(no subject)
Thursday, 18 January 2007 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keaaluZaar!
They're based very very loosely off a real species, but I'll let you all guess what. And her ear in the top right is missing on purpose. I don't know WHAT purpose, but it's all on purpose, honest. Note: yes, they ARE sentient aviforms.
Zaar
Fal - female
Drae - male
Hinna – (female) leader of a particular group of Zaar. Male leaders are rare, and called “Heen”.
The Zaar are a species of small, strikingly-marked humanoids with a strongly matriarchic, feminocentric society.
They are descended from an intelligent, flightless aviform, although a passing human would guess them to be evolved from a type of ape. They have blunted humanlike faces, with prominent nostrils and large, forward-facing eyes, and tufted external ears (which they can move voluntarily only as much as a human can). They are very short – the tallest is five foot tall, but the average height is only four and a half feet. They lack tails altogether, having lost them very early in their evolution.
They are so-called “pseudo-plantigrades” – that is, they appear plant-footed when standing still, as they have straight, flat feet, but when they walk the “extra joint” (the true ankle) is visible, an inch or two above the “heel”. Their feet have lost the gripping capability their ancestors had – they do still possess a backward hallux, but this has shrunk considerably over the millennia and is now little more than a slightly motile heel-stub.
Over the course of the last few hundred thousand years, most traces of bodily hair has vanished. (They never possessed true feathers, since their ancestor never actually flew; they had bristly pelts for warmth, but nothing more.) They have retained a layer of stiff hair on the head and neck, but their skin is otherwise virtually hairless, being tough and leathery in feel. The one exception to this “leatheriness” is on the feet, the lower surfaces of which are extremely thick and almost “scaly” to protect them. (Even now, Zaar rarely wear shoes.)
Until relatively recently – a couple of hundred thousand years ago – Zaar still laid eggs. Even that clue to their avian ancestors has now gone by the wayside, however, as modern Zaar give birth to well-developed babies in a very mammalian way.
In a dramatic difference to certain other species of avian descent (most notably the Kiravai), in this species the female is the stronger sex, and the major breadwinner. Throughout their history, it was traditionally the female that hunted the food, defended the home patch, courted the male, and chose her partner, and pregnancy was seen as a rite of passage in a way. The male was left to look after the house – it was he that tended the baby, schooled and looked after the children, took care of cooking and cleaning. It is typical for females to be straight back to work after having given birth, to “regain their strength” – maternity leave is fairly unheard of.
Zaar are primarily shades of brown, but a significant sexual dimorphism exists in terms of patterning. The female, who throughout their history has been the more pro-active half of a partnership, is the brighter coloured and more highly patterned, with the male being a duller, plainer shade of brown.
There are three races from three different global locales, but these races have begun to “dilute” over the last few millennia, even though individuals have always traditionally had a preference for their own patterning. (Racism does exist between colour forms, although it is not especially prevalent.)
Young Zaar are colloquially known as “Greys”, since the rich colouration of the adult doesn’t come out until puberty; all children of all races remain a dull, mottled grey until then, although there are slight racial differences in the subtler hues.
Sanuki
(The mostly orange top one with the snazzy hair)
The Sanuki are the brightest in colour of the three races, with even males being fairly intensely coloured. Fal are usually a variety of reds, oranges and browns, with a dark mask over the face and nose and pale circles around the eyes. Males are a similar rich chestnut to females, but less strongly marked, being instead a plainer mostly all-over brown, and like most Zaar the juveniles are whitish, although they are often mottled with browns and tan rather than greys.
The Sanuki are natives to a fairly large area of their homeworld, coming from a temperate but very mountainous area. They produce a lot of art and jewellery, and are a highly spiritual race, great philosophers and thinkers, but there have been a large number of famous mathematicians who have been Sanuki, and a lot of important manufacturing techniques for important goods have been of Sanuki origin.
Cherbori
(The dark grey one with the orange hair in the botton right corner)
Of the three races, Cherbori females are the plainest in colouration; they are primarily dark grey, usually with a deep chestnut patch at the back of the head that usually extends from the crown to the nape or between the shoulders, with a paler chest and sporadic mottled sandy patches on the back. Males are usually a dull brown instead of charcoal, although they share the darker chestnut colour at the nape. Infants and children are primarily mottled grey and off-white, usually with a dark crown stripe and a dark patch over the eye, females occasionally showing a smudge of orange at the nape of the neck.
The Cherbori hail from a smallish, very oceanic area of their homeworld, cut off from and having very little contact with the other races by merit of the large expanses of water between them. They have always had a way of life close to and in tune with nature, even after the technological revolution, and most prefer a simple way of life, subsisting off the land and ocean more than farming. They have been quiet and kept themselves mostly to themselves, but have come closer to centre-stage in recent years with pioneering techniques for environmental harmonisation, and the recovery of essential minerals and important chemicals from their natural sources.
Clavare
(The stripey grey one that accidentally looks a bit like a badger (grr))
Female Clavare look almost “rusty” in places, with a primarily pewter-ish skin-tone mottled with an intense red-brown, often (but not always) with a white chest, stomach and inside leg. They have a pale grey-blue area over the top of the head, usually extending from the bridge of the nose to the nape/mid-shoulder, and a distinct black stripe over each eye, ear and down the neck, fading to a dark chestnut by the time it reaches the shoulders, and shading to sanguine on the chest. Males, as ever, are fairly “muted” in comparison, marked in grey and fawn instead of the intense black and chestnut.
The Clavare are a race coming from a warm, semi-temperate climate, like that found at the northern edge of the Mediterranean. They are the most romantic of the races, loving the finer things in life, opulence and grandiose extravagance, and yet also drove a lot of the technological revolution, with a great many of the greatest mathematicians and scientists hailing from Clavare territory.
They're based very very loosely off a real species, but I'll let you all guess what. And her ear in the top right is missing on purpose. I don't know WHAT purpose, but it's all on purpose, honest. Note: yes, they ARE sentient aviforms.
Zaar
Fal - female
Drae - male
Hinna – (female) leader of a particular group of Zaar. Male leaders are rare, and called “Heen”.
The Zaar are a species of small, strikingly-marked humanoids with a strongly matriarchic, feminocentric society.
They are descended from an intelligent, flightless aviform, although a passing human would guess them to be evolved from a type of ape. They have blunted humanlike faces, with prominent nostrils and large, forward-facing eyes, and tufted external ears (which they can move voluntarily only as much as a human can). They are very short – the tallest is five foot tall, but the average height is only four and a half feet. They lack tails altogether, having lost them very early in their evolution.
They are so-called “pseudo-plantigrades” – that is, they appear plant-footed when standing still, as they have straight, flat feet, but when they walk the “extra joint” (the true ankle) is visible, an inch or two above the “heel”. Their feet have lost the gripping capability their ancestors had – they do still possess a backward hallux, but this has shrunk considerably over the millennia and is now little more than a slightly motile heel-stub.
Over the course of the last few hundred thousand years, most traces of bodily hair has vanished. (They never possessed true feathers, since their ancestor never actually flew; they had bristly pelts for warmth, but nothing more.) They have retained a layer of stiff hair on the head and neck, but their skin is otherwise virtually hairless, being tough and leathery in feel. The one exception to this “leatheriness” is on the feet, the lower surfaces of which are extremely thick and almost “scaly” to protect them. (Even now, Zaar rarely wear shoes.)
Until relatively recently – a couple of hundred thousand years ago – Zaar still laid eggs. Even that clue to their avian ancestors has now gone by the wayside, however, as modern Zaar give birth to well-developed babies in a very mammalian way.
In a dramatic difference to certain other species of avian descent (most notably the Kiravai), in this species the female is the stronger sex, and the major breadwinner. Throughout their history, it was traditionally the female that hunted the food, defended the home patch, courted the male, and chose her partner, and pregnancy was seen as a rite of passage in a way. The male was left to look after the house – it was he that tended the baby, schooled and looked after the children, took care of cooking and cleaning. It is typical for females to be straight back to work after having given birth, to “regain their strength” – maternity leave is fairly unheard of.
Zaar are primarily shades of brown, but a significant sexual dimorphism exists in terms of patterning. The female, who throughout their history has been the more pro-active half of a partnership, is the brighter coloured and more highly patterned, with the male being a duller, plainer shade of brown.
There are three races from three different global locales, but these races have begun to “dilute” over the last few millennia, even though individuals have always traditionally had a preference for their own patterning. (Racism does exist between colour forms, although it is not especially prevalent.)
Young Zaar are colloquially known as “Greys”, since the rich colouration of the adult doesn’t come out until puberty; all children of all races remain a dull, mottled grey until then, although there are slight racial differences in the subtler hues.
Sanuki
(The mostly orange top one with the snazzy hair)
The Sanuki are the brightest in colour of the three races, with even males being fairly intensely coloured. Fal are usually a variety of reds, oranges and browns, with a dark mask over the face and nose and pale circles around the eyes. Males are a similar rich chestnut to females, but less strongly marked, being instead a plainer mostly all-over brown, and like most Zaar the juveniles are whitish, although they are often mottled with browns and tan rather than greys.
The Sanuki are natives to a fairly large area of their homeworld, coming from a temperate but very mountainous area. They produce a lot of art and jewellery, and are a highly spiritual race, great philosophers and thinkers, but there have been a large number of famous mathematicians who have been Sanuki, and a lot of important manufacturing techniques for important goods have been of Sanuki origin.
Cherbori
(The dark grey one with the orange hair in the botton right corner)
Of the three races, Cherbori females are the plainest in colouration; they are primarily dark grey, usually with a deep chestnut patch at the back of the head that usually extends from the crown to the nape or between the shoulders, with a paler chest and sporadic mottled sandy patches on the back. Males are usually a dull brown instead of charcoal, although they share the darker chestnut colour at the nape. Infants and children are primarily mottled grey and off-white, usually with a dark crown stripe and a dark patch over the eye, females occasionally showing a smudge of orange at the nape of the neck.
The Cherbori hail from a smallish, very oceanic area of their homeworld, cut off from and having very little contact with the other races by merit of the large expanses of water between them. They have always had a way of life close to and in tune with nature, even after the technological revolution, and most prefer a simple way of life, subsisting off the land and ocean more than farming. They have been quiet and kept themselves mostly to themselves, but have come closer to centre-stage in recent years with pioneering techniques for environmental harmonisation, and the recovery of essential minerals and important chemicals from their natural sources.
Clavare
(The stripey grey one that accidentally looks a bit like a badger (grr))
Female Clavare look almost “rusty” in places, with a primarily pewter-ish skin-tone mottled with an intense red-brown, often (but not always) with a white chest, stomach and inside leg. They have a pale grey-blue area over the top of the head, usually extending from the bridge of the nose to the nape/mid-shoulder, and a distinct black stripe over each eye, ear and down the neck, fading to a dark chestnut by the time it reaches the shoulders, and shading to sanguine on the chest. Males, as ever, are fairly “muted” in comparison, marked in grey and fawn instead of the intense black and chestnut.
The Clavare are a race coming from a warm, semi-temperate climate, like that found at the northern edge of the Mediterranean. They are the most romantic of the races, loving the finer things in life, opulence and grandiose extravagance, and yet also drove a lot of the technological revolution, with a great many of the greatest mathematicians and scientists hailing from Clavare territory.