Bird-Men

The **bird-men** of Cyrodiil were a mysterious race of Beastfolk theorised to have existed in central Tamriel long before the coming of the Aldmer in the Merethic Era. The bird-men have not been seen by mortal eyes for thousands of years, and are believed to be extinct.

## Culture

The bird-men may have lived in clans. They did not use metal, weave cloth, or build cities. The bird-men lived off the land, using stone and obsidian implements, dwelling in caves, crannogs, and hidden tree villages. Males and females both hunted side by side as wood dancers, using obsidian weapons, Gildergreen bows, and flying snares made with grasses. The bird-men had no books, no ink, no parchment, and no written language. They were a people with a deep connection to the land. The bird-men used their Gildergreen hunting bows and obsidian weapons in battle, but also used magic.

Legends say the bird-men of Cyrodiil were gifted with supernatural powers. These included having power over the beasts of the wood, the skill to create music so beautiful as to bring tears to the eyes of any who heard it, and the ability to speak to the dead. The bird-men believed that the Gildergreen trees were gods, and when they died they became a part of them. Priest X believed that the bird-men could communicate from afar through the minds of ravens.

## History

### Dawn Era

It is unknown where the bird-men came from, nor for how long they were in their land before the Nedes and Aldmer arrived. For thousands of years during the Dawn Era the bird-men and the giants shared the landmass that later became known as Tamriel. The two races are believed to have sometimes fought, since Sapiarch X found a giant's barrow near X with obsidian arrowheads in the ribs. The bird-men lived throughout central Tamriel, though not Hammerfell, which they called the "Empty Land".

### Nedes

Eventually between X thousand and X thousand years ago, the bird-men came in contact with the Nedes, the first outsiders.

The bird-men initially welcomed the newcomers, but they disliked the Nedes' harvesting of trees from forests. Fearing that the bird-men were spying on them using animals and trees, the Nedes began burning native settlements, leading to a war between the two races.

For hundreds of years the two races fought a desperate war for dominance. Eventually the Nedes and the bird-men fought to a standstill. The two races agreed to peaceful coexistence and agreed to a pact, ending the conflict. The Nedes taught the worship of the old gods to the bird-men.

### Aldmer

The bird-men again warred when the Aldmer began migrating from the Summerset Archipelago across the Blue Divide to mainland Tamriel. Zealous in the Church of Alaxon and armed with steel, the Aldmer resumed the cutting down and burning of native settlements and monuments.

Because of the Aldmeri invasion and conquest of the Nedes, the old gods were largely supplanted across the entire continent by the Church of Alaxon and in Cyrodiil by its child-religion, Alvarlism. It is believed that the invading Aldmer, particularly those that would later come to be known as the Ayleids, exterminated the bird-men from Tamriel, later establishing their own kingdom.