indigenous aarakocran beliefs). Drungpo Khagtse is an example of a dalangtzai. Essentially all aarakocrans seen outside of the mountains are generally dalangtzai.