Dorchadas/PeopleOfTheAir

The People of the Air

They should have died when the Contagion swept over the face of Creation, wiping out the magical infrastructure necessary to support them. Most of them did, but in some isolated valleys where the Essence machinery necessary to keep them alive still works, the People of the Air--one of the First Age's most glorious and extravagant creations--still survive.

History

The People of the Air were created simply because they could be. After studying a group of people who had lived in an uncapped Air demesne for so long that they had half-mutated into birds, several Twilights set out to recreate the mutations in a controlled manner. Deciding that they wanted something more aesthetically pleasing than bird-men, the experiment eventually evolved into an attempt to make winged humans. The Twilights were finally successful, but they were never able to make the race self-sustaining. They required an inordinate amount of effort to maintain--a special diet, Essence tinkering in the womb and at puberty, and so on--but in the magic-rich days of the First Age, it was a minor inconvenience in order to have winged men in the Legions, as messengers, or on festival days. Fortunately, they required relatively little maintenance after the initial "building" process, so their creation was widespread. At the point of their greatest expansion, there were almost 5 times as many People of the Air as there were Dragon Blooded.

The Contagion changed all of that. In one stroke, the world-spanning culture that brought about their creation was wiped out, and while they didn't die immediately, that generation was the last so expansive. Without the widespread Essence tinkering and maintenance, the People of the Air were unable to conceive any new children, and their numbers were already greatly reduced because of the legionnaires who were killed in battle against the invading Fair Folk. Today, there are scarcely more than a thousand People of the Air remaining, scattered in hidden valleys throughout Creation where the machines necessarily for their procreation continue functioning.

Physiology

The People of the Air are human in all the most important ways. They do not channel Essence (except unconciously, to decrease their weight while in the air) unless they study thaumaturgy and they have no special powers beyond their wings. Physically, they appear as normal humans, except their torsos and shoulders are always heavily--almost disproportionately--muscled (minimum of Strength 3 required to fly) and they have enormous feathed wings stretching from their backs. The wings extend up to a foot above their heads and can trail on the ground if they are not folded carefully. Their ancestors came from all over Creation, so their appearance is extremely varied, with no specific tendencies prevailing. In all other ways (except those described below), the People of the Air appear and function the same as normal human.

When a woman of the People of the Air is pregnant, she must receive specific magical care by the end of the first trimester or the baby spontaneously aborts (and even with this care, miscarriages are far more common among them than among ordinary humans). The process of care must be repeated when the child is one year old and when it first enters puberty. Many communities of People of the Air, lacking a sophisticated understanding of the processes involved, have made the process into a rite of passage--the woman (or child) enters the 'Temple' and returns, cleansed. They also require a special diet consisting of certain plants that only grow at high altitude, the flesh of birds that fly frequently (usually raptors), and several other small ingredients. These components are usually easily found in the mountains, but can be difficult to acquire elsewhere.

The bones of the People of the Air are hollow, to aid in their flight. This also makes them more susceptable to damage than a human, however--People of the Air resist Bashing damage using only half their Stamina rating. People of the Air can fly for a number of hours equal to their Stamina without needing to rest, at a speed of (Dex * 4) + 30 yards per round, or about 33 miles per hour on average. Their blood is also modified in order to allow flight at high altitude--People of the Air do not start to suffer ill effects from cold until it gets significantly below freezing.

People of the Air almost never Exalt, though they can be God-blooded, usually with Air elemental parentage.

Society

The People of the Air are a dying race. After the Contagion, there were twice as many as there are in the modern day, but since then the failure of the machines has happened on a smaller scale at several of their remaining enclaves, wiping out the colony in each case. 'Colony' is somewhat disingenuous, since there is no society that encompasses the People of the Air as a whole. Each enclave has its own society, traditions, and government, often with some remaining ties to the First Age, but distorted by the passage of time. Most People of the Air speak Old Realm, though the language has often been so changed by time that a Linguistics roll may be necessary in order to understand it.

The People of the Air usually form subsistance-level hunter-gatherer societies, though they will use any First Age technology that they have the technical expertise to understand (and that can be used by mortals). They have a tendency to build up elaborate rituals around such technology, recognizing that they owe their continued existence to the machines of a long-passed era.

Due to the method of their creation, Vanileth takes a keen interest in the remaining People of the Air, and it is possible that the only reason they still survive at all is because of his guardianship.

Remaining groups

Here are a few ideas for locations of People of the Air colonies:

The Lake of Hali: High in the mountains some 200 miles southwest of Gethamane, there is hidden valley which is inaccessable to outsiders for the majority of the year. Much of the valley is taken up by a strange lake of mist which conceals the lower half--and the sanctuary of an ancient Solar. About a hundred People of the Air live in this valley, their population sustained by the machines in the Solar sanctuary. Newly-pregnant women, young babies, and children on the cusp of adulthood walk down into the mist in a centuries-old ritual, and when they return, they continue on with their lives. Those who not participate in the ritual usually die.

The community is matriarchal, ruled by the woman who A) is the oldest and B) has the most living children. Not much actual ruling is required--the community mostly polices itself, and any henious crimes are punished by exile from the valley. Since these People of the Air no longer remember their dietary requirements, this is usually death for the one exiled if he or she goes far enough down from the heights of the mountains. Their isolation means that they have little relation with any people around them, though they do have good relations with the local air elementals. Air elemental blood and patronage may be reason why this community is still thriving even in total isolation.

The community still remembers the Solars, though their recollection has been distorted by time and the propaganda of the Shogunate. In their legends, "The Creators" are golden gods who are prey to mad whims and fantasies, but whose power is absolute, even extending to the creation of entirely new life forms (which none of the gods they worship can do). Any Solar visiting them will be met with a mixture of fanatical worship, speechless awe, and blind fear.

In recent years, however, a Fair Folk Noble named Kirika has taken up residence in the next valley over. What this means for the community is uncertain, though a party sent to scout out their new neighbor has not returned for some time...

Spire of Ice: Located a hundred miles north of Diamond Hearth, on the very edge of Haslanti League territory, the Spire of Ice is an enormous glacier in the shape of a mountain. It is not always located in the same place--it is gradually moving south, as glaciers do, though it will be centuries before the People of the Air there have to worry about being discovered by the Haslanti.

The People of the Air there have a strict division of labor. They are a hunter-gatherer society, with the men hunting the beasts of the North and the women gathering the plants and animals. Both genders participate in the defense of the settlement, which is unfortunately frequent. Between the Fair Folk from the nearby Wyld and the dangers of the fauna, the community is under a nearly constant state of siege. They have two hundred members, but are unable to increase their numbers by much due to the constant attacks.

There are a series of tunnels beneath the mountain that contain a citadel remaining from the First Age. These People of the Air remember much of their history, even though it has been distorted by time, and they know what the purpose of the machines that they find in the citadel is. They lack the understanding to really use them, however, beyond the functions necessary for their continued existence. They do have access to some First Age technology, such as Shock Pikes. This technology allows them to defend themselves much more effectively than their numbers would otherwise allow.

Playing People of the Air

Creating one of the People of the Air costs 8 bonus points, according to the following breakdown:

• Merit: Mutation (Wings), -6 bonus points
• Merit: Unconscious Essence Channeler: -4 bonus points (see below)
• Flaw: Fragile (without health level loss, see above), +2 bonus points

Unconscious Essence Channeler
Affliction
This power is very rare--it can occur as a Wyld mutation, but it is always linked to another power. It gives a being an Essence pool equal to (Essence + Willpower + Conviction + [Highest Virtue * 2]), but they cannot access it consciously--it is only accessed unconsciously. For some powers, this could be when the user is afraid, or under great stress. For others, it could be when the user is touched, or asleep. The trigger for the power is often as random as the Wyld itself. Powers linked to this one cannot be triggered consciously.

For the People of the Air, it costs them two motes per hour to fly, but since they cannot fly more hours than their Stamina it is usually more trouble than it's worth to calculate this. If it is a Thaumaturge with the Awakened Essence merit, however, that merit supercedes this power.

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Comments, Suggestions, or Flames

Very interesting idea. They may show up in my game if they ever find the remains of Bagrash Kol's Floating Palace. --BrilliantRain

Thanks! I can't entirely claim credit for it--they're mentioned in Castebook: Dawn and a couple other places--but the development of the idea was mine. -Dorchadas