Avian

"All the dangers of a great winged beast with the cunning of a man to use them."

The Avian are a race of avian humanoids embodying a culture reminiscent of monastic traditions. Known for their unwavering adherence to sacred vows and principles, they lead minimalist lives guided by the teachings of the Order of the Feather, a philosophy emphasizing delicacy, rigidity, and usefulness. Despite their short lifespans of 30 to 40 years, Avians are renowned for their obsessive politeness and accommodating nature, fostering widespread respect and protection across Everwealth. Following The Great Schism, which destroyed their ancestral forests in Tarmahc, the surviving Avians integrated into various societies, offering humble yet impactful contributions such as kites, ink and quills, seed storage techniques, and brass instruments. Their honesty and gentleness have earned them a unique status, allowing their counsel good or ill to be highly valued even among the strict Elfese hierarchy that typically quells even rumored dissent.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

• Aelara.
• Sylphine.
• Marantha.

Masculine names

• Kaelen.
• Theron.
• Zephyros.

Unisex names

• Lioren.
• Valen.
• Eryndor.

Family names

• Windwhisper.
• Featherstone.
• Skycaller.

Other names

• Skyborn: A title given to Avians believed to be reincarnations of revered ancestors, signifying a deep spiritual connection.
• Featherkeeper: An honorific for those entrusted with preserving sacred texts and artifacts within the community.
• Zephyrkin: A term used for Avians who have achieved exceptional harmony with the winds, often applied to esteemed navigators and messengers

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Avians primarily speak Auran, a melodious language characterized by its fluid intonations and emphasis on harmony, but is incomprehensible to most, very similar to birdlike chirps and whistles. Their speech often incorporates metaphors related to wind and flight, reflecting their deep connection to the skies. While Auran is their native tongue, many Avians are also fluent in Everwealth Common, facilitating their interactions with other races.

Culture and cultural heritage

Rooted in the teachings of the Order of the Feather, Avian culture emphasizes balance, humility, and purpose. They lead ascetic lives, valuing simplicity and mindfulness in all endeavors. Their artistic expressions, such as intricate feather weavings and wind chimes, serve both aesthetic and spiritual purposes, embodying their reverence for nature and the elements.

Shared customary codes and values

Central to Avian society is the adherence to sacred vows, ranging from personal promises to communal mandates. Breaking a vow is considered a profound dishonor, leading to self-imposed exile or penance. Their principles encourage viewing life with the lightness of a feather, gentle yet resilient, adaptable yet steadfast.

Average technological level

While not technologically advanced, Avians have introduced simple yet impactful innovations. Their development of kites has influenced communication and recreation, and their refinement of ink and quill techniques has enhanced written communication across cultures. Seed storage methods pioneered by Avians have improved agricultural practices, and their crafting of brass instruments has enriched musical traditions.

Common Etiquette rules

Politeness is paramount in Avian interactions. They greet others with a slight bow, wings partially extended, symbolizing openness and respect. Interrupting someone is considered disrespectful; patience and active listening are virtues. Physical contact is minimal, reserved for close relationships or ceremonial occasions.

Common Dress code

Avians favor simple, flowing robes that allow for unimpeded flight. Earth tones dominate their attire, reflecting their connection to nature. During ceremonies, garments may be adorned with subtle embroidery depicting feathers or wind motifs, symbolizing their spiritual beliefs.

Art & Architecture

Avian architecture harmonizes with the environment, often featuring elevated structures accessible by flight, constructed from natural materials like wood and stone. Their art emphasizes minimalism and symbolism, with creations like feather tapestries and wind sculptures designed to interact with natural elements, producing soothing sounds or movements.

Foods & Cuisine

Avians maintain a simple diet, primarily consisting of fruits, nuts, and grains. They practice mindful eating, emphasizing gratitude for sustenance. Meals are communal, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose within their communities.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

• Featherbinding Ceremony: A rite of passage where young Avians receive a blessed feather, symbolizing their commitment to the community's values and their personal vows.
• Windcalling Festival: An annual event where Avians gather to honor the winds through synchronized flight patterns and chants, expressing gratitude for the skies they inhabit.
• Vow Renewal Gatherings: Periodic communal events where Avians reaffirm their sacred vows, strengthening their collective commitment to their principles.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

Newborn Avians are presented to the wind. Within days of hatching, the infant is brought to the highest point within reach—be it a mountain ledge, rooftop, or ceremonial perch, where the parents and nearest elder perform a whispering rite called the First Breath. This ritual involves murmured prayers into the child’s feathers and releasing a handful of down into the wind, believed to carry the child’s spirit across the world and back again, ensuring they are never truly alone.

Coming of Age Rites

At the age of thirteen, Avian youth undertake the Feather Vow, an ascetic trial involving a week of solitary pilgrimage. The young Avian must carry no tools, no food, and no help, returning only when they have found or earned a single item they believe best symbolizes their future. Upon return, the elders inscribe this object into the child’s Book of Vows, the first of many sacred oaths to define their life.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Death is seen as a final stillness in the winds of life. Avian bodies are not buried, but cremated upon mountaintop pyres, where their ashes are released into the sky on linen kites called Windborne. The kite’s design incorporates feathers of loved ones, as well as the deceased’s most sacred vow inscribed in delicate calligraphy along the spine. It is said that those whose ashes fly far and high were most true to their words in life.

Common Taboos

• Breaking a Vow: To break any vow, no matter how minor, is the greatest shame. Even a promise of silence or small gesture of intent is sacred.
• Loud Voices in Sacred Spaces: Avians speak softly, particularly within temples or during rituals. Raising one's voice is seen as a disruption of harmony and an affront to the gods.
• Greed or Hoarding: Excess is wasteful. Possessing more than one needs is seen as a failure of self-discipline.
• Flightless Arrogance: Though not all Avians can fly well, boasting of one's prowess without deeds to prove it is heavily frowned upon.
• Mocking the Wind: The wind is sacred; to spit into it, speak ill of it, or defy its direction during ceremonial days is considered deeply disrespectful.

Common Myths and Legends

• The Three-Winged One: A mythic Avian said to have been born with a third wing, allowing them to fly higher than even the gods. They vanished into the heavens, promising to return when Everwealth needs them most.
• The Wind Below the Sea: Some say the winds can be found even in the darkest depths. Stories tell of Avians lost to drowning being guided home by underwater breezes, returning as whispering ghosts on stormy nights.
• Feather-Thief of the Peaks: A mischievous spirit said to steal feathers from the sleeping, using them to write new prophecies in temple scrolls. Many believe it is a blessing to lose a feather in sleep.
• The Eternal Quill: A legendary pen said to be made from the first feather ever shed by a mortal Avian, capable of writing truths that even gods must obey. It is said to be hidden in the highest temple, guarded by vows so strong they echo in silence.

Historical figures

• Brother Myriel the Softspoken - Perhaps the most revered Avian in recorded history, Brother Myriel was the final High Featherscribe of the Aviary Monastery before the flames of the Schism consumed it. Known for his silence rather than his sermons, he authored the Feathered Tenets, foundational treatises of the Order of the Feather, without speaking a single word aloud during their composition. It is said his quill never scratched, only whispered. Though presumed dead when the monastery fell, legends claim he guided a caravan of orphaned Avian youths through the fireblind forest and vanished into the high winds. His teachings survive in copied fragments, used as a moral compass across Everwealth.
• Sister Vellari of the Fourth Wing - A trailblazer among Avian diplomats, Sister Vellari served as the first non-Human advisor to the Everwealthy High Tribunal. She navigated a thousand volatile negotiations during the Reconstruction Years, including the delicate truce between the Smallfolk grape-growers of Catcher's Rest and the migrating tradeships. Refusing any permanent position or gift, she departed once peace was achieved. Many treaties still carry her signature, inked, notably, with a quill of her own feather.
• Ash of Nestfall - One of the few known Avian to wield martial prowess, Ash was born during the siege of Nestfall and trained in silence among the Order’s most secluded sect. When the raiders came, a mix of mercenaries and looters emboldened by the post-Schism chaos, Ash flew from the broken spires wielding only a bronze bell and a ceremonial polearm. Though he perished in the defense, his actions reportedly saved nearly forty elders and infants. Avian lore claims his death rattle mimicked the warning cry of the cloud-crows, alerting distant watchers to the attack.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

The Avian view beauty not as a matter of symmetry or extravagance, but of balance, stillness, and grace. An Avian seen as beautiful is one who carries themselves with quiet dignity and precise movement, never rushed, never aimless. Their feathers, especially those at the forearms, cheeks, and chest, are maintained meticulously, not for flashiness but for cleanliness and order. Plumage is often kept neutral and unpainted, though during religious festivals, some apply faint pigments of ash or pollen to symbolize renewal. A still gaze, serene posture, and calm vocal timbre are prized far more than ornamentation.

Gender Ideals

Avian society does not strictly delineate gender roles, instead assigning duties based on vocation, vow, and voice. While some Avian communities refer to traditional familial pairings as “root-nests,” these roles are spiritual rather than biological. Males and females alike may become monks, diplomats, scouts, or artisans, what matters is their discipline and utility, not their birth. The only cultural expectation is that all genders must honor the weight of their word; a promise made is sacred, regardless of who speaks it.

Courtship Ideals

Courtship among Avians is a sacred, gradual ritual known as the Wing-Vow, during which two potential mates exchange feathers that have been naturally shed, never plucked, over the course of a season. The exchange is not symbolic of ownership, but of trust and shared future flight, the idea that both have drifted toward one another by fate rather than force. During this time, both engage in mutual acts of quiet service, tending gardens, copying scripture, or crafting tools for the other, until one eventually presents a folded seed-pouch stitched with their own feathers. If accepted, the bond is formalized during a silent dusk walk through a sacred grove, often ending in an aerial dance beneath wind-chimes made of brass and bone.

Relationship Ideals

Avian partnerships are rooted in consistency, purpose, and emotional steadiness. Displays of passionate affection are rare and often seen as overwhelming. Instead, loyalty is shown through daily acts of usefulness, repairing a mate’s robe before it’s asked, preparing warm water on cold mornings, flying ahead to scout the safer path. Arguments are discouraged, and disagreements are handled in written form or through ritualized debate known as the Whispering Circle, where both speak once, and then must remain silent until morning. The most sacred relationships are not the loudest, but the ones where no word must be spoken to understand the other.

Interesting Facts & Folklore:

• The Order of the Feather: The Avian spiritual doctrine that blends meditation, vows, and utilitarian grace. It is both religion and societal framework, governing behavior, speech, purpose, and the importance of restraint.
• Voice Vows: Many Avians take lifetime vows of silence, choosing instead to communicate with glances, gestures, and written word. Breaking such a vow is not shameful, but it is always meaningful.
• The Feather-Year: Avian elders track age not by years but by molt-cycles. A well-maintained preening regimen is both spiritual and practical, and an Avian who has "kept all their feathers for a feather-year" is said to have lived without anger or turmoil.
• Honored by All, Harmed by None: Among the many races of Everwealth, the Avians are one of the few that even the Elfese nobility will not openly scorn. Their commitment to honesty, peace, and humility has made them symbolically untouchable in a world rife with cruelty.
• The Weightless Tithe: It is customary for Avians to offer something small and deeply personal to strangers upon departure, known as a feather-gift. These are often hand-carved wind chimes, snippets of poetry, or pressed feathers, items that carry no value, but immense meaning.

Idioms and Metaphors:

• “As soft as silence.” Used to describe someone exceptionally gentle, or a deed done without harm or disruption.
• “The wind forgets no wing.” A warning that even quiet failures or betrayals linger in the unseen currents of reputation.
• “Speak only when the sky listens.” A proverb urging restraint in speech, reminding others not to waste words on the unworthy or unaware.
• “Feathers do not boast.” A way of praising someone’s humility, or chastising pride.
• “Fall with grace, if you must fall at all.” An acknowledgment that even in failure, one must retain dignity and composure.