Stormcrows

Descendants of the long-ago Eagle Reaper and his human beloved, the stormcrows are an intensely magical race with an affinity for lightning magic and the ability to take on the shape of great birds.
Stormcrows are found almost exclusively within their racial home of Ishemin Shard, where they live in distinct settlements divided along the lines of sexual dimorphism. They enjoy the wildness and relative isolation of their home, but enjoy the company of the other races so long as their lands and way of life aren't threatened; on the rare occasion when this does happen, would-be invaders have found the stormcrows to be a formidable force capable of bring devastating storms sweeping the land in their wake.

Typical Physical Characteristics

Stormcrows are typically of human stature, though they're stocky and range from average to below average in height. In human form they have brown skin and dark hair, with well-defined bone structure. Women have a more diminutive build, while men tend to be solidly muscled in the chest and shoulders due to the demands of their nonhuman form. Eye colors tend to be gray or brown, with brown eyes ranging from near-black to amber or hazel.
Stormcrows are dramatically sexually dimorphic, with females born physically indistinguishable from humans and males born in a semi-human form that magically shifts to the form of a great black bird once weaned. Once fully grown, male stormcrows stand about five feet high at the shoulder and have a wingspan of twenty feet or more; though the widely used translation of their name is 'stormcrow', their form is more similar to an eagle and their proper name of makadewaabinesi represents this. They use weather magic to help them fly, allowing them to be powerful and solid-boned. Until formally being 'stripped' of their feathers upon forming a marriage bond, male stormcrows can't take on a truly human form; they have a partially feathered humanoid form that they occasionally wear during times like summer courtship, but have little use for it in their daily lives and are capable of speech even in their eagle form.
Stormcrows have a strong lifeforce that lends itself to natural magic, but most choose to stick to the weather magic that their race has a powerful innate affinity for. Mages with a wider specialization are rare and usually female.

Life Cycle

Stormcrows are a short-lived race, who live a similar length of time to humans despite being slightly more vigorous. Average age ranges are 70-100 years of age, with individuals over 70 being considered elderly; those who reach this age tend to set aside their feather cloaks and live in human form due to the less strenuous and more settled lifestyle this promises.
Stormcrows settle into their respective dimorphic forms by early infancy, growing up with the males living in the aeries and the females growing up in the villages with married couples. By the age of sixteen they're considered young adults and start attending summer matchmaking gatherings, and at eighteen young women leave their home village for a 'Sky Year' spent in the aeries learning about the nonhuman half of their culture. Adults will continue to attend the summer gatherings until marriage, which isn't permitted before the age of twenty-five, with childrearing happening over the next decade or so.

Reputation

To those who come in contact with them, the stormcrows are known as a fierce, friendly, and hardworking race tolerant of outsiders but protective of their people and lands. They have a strong love of arts and storytelling, and enjoy learning more about the world beyond their shard; regarded as excellent hosts who welcome visitors, even the generally reclusive shapeshifters enjoy a strong relationship with the stormcrows.
Though they enjoy learning about the rest of Genesis, most stormcrows keep to Ishemin Shard and have little interest in settling elsewhere. The fact that their culture's needs are so balanced along gender lines means that it's hard for a stormcrow family to consider life elsewhere. They enjoy mingling with the other races, but understand that it's hard for a non-stormcrow to truly understand the unique needs of their lifestyle.

Social Structure

The many villages of Ishemin Shard are tied closely together, and while each individual settlement is ruled by its own handful of elders they tend to easily act as a concerted whole when it comes to decisions that affect the entire population. Síwe is a common gathering place when there's important matters to be settled, where the collected tribal elders decide things as a council.
Within the households of married couples, men and women rule equally; marriage really is an equal partnership, symbolized by the shared feather cloak of their mate bond. While childless couples tend to divide tasks depending on their respective strengths, the birth of children typically sees the female settle into a more domestic role due to the fact that only female children remain with their parents. As a result, the mother is the one who can raise her daughter(s) to understand the female half of the Stormcrow lifestyle in a way that the father, raised and socialized in the aeries, cannot.
In the aeries, whose populations are overwhelmingly male, most individuals live fairly wild and treat the aerie primarily as a place to return to for sleep each night rather than a true settlement. There's far less social structure, though some men will deliberately settle down and provide a certain measure of community for the benefit of the small population of young women typically present as part of their Sky Year. These 'ambassador' males are expected to be polite, courteous, and have a thorough understanding of history and culture to help impart their traditions as part of the Sky Year education. They're also typically older, making them less inclined to ill-considered relationships that might make the women's stay awkward.

Societal Norms and Values

For more specific racial customs, see Stormcrow Customs.
TRADITION AND CEREMONY
Tradition is very important among stormcrows, and the guiding force that helps bring the two halves of their population together as a unified whole. Following the ancient ways is considered of great importance in keeping their history alive, and deviating from them is one of the few things that's truly frowned upon within a race that's generally considered relatively easygoing. There's also a great focus on remembering the myths of their origin, and a great reverence for their lineage as the descendants of Waasigan and Miiganikwe.
LOVE, SEX, AND MARRIAGE
Marriage among stormcrows is more than just formalizing a relationship; it's bonding two halves of their nature into a single whole, and an incredibly meaningful commitment due to the sharing of a couple's feather cloak. While young stormcrows are allowed some sexual experimentation before committing, the physical division between genders during the vast majority of the year means that there's relatively little opportunity for intimacy outside of the summer courtships and the Sky Year young female stormcrows undergo. It's not unheard of for unmarried stormcrows to have brief relationships with members of the other races, particularly shapeshifters, but interracial marriage is rare; similarly, sexual experimentation between members of the same sex is relatively common but doesn't tend to result in lasting relationships due to the cultural focus on heterosexual unions.
Marrying is very carefully considered and is for life. The ceremony itself involves complex ritual practices, wherein husband and wife promise lifelong commitment and strict monogamy. The male of the pair is symbolically stripped of his feathers in a magical ritual and gains a true 'human' form from which he can no longer shift unassisted, and his wife will shape his plumage into an ornate cloak of feathers which either member of the pair can then use to take on eagle form. Dissolutions of a marriage are almost nonexistent and heavily frowned upon, and always result in the pair's cloak of feathers being returned to the male.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Most crimes among stormcrows are relatively minor, and treated with public shame or confinement; an intensely freedom-loving race, most consider this a reasonable punishment for small things such as theft or public misbehavior. For serious crimes such as extreme violence, sexual assault, or murder, the typical penalty is exile. While stormcrows are self-sufficient enough that they can survive in the wild or make a home for themselves among the other races of a different shard, being driven out of the only society that they will ever truly fit into is seen as a fate considered worse than death.
Theft or destruction of a feather cloak is considered the highest crime of stormcrow society, due to the fact that it strips another of their essential nature. The only punishment for this crime is a 'sky drop', where the offender is subdued, bound to a stone in such a way that they're unable to change form, and dropped from a great height. Sky dropping is also the punishment for previously exiled criminals who've been discovered to have gone on to terrorize other communities.
DEATH
Stormcrows have no great fear of death, and believe that a part of their loved ones' spirits live on in the birds of the forest around them. As a result they don't eat fowl, and putting out food for the wild birds is also considered a form of ancestor remembrance.
In keeping with their beliefs, stormcrows frequently practice platform burial; their dead are laid to rest on elevated scaffolding where they can provide food for scavenger birds, letting the spirits of the departed strengthen themselves by reclaiming some of the substance of their former bodies. It's relatively common to visit the 'grave' site during the time during which the body is scavenged to take note of what sorts of birds visit the corpse. After the body is stripped clean, the bones are gathered and laid to rest in the ground with relatively little ceremony, as they're thought to have little remaining significance once divested from the spirit.

Relevant Articles

INDIVIDUALS

LOCATIONS
Ishemin Shard 

OTHER
Rogue Stormcrows