Aarakocra

Aarakocra are a race of winged bipedal creatures that are found in high places, whether tall trees, steep cliffs, or high

mountains. A lonesome race, they mostly live by themselves, choosing to view the world from above rather than participate. They find great peace and enjoyment in their frequent flying, and find any shackles like a roof of a building almost intolerable. In human terms, they would be classified as having an intense claustrophobia.

Aarakocra rarely serve any god, choosing to not worry about that, knowing that no matter what gods there are, everything ends up the same at the end. In the ground.

## In Game Mechanics

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

***Age***. Aarakocra reach maturity by age 3. Compared to humans, aarakocra don’t usually live longer than 30 years.

***Alignment***. Most aarakocra are good and rarely choose sides when it comes to law and chaos.

***Size***. Aarakocra are about 5 feet tall. They have thin, lightweight bodies that weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. Your size is Medium.

***Speed***. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

***Flight***. You have a flying speed of 50 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor.

***Talons***. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

***Languages***. You can speak, read, and write Common, Aarakocra, and Auran.

## People of the sky

The aarakocra are a solitary people, and this is reflected in their environment. The sky is empty and wide, clear for miles and miles, much like an aarakocra's social life. They live in groups of 1, save for when they mate, and then they live in groups of 2 for a few days. Following the mating, the female aarakocra is often left alone to bear the eggs and responsibility of raising them.

Aarakocra live in nests in high places. While some will find an overhang to put their nest under to keep the elements off them, most do not, finding the blocking of the sky intolerable. These nests are made out of whatever an aarakocra can find in their early days, however, when older, an aarakocra's nest will often reflect its personality. A vain aarakocra will have a nest decorated with shiny objects, an aarakocra that relishes fights will have nests made with bones, a druidic aarakocra's nest may be grown from the tree it roosts in.

## A rare people

Aarakocra almost never participate in society and civilization, seeing it as pointless and confined. When they do choose to participate, it is almost always on lone travelers, whether a merchant or some random creature out for a walk. An encounter like that can be very dangerous for both parties as aarakocra do not understand the idea of ownership or trade, instead choosing to take what they want. The only times that an aarakocra will not take is if it is something that is not feasible to take, such as a humans help in a matter the aarakocra cannot complete themselves.

Aarakocra are known to be incredibly rare in orc civilization, and they live in the same place as many aarakocra, the Vachinae Mountains. Vatainians spot them so rarely, and only ever alone, to the point where aarakocra are regarded as a fisherman's tale of sorts. Sure, Bob definitely saw a winged bird person fly down and steal all his gold out of his hands, how convenient that he was alone at the time in a forest with no one around. He definitely didn't gamble it away on horse racing again.

Elves are oftentimes the only people aarakocra will speak to in numbers.

## Culture

As a result of the aarakocra solitude, there isn't really any unified culture, or culture at all depending on who you ask. While an individual aarakocra may take interest in history and read the books it pilfers, it is just that aarakocra's hobby. They are intelligent creatures, if ignorant most of the time, gaining knowledge of any important going ons from the elves.