Alathra:Avianfolk
| Avianfolk | |
|---|---|
| Major race | |
 Example appearance | |
| Characteristics | |
| Average lifespan (max) | 75 years (150) |
| Height range | 1.20 – 1.70 m (3′11′′ - 5′7′′) |
| Strengths | Exceptional agility and reflexes; keen eyesight; unmatched balance and spatial awareness; lightweight builds excel at acrobatics and evasive combat. |
| Weaknesses | Fragile bones prone to breakage; low endurance and limited physical strength; vulnerable to poison and toxins; unable to fly despite winged ancestry. |
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Avianfolk are a short, light-framed people with striking bird-like features: feathers instead of hair, sharp eyes, and limbs adapted for speed and finesse. While they bear remnants of wings, these limbs no longer grant them flight. Generations of grounded life have reshaped their culture, values, and skills, resulting in a society that embraces motion, elegance, and adaptation over brute strength or raw magical power.
Though Avianfolk retain vestigial wings (usually as elongated feathered arms or fan-like appendages) they can no longer achieve sustained flight. In ancient myths, this loss is attributed to a great event known as the Red Sky's Eve, in which the first Avianfolk were cursed or cast down by the skies themselves. Whether this tale is literal or metaphorical, most modern Avianfolk experience a cultural tension around their inability for flight.
Strengths and weaknesses
Avianfolk have little to no natural magical affinity, though some highland tribes have developed rituals that imitate elemental magic through dance, sound, or wind-channeling instruments. Their mystics are more likely to be weather-readers or spirit interpreters than spellcasters. Those who do pursue magic often do so by borrowing knowledge from other races, with particular interest in air, wind, and perception-based enchantments.
Though their silhouette and plumage differ widely between bloodlines, all Avianfolk share an unmatched grace in motion. Their light bodies, keen eyesight, and lightning-quick reflexes make them natural scouts, messengers, archers, and acrobats. Where other races rely on strength or magic, the Avianfolk rely on movement. Young Avianfolk are trained from an early age in balance, climbing, and gliding techniques, as well as in storytelling and dance that mimic the flow of flight. They are often employed as scouts, messengers, entertainers, and pathfinders.
Despite their generally peaceful and mobile culture, Avianfolk can be fiercely territorial and are especially prideful about their agility. While not as physically powerful as other races, they have developed highly effective styles of evasive or hit-and-run combat, sometimes using short glides or leaps from high terrain to surprise enemies.