Avians

Two Avians in a camp.

#### **INTRODUCTION**

Avians are a strange but fairly phylogenetically recent species of sapient bird, closely related to other sapient beastraces. They hail from nowhere in particular having migrated from mountain to mountain across Azura. Their adeptness at high altitudes has made them a proficient species with the capacity to go where others cannot. They’re mostly unaffected by other sapient species below them so they’ve had plenty of time to develop even if they’ve only been present for so long. Avians embody the luxuries of freedom and expression in all facets of their society.

#### **ANATOMY**

Avians stand more upright than other birds with their knees freed from their hips. Their strides are long and gracile making them exceptionally agile. Avians claws, of which they have three on each limb, give them added grip on harsh terrain so they can easily traverse their mountainous homes. They’re also lightweight with air sacs in their bones shedding their density in favor of a lighter form. While by no means brittle it does make the Avians more fragile and severely debilitate them should they suffer a fracture. Their ability to weave and twist around obstacles does partially mitigate risk but Avians must be wise to avoid serious injury.

*Avian legs can vary as much as real-world birds' can. You're free to mix and mash parts to your heart's content. (Provided they're only cosmetic)*

While they cannot fly, their wings and feathers can provide other uses. Avians have wide wing feathers which can provide them enough lift to glide from elevated surfaces. Similarly, they can slow their fall so that they do not face injury if they drop from high heights. Their feathers also provide insulation from the cold and rocky abrasions, making them adept mountaineers even without proper equipment. Of course this comes at a cost, should an Avian possess an injured wing they won’t be able to glide and a dousing of water will cause them to stick together- rendering the airfoil useless. It’s imperative that an Avian remain dry should they wish to save themselves from a plummeting death.

Avians have exceptional long-distance vision and can identify details from a mile away on a blanket of snow. Although there are some things Avians cannot perceive : natural camouflage designed to blend into specific objects (mimicry), and clear surfaces like glass and water. Should a pane of glass be present an Avian would not be able to discern if it truly exists until they touch it.

Avians are a very dimorphic species. The males are often vibrantly colored with exotic shows of feathers while the females tend to be more plain. Male Avians often have crests or other arrangements that advertise their fitness to passerby before they even say a word. Females often have a layer of underbelly fluff for insulating their brood as young Avians do not have the insulatory feathers to keep them warm as they hatch. As Avians mature they attain a fluffy downing of bright yellow or white before shedding it for their adult covering of feathers.

#### **SOCIETY AND CULTURE**

Avians haven’t had to deal with strife or war consistently in their collective history so very little of their collective culture is associated with it. Instead, Avians are an incredibly performative and artistic species. Icons of Avian society are made of those capable of true talent; dancers, singers, and painters fulfill the role that a beastslayer or mage may have in a human society. Skills that better the use of oneself through display are valued amongst Avians and are central to their communities.  These skills are tested at a young age for ‘natural talent’ and Avians are allotted a caste based on their ability in these moments, while some Avians have altered their caste through actions later on these almost always stick with them for life.

**Autaal**

Autaal are leadership figures in Avian communities. They’re often instructors of other Avians or teachers seeking to hone talent from their pupils. Autaal comune to delegate tasks to their underlings and form council to which the community should be run. It is often seen as a retirement position for Avians of upper castes that have passed their performing years.

**Pech**

Pech Avians are those of authority or prominence. They’ve shown proficiency and skill beyond the exemplary in a very specific task. Some Pech Avians are celebrity artists of a very particular craft while others are community leaders of villages or contingents of warriors. Regardless, the Pech are collectively valued as the utmost highest of Avian society.

**Shasan**

Shasan Avians are those who have passed the tests of their youth. They possess the intellect or proficiency in one or more subjects for the communities they live in to value them. Shasan are very broad and can encompass both subjectively motivated professions as much as practical ones- bar the laborious or ‘inelegant’ ones. They’re what a human might describe as a ‘middle-class’ amongst their communities.

**Irahot**

The lowest rung of Avian society, Irahot Avians are either those who have not been tested or those who possess no higher proficiency in an ‘elegant’ skill. They’re the laborers, farmers, and other such jobs too messy for the Shasan or Pech to stomach. They serve the community in practical ways so that the Pech can dazzle without the need to muddy their feathers.

**Fioeth**

Outsiders, deadbeats, the unwanted. The Fioeth stands as a class that Avians can fall into and that other races belong to. They’re expelled or exempt from the caste system and grant no favor from the community.

While Avians worship a variety of faiths they’ve historically recognized two deities, Yu'an'Tsu'Yuin (otherwise known as Yu'an), the great dragon spirit of the Sky and Uis'an'Elo'Yuin (otherwise known as Uis'an) the bird-spirit of the clouds and air.

*Yu’an* is the stage spirit, the setting, the scenario. Its purpose is to act as a backdrop to a grand performance or an unwavering audience of adoration. The wind is seen as Yu’an’s mood with strong bouts seen as a demand for a performance. Avians often dedicate performances to Yu’an to sate its desires and erect sculptures and spires in its image as tokens of appreciation. It is said that if Yu’an finds a performance particularly moving that they would grant the performer a token of appreciation.

*Uis’an* is the teacher's spirit, wisdom, and instruction. Uis’an is foretold to instruct the Avian people and teach them new acts to serve them. These new performances are interpreted from the cloud formations in the sky with Avians using different formations and types to map out moods. It is unwise to not credit Uis’an when interpreting their work as doing so may incur unforeseen risks. Uis’an may strike back with a bolt from the heavens to display its dissatisfaction with theft.

#### **HISTORY**

The true origin of Avians is unclear as not even the Avians wrote it down. It is theorized that while the other sapient species were getting established first the ancestors of the Avians had nowhere to settle in the lowlands. Outcompeted there, they turned to the mountains which none could settle for their intense cold. The Avians took up roost high above the highest of Meridian settlements and found themselves proficient in surviving above. Eventually the need to fly was lost so they lost the ability to do so.

Their distance and isolation from other species made conflict against them practically non-present. While the elves knew of their existence the two species lived in separate bubbles of coexistence throughout the Pyrosi era.  They first came to true arms against the Barbarosi at the tail-end of the Pyrosi age and were forced to arms when they forcefully settled in their homes. While the Avians had remained mostly non-violent, their ability to move effortlessly over the mountainous and cold made them deadly against the squishy humans who hid behind coats and animal skins. The Avians ousted them from their mountain home.

In the modern era the Avians are still kept to themselves and many of their practices have persisted to the present. Since they’ve lived separately for so long they have few historic enemies allowing relations to remain fairly neutral across most facets of Azuran politics.