The Windwhistler Clan

The Windwhistlers are the primary culture of aaracokra. Appearing as eaglefolk, they harbour an intense dislike of outsiders, preferring to cloister themselves to their mountain peaks, where they end up fighting goliaths and bugbears out of sheer territoriality. Windwhistlers are the most naturally curious out of all aaracokra, and those that leave their tribe's mountain peak find homes in ruins or in small villages. They are intensely religious, believing in their god Caribunt (minor god of hunting, wind, and tracking) gave only them the right to appear as their sacred bird, the eagle (in fact, most tribes form alliances with giant eagles, and keep lesser eagles everywhere around their homes). Because of this, they view the other tribes 'fallen' and view the Chained People as flat-out abominations. They have an ancient hate for all yuan-ti, maybe even more than the Chained People. The Thalkuzu Dynasty of the yuan-ti is the biggest foe of the Windwhistlers because of [url=]. If a Windwhistler sees a yuan-ti, battle will ensue.

Naming Traditions

Unisex names

All aaracokra have gender-neutral names. The concept of gender is unknown to Windwhistler aaracokra (and Chained aaracokra), and find other races strange for classifying themselves as near-identical people. Most of their names resemble bird sounds

Family names

Family names are stolen from many languages, predominantly Elvish. In fact, their use of elvish has coined the new dialect Aarawi'Tel'Quessirin (Aarawi for short). The birdfolks' elvish incorporates the whistles and caws of a bird, so even the most learned scholars generally can't speak it.

Other names

Windwhistlers leaving their homes sometimes adopt the names of the communities they encounter (although Elvish inevitably becomes Aarawi)

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Auran has no real dialects, and to the aaracokra Aarawi is not a dialect but a language. Priests will often speak Primordial.

Shared customary codes and values

Windwhistlers understand the value of work, and have no designated jobs. Every bird does different work every week, day, or even hour. Some of them volunteer to stay as a teacher in their craft to other aaracokra. A custom amongst them is to send alarms if foreign aaracokra are found to drive them out. If a Chained is spotted, hunting parties form immediately to kill it. Being the most aggressive and territorial aaracokra, Windwhistlers drive out and kill any other sentients living on their land.

Average technological level

Pre-gunpowder. Mostly crude tools.

Common Etiquette rules

Windwhistlers have no ideal of politeness. If they dislike something, they state it, and worry nothing about offending them. When talking with foreign races, they take great offense if the foreigner tries to: gender them. Adress them as you/them instead of 'person' or 'aaracokra'. Use their own ettiquete while speaking.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

When a chick is born, it is already developed enough to have functioning wings (it just won't know how to use them). The tribe's leader takes it to the highest peak they can reach, and yEeTs the chick off the edge. If it can fly and return to their tribe, they are taken in and given a trinket called a Cwriee. This trinket is used later on in life, but it becomes an item of attachment and (depending on the trinket) a symbol for various things.

Coming of Age Rites

An adolescent Windwhistler must fly down their tallest peak in a race. Once reaching the ground, they must run (and use their wings, but not fly) to the Crumbling Mountain, a titanic volcano containing strange creatures of all kinds. They must throw their Cwriee into the chasm and race back to the mountain without injury. Those that are last to drop their trinket either make a stand against their enemies (those that survive become a special caste of warriors) or be considered a child for another five years.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Corpses are thrown of the highest peak and left for the wolves and crag cats.

Common Taboos

The biggest offense in Windwhistler culture is to aid a Chained. Leaving the home mountain, adopting a gender, or stealing kills from a hunt are offenses, but aiding a pigeonfolk is so heinous that the offener becomes an animal, a bounty to be hunted and killed.

Common Myths and Legends

The legend of Kruarrerrkr is their most prominent myth, wherein a legendary warrior defeats the Pigeon Lord Ik. The creator of the 'demons' known as Chained People (Ik) attacks the home of warrior Kruarrerrkr, so they go on a quest gaining allies from all the races, even monstrous, and eventually kill Ik. Then, their allies kill them, because they're all foreign scum without eagle feathers.

Historical figures

Qeheh, a priest that single-handedly stopped Demogorgon from rising in the Crumbling Mountain and sent his demonic forces back into the abyss. Zuqeh Davriiik, a warrior who descended into the same volcano and slew a whole tribe of firenewts. Nitit Walcroos, a diplomat who gave the Windwhistlers their precious mountains.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Windwhistlers value preening more than any other aaracokra, and always take care to have immaculate feathers. In their homelands, they wear no clothes, but knowing about the 'earthfolk''s shock at this, they wear mostly simple garments. Windwhistlers have no innate sense of fashion, and the most extravagant may put a blue gem on their plain white tunic.

Gender Ideals

As stated before, Windwhistlers do not understand gender. They view the body one is born with as a tool; like a blacksmith with their tools, for example.

Courtship Ideals

Windwhistlers do not form relationships, per se, but have a designated mating week every year for the purpose of repopulating.

Relationship Ideals

Winwhistlers don't have relationships.