The Herri

Lightly built and silver tongued, the stereotypical Herri is a bard and merchant extraordinaire. Their feathers are often very colourful, and they may have feathers alone or feathers mixed with hair. The skin of their faces may also be coloured, and some have beaks.

The Herri cannot, despite their feathers, fly. They do not have wings, and they bear live children rather than laying eggs. Human-Herri relationships are common in Nevicia, but there are no half-Herri – the children of such a relationship will be either fully human or fully Herri (often both in the same family, and nobody knows why). Family is important to them, blood or adopted.

They dress like other citizens of Nevicia, in colourful robes, short tunics, and trousers with fitted calves. Those who have emigrated may adopt local styles but will always tend to dress in bright colours.

They are not heavy fighters, favouring short swords and daggers wielded together. If they wear armour, it will be light. Because they favour some magical skills, they do not usually want to be encumbered with any at all. They will often use their athletic ability to jump and dodge, avoiding the need for armour. They definitely make better duellists than line fighters, and their frames cannot support heavy armour at all. Feats of strength are beyond them. However, their light bone structure enables them to walk over marshy ground where a human would sink.

They are very hospitable and agreeable, love talking and singing, and can be very persuasive. Some call them hollow and manipulative, especially those who have been on the other side of a clever bargain.

The Herri do not have a racial religion, but many of them follow the Thebian gods of their native Nevicia. Those who have settled or grown up elsewhere, particularly in Anhia, may follow local religions. They make very eloquent preachers, but seldom want to withdraw from the world to live an entirely religious life.

Within elemental magic, they favour air and water. Wood magic does not come naturally to them, nor fire or metal. Controlling the weather and the sea is their primary use for magic.

## Origins

The original inhabitants of the muddy islands of the lagoon were the Herri, who can walk over the marshes in places where humans would drown in the mud. The hollow bones of their birdlike heritage render them light and soft-footed. In their own legends, their ultimate ancestors were a man and a woman cursed by an unforgiving god, the woman transformed into a heron as she was pregnant. From the eggs she laid emerged the first Herri.

Their mother could not nurse them, and they would have died but for their father, who managed to find a wet-nurse for the four tiny babies. As they grew, the children developed feathers where hair should have been, and the father was exiled to the marshes with his toddlers. The strange family lived by fishing and trapping, until some other fishers came to the marshes. For all the children had feathers instead of hair, they were beautiful, and the fishers were captivated. By the time the children reached adulthood, they had friends among the fishers. Their father reached the end of his life content, knowing that his children had families of their own and would even thrive without him.

Nobody ever mentions the name of the unforgiving god. If they ever existed, they have long been forgotten.

The Herri come into recorded history as fishers and hunters, living in the lagoon and trading with the nearby humans. Their lagoon became a refuge for humans seeking shelter from invaders, and fortunately the refugees traded for land rather than trying to obliterate the Herri. Eventually, the mixed settlement became the city of Nevicia, a colourful trading consortium, wealthy and powerful.