Avios

Avios

Avios are feather-winged Sapiential-Synths capable of flight, and although they have bird-like wings, tailfeathers, and have patterns and designs based on certain birds, they are not related in any-way at all to them.

The Hasekuran version of Avios are colloquially called Kuros.

## History and Purpose

#### Concept and Creation

There was no deep thought process into the concepts of Avios beyond *"what if people could fly?"* and so the concept was simple, a winged humanoid. However, achieving that vision lead to many routes of testing with a lot of trial and error.

Amelia Samodiva and Eve Mira were key supporters of Avio production and proposed organic methods of creating Avios, whilst the at the time head of Delta - Matteo Vaughan- proposed bionics to be the way forward and faster to produce. Enjoying the competition it sparked, Guy Daniels proposed that both parties had two years to produce functioning prototypes that they would then present to a crowd of ARCDA employees and the concept with the most votes would then be funded for further research.

Emblazoned by the competition, Samodiva, along with Eve Mira, Daniil Pavlov, and several other lead scientists, all began work on their Avio concepts immediately. Within the first year and a half the team managed to produce the first Type-1 and Type-2 Avio prototypes. Meanwhile, Delta underwent many changes of leadership (through suspected sabotage on the behalf of Samodiva), and production and construction for the bionic wings concept stalled.

By the end of their designated time, the Avio concept had come the furthest with the first Type-3 Prototypes ready to be grown, and Daniels, pleased with the potential and branching other concepts that had sprung from the evolution of the Avios doubled the initial funding he had initially intended to reward the winners with. With this money, Avio development sped up and broadened with Pavlov taking some samples to experiment with patterns and colours with, and Eve designated for long term viability and stability of the genetics with permission to go further and create more Synths from the research; With this she went on to produce Chiros, Raptors, Pteros, and assisted with the creation of Preternaturals and late-stage genetic modification to existing products.

All of the initial prototypes for avios used were Crows, or Crow-based, as they were one of the easiest bases to access and study, along with feral pigeons, and Harris's Hawks.

#### Production

With the funding and growth of a production team and a broadening bank of genetic codes from which they could pull traits, Eve Mira set up prototype tests at Loch Mullardoch, Scotland, to configure a good standard for Avios.

The key base species which ARCDA uses are primarily birds of prey however their list features:

* Pigeons
* Crows
* Hawks
* Eagles
* Vultures
* Falcons
* Owls
* Seabirds

All other bases outside of these groups are usually created by commission or with some input by Risio, with hummingbird, parrot, and songbird bases being a favourite to use. Core does utilise certain bases for certain roles, with many 'stealthier' types of bases being trained as Sapphires, and hardier more durable bases as Rubies.

 To actually produce Avios however, beyond their base genetics, they were first grown in synthetically altered ostrich eggs, then after the Type-4's were produced, they used actual Avio eggs (and occasionally synthetic embyo tanks) to grow further generations of Avios. This step in production usually takes place initially in Atlas (although they are shy about explaining how they acquire these eggs), before they are moved to Core for education, however Aura and Risio do grow their own Avios separately.

## Biology

Anatomically, Avio biological features have more resemblance to birds, bats, and other flying creatures more than humans, to the point that often the only human-resembling aspect of Avios that remains is the face and speech.

### Genetics

Avios share a lot of genetics with Volant based critters such as Raptors. They like all the majority of Synths, have an 8-Base genome.

* Improved Immune system responses.
* Increased Reaction Speeds
* Hyper Effective Muscles and muscle fibres
* Hyper-efficent Blood
* Rapid metabolisms
* Advanced Digestion

### Internal Biology

**Bones**

Avio bones are nothing like human bones. They are similar to birds in that they are supported by thin honeycombed structures within, but are comprised of a far denser but more light weight material thanks to their synthetic nature, and only make up about 7.5-8% of the overall body weight. The walls of Avio bones are also very thin and some parts are almost translucent when light is shone through them.

A primary and necessary aspect which Avios require within their skeletal systems is the Keel, a large protrusion from what would be the sternum. This is a very thin but strong bone and often acts as a breastplate that protects the heart and lungs behind it, but its key function is for the wing muscles and pectoral muscles to be anchored to it.

Although not outwardly visible, Avios often lack a lot of smaller bones such as within the feet and have an adjusted pelvic bone that allows for free movement of the tail more like that of short-tailed Synths such as Lynx-Pards. However they also have more changes to the appearance of their bones such as rib projections which overlap across the bones of the rib cage which strengthens it a lot, longer scapulae and an adjusted collarbone which connects loosely to the top of the keel. There are also more vertebrae within the neck than humans with there being 10 vertebrae, though they are smaller and allow for far more flexibility of the neck.

**Circulatory System**

Blood in Avios has a higher affinity for oxygen and binds and diffuses more readily.

The heart is altered substantially from what would be found in mammalian hearts. Whereas humans have 2 tracks, body and lungs with the major artery leaving the heart being the Aorta, Avios have four major arteries that come off of the heart.

* Carotid - Head and Brain
* Brachia-Pectoral - Flight muscles
* Systemic - Body
* Pulmonary - Lungs

Avio hearts pump more blood per beat than mammalian hearts, and have a slightly elevated resting heart rate. Active heart rates of Avios can be anywhere between 200 and 500 bpm depending on base and how hard they are working. If a major artery is cut on an Avio they can bleed out in minutes.

**Respiratory System**

There are air sacs around the body, but the lungs are the primary bellows, and the entire system is constructed to maximise oxygen uptake as much as possible. Although Avios can fly high and rarely suffer with hypoxia, they still need to control and train themselves to breathe slowly and deeply so that they can get enough oxygen into their bodies.

**Nervous System**

Avio brains are vastly different to the brains of other Synths as they have smaller but a higher density of neurons within their brain, and a larger cerebellum and thalamus than what is found in any other Synths.

In Gregale, Griffin mentions that Avios need cobalamin. Cobalamin helps make red blood cells, DNA, RNA, energy, and tissues, and keeps nerve cells healthy, and so is vital for Avios.

**Reproductive System**

Little is yet known about the reproductive system of Avios or if they are all viviparous (giving birth to live young) or oviparous (laying eggs). So far, it appears that many Avios are oviparous.

### Physical Biology

**Wings and Feathers**

The wings are the key defining feature that makes an Avio. Usually the *minimum* wingspan for a Standard Avio would be the height of the Avio x 2.75 with variation depending on the base from which they come from. On average, their wingspan is up to 3.2x their height, though this can go up to 4.7x their height in bases that resemble sea birds.

It is an easy mistake to say that Avios have bird-feathers. They do not. The feathers resemble bird-feathers, but a key feature of Avio feathers is that they have iridescence or even UV reactive markings to them (meaning that they are only visible under ultraviolet light alone, or visible to those who can see into the UV spectrum). Their feathers are far more robust and lighter than bird feathers, which is what allows them to be grown to well over two-meters long at the primaries for some types of Avios.

Feather pattern is often influenced by the Base from which the Synth comes from, however this doesn't mean that they will be perfect representations of the base. Risio bends the basing system that the other factions use and instead create their own patterns and colourations from a traits database, to the point they can mimic the colourations of butterflies, and even create custom original looks, giving Risio-made synths (Type-5) the widest and most vivid and varied patterns within all of ARCDA.

The colours of feathers will change and shift over the course of an Avio's life, with a new set of feathers replacing the old every 2-3 years. Often it is little more than shedding old damaged feathers for new ones, however often it comes with a change of pattern or even colours, however with a lot of Avios, their adult colours are set by the time they are between 16-22 (depending on the Avio and the type).

Like with birds, damage to feather follicles can result in the feather never growing back. This can be the result of physical trauma such as plucking, burns, cuts, infections, or other injuries.

Hiding wings is often a pointless activity as the majority of wings are too large to be disguised without trapping the wings beneath long coats, in fake bags, or even continuously manipulating the perceptions of people around them to trick their brains into not seeing the wings.

**Tail Feathers**

As with birds, depending on the type of Avio and who made them, tail feathers can either be functional for flight and mobility or they can be for show, often with Risio products leaning towards the latter. They are able to move them interdependently as a limb of its own just like they can with their wings or arms, making it a 7th limb.

The majority of Avios have tail feathers, however transhumans lack them despite ARCDA knowing full well that Avios fly better with them; This lack of addition was intended to differentiate Transhumans from the born-Avios however recent studies have begun experimenting with adding tails to transhumans.

**Senses**

Vision is the key sense of Avios, with the majority having Hyper focus traits that allow them to be able to focus upon tiny objects in detail over great distances. With this there comes the ability to be able to detect super slow movement such as the movement of stars, the moon, and the sun, as well as being able to process super fast movement. An additional feature found less commonly is the ability to see the effects of UV light without needing a black light.

Touch sense is also very sensitive in Avios, especially along the undersides of the wing against the wing-arm. This is to help detect changes in temperature and wind speed. Ones who spend a great deal of time flying will also be sensitive to changes in pressure and humidity, as well as having an internal gyroscope.

* Improved Vision
* Hyper focus Vision
* UV Vision, (Uncommon)
* Internal Gyroscope
* Touch sensitivity
* Temperature sensitivity
* Internal magnetic compass. (Uncommon)
* Sense of Altitude.
* Weather sensitivity. (Rare)

**Reactions**

Because of their primary reliance on sight, their reaction times are among the fastest of any Synth, able to process rapid movement and react to it. As they can detect movement very fast, and react to it equally as fast, their movements can appear sudden and jerky but also deliberate.

**Strength**

Avios have a lot of strength in their legs and chest muscles. Their arm strength isn't as developed as Canids, Pards, or Primates, but they are still strong enough to lift their own body weight. Transhumans tend to have more arm strength than standard Avios. When flying, their carrying weight varies with how they fly and if they are lifting off with the load or not. Leg strength however can be dangerous to others as an Avio has to kick off to get airborne, and they can and will utilise this power to kick others back and 4/5 times will break the others' bones.

## Avio Stages of Development

The growth development of Avios is much slower than that of other synths and has several stages to it.

Newborn, infant, nestling, toddler, child, fledgeling, juvenile, teen, adult. This is due to the various milestones and moults that Avios undergo in their lifetime.

1. **Newborns**
	* At birth newborns are completely helpless and require constant supervision. Blind, toothless, deaf, naked of feathering, they are at high risk of hypothermia. Wisps of down will begin to form after a few days but they need to be kept warm, fed every couple of hours on a high calorie diet of fluids. After three to five weeks, their eyes begin to open (usually being a milky blue colour to begin with) and will begin to respond to sound and movement. At this stage they are covered in enough down that they do not need to be kept as warm, however still require a great deal of parenting.
2. **Infants**
	* Between 3-6 months Avio infants are covered in fluffy grey down and have their pin feathers beginning to grow on their wings and tails. Their eye colour begins to change and loose its milky blue quality, and are more able to focus on the world around them. At this stage they begin to make loud vocalisations and push themselves up into sitting positions, grab hold of items, and start to move their wings. Most infants have a crop where food becomes stored and pre-digested.
3. **Nestlings**
	* After 5-6 months, Infants grow into Nestlings. Their down begins to recede as the pin feathers grow. Along with this, hair develops and milk teeth form. Because of this many Nestling Avios begin to chew on anything they can get hold of and test everything with their mouths to see if what they have is edible or not, as they adapt to eating solids. Unlike human infants, Nestlings do not crawl on their knees but rather amble about on all fours and can do so very fast, with more developed nestlings even beginning to climb and latch onto things. This stage is often referred to colloquially as "Monkey mode" as not only do they run on all fours and climb, but also can scream as loud as a howler monkey and need to be watched carefully whenever they are awake. Luckily they still sleep for up to eighteen hours a day but when they are awake, caution and speed is advised for intercepting the nestling from impending disaster.
4. **Toddlers**
	* Once the "monkey mode" nestling stage is over, Avios grow into Toddlers, who rather than ambling about on all fours, run upright and are highly evasive. Personalities begin to develop, along with preferences and the ability to talk in simple sentences (accents and speech patterns also begin to develop based on the people who surround them). Though their wing muscles are underdeveloped and they are unable to fly, they are fully feathered with toddler feathering that helps them to practice moving and coordinating themselves, learn spatial awareness, and communication. Communication and socialisation at this point are highly important as the teething does not stop and many toddlers become biters, and temper tantrums can be vicious when talons begin to harden
5. **Children**
6. **Fledgelings**
7. **Juveniles**
8. **Teens**
9. **Adults**

## Avio Types

The creation of Avios has been a process, with many versions, however their ultimate goal was to have a Sapiential-Synth with both wings and arms that could be moved independently of one another, and could maintain flight.

### *Type-1 Avios: Ornithad [Extinct]*

The first Avios ever created were the Ornithads. Although they were the first living Synths to be created on the original synthetic genetic system, they were absolutely hideous abominations with deformed faces and rib cages, fused or multiple sets of limbs, occasionally scales instead of feathers, or feathers that wouldn't stop growing.

They were very unstable and often did not survive long with the longest Ornithad living for little over three months whilst they were used as a study point for the next versions: the Type-2's.

### *Type-2 Avios: Birdish [Extinct]*

Using the Ornithads as a stepping stone, ARCDA went on to produce the Type-2's just a year later after their initial attempts failed.

The birdish look gave the Type-2's their nicknames of Birdish, as they had more bird-like features with feathered bodies, tails, and wings however the wings had the long metacarpals and phalanges of finger-like digits rather than a single fused set of fingers, whilst the forearms were short with elongated fingers with the humerus directly fused with the wing humerus within a single socket. This meant that the wings and arms would move together rather than independently from each other.

They could never get the Birdish Avios to live longer than three years, but from these they went on to produce the Raptors and by-proxy the Chiros.

### *Type-3 Avios: Flyers [Extinct]*

Flyers were the predecessor to the standard Type-4 Avios seen, and were the model from which the Type-7s were redesigned from.

They were only based on 3 bases: Carrion Crows, Harris' Hawks, and Rock Doves (Feral Pigeons) as these were the easiest bases to study and sequence genetically for base mimicry as they were always present somewhere around the research facilities (with the exception of the hawks which were maintained in aviaries).

They appear more humanoid than the Type-2's, with facial features that resemble a human more accurately, though their bodies are mostly covered in feathers, with scales along their legs and arms. They have no hair and their eyes are rounder with no whites. They still retain tail feathers, though they are shorter and not prehensile.

**Features**:

* The wings of a Flyer have 2 scaled finger digits similar to that of a hoatzin though they are longer and capable of grasping.
* A more humanoid body plan.

Crow is one of the few remaining Flyers today, as the rest have been killed, however the genetics for them are still stored within the Risio database of genetics, with skeletal dioramas being held at Hrimfald.

### *Type-4 Avios: Standard*

The common bases used for Standard types are usually corvids, birds of prey, seabirds, and occasionally pigeons and other birds with problem solving skills. In addition to wings, Type-4 Avios have tail feathers, though many lack a nictitating membrane (third eyelid) which protects their eyes. This is due to a random mutation.

The average lifespan for Standards is placed at about fifty years, depending on how they live their lives, though this isn't tested yet as to how long they actually live for. While they grow more slowly than other Synths, it is considered that a standard Type-4 Avio is fully mature by the age of 13 but at youngest by 8 depending on the base of the species, however they can continue to grow and develop after this with feathers regularly shedding/moulting and changing colour throughout their lives.

**Features**:

* Wings proportionate to height depending on base.
* Tail feathers
* Talons or Claws
* Short Fangs
* Flexible necks
* Strong "ratchet" grips.

### *Type-5 Avios: Beauties*

An offshoot of the Standard types, produced only by Risio, are the Beauties. They are the most diverse Avios within ARCDA. Risio has mastered creating Avios without single bases and have created an entire database of codes, allowing them to mix and match different traits and produce various patterns.

However because of Risio's alterations a lot of side effects with skin problems, moulting, arthritis and dislocated limbs, as well lots of random mutations including leucism, wing spurs, dew-claws/wing fingers, seasonal feather changes, non-standard wing shapes, and even unique feather qualities.

Features:

* Extreme feathering

### *Type-6 Avios: Transhumans*

Transhuman Avio's are a more recent development since growing Avios from embryo's takes a lot more money and time, and so ARCDA has worked to produce a complete genetic redevelopment of human DNA, broken down by a viral vector.

The process for Transhuman-Avios is quite horrific, and with the amount of bodily changes that occur, with bones being shattered and regrown, and the entire genetic makeup of the human's body being altered, many Tranhumans have no memory of their former lives, and suffer extensive psychological damage as well as require long time physiotherapy to allow them to connect their new wings to their brains and have function over them; a process which can take over a year, and sometimes longer, to complete.

Usually people who are selected for this process are people who will not be missed or looked for by the authorities; the homeless, refugees, minorities in certain parts of the world, occasionally entire villages in rural areas with limited outside connections, though like with Preternaturals, there are some who actively sign up for this process. Because so much biological reworking happens within this process, it allows for other additions to be made such as encoding muser abilities.

Transhumans lack tails and tail feathers like Standard Avios as it would require surgery upon the coccyx to alter it so that there would be tail head and allow it to have moveable function. Bionic or cartilage based tails were considered, but the expense over usefulness was prioritized.

Although Core usually will sterilise all Transhumans, depending on where they were created they will cut this corner as again, it is time consuming and expensive to keep surgically removing organs that may cause internal haemorrhaging or the collapse of other organs), which can lead to pregnancies in female transhumans, however only if their partner is also transhuman; eg: Kathy Grey and Teal

**Features**:

**Known Transhumans:**

* Amell Rakena
* Kathy Grey
* Teal
* Beth Lovelace

### *Type-7 Avios: Aerials [Prototypes]*

The Type-7 Avios were a very small group of prototypes produced at Loch Mullardoch. These were some of the most expensive and hardest to produce Avios, as they were recreated from scratch within a whole new genetic architecture and not utilising the 8-base system from which all other Synths are created within.

Superficially they appear almost indistinguishable from the Standard Type-4 Avios, however they have a lot more specialism and adjustments such as scaled legs, four long gripping toes, longer tail feathers, more mobility within their range of movements, talons, smaller teeth and larger wingspans to body ratios.

The majority of Type-7 Avios came from Loch Mullardoch within the prototype projects run by Eve Mira, which included the Identical Twin studies, and Varriated/Variance studies, beyond this, no more Type-7's were produced.

> **See More:** Type-7 Avios
>
>

## Known Avio Characters

**Known Type-3 Avios**

* Crow Corvus

**Known Type-4Avios**

* Rai Noct
* Nico
* King
* Cinta
* Westwind
* Faraday

**Known Type-5 Avios**

* Wilny Mira
* Wilheim Mira
* Sweet
* Faraday
* Immortal

**Known Transhuman Avios (Type-6)**

* Amell Rakena
* Beth Lovelace
* Kathy Grey
* Teal

**Known Type-7 Avios**

* Storm Fraser-Swann
* Freya Fraser-Swann
* Sabre Merlo
* Fell Merlo
* Comet Sang
* Swift Shun

**Experimental Avio Types**

* Sirocco Sisters
	+ IO Sirocco
	+ San Sirocco
	+ Satu
	+ Zwei
	+ Fyra
	+ Cinco
	+ Zes
	+ Sept
	+ Ashta
	+ Jui
* Malana Été
* Griffin

## See More

* Synths
* ARCDA
* Hasekura
* Preternaturals
* Canids
* Compass Projects
* Type-7 Avios

## Trivia

* Feathers are an emotional extension of the Avio's body and telegraph a lot depending on the emotional state of their owner.
* Avios (except transhuman ones) can't taste spicy foods.
* Although Avios resemble humans in the face, this is the only aspect of humans they share.
* Avios are a lot lighter in weight than they look, with the heaviest Avios weighing up to 45-50kg, though the average weight is about 25-35kg.
* Avios go through many different stages of growth with their wings, sheading feathers and changing colours often.

## References

1. ↑ *Sapiential-Synth:* "A Synth that bares resemblance to a human in that they can talk, think, create, and understand complex things."
2. ↑ **Stormbite Official Twitte**r: https://twitter.com/StormbiteBook/status/1134707937858019329?s=20

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