Qwozi

White

Qwozi were a humanoid species of Rryeqyúqî, the dominant "aerial" surface predator in the world, known to be able to cross dimensions.

## Appearance and biology

Qwozi were bipedal avian humanoids, a little less than two meters tall (with extended legs) on average. They had two clawed legs adapt for walking and catching prey and a pair of wings with a single finger-claw. Their bodies were covered in gray and brown feathers, their stomachs and underside of wings being lighter than their backs, while their heads were largely bare except for a fringe of feathers covering the back of their head. Their head feathers were greyish brown when young, but took shades of more vivid brown and sometimes even orange with age.

Qwozi had two sexes, male and female, that did not differ much in appearance.

They were genetically compatible with humans and other avian species, producing angel-like beings after a couple generations of human-qwozi hybrids.

## Flight

Their wings were stiff and cambered, with thickened streamlined leading edges, fully adapt for long-distance soaring. Qwozi traveled huge distances while foraging, ranging over huge areas of ocean and regularly circling the globe, repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. The only effort expended was in the turns at the top and bottom of every such loop. This maneuver allowed them to cover almost 1000 km/day without flapping their wings. They were aided in soaring by a shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locked the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept outstretched without tensing muscles.

Qwozi were so well adapted to this lifestyle that their heart rates while flying were close to their basal heart rate when resting. The most energetically demanding aspect of a foraging trip was not the distance covered, but the landings, take-offs and hunting they undertook having found a food source.

## Diet

The qwozi diet consisted predominantly of raw, steamed or boiled cephalopods, fish and crustaceans, occasionally seasoned with sea salt and/or algae and aquatic plants which they would trade from subsurface humanoids. They were predominantly surface feeders, snapping up squid and fish pushed to the surface by currents, predators, or death, although some tribes also used bone weapons to hunt down larger creatures and nets fashioned out of creatures' intestines.

### Šê

Šê Qwozi tribes also included the flesh of other qwozi and subsurface humanoids in their diets.

## Society and culture

Qwozi were known to use bones and skins of sea creatures and their own shed feathers to build impressive floating structures, some settlements reaching couple kilometres in diameter. They used fire created by lightning strikes to prepare and smoke food.

Most tribes of qwozi wore masks with their distinctive symbols and some wore tunics woven by subsurface humanoids to show their allegiance to a specific aquatic tribe.

### Šê Tribes

Intense, focused, and highly disciplined warriors, Šê largely killed without hesitation, particularly if honor or hunger demanded it, and were known to fear nothing, aside from losing their own freedom, a fear brought upon by their own tendency to enslave others. Honor was everything to most Šê tribes; if a Šê 's honor was stripped away, whether forcefully or unknowingly, the person had to take their own life, in most tribes by throwing themselves into the ocean. If they failed to do so, then it was the duty of others to fulfill that honor. Most clans defined honor as devotion to one's tribe. Beyond it, devotion to one's partner was also valued by some groups.

## Meta trivia

* Qwozi are based largely on albatrosses
* Their design is largely based on Echo, a character belonging to Daniel's "gang" in the original sinverse.