Notzokideu

Disclaimer: The Notzokideu is a fictional animal from Keenan Taylor's Tales of Kaimere.

Videos on the topic:

* Pterosaurs of Kaimere Episode 3: The Tapejarids
* Convergent Minds: Nonhuman Beings of Sophont Intelligence in Kaimere

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Earth Ancestor: Tapejaridae sp.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Pterosauria

Family: Tapejaridae

Genus: Unknown

Species: Unknown

### Description

The Notzokideu is a flightless pterosaur native to the highlands of Pakardia, they are covered in a dense coat of iridescent feathers and beaks. They are tool-using omnivores foraging nuts and figs and hunting small game. They are monomorphic, with males and females being indistinguishable.

### Habitat

Highlands of Pakardia, Possibly regions of Kaishel

### Phylogeny

The Notzokideu is a tapejarid pterosaur from a clade unique to Kaimere known as the Nut Snappers, within this group the Notzokideu comes from a flightless branch originally from Kaishel. Around 40mya Pakardia broke off of Kaishel, bringing ancestors of the Notzokideu with it, eventually bringing them to where they are now, eventually leading to the Notzokideu itself

### Ontogeny

Like other pterosaurs, Notzokideu hatch from eggs, as juveniles they exhibit a slightly more drab coat of feathers, as well as unformed crests on the beak, it is unknown how long it takes for a Notzokideu to get to sexual maturity.

### Culture

Despite having a fairly limited range Notzokideu have a fairly diverse set of cultures. They live in small decentralized groups. Leaders of these groups, usually their eldest matron, will often gather with the highland Pakardiant to trade and share stories.

As a cultural standard, artistic expression is considered by them to be the greatest of gifts, and include such mediums as paint, sculpture, and music.

While Notzokideu can develop and often do develop tools, their strong claws and crushing beak have averted them to a robust tool culture. As Notzokideu descend from volant ancestors, their most powerful arm stroke comes from the side, this is reflected in many of their ranged tools, particularly spears, which they prefer.

### Language

Like humans, Notzokideu language is primarily vocal, and they can speak fluently in human languages, and almost perfectly mimic the voices of individuals. Some of the Notzokideu's language is also visual, including iridescent feathers and exposed skin, to us there is only a slight sheen to their plumage, but Notzokideu describe many more shades which our eyes are unable to detect, used as visual cues to their mood based on feather flexation, angling of the face, and flushing of blood to the face to flash certain colors.

### Human Relations

The Notzokideu were long assumed to be a homunculus or demon of some sort. Since the discovery of the Kaishelan flightless tapejarids, it is now accepted that these entities are entirely natural.

The Pakardiant, like the Tlaton, understand the crow-folk to be entirely sophont, even having ancient treaties to leave the highlands under the general purview of the Notzokideu. These treaties have prevented any detailed exploration of the highlands by mainland or Assembly naturalists.

According to Pakardiant folklore, the Notzokideu and Pakardiant were once enemies, but united to purge the demons from the forest, only for the First Children to arrive and cause further harm. The Crow-men and Pakardiant again drove the enemies from their island, and ever since, the people are wardens of the lowlands while the Notzokideu protect the spirits and forests of the highlands. Some think the original demons of these stories are the dreaded Silent Ones of Kaishel, as there were no homunculi in the years before the First Children arrived, but others think these could be natural demons, confused timelines, or pure fabrication. Real or not, the Pakardiant have a longstanding respect for their treaties with the crow-men who preside over the vast and mysterious highlands.

As humans cannot see the full spectrum of colors the Notzokideu can, we often cannot fully understand the nuance of their language, just as they can often struggle to pick up on our visual nuances and more flexible facial features, luckily, Notzokideu and humans can speak to one another to clear up any of these nuances and have dynamic conversation.

Notzokideu find most human art to be muted due to their higher spectrum of color vision.

With the introduction of humans to Kaimere around 1mya, Notzokideu have adopted and innovated an increasingly complex tool culture in response or in collaboration with humans.

### Redesigns

The Notzokideu has had a total of 3 redesigns, originally being depicted as a toothed flightless ornithocheirid similar in niche to a chimpanzee. This design was later scrapped for a new design of a small, black, short necked azhdarchid, also flightless. This design was also scrapped in favor of a more ape like design, with poofier plumage especially around the face, a yellow mark on the face, evident remnants of wing membranes, and overall more muscular build. Yet again the Notzokideu got a complete revamp, now classified as a derived tapejarid, it's design reflects as such to other modern kaimeran tapejarid designs, it was also given iridescent plumage, now walked on its' palms, and now has large crest protruding from it's beak, and the vestigial membranes were removed.

First published design of the Notzokideu- Keenan Taylor2nd design of the Notzokideu- Keenan Taylor