Jingwei (Race)

##### [Aaracokra Reskin]

**Jingwei** are birdlike bipedal beings that range in all different sizes, yet they all share the common trait: none of them used to be jingwei.

The race of jingwei holds their name in respect to the first of their kind. The original Jingwei was once a human girl that had drowned when playing in the sea. The very waters of the ocean itself took pity on her, and allowed her to reincarnate into a beautiful bird- a spirit of the waters and of those who have drowned. Since then, it is said that she went on in the world to try and ease the pain of those who had drowned much like she did, giving them second chances at mortal life. This is why she turns the spirits of the drowned into birds.

Like Jingwei, the jingwei are beings made from those who have died by drowning. Unlike undead entities that simply come back from the dead, jingwei are beings that spawn from fear and grief, rising from bodies of water like phoenixes in their new birdlike forms. They will fly over these waters for a time, calling out their own names, as if to look for their drowned selves. Upon the realisation that they had died and are now in new bodies, they may choose to accept it and continue living as a jingwei.

None of them have ever been fully capable of remembering their past life, but can retain memories of their past, like skills, languages and an understanding of basic concepts. It is especially difficult to track who jingwei may have been in their past life, since their bodies are usually lost in the waters.

The original Jingwei is said to collect their bodies and hide them when she turns the drowned into jingwei, forever making more like her to curb her loneliness. She tends to visit her jingwei at least once in their lifetimes to help them along in their new lives, but would never speak to them.

The jingwei are half-ghosts in nature due to this phenomenon, not living beings, yet not undead. They are incapable of conceiving children. All of this leaves many jingwei to ultimately flock to crowded settlements, in their desire to be part of a community or fictive family to cure the same loneliness they share with Jingwei.

Though there are enough jingwei in existence to recognize them as a race, their people are almost incapable of forming a normal society or community on their own, with drowning being their only shared heritage and origin.

There are many jingwei to be found, especially in towns that live by bodies of water.

## Appearance

Jingwei are all humanoid, feminine looking, birdlike people, made in the image of the original Jingwei: half of her human form, and half of her bird form, as she does not fully know of either form, not enough to recreate a full person or bird.

The race that the drowned used to be holds little sway on how they appear in their new form, though minor cosmetics like unusual feather coloring, a similar look in their eyes, or birthmarks transferring over are not unheard of. An observant loved one may be able to recognise a jingwei in this manner.

Jingwei often range from small to medium heights, and appear as different types of birds, though the most common type of feather pattern is a dark gold, almost black body with red outlines at the tips of their feathers. Many believe that if they were to see the spirit of the original Jingwei, this would be her true form.

## Age

The age of jingwei follows humans, since it too was the original race of the human girl Jingwei. The oldest recorded jingwei is roughly a century old.

Appearance-wise, many jingwei reincarnate at the same age and maturity that they drowned with.