Harvest Singers

Harvest-Singers are small, insectoid creatures native to the misty grasslands of Tirandhyl. About the size of a clenched fist, they possess iridescent carapaces and membranous wings that vibrate in hypnotic frequencies. These vibrations are what give the creatures their name: when gatered in numbers, their wingbeats harmonise into hauntingly beautiful 'songs', that echo through the plains at dawn and dusk. Their relationship with the Centaurs of Tirandhyl is ancient and deeply symbiotic. HArvest-Singers feed on the sap of Anakyron Root, which the centaurs bury at key points during their agricultural ritual known as the Burying of the Breath. In return, the creatures act as pollinators for sungrain, a vital crop, and ward of parasitic burrowing pests by emitting low-frequency warning tones. They are shy and rarely seen up close, preferring to dwell in warm burrows laced with Anakyron Sap. However, during the Must Season, they rise en masse to sing, fly and fetalise the land. Centauric myth holds that their song is the land's own heartbeat, and silencing it brings ruin. Though not conisdered sacred animals, they are treated with cautious respect. Killing them is avoided not from spiritual taboo, but because it is said their loss sours the soil for seasons to come. Some herders claim the creatures respond emotionally to certain melodies and may "dance" to flute music. Others whisper that they vanish entirely during solar eclipses, only to return hours later with new harmonics in their song - harmonics no one dares interpret. Attempts by human farmers to import them have failed, as the creatures refust to sing or mate outse their home soil. Biologists remain baffled; Centaurs just say "They won't sing for strangers".