Tercaelo
But above there dwelled feathered beings who wove great halls like gargantuan nests, wrote scrolls somehow wiser and more knowledgeable than those of all the peoples they’d never spoken to; oh, they’d seen the peoples of lower altitudes, but only ever watched them from a curious distance.The reclusive Tercaelo keep largely to their homes on the high peaks of the Rhyqirja Mountains in the far south of Sof Sator.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A species of flightless accipitoid sapioformes, the Tercaelo are carnivorous and well-adapted to frigid weather and high altitude. Two legs end in talon-like feet with long, gripping, clawed toes. Their wings (which they have in lieu of arms) are large, spreading from their shoulders and bearing three fingers at the wrist, but insufficient for true flight. Tercaelo are capable of gliding with their long bodies at a vertical inclination, but do so at no significant speed and can only occasionally gain altitude in the presence of strong updrafts. Simple, small tails provide minimal assistance, mostly with turning or maintaining stability against strong winds (in which case they can 'stall', or descend without forward momentum). Tail feathers are just over a half meter in length at their greatest extent.
They hunt by climbing high and gliding over their hunting grounds, dropping onto spotted prey or using their well-articulated feet to throw weapons in mid-flight. To help with flight, their bodies are relatively small (for sapioformes) and very light, yet they remain sturdy enough to drop from a great height and crush prey that might be larger than themselves. As an adaptation to their frigid habitat, their metabolism is fast and their blood exceedingly warm. As a result, they struggle to manage their body temperature in warmer climes and rarely leave their mountains.
Genetics and Reproduction
Tercaelo reproduction is a synthesis of mammalian and avian methods. Females produce eggs during a particular time of year, and these require fertilization by a male. Sexual fertilization occurs inside the female's body. The egg will be laid a few days afterward. Females have a reproductive window of one to two weeks, usually during spring, during which they will lay three or four eggs whether they have been fertilized or not. Eggs of the same clutch can (and very often do) have different fathers. The female mating drive heightens significantly during this period and decreases significantly outside of it. The male reproductive drive remains consistent at all times.
Growth Rate & Stages
The growth rate of the Tercaelo is typical for sapioformes of their size and type. Their infancy lasts 3-5 years. They gains the ability to glide short distances around age 7, after which soft tail feathers will begin to grow in as longer and firmer flight feathers. They enter adolescence around 13 years of age, at which time they form manes of feathers on their necks and shoulders and their wings become significantly better adapted to gliding. They consider themselves to be fully mature at age 20.
Ecology and Habitats
The Rhyqirja mountains in southern Saf Sator are a sharp rise to incredible coastal cliffs. There are no passes through these mountains, no accessible resources, and nothing on the other side. For most of the peoples of Saf Sator, there is no reason to go here, and except for the anthrals of Pharaul few possess any knowledge or curiosity about these mountains. Ruins of ancient precursors, called aquil by the Pharaul or vedrfol by the tercaelo, hint that a coherent civilization once stretched between the lowlands, foothills, and peaks, but no such civilization exists today. For this reason, the tercaelo existed largely undisturbed on their mountain peaks for a thousand years, rediscovered only in recent decades, though there are stories that they've had contact with the mythical stheno (nidhrog, in the language of the tercaelo) during that time.
With its highest peaks at an elevation of nine kilometers and most tercaleo living around five or six kilometers of elevation, the Rhyqirja mountains offered little plantlife for the Tercaelo to make use of, besides extensive low-growing lichen with very little nutritional value. The peaks are covered in snow year round, with permafrost not uncommon at greater heights. The center of tercaelo population is the Hodm Glacier, trapped in a valley between the tallest peak, Ydras, and its lesser sibling, Meidr. Here a lake is formed by glacial runoff, as deep as fifty meters in the summer, its run-off forming a fast-flowing river that runs swiftly down into the lowlands of Phelan. In winter, the runoff ceases, the river dries up, the lake decreases to a depth of fifteen meters and freezes over.
There is a small population of fish that survives the winter in this lake and reproduces in spring, and is considered a delicacy by the tercaelo. The fish is deep-dwelling and difficult to catch, made all the more difficult by the migratory retrsok. These amphibious mammals are carnivorous pack hunters with lethally venomous bites, who spend their spring in and around the lake and are dangerous to any tercaelo attempting to fish it during this time. Attempts by the tercaelo to dissuade the retrsok or control their population have been unsuccessful. For this reason, the tercaelo largely avoid the lake during its most plentiful season, getting their water from its runoff and from ice melt, and hunting the less lethal animals who gather along the river.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Tercaelo are hunting carnivores who prey primarily on large mountain mammals found on their high peaks. There are relatively few high rivers in their habitat, but they do consider fish a delicacy and, in more modern times, will trade for lower-altitude meat with a select few traders from Pharaul who keep secret these contacts. Tercaelo are picky eaters, prone to become ill at slight changes in diet, and will usually only trade for food that is similar to what they already eat.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Tercaelo have little use for a system of governance, though it is clear from structures, ruins, and anthropological research, that as recently as a thousand years ago they lived in a unified society with a group of anthrals (most likely progenitors of Phelan) who inhabited the base of their mountains, largely dominated by the now-extinct vedrfol. Some religious holdovers of that time remain in tercaelo folklore, and are present in their spoken and written language. However, modern tercaelo possess no head of state or governing bodies, no money or standards of trade, and no laws or enforcement outside of the will of the community. Tercaelo society can be said to have been structured around family, with children obeying parents and older adults respecting (but not necessarily obeying) their own progenitors.
The tercaelo live in relative peace with one another, made possible, perhaps, by an essential instinctive aversion to violence among themselves (whether this aversion extends to other sapioformes is uncertain). It would be wrong to say they are uncivilized; they produce art and music freely, share ink and paper with which to record and create (most Tercaelo possess the basic skills of scribes), and collaborate in construction of their aeries, religious observations, and even artistic performances.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Exclusive to the highest peaks of the Rhyqirja Mountains.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Tercaelo have the strong eyesight of gliding hunters. An underdeveloped sense of objective direction hints at a once-migratory nature, and this sense does manifest more notably in individuals on occasion.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Tercaelo names are gender-neutral, and often take the form of short, two-word descriptive phrases inspired by nature. They do not commonly translate these names, either in the rare event they deal with other species or when writing in Satorian. Tercaelo families do not have common names, but will often follow descriptive themes; if a parent's name described sky and a father's name described earth, their child's name may describe the horizon. Some examples include:
Havt Fasr, Folsk Skadr, Hosd Aesh, Njael Gav, Vali Neyr. These may mean things such as Mountains Gleaming, Lake Overflowing, Unyielding Blizzard, Unbroken Earth, Silent Lightning, or Untouched Depths.
Gender Ideals
The handling of genders in Tercaelo society would be difficult to understand for those outside of their culture. While their society is built around families and bonded pairs/triads that enforce a simple binary of male/female sex, there are sub-genders within these and gendered roles are treated more as guidelines to be adapted, subverted, or defied. Tercaelo language has two different sets of male-gendered pronouns, two female-gendered pronouns, and two gender-neutral pronouns, implying the codifying of at least six genders.
The identifiers of gender seemed to revolve around one's place in relationships relative to others, as opposed to outward behaviors or role in society. Anthropologically, the gendered pronouns are notably similar to tercaelo words for distance, which can be read as a deliberate metaphor. The spectrum of identity between male and female extremes can be interpreted as a spectrum between close/intimate and far/disengaged behaviors: female tercaelo are often more introverted and disengaged (but also wise, cautious, thoughtful, and prudent) whereas male tercaelo can be expected to be more extroverted and engaged (but also empathetic, impulsive and outwardly emotional). Whether these are simply metaphorical descriptors or stereotypes, or even perhaps accurate to their behavior, tercaelo do use the full range of their genders when identifying themselves and interacting with others, put very little emphasis on conformity, and expect some degree of gender-fluidity from one another. However, their society does perpetuate these assumptions; unbonded females are expected to dwell alone or in small groups while males were expected to dwell communally. Males face both positive bias, assumed to be good teachers or eager helpers, and negative bias, assumed to be imprudent and incautious. Females, likewise, are assumed to be reliably self-sufficient at best, and secretive or even conspiratorial at worst.
Relationship Ideals
Tercaelo do not practice "Marriage" in the way that most of Spof Sator's sapioformes would understand it. Tercaelo marriages involve anywhere from three to six individuals, usually three or more females marrying one or two males. These mating groups work together to construct an aerie for their family and raise their children together, with all involved adults acting as parents for all involved children. The closest thing Tercaelo practice to monogamous relationships would be between two men who engage in a non-exclusive but committed romantic or sexual relationship year-round (as opposed to females, who usually only mate during certain times of year). Similar relationships can form between females as well, whose particular needs for physical intimacy do not always resemble that of males. Bonded pairs of different genders are not impossible, but would be seen as less ideal than involving those same individuals in a larger group marriage. The ideal tercaelo marriage involves two bonded males and three or four females (perhaps two bonded pairs or a bonded triad).
There ware, however, all kinds of "non-traditional" family structures in tercaelo society, which often include bonded pairs or triads that extend beyond the married group and could stitch together two or more marriages into expansive, dynamic families with closely related aeries. Ritualized ceremonies existe to formalize these relationships. Different ceremonies existe to found a marriage, to add individuals to a marriage, to form a bonded pair or triad and to add individuals to the same, as well as to amicably dissolve these relationships. This is all in addition to non-formalized relationships that could form and dissolve without fanfare, but with no less passion.
Average Technological Level
The Tercaelo seem to have decreased their technological dependence (and knowledge) significantly from the previous era when they lived in a common society with the vedrfol, but it's possible that the tercaelo never utilized this technology in the first place. While the vedrfol lived in cities at much lower elevations where they practiced grand architecture, complicated metallurgy, and advanced magical techniques, there is no clear evidence that the tercaelo lived in these cities in great number. It is possible that the tercaelo always preferred simple lives in the higher peaks and, outside of medicine, agriculture, and trade, had little desire to interact with the more complicated society the vedrfol built on the lower mountains.
Whatever the case, in the past thousand years since the decline of the vedrfol, the tercaelo have been content to use only the most basic hunting technologies. They construct bows and slingshots, but prefer to use spears. They weave intricate nets and baskets and weave expansive "nest" baskets in their aeries, which have insulated layers both inside and outside to keep them (relatively) warm. Their most advanced technology is their paper-making and book-binding, using simple methods to create a variety of inks, paper, and binding methods, that all easily equal the quality of some of Sof Sator's most advanced scriptoriums.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
The average Tercaelo speaks and wrote in their own language, and has at least some ability to read and perhaps write in common Satorian, even though they may never have encountered a native speaker.
Common Dress Code
Despite the frigid temperatures of their home climate, the Tercaelo have very little need to wear insulating clothing for either comfort or survival. They seem to see such clothing as restrictive, which may have something to do with the aerodynamics of their gliding. They do, however, value protective clothing. They keep this very simple, using long, narrow strips of leather to bind their bodies and extremities on an as-needed basis. These strips often hold harder plates of bone-reinforced leather. Besides this minimal armor, the Tercalo also wear simple, small garments for modesty, though they wear them in great variety and dye them in various bright colors and complicated patterns. The Tercaelo are not fond jewelry or heavy clothing.
Scientific Name
Sapioforme Accipitoid Tercaelo
Lifespan
80-100 years
Average Height
1.5-1.8 meters
Average Weight
45-70 kg
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Suited to their surroundings, tercaelo have black skin completely concealed by a layer of downy white feathers. The larger mane of feathers around their necks and shoulders, as well as on their heads and wings, can possess varying degrees of brown, red, and black coloration.
Geographic Distribution
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