Air Ethnicity

Air ethnicity transcends race and species. Most mortals and many beasts that live in areas saturated with the elemental energy of air develop at least some physical or spiritual airy traits. A mortal or beast with lots of inherent essence of the elemental energy of air can pass these traits to his or her offspring even if the child is born well away from any location exposed to the elemental energy of air.
The "essence of air" is more figurative than literal because anywhere that supports animal life needs to have some breathable air or oxygenated water. Just because an area has breathable air does not mean that an area has a significant amount of air in a metaphysical sense.

Where Can They Be Found

Air elemental energy is most prevalent and common near the poles of Scarterra in the extreme north and extreme south. It is also common in high elevation areas such as mountain ranges or any area frequently exposed to high winds.

What Scarterrans call "air essence", Scaraquans call "ice essence." Merfolk and other Scaraquans that hail from cold and/or especially turbulent waters develop traits similar to Scarterrans in "airy" areas. This is most prevailent along the near entirety of the Dark Sea as well as the deeper colder waters of the lower depths of the Sea of Taedi and the Long Sea.
Any magic font saturated with the elemental energy of air is likely to be very windy if in Scarterra and Scarnoctis or have high currents and lots of bubbles if in Scaraqua.

Basic Physical Traits

Human and demihumans with strong airy traits tend to have light skin resembling real world Caucasian humans, or less commonly, albino white or semi-translucent. Hair tends to be curly and fluffy cloudlike, often cloudlike white, sunny blond, moon-like silver. A slim majority of airy people have Blue eyes with a wide variety of shades of blue ranging from almost blue black to light sky blue. More than a few have stormy grey eyes, golden "sun" eyes, or silvery "moon" eyes. Least common but still known are purple "twilight eyes."

Airy people commonly have somewhat larger nostrils than other elemental ethnicities. Airy people tend be to be tall and long of limb but somewhat skinny, aka "long and lanky." As they age, airy people tend to get paler their whole lives from birth to death. Older airy people are said to "fade away." In their twilight years airy people tend to get smaller. Airy people frequently experience significant hair loss as they age. On the plus side, airy people rarely get especially wrinkly and fat as they get older.

Psychology And Stereotypes

Mortals have free will and their personalities are shaped by life experiences as much as their birth traits, but there nevertheless tendencies and stereotypes associated with airy people. Airy people are considered creative but also a bit flighty. Airy people commonly are musically inclined and are often excellent storytellers and singers. Some air people vacillate between reckless courage and great timidity. Air people are often unfocused or focused on too many things at once, with their heads in the clouds (metaphorically of course). At best, this can lead to true jack of all trades who are able to marshal their split focus into several endeavors, at worst you get spastic individuals who cannot focus on much of anything.
Personality is as much nature as nurture. “Airy” Scarterran environments and “icy” Scaraquan environments are rarely forgiving, so individuals who cannot keep their more negative airy traits metaphorically grounded usually die young. Airy people are often said to be touched by Nami, Zarthus, and Maylar. Mortals born under their Zodiac signs are likely to manifest slightly more physical and mental attributes of airy people than their parent cultures.

Mixed Race Airy People

A majority of the time, "mixed element" mortals meet in the middle. Airy traits tend to wash away the colors of other elemental traits, so you have the base coloration of the other elemental ethnicities at a much less vibrant hue. For instance the whitish skin of an airy person would mix with the blueish skin of a watery person to make light blue skin.
Sometimes a mixed element mortal mixed and matched. An air/water hybrid might have a distinctive airy body type and skin tone but very distinctive watery hair and eyes.
Airy people tendency to be long and lanky which is also muted when combined with the relative roundness of water bodies, the compactness of fire bodies, or the stoutness of earthy bodies. Unlucky air hybrid people often get a clumsy or unaesthetically pleasing mix of such as relatively long arms paired with relatively short legs. Some individuals get an unusual mix of traits that is considered generally favorable. An earth/air hybrid person might be able to combine the long limbs and great height of typical air person and the strong muscle tone of an earthy person and be proverbial giant among men.
Among Scaraquans, everyone is watery by default. That pretty much goes without saying. That said, a majority of Scaraquans have noticeable secondary or co-dominant watery traits, so they take it for granted. Thus an "icy" Scaraquan is what a Scarterran would considered a water/air hybrid.
Mixed race airy people are believed to be great at channeling their creative energies into productive tasks. A disproportionately high number of great inventors, military strategists, explorers, and innovators are “mixed element” airy people.

Who Are They?

There are wide areas of Scarterra exposed to lots of the elemental air energy but these areas tend to be sparsely populated because food is relatively scarce. Therefore airy ethnicity is the least often seen elemental influence in Scarterra and Scaraqua alike.
In West Colassia, most airy people live in or near the The Great Colassian Tundra . The Jórtoca are a nomadic barbarian tribe of humans with dominant airy traits and secondary earthy traits that have a wide geographic range over and near the Tundra.
Some Jórtoca have assimilated with and into civilized society and there are fairly large minorities of mixed raced Jórtoca minorities in the northern portiosn of the lands of Kantoc, Fumaya, and Uskala. Many assimilated Jórtoca have co-dominant airy and earthy traits.
The Kionus satyrs share much of the same general geographic range as the the Jórtoca, but they have not assimilated with others or moved south in large numbers so there are relatively few satyr of mixed airy traits making Kionus satyrs practically the only "air satyrs" found in Scarterra.

Kionus Satyr Couple by Zeta Gardner

Elves rarely develop strong airy traits, but the re is one major exception, the taiga elves. These elves hail from the northern region of Codenya and even ranging beyond being by far the most nomadic and free ranging elves of the Third Age.

Silvan Elf - Stock 8 by Liancary-art

Gnomes rarely develop strong airy traits, but the reindeer riding Zegdelian gnomes are an obvious exception. These lanky gnomes are easily the tallest gnomes in Scarterra with a few impressive individuals even exceeding four feet in height.

by Eron12 with Heroforge

There are similar but smaller and less prevalent airy barbarian tribes in the southern portions of Umera and Penarchia, but as of yet, Umera and Penarchia aren't nearly as well developed as the northern hemisphere lands of Scarterra, lore wise.
Most orcs live in the northern region of West Colassia and to a lesser extent the northern region of East Colassia. In the mountains, orcs usually have completely dominant airy traits but more often they have secondary earthy traits such as those inhabiting the same general stomping grounds of the Jórtoca humans who they frequently fight, compete, or trade with.

Enapay the Laguza by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Any group or enclave that lives primarily off of fishing in cold areas tend to have co-dominant airy and watery traits. An example would be the Laguza humans. Such people tend to have a very light blue or blue green cast to their skin, very untamable hair mixing wavy and curly that is light blue, light green, or grayish.

It is very rare to find any mortal with heavy fiery and heavy airy traits. When it does occurs, it is usually the result of an unlikely mating of a fiery and airy person, but it could occur at a rarified site such as a volcano in a cold region or an airy magic font in a hot region. These individuals are too rare to stereotype.

Airy Beasts

by me with Midjourney

Beasts with heavy air traits tend to be flighty and skittish and very fast. Beasts with heavy air traits are usually pretty tolerant of cold. They also tend to be especially sure footed in high mountains and better able to cope with ice and snow.
Whites or lighter shades of brown or grey are the norm for the fur and feathers of most airy animals.
Among domesticated animals, airy traits are usually considered undesirable because few mortals want their pets and livestock to be especially prone to running and being especially fast. For food animals, lanky airy builds often means less meat on their bones making airy livestock further undesirable though some claim airy animals taste better.
Airy horses. Fast horses are often desirable but airy horses are often crossbred with earthy horses to make them bigger and stronger and less likely to spook.
Airy sheep are sometimes considered to have superior wool, being warmer than other wools.
Anyone living in a cold climate is likely going to have to make due with airy livestock whether they find it desirable or not just so their livestock doesn't freeze to death.

Parent ethnicities

• elemental ethnicity in mortals

Related Locations

• Scarterra