Ashgrey
Even among the many strange travelers that can be found rafting alone through the mists, or hopping onto carts and ferries sludging from one lonely location to another across Greymantle Marsh, a lone, grounded harpy is enough to give anyone pause. Moonwake harpies themselves are rare, but those who travel closer to the mud than the sky and interact willingly with other species is a downright bizarre phenomenon. One of these anomalies is known as Ashgrey.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Healthy and fit, but naturally rather fine-boned. As such, he is athletic but can be a little delicate.
Identifying Characteristics
Almost always, harpy names are synonymous with whatever features would make them identifiable in a crowd. In Ashgrey's case, his name comes from the pale mottling on his feathers. His overal appearance is a little washed-out when compared to other Bower Bog Harpies, lacking the warm, brownish hues that many have in their skin and feathers, and the fact that it looks like ashes have been dusted along his back and tips of his wings make this worse. If he hadn't been born as a Moonwake harpy, he might have been teased more by his peers growing up because of it.
Apparel & Accessories
Like most harpies, Ashgrey wears very little. Usually, an intentionally-drab cloak to travel and hide in, with more articles only if facing inclement weather. Because of his birthflock, he enjoys looking nice despite the need to hide, so usually wears jewelry and a small amount of face paint.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
As with all Moonwake births, Ashgrey's entrance into the world was surrounded with celebration, and yet he still grew up with a lingering feeling of inadequacy. Despite the support and encouragment of his birthflock, Ashgrey couldn't quite shake the notion of always being one step behind his peers. Throughout his childhood, he was told how special he was, and pampered as he was prepared for the duties that awaited him in adulthood. However, looking around himself, he couldn't help but notice that his flockmates always seemed to be more clever, more beautiful, and stronger than he was.
Adulthood would arrive with or without his insecurities, so he did his best to swallow his anxiety and strove to avoid becoming a disappointment, and stepped into his Moonwake role bravely when the time came. He hasn't seen his birthflock since his coming-of-age ceremony, after which he began his nomadic life, and now focuses on growing up fast so he can make his family proud as a fully-fledged Moonwake harpy.
Gender Identity
In harpy culture, the two recognized genders are clanbound and Moonwake, each allowing for a wide range of presentation. Ashgrey has some masculine features and traits, but also exhibits some that the dominant cultures could consider feminine. So, he is sometimes mistaken by non-harpies to be female--a fact which still confuses him.
Sexuality
Ashgrey his found himself emotionally attracted to only a few beings, most of which were other Moonwake harpies, and he has been somewhat romantic with a few of them. In his mind, this is something entirely different from the Moonwake duties that he performs with clanbound harpies.
Education
Ashgrey is considered very well-educated by the rest of harpy society. Not only does his birthclan pride itself in lavishing its young ones in knowledge, but Moonwake harpies are traditionally the focus of a given clan's teachings. He is nearly fluent in Common and Draconic (Lizardfolk dialect), and can read basic Common.
Mental Trauma
Shortly after first setting out on his Moonwake journey, Ashgrey found himself brought into a small flock of other Moonwake harpies. He had been warned about the dangers of traveling in a group large enough to be noticed by other creatures, but he still clung to the company of his new friends. He grew closer to these Moonwake harpies than he had to anyone back in his birthflock, developing very strong feelings for all of them. They successfully traveled together for several long seasons, until they were finally discovered and tracked by a monster of the wild swamp.
The nightmarish creature attacked while the small flock was disoriented and helpless from being caught in a storm without shelter. Ashgrey was badly wounded, but he managed to escape--alone--into the night, his trail hidden by the pouring rain.
This loss continues to weigh heavily on him. Potential friendships suffer as he automatically holds them in comparison to his lost beloveds, and when traveling with others, he finds that his anxiety increases according to the size of the group. Likewise, being caught out in the open during inclement weather makes him extremely unsettled.
Intellectual Characteristics
Due to his silence and what is sometimes assumed to be a lack of enthusiasm or engagement--as well as certain unfair beliefs about harpies--Ashgrey's intelligence is often underestimated. He may not outwardly express his thoughts very often, but he is curious about the world around him, and can be very clever when given enough time to think deeply.
Morality & Philosophy
Like most harpies, Ashgrey carries significant pride for his species and for his original familial flock. Despite his personal insecurities and feelings of inferiority, he still believes harpy philosophies to be correct and true when compared to alternatives, and holds his birthflock's particular ideals as sacred. The only aspects of harpy culture that he takes issue with is their overall stubbornness and resistance to compromise.
As a Moonwake harpy, he also far more peaceful and curious about outsiders than clanbound ones are, which would be considered a serious breach of morals to some flocked--but there is already a silent understanding that both Moonwake and clanbound harpies keep their opinions to themselves when interacting.
Another effect of living the Moonwake lifestyle is that Ashgrey not only keeps his opinions to himself for his own safety, but these opinions are much less vehement than those of most other harpies. In him, the black-and-white beliefs common to the dominant harpy culture are diluted to varying shades of gray. Aside from protecting those precious few that he considers to be his "flock" at any given point, there are no beliefs that Ashgrey would risk his life for.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Honoring his birthflock, (or at least avoiding their disdain,) is the motivation that is consistently at the forefront of his mind as he travels the world. Many expectations have been placed on him, and he genuinely does his best to live up to them. He has a harder time recognizing and following his personal motivations and desires, but has slowly worked on this as the distance between him and his birthflock grows.
Virtues & Personality perks
Whether he likes it or not, Ashgrey's strongest virtues are probably patience and humility--both of which he has had no choice but to cultivate over the course of his life. Having his life's path chosen for him at birth, enduring years of pressure from lofty expectations, and facing fears that most harpies never encounter have shaped these strengths. There is also a certain sense of nobility--however quiet--about him as he strives to conduct himself in ways that would honor his birthflock at all times.
Vices & Personality flaws
If asked, Ashgrey would say that his greatest flaws are a lack of strength and capability, and a lack of anything special as far as beautuy and creativity goes. This is, of course, based on the moral compass of his birthflock, and his personal biases against himself. If someone of one of the dominant cultures were asked the same question, they would likely say something about cowardice or selfishness. When pressed, the fact that Ashgrey avoids and flees dangerous situations at the first opportunity, and that his senses of generosity and benevolence have strict limits, are considered character flaws by many. However, this would be judging him by a moral axis that does not align with his own, and he sees no problem with himself in these areas. In fact, by harpy standards, he is considered soft-hearted and sentimental to a potentially detrimental degree.
Personality Quirks
Outsiders might consider some of Ashgrey's behaviors to be eccentricities, such as the fastidious way he cares for his feathers, or his penchant for staring too intensely when he makes eye-contact, but most of these are common to the vast majority of harpies, so can't truly be considered quirks. Some of the things that other harpies notice as peculiar are compulsively ruffling and smoothing his feathers, quietly overpreening in times of stress, compulsive mimicking when attempting to understand someone, and being a little hypersensitive with shifts in weather and concerned with group size.
Social
Mannerisms
Between how little he emotes and how quiet he tends to be, he can appear to others as being much more aloof than he really is. By the standards of some cultures, he also stares a little too directly and doesn't blink very often. As such, he has learned that he can accidentally unsettle some creatures if he isn't careful, and as this poses a distinct danger to him, he has cultivated a habit of keeping his posture small and unobtrusive in his cloak. Also, as he is much more used to roosting and huddling in nests than sitting up straight on furniture, he tends to draw up his legs and fold into small shapes wherever he is.
Speech
Ashgrey speaks very little, especially when not speaking his native language. He tends to watch and wait for a long time before speaking up, and often misses nonverbal cues for when he is being expected to say something. When he does speak, his voice is clear but a little quiet, and his grammar goes back and forth between being correct and somewhat strange or mixed up. This is due to him using both typical fluency skills and the harpy talent for mimicry. Tone-wise, his voice is soft, but generally masculine enough that it sometimes helps clear up any gender confusion that might be happening at the time.
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Age
Young adult
Birthplace
Children
Current Residence
Nomadic
Pronouns
He/they
Gender
Moonwake
Presentation
Androgynous
Eyes
Large, pale gold
Hair
Short, soft, mostly feathers
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
A little pale overall, feathers flecked and tipped with light gray
Height
5'3"