[WIP! This will be where I put a racial profile for this species, for a future reference, as an ongoing project! If you have a question about them as I work, or think something should be clarified, post below <33]
IN A NUTSHELL
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Overview: A strange race from a bad place, the natives of the dimensional sinktrap, Sigma! They are Telempathic (they speak and understand in meaning, coming as assaults of imagery and sensations that the human mind interprets as song) and nomadic.
Appearance: These are their common racial traits, but they're kinda diverse. Males and the uncommon females born with no or underdeveloped wings (called
Wardens) are flightless and usually pretty sturdy sorts (
image,
image,
image,
image ).
Zephyr are the first and more common gender of females; they've got two pairs of wings, smaller (5-7 feet instead of a Warden's 7-10), and unlike darker-furred Wardens have lots of blue in their coats (
image,
image ), and the uncommon, well-guarded
Brood Mothers, the last female gender, are bloody huge (15-30 feet on the inside), with lots of red in their coats.
Society: From birth they are part of the Community, which is sort of like a group consciousness made up of individuals, and they gravitate to what comes naturally to them inside this. None are held higher or lower in their culture, there is no social stratum, nor is there any kind of currency. Things can be bartered and traded, but all things are held in common and given by need - the sort-of hive mind makes this not only possible, but practical. Outsiders are welcomed with open arms if they add something useful to the Community and will work as freely for others as others will work for them.
Sex and Sexuality: Freely bisexual and polyamorous (loving of many) - any willing adult may lay with any other willing adult, and this is not considered strange. Zephyr bear single young from one partner (and them doing so has a 40% death rate for the mother, so its discouraged), and Brood Mothers can bear young from up to six male Wardens at the same time, in clutches called Broods. Female wardens bear one or two young at a time and this is not considered strange.
Sympatons can transplant a child from one mother to another in some situations, and can temporarily (or permanently) sterilize partners. Monogamy is not strange or looked down upon, and abstinence is considered noble for the right reasons (Like a Tactician's celibacy to preserve mental clarity).
Slavery: No. The idea of a sentient being with their own song (the ability to Think and feel, and in short give off meaning) being owned by another is absolutely monstrous to a Ravener, an abomination to be rectified. They react poorly, you might say.
Nature: Raveners have old stories that they came from Rage and Hunger spirits in their ancient past. In controlling these perpetual feelings, they find themselves and gain great discipline. They're Community-oriented beings and social creatures, at least as intelligent as humans and compatible on an emotional level with them. At their best, Raveners are direct, they
cannot lie, they're open to new ideas, they're good-natured and stout of heart. At their worst, they're unmerciful, unforgiving, dense, ferocious to their enemies, and intolerant of the infirm (If an individual cannot or will not contribute, they face exile or even death).
Homeland: Sigma is a pandimensional hellhole of a place. Even the plane itself is alive and tries to kill you. There are no standing structures - Sigma tears them apart. The only sensible way to live among the monsters and abominations is to remain nomadic and fight only when you have the advantage - this is where their race was born!
Magic and Disciplines of Note: -Sympatons (mage-psions that move life energy and control it for power, acting as healers and their people's equivalent of a scientist)
-Tacticians (celibate psionic clairvoyants with defensive telepathic abilities, their skills geared towards mass communication and coordination)
-Thundermaidens (elite aeromantic Zephyr warriors that control wind to achieve phenomenal aerial speeds and agility named for their ability to break the sound barrier that use the air itself as their weapon and armor)
-Shadow King/Queens (psychometabolic (controlling their own bodies) Wardens or Bloodwings that master their racial black rage and terrible hunger to gain power they can control - darkness-element abilities, combat advantages, and other craziness
-
Lycoraveners (Mundane shapeshifters that can assume other forms by getting samples of genetic material from creatures close enough to a Ravener's own nature)
RAVENERSOnes-Who-Hunger
At a glance...Raveners, aka ones-who-hunger, are a species of demihumanoids (semi-humanlike) from another reality. They have a kind of group consciousness, at the same time a hive mind of shared senses and experiences, and a collection of free-thinking individuals of roughly human level intellect an emotional capacity. They are also similar on an empathic level to humans and similar species (elves, dwarves, orcs, etc)
Raveners are mammalian and sexually dimorphic, with three distinct genders - Wardens, Zephyr, and Brood Mothers.
Wardens, the sole 'males', are semi-bipedal, growing to between seven and ten feet tall on average, with a bone structure that is broader and sturdier than most females, and a single-tipped tail with heavy spines (see below). Likewise, they lack the protruding horns of some females or any kind of alar structures (wings).
Females come in two varieties. The first, most common variety is the Zephyr. Zephyr are smaller and more slightly built than Wardens, with backward sweeping horns instead of the males' more agile ear structures. They range in size from five feet to seven feet tall, and share the Warden's semi-bipedal gait. Unlike males, however, they possess two distinct sets of forelimbs - a major and minor pair of batlike wings, and unlike males, who have darker fur tones, Zephyr have patterns of blues in their fur, and brilliant tones that match these on their wings.
The second variety of females are the Brood Mothers, known sometimes as bloodwings; their role is almost solely reproductive in theory, but their massive size - at least twice or three times that of a Warden, makes them excel in this role. Bloodwings live protected in the core of groups of Raveners (called communities), and end up most times as the mothers of most of them. Their bodies are, like Zephyr, built for flight, but their wings are, while larger, fused together and hardened a great deal, rendering them clumsy in flight. Also like Zephyr, Brood Mothers have a frayed tail tip, each tip ending in a spine.
Close up...
Their bodies are built for an environment completely alien to our own, and much more hostile. They have triangular skulls, with muzzles that have a wide jaw and the capacity to open to a full 180 degrees of their head, and an inner, semi-mobile jaw fit with molars and fangs for grasping and grinding, compared to the outer jaw which possesses fangs similar to a crocodile's crossed with a shark's that are geared mostly for cutting and shredding meat, implying an omnivorous diet (they are indeed omnivores).
A ravener's eyes are unusual, made for a world where seeing as much as possible at once is important for survival. The outer layer of their brain (which runs the length of their skull and muzzle) connects to an ocular membrane about a quarter of an inch thick, capable of seeing as easily in light as darkness, and a little ways into other spectrums outside human abilities. This ocular membrane is protected by a layer of leathery muscle, and then the inner and outer portions of the skull. As raveners develop in the womb (they have live births similar to dogs, see below), their heads expand slowly, creating cracks in the undeveloped skull that form into the slits for the eyes. No two thus are exactly alike in the number of 'eyes' they have. Because of the proximity of their ocular membrane to the brain, losing an eye or a strong blow to the head is especially dangerous.
Ones who hunger have opposable thumbs, and do use tools as humanoids do. Their bone structure encourages a hunched posture on two legs, and an almost gorilla-like gait on four, especially among males who lack the more delicate wing structures of both variety of female. All of them though have a heavier ribcage than humans, with heavier collarbones and more ribs that cradle their vital organs and protect them. Internally though, they are remarkably similar - their nervous system differs in the skull and certain other aspects, but otherwise resembles our own closely. Their cardiovascular and digestive systems are likewise remarkably close, though their stomach is easily three times the size of our own, and can stretch immensely (their name is well deserved - they can consume nearly their own body weight in one sitting!).
Raveners have two lungs and two hearts, but there the differences between us and them ends in that respect, apart from obvious considerations.
In reproduction, either female gender can bear children. Bloodwings have the easiest time of this, able to bear litters of young (called a Brood) at a time, with a relative minimum of fuss inbetween. Zephyr however have significant difficulty bringing a child to term and into the world. In at least 40% of cases, this proves fatal, even with help from one of their Sympatons (healers, explained later), thus a Zephyr having children is considered semi-taboo and discouraged, culturally. Young are born live, covered in a kind of leathery egg sack the mother or attendant cleans away carefully. Ravener children are pale and blind, with sightless milky eyes and pale, downy fur, helpless squeaking little things that are entirely the preserve of all females in the community, sexless and all identical save for the number of eyes.
At about three weeks after birth, Ravener children show sex traits, and start to fall into their gender category.
At three months, they are fully self aware and able to speak, and by the time a year rolls around they are considered mature, physically (and psychologically about six months after that, give or take.) A ravener after that point simply does not wear out - their bodies are efficient, and it is believed (by them) they only die when killed - this is in fact not true, but their life span varies from individual to individual. Some last for hundreds of years, some die after barely a decade to violence or disease. Their exact life span is unknown to them.
NatureRaveners might seem simple and primitive to an outsider, but few things could be less true. Their culture lacks an understanding of 'government', 'currency', or 'law'. Good and evil don't factor into their society - necessary, unnecessary, right and wrong though, these they are keen on! Their reality is a violent, dangerous one, and little that is not real stands up to rational consideration (or a rampaging monster), so Raveners tend to have direct approaches to things, and take things seriously.
Raveners lack an actual language, nor do they understand the concept precisely the same way humans do so. At the same time, however, ones who hunger can understand any language in any permutation, and seem to have a keen ability to tell lies from truth. They can even easily understand animals, or other creatures that think but lack languages. This is because they don't speak woth or understand words - they speak and understand meaning, an ability called Telempathic Communication. They speak in assaults of images, sounds, feelings, but humanoid minds interpret this as words, almost poetic, musical in quality, which gives rise to the name 'Cadence' for their 'language'. It is flowery, expressive.
For example,
Human:
"I saw the dragon on the hill! It was red and had sharp teeth!"
Cadence might look like this:
"Upon the hill I saw the beast red like flame/The Dragon's teeth put mine to shame/
They have this ability because within a community, there exists a kind of group consciousness. It is through this that their children become able to speak from the moment they are able to think, and the means by which they can appear to lack higher organization. One Ravener is an individual, fully self-aware and capable of independent decision making, but that individual is one among many, and a part of that multitude - a community. Hivelike, the Community operates as a single creature made of hundreds of single creatures - in perfect harmony. It says something about their home that communities almost never war against one another, and there are no permanent settlements.
If one Ravener sings as it speaks, a community is like a choir when it is in action, hundreds of different voices singing in different parts, all in harmony. The effect is almost a physical thing, and human 'ears' tend to shut it out quickly, overwhelmed. Those that can stand it though describe it as immensely beautiful.
Demonstrating individuality is important. Each strives in some small way towards self expression. Vibrant fiber or hide clothing, jewelry, piercings (on the ear among males, on the wing membranes for females), hats, distinctive clothing, dying of the fur or the tying of beads, bones, or feathers, its all viable. A ravener doesn't need to express themselves like this to 'name' themselves exactly... Merely out of a sort of compulsion to distinguish themselves. No two look alike!
Ravener names are descriptive of them as a person and sometimes symbolic, but human approximations are often a bit lost in translation, and more than a bit odd. Who we called Lambada, Ratatat, Sophie, Shadowdance, Samhain, the names might really be 'A Sensual Dance', 'A Bird Seeking Dinner', 'Woman Laden With Wisdom', 'Moving In Darkness For Fear Of Light', and 'He Saw Death'. The true meanings are mostly lost.
CultureFamily is important to Raveners. Helping each other to survive is both difficult and necessary, for in helping each other survive do they themselves survive. This lends Ravs to altruistic natures, empathizing with their fellow sentient species, and makes them a very hospitable species to outsiders. It also makes them relatively unforgiving of transgressions against them, and it runs counter-intuitive to them to consider humans as incapable of communicating as easily as they do. They are loyal friends to those who treat them well, but easily offended by violence against them.
Some aspects of their culture and human culture do not generally translate well. The idea of personal gain, of holding something another needs for profit, of slavery, of persecuting another for no reason greater than religion or social status, or worse killing for such a reason... These things are abominable to Raveners. If they did understand Evil, they would call these things such. On the other hand, a Community's tendency to deal strictly with those who aren't able to or will not help the others, their open, poly-amorous and bisexual approach to sexuality, their complete lack of an understanding of land ownership or of personal property much more extensive than what a person can hold, these might seem barbaric, so it probably balances out.
Raveners do not - almost *cannot* - lie. It goes against their nature and experience. They are honest as a species. If ever you explained lying to them and got them to understand, it'd be like telling a stranger about your imaginary friends! And that they tell you to burn things and eat your own hands! It is hard to lie to them - they hear what you mean, not what you say. But dishonesty is an abomination in their eyes, to be dealt with harshly - in some cases, fatally.
Life among their people is not perfect - a lot of mouths need to be fed, and a major part of who they are lies in control of what they call the 'Dark'. It is said they were born from spirits of elemental rage and hunger, and the Dark inside them supports the idea. In learning discipline, self control, and in living for others a Ravener becomes a Ravener - for when they lose their minds, they become monsters (Devouring ones, or just Devourers). They rely upon each other, they feel strongly and pour themselves into whatever they do as an expression of this. This devotion, this desperation, it drives them forward. Their craftsmen live what they do, make it everything they are.
While their society is technically open, it is because of this that it tends to crystallize, to fall into neat little boxes and niches, not out of any higher purpose other than certain occupations working more closely with each other than others by nature. They live their lives for each other - and even an outsider can be accepted as part of them if they can be depended upon. It isn't meritocratic - none are held above others, but a respectable member of the Community . The idea of nobility (or worse, royalty!) is an abominable thing in their eyes, and they completely lack respect for it - in fact, they hold it in undisguised contempt.
Despite their disdain for certain aspects of humanoid cultures, Raveners find humans and the races like them fascinating. Humanoid culture is alien and interesting! They will happily barter for knowledge, interesting items, and culture, careful to rely upon only themselves in so doing. Some of the things humans do mystifies them, and vice versa.
Raveners are a strong-minded people well-used to terrible monsters and horrors beyond imagination. Very, very little phases them as a people - Sigma can do that to you. They are quick to recover, firm of action, stout of heart, and hard to dampen. Their first reaction to losing a lover or watching somebody kill their child would be to simply butcher the person that did it, no hesitation, no questions asked (or answered, by the time they've finished) -- THEN grief.
MagicThe magic of the Ravener species is diverse, with several outstanding and distinct disciplines and schools of thought, all geared towards serving the whole rather than necessarily empowering or enlightening the individual - though that happens anyway, in a sense. Some of it is simply skill with their own natural ability, only perfected and empowered with psionic discipline, while other forms of their mystic arts are steeped in ancient tradition and occult lore, more like our own. Regardless, Raveners are a martial people of a nomadic nature, and all traditions are passed down from generation to generation. What does not work or is not effective is forgotten - does not survive.
The mind, the imagination, and dreams are all considered real on one level or another, though this is a bastardized and oversimplified observation. In fact, they are all considered
important, and as such disciplines that emphasize these three elemental venues of their being are their focus, and lie at the heart of everything. Only a psychic can learn these things from them, in the end - as the unity of
understanding found in true ability to speak in meaning is essential.
Sympatons wield life energy itself. Their magic operates on the basis that all living things produce a small surplus of life energy, and in so doing ensure that their body can heal itself and operate more efficiently if something should go wrong. They learn to move that energy from one or many life forms, even from themselves, and direct it to useful purpose, storing it in water or in fruit or even in the water content of their own bodies until it is needed. A Sympaton can heal wounds, make plants grow, even create and control the most basic form of life in the universe - fire. They are a Community's healers, their most prevalent seekers of wisdom. Their experiments with life energy and living things produce potions for the Community's hunters, useful creatures they can keep as a living larder, even symbiotic creatures to aid them and their brethren. Warden and Zephyr sympatons are most common, with the occasional Bloodwing sympaton outstanding among them.
Tacticians are another notable type of mage among their people. But tactician sends the wrong image - if you considered the concert of minds that comes from a Community working in concert a 'choir', you could call a skillful Tactician a sort of maestro. They forsake emotion in a way comparable to a captain, and remain celibate in order to keep their mind clear and pristine as possible. It is their noble calling to help the Community work in harmony, to take all the sensory information, all the danger and put it into perspective. Their minds are iron, used to dealing with and managing hundreds of others, sometimes all at once. The greatest of their kind can cut through illusion, anchor or alter reality, and utilize their senses so precisely that they appear to have the ability to see a second or two into the future. Most tacticians are male - its not a 'thing' exactly, just a practical matter on account of flight requiring a lot of concentration, but Bloodwings occasionally take up the mantle - though they do not remain Celibate. Would you argue with them?
Thundermaidens are aerokinetic Zephyr, named for their ability to create a terrible bang as they fly. These Zephyr are warriors, a sisterhood of elite-skilled goddesses of the wind. Their airborne agility, their ability to bend airflows around themselves, create pummeling or even piercing or slashing gusts of wind, the speed at which they fly, all these things make Thundermaidens terrible foes. This adept discipline is exclusive to Zephyr, as the wind magic is derived from their already impressive ability to fly. Thundermaidens tend to have little jewelry, but a good deal of fur, often untrimmed, to keep them warm in high altitude and at high speed. Neither other gender can manage this type of magic - wind is the domain of the Zephyr exclusively.
Shadow Kings (and the occasional Queen) are warriors who derive power from the darkness inside every ravener's soul. The hunger and rage that every Ravener must master, that is their greatest and most implacatable adversary, is a thing of the black. It is strongest in Wardens and Bloodwings. Wardens who choose this path learn to harness the power of rage, flying into cold black berserk furies as a trademark, to spit globs of their stomach acid, harden their bodies, and turn shadow to their favor in an eldritch sort of way. They embrace the monster, control it - make it serve them. This power comes red and raw, and with ease - the true strength they derive is in its control. A Zephyr Shadow Queen is unheard of - the Dark is nearly silent in them.
Lycoraveners aren't so much a kind of mage or psion, but a sort of... subspecies among them - a quality X that is considered something of a gift among their people. Monsters that change shape are no strange thing on Sigma, so they say that an ancient Sympaton took that ability and tried to breed and engineer it into the species. Lycoraveners are the result - Ones Who Change And Hunger. In a community, one or two or an entire litter. One might turn up among normal Raveners. One might not turn up at all (more likely.) But when it does happen, a shapeshifter is born. Lycoraveners can take living material from another species - a bit of skin, some bodily fluids, a bone, and with a Sympaton's help sort of... absorb it, make it a part of themselves... and transform themselves into that creature, provided they are close enough to that creature anyhow. Humans and humanoids fall under this category, as do many mammalian species on Earth (and a few others). Taking a humanoid form, Lycoraveners appear pale-skinned, they tend to be taller - around their original height - and dark-haired (Blackish for Wardens, blue for Zephyr, Red for Bloodwings), with dark lips and tongue, though the nature of their eyes changes little (they remain featureless without iris or pupil, and glow in their original color). For changing, a Lycoravener must have additional food intake - its an issue of calories and nutrients - but they can remain changed indefinitely.
ReligionRaveners are godless heathens. Part of it is the fact they don't believe in or hold a social stratum or pecking order, but another good-sized portion of the reason behind this is because they have so much to concentrate on, and devote themselves utterly to whatever it is they do. They simply never had the time or desire to put some god between them and infinity. That isn't to say, however, that as a people with minds so like our own that they do not believe in anything.
Those that pass on before them are remembered in ritual. Stories are told of them, and it is wished that they are put beyond harm, that they might find a place they might be happy. They don't just believe there is a part of you that survives after death - they know it for a fact. It is present for a moment or two after death, sometimes longer... then simply disappears. And just like the existence of what might be called the spirit, they know there are other planes of existence beside their own - so, they reason, this thing (which they call the Center) must pass on to somewhere else, and in remembering the ones who are lost they keep them in the heart
Apart from that, their devotion to whatever task takes their fancy borders on the religious. Martial arts, craftsmanship, magic, whatever it is they choose to devote themselves to, they strive ever towards perfection. They believe there is no such thing as perfect - but to seek it, to forever desire improvement, is something approaching holy.
This is not to say they could not find a god - especially among humankin. If they did, if they got the fire in them and believed, they would throw themselves into it completely and believe with every ounce, every fiber of their being and hair on their head. The idea of some omnipotent force, looking out for them and their souls after death could well appeal to them!
The Homeland, SigmaSigma as some summoners have named it know it is a kind of dimensional cloaca, a sinktrap, a kind of place between places, massive beyond massive and alive in and of itself. It is an impossibly massive forestlike place, with trees many thousands of feet tall, canopies that form floors, and deadly horrors beyond count, most of it shrouded in darkness and luminescent fungi. Raveners themselves are formidable creatures, and even in their numbers they are hunted to the extent that they dare not stay in one place for long. In any case, the planet, creature, dimension, whatever sigma is, doesn't tolerate things built on it - anything that sits still for too long is torn to shreds by creepers and enshrouded by them when they can't break it.
What can be said about Sigma? Either you change there, either you adapt, or you die. Taming the place is not to be thought of... even the idea is madness. Sometimes someone who messed up a teleportation spell end up there. Sometimes a god might punish someone by sending them there. Sometimes an entire race might go there rather than die out - which is usually what happens anyway. And those that survive it, those that aren't simply broken by Sigma become part of it themselves - in the dark, there are mad races of horrors that add further to the monstrousness of the place.
Raveners are not one of these. Raveners are Sigma's children, its native sentient species.
Technology and SkillRaveners are an advanced species, but in a completely different way than the other races of this world. Their strength lies not in great cities or works that last for thousands of years, nor in the creation of worldshaking weaponry. No, their strength is internal, it is in themselves and each other that they are great, and survive on Sigma - if not actually thrive! Their technology is part of the community, part of the individual, part of the soul and born of understanding. Martial arts, the mastery of self, refined magic and psionic talent, enlightened understanding, and an ever-expanding worldview of understanding, that is their way.
Their first choice of weapon is their own body. Martial arts are an important part of who they are as a culture, for all must be able to defend themselves in the face of the horrors that exist in Sigma. Sparring among youths is overseen by warriors, and each youth is tended and taught personally, then made to spar again. And again. And again. This continues for their entire childhood, during which the child grows naturally to seek their own path. This process has no name, but it leaves them strong, skilled, and resourceful. Those that survive are mature adults. Wardens (males) have claws that can extend or retract from the fingertips, and their natural wide reach makes them formidable. A warden can fling volleys of spines with whiplike cracks of their tails with an archer's accuracy, hard enough to be comparable to a heavy crossbow. Their tongue can operate as a third hand, and they can fluidly climb sheer surfaces by gripping. Zephyr make use of agility in the air as much as possible. Their tails can also fling spines, like males - but only multiples at once, and only in short ranges with any kind o accuracy. Bloodwings tend to rely most upon savage strength and their size, but while their tails cannot fling spines, their wings are great hammers and their reach is long. Their tail still grows spines, but they use the appendage more like a morningstar.
Magic and psionics are not separate from daily life. There is nothing supernatural or mysterious about it - it is part of life, no more, no less. [/center]
