The Flocks of Aer
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Disparate Flocks: the harpies are in no way unified, living in nomadic tribes or on disparate islands, and thus there is no central authority in the realm.
Demographics:
Harpies: Harpies are vaguely humanoid beings with the torso and heads of humans, and the wings, legs and tails of birds. Plumage color wise harpies are a mix of varicose pale hues on the underside and a darker hue such as black or blue on top for camouflage purposes.
They have an index finger and thumb on each wing, similar to bats, although even more pronounced such that they are usable, and their feet are softly feathered, sport large talons on their 4 ties, and are considerably more hand-like than a bird, with dexterity to match. The legs are also very flexible, allowing a harpy to stand either with a human stature, or an avian one.
Sexual dimorphism is low, with both sexes appearing relatively androgynous to other humanoid species.
Racial Traits:
- Pro: bird-like anatomy - Harpies are able to fly with some effort, and can also glid great distances using thermal drafts such as the ones that are common on their home plane. They also lay eggs, which reduces the physical disruption that bearing children causes (and the ability to use fire to warm the eggs has done even more so).
- Con: Inhumanoid body plan: With their lower 3 fingers being stretched into wingtips, harpies have difficulty using tools while standing, particularly ones that are heavy or require much dexterity. Their feet can be used for this instead, but this requires either sitting, laying down (preventing mobility) standing on one leg (very limiting) or flying (which is not suited for intricate work). It is also difficult to hold things at eye level using their feet, making delicate and/or precision tasks rather tricky.
- Con: frail: they have hollow bones, which are much easier to break so, while they might heal faster due to requiring less material, they are more easily taken out of a fight by a successful blow.
Population:
Stone Age: ~5k
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Plane Description: The plane of Aer consists of a gas giant which is hued in a myriad of colors. In its atmosphere float islands of light porous stone filled with buoyant gasses, many of which float at altitudes with an atmospheric composition and density are habitable for life. These islands form down in the molten center of the planet when part of the mantle cools and solidifies before rising up into the sky. There it is gradually eroded down to dust which very slowly rains back down to the core, while the gasses escape up out of the atmosphere
While some islands stay reliably one side up, many are prone to slowly tumbling through the sky, more akin to asteroids than islands. They also range from upwards of about 1000 km
3, although these are much less common than the vast number of rocks and boulders floating in the sky. The large islands are rather spread out, however the sheer size of the gas giant realm mostly compensates for this, as does the fact that the open space between is teeming with drifting life.
Vegetation clings to these stones, or floats free upon gas filled sacks, while creatures reminiscent of aquatic life, known as Tonnikala, swim though the planet's skies and feed off of the vegetation and each other. The air up where the harpies live is relatively clear, though it can be smothered by rainy fogs and the odd colorful (but potentially dangerous) cloud rising up from below. Speaking of below, there denser darker gasses lie, thicker, hotter,swirling with innumerable hues, and in those depths live giants and horrors.
The planet is slightly warmer than a terrestrial world, with heat rising up from the exposed core making even the poles habitable. Most plant life is adapted to be able to react to changing climates as they are unable to control where in the world they drift, gradually metamorphosing as the temperature changes.
A single blue sun hangs in the sky, distant but bright, while the night is filled with a dozen or so moons of various shapes, sizes and hues.
Plane Traits:
- Pro: Gas Giant - Aer is difficult to navigate for those who can’t fly, while being easier for those that can due to its thicker atmosphere, though there are, of course, ways. The island’s own materials provide the basis of ways to do so, as does the life which dwells in its skies.
- Con: No earth below our feet - the islands of the realm are spread out across its extensive reaches, limiting space for farming and spreading out the population. It also reduces the amount of conventional mineral wealth to be found, as any significant ore deposit would make the island it is found in too heavy to float.
- Con: Terrors of the deep - from sharks to eels, orcas, to stinging jellyfish and more, the sky is full of many dangerous creatures similar to those found in the oceans. But what lurks deeper down can be far worse, for in the depths lurk krakens, sea serpents, and other monsters out of legend and woe upon those who live in the clear skies if one should emerge from the depths.
History:
When harpies first arrived in Aer, they were very much at the mercy of the drifting of islands and vegetation for, while they could fly and glide long distances, needing a safe space to land rest limited their range, and generally tied them to islands that made for good nest sites.
Legends then tell of an egg minder who, after he lost his flock’s clutch due to laziness, fled in shame, and after wandering alone for several nightmare-filled weeks, sought out an auger. From the moons she predicted a path to redemption, and sent him to fly south for thirty days and thirty nights, and to grant aid to whoever he found on the thirtieth dawn. So he flew and flew, and when the thirtieth dawn finally came the harpy, who was far from any islands and yet desperately needed sleep, came across a wounded whale, under attack by a pack of sharks.
Till that day, a harpy would have ignored this, or waited to see if they could snatch scraps, but, seeing no other interpretation to the prophecy, he attacked, hurling his possessions at the sharks and driving them away. Exhausted from flight and from fight, he began to slowly lose altitude, surely doomed to death in the depth of the world, and yet at that moment the whale he had aided came to his own, gliding beneath him, and allowing him to land upon its back and rest there.
However much of the tale is true, it was the beginning of a new age. Tamed whales massively increased the range harpies could travel, as well as how much they could take with them. Then the same techniques were applied to other creatures, and thus the nomadic herder lifestyle many of the modern harpies live was born.
That was the last world defining event in harpy history, and since then there has been slow gradual improvement, the ebb and flow of Flock politics and power, and endless squabbling over grazing animals and grazable land.
The venerated trading hub of Almoon was recently destroyed by a sky serpent attack, and the warlord known as Isko the feather crowned was recently burned alive after rumors spread that he was eating other harpies to amass their souls within his body to gain their power, so presently there are no major factions, leaving space for whichever flock gains control of a foothold in the new world to rise like no other flock has done before.
Culture and Society: Harpies are organized into flocks, which consist of anything from a handful to dozens of harpies. These flocks are generally nomadic in nature, herding varicose grazing creatures from island to island or after masses of floating vegetation, which they then slaughtered for their meat.
Sedimentary farming is much more rare, as holding an island is rather difficult, what with all the nomads wandering around looking for grazing land. They do however make the best booze, which is often used to buy off attackers. Even they are not entirely static, as their land may drift into unfavorable climbs, forcing them to uproot themselves to seek out new farmlands or to become nomadic once more.
All Flocks supplement their diets with hunting, be it catching small fish or taking on larger prey such as whales. Care needs to be taken to not puncture the flight bladders of larger prey, as doing this may make retrieval rather difficult if not impossible.
Property wise, a harpy will own more or less what they can carry with them, while items carried by beasts of burden or stored on islands belong to the flock as a whole.
Eggs and children are both raised communally by the flock. For nomads, this means settling down somewhere for a bit (as even the most placid of whales is not fit for nest building) which is a big collective investment. Often, if there are alliances being made, it will be ones around nesting safety, as several flocks may come together to one island to first party, and then to raise their eggs and young before breaking apart again once more once the little ones learn to fly. This is good both for safety and for genetic diversity.
Most Harpies worship the sun with honor, for it brings life and illumination. A common way of praising the sun is a dawn chorus sung to thank it for rising once again. The core of the world meanwhile is regarded with equal parts fear and respect, for it births both monsters and new lands, and it must be placated with tossing animal sacrifices down into it.
Harpies on the other hand, should never be allowed to fall, as those whose bodies drop into the depths are considered doomed for all eternity. The dead are instead burned so that their souls may float up to join the sun. Attacking someone trying to save a faller or who is carrying a wounded harpy is therefore considered an evil act, and will result in the perpetrator being vengeful targeted by all their foes. Finally, a harpy who’s body is eaten is considered trapped in a kind of limbo until the body of the consumer is burned. Tales of mythical titan slayers freeing untold numbers of harpy souls are quite popular.
Complex theories on divining the future based on the positions of the moons in the sky also exist, but there is considerable disagreement on what the right way to do this is. These disagreements range from what the moons being where means, what the moons mean, what the moons even are and more.
Culture Traits:
- Pro: Meritocratic - A flock generally has a relatively flat hierarchy, and unpopular or incompetent leaders are generally quickly pulled down and replaced with little fuss and only some bloodshed.
- Con: Disunified - There is little in the way of unity between Flocks, and the ways both the nomads and the islands themselves move around means that long term alliances are very unusual, though so are long term conflicts.
- Con: Violent - Flocks attacking other flocks is fairly common, and is generally done to steal grazing animals, to gain control of grazable islands or to seize good nesting sites. This is seen as a fact of life rather than anything evil, though a particularly aggressive flock will generally find itself on the receiving end of a temporary alliance.
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Governance and Politics: The exact nature of how flocks are run varies from one to another. Generally, however, leaders are chosen by consensus of the flock, be it formally by voting or informally by social connections.
Membership of a flock is fairly loose, with members coming and going with relatively little friction, particularly during nesting periods.
Technology and Magic:
- Pro: Medium Animal Husbandry - The harpies have managed to tame quite a few of the species that inhabit their skies, the most important of which are dugongs and sky turtles (which are used as cattle), dolphins and tuna (hunting dogs) and, finally, whales (which are used as oxen or as platforms to land/rest/live on).
- Con: Very basic mining - Mining though the light porous stone of their islands is much easier than terrestrial rock, so their very basic techniques and tools will not translate well to any other plane.
- Con: Very basic boating - bodies of water larger than pools are exceptionally rare, with lakes existing only on a few large stable islands.
Military Overview: Harpy warfare is somewhat common, although it is also rather scrapy and skirmish-y for the most parts. Harpy claws are dangerous weapons on their own, while knives, clubs and spears studded with shark’s teeth are highly prized. Tossing or dropping things is considered a last resort when not on an island, as you are not getting those things back, unless the harpies are trying to bring down something big like a whale where the payoff is worth it.
Blowguns are the most popular ranged weapon, as they are easy to use even with the harpy’s limited fingers and the projectiles are easy to produce or one use anyway (lionfish quills are particularly nasty for this). Bows and slings are rare as usage requires a great deal of training to even hold, let alone fire with accuracy, with either their two digits or their claws. Most are unusable while flying, at least with any accuracy, with an exception being small short ranged blowguns capable of being held purely by the mouth.
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Additional Info:
(Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there. Little factoids about your nation are both amusing and welcome. Include a theme song if you want)
