The Tengu

The Tengu are a delicate, yet graceful race native to Ecumene, making their home in the beautiful forests of Northern Sahul. As one of the Intelligent Races, they have achieved a high level of technology, intelligence, and society that not many other species have, and have long used their gifts of flight to their advantage. Their race is the only Avian race in all of Ecumene, being closely related to other corvids, such as crows, rooks, and magpies.   Tengu tend to be on the shorter side, with most adults being in the lower ranges of 5 feet. After their first few weeks of life, all Tengu are covered in brightly colored feathers, the color of which depends on their location. The feathers on a Tengu's interior (stomach, neck, etc) and legs are snow-white, although the neck feathers and stomach feathers are separated by a ring of black feathers that goes around the back of the Tengu's head all the way down to their throat. The head feathers, arms, and back of the race are a dull, yet light shade of blue, while the large feathers that make up a Tengu's main and sub-wings are a patchwork of black, white and vibrant blue. While Tengu are warm-blooded, these feathers help keep the race warm in colder months, providing insulation from both the low temperature and water, as it frequently snows in Northern Sahul. However, keeping cool in the summer is hardly ever a problem for the race.   Tengu moult their feathers once every year, as to replace their old, used feathers with ones in better shape. Moulting, however, is a slow process, as Tengu need at least some feathers at all time to both fly and keep themselves insulated; after shedding a few feathers, a Tengu will grow some smaller ones back quickly, with these small feathers (called pin feathers) growing into proper ones as others are shed. All Tengu moult during the first few Summer mouths, having the side effect of cooling the race down due to their lower amount of plumage.   All Tengu have a very pronounced crest of feathers on their head, no matter their sex. This crest actually broadcasts the emotions of the race, as if a Tengu is angry, scared, hysterical or otherwise agitated, this crest will rise up. However, the crest usually just rests in a semi-flat manner atop a Tengu's head, signalling that they are more relaxed.   Due to their Avian ancestry, all Tengu have beaks instead of mouths. This bill is long and narrow, yet quite strong, though due to the fact that Tengu cannot chew their food, they have gizzards. In short, a gizzard is a specialized organ found in the digestive tracts of all birds, being akin to a stomach. However, unlike a stomach, the gizzard is made up of thick, muscular walls that aid in grinding up food so that it can be passed down to the stomach of the Tengu. This process is aided by the proventriculus (an organ above the gizzard that starts the digestive process) as well as small stones that the Tengu swallow. These bits of gravel make their way down to the gizzard and stay there, helping to "chew" food that is swallowed. Over time, these stones will become smooth, and when they become too smooth to effectively chew food, they will be excreted. As they lack teeth, they utilize their throat muscles and membranes (most of all the syrinx) to speak. This causes their speech to be tinged with an incredibly unique sound and accent, similar to how real-life corvids "speak".   The most impressive piece of Tengu biology is their main wings, which are attached to the body by the shoulders. These wings can function independently of any other part of the Tengu's body, and allow the race to fly via lift. A Tengu's wings are some of the largest on Ecumene, due to the power that is needed to keep such a creature in the air. In accordance with this, an adult Tengu has a wingspan of 12 feet, although these wings can be easily folded up. Due to the amount of energy needed to fly, as well as the weight of their cargo, a Tengu cannot fly for too very long without the use of magic, and when they do fly (magic or not), they fly slowly and deliberately, utilizing strong wing beats to keep themselves in the air. Tengu also have a second, smaller set of wings running down from their wrist all the way to their shoulder. When flying, if a Tengu outstretches their arms, they can keep their balance easier and even fly faster if the wind is in their favor, as the sub-wings (as they are called) catch the wind.   Like all birds, Tengu have hollow bones, although due to the species lacking the ability of sustained flight, their bones are a good bit less hollow than smaller birds. Contrary to popular belief, hollow bones don't make the Tengu weak. The material in avian bones is (on average) actually denser than that of mammalian bones, and a bird's skeleton typically contributes as much weight to the total mass of the bird as a mammal's skeleton does to its total weight. This means that, while they're lighter than the bones of mammals, the material itself is quite strong, with the hollow material maximizing strength while minimizing weight, allowing the Tengu to glide. This is not to say that a Tengu's bones are just as strong as that of a mammalian race, but overall, a Tengu can take a bit of damage.   Everything either below the ankle or above the wrist of a Tengu is completely devoid of feathers, and are instead just black skin. A Tengu has five fingers, each tipped with a long, sharp talon, although the race can use tools just as well as others. Their feet are much different, having three toes (each with a talon) on the front, and then another on the back of the foot. This formation of toes is known as Anisodactyly, and helps the race perch and climb onto surfaces easier. As birds, Tengu are digitigrade, meaning that they walk on their toes instead of flat upon their foot.   There is very little difference between male and female Tengu, although males tend to be a bit bigger and have brighter plumage. Tengu have avian sexual organs, and as such female Tengu do not have breasts. As members of the Intelligent Races, Tengu can feel attraction to all of the other races, but they can only mate with members of their own species.

Tengu, as an Avian race, have an Avian reproductive system. As such, they do not give live birth, with a female instead laying a single egg soon after mating. This egg is hard-shelled and hatches after about 42 days. In the olden days, the mother of the chick would keep the egg with her in a basket, most often swaddled with blankets to keep it warm.   After hatching, the chick is more or less featherless. Over a period of about three months, a chick will grow in its feathers and become capable of flight, with baby Tengu being able to walk at about one month of age. Before they can walk, a Tengu's parents have to regurgitate food into their mouth. Until about two years of age, a Tengu is considered a toddler, and then a child until 12. This starts their adolescent years, which end at around 21, where around they become fully-fledged adults. As they grow, a Tengu's moulted feathers will grow back larger to sufficiently cover their growing body. A Tengu is considered senior when they reach the age of around 60. As they reach old age, their feathers begin to lose their shine and softness.

The Tengu are the only strictly herbivorous races of Ecumene, not being able to properly digest meat, nor can they chew their food due to their beak. Thusly, no matter what a Tengu eats, it is always cut up into incredibly small bits, so small in fact, that they cannot be eaten with utensils. Tengu will also swallow stones now and again to keep their gizzard well-stocked, with these stones often being coated in sugar, honey, or some other kind of sauce. The food itself is most often cooked in a deep cooking pot, though some vegetables may be fried. Soups and stews are also quite common. As stated before, Tengu do not eat meat, but they will often cook cornflour into a type of flatbread, upon which various fruits, nuts, and vegetables are placed. Cornmeal can also be added to boiling water in order to make dhindo, a staple food of the lower classes. Corn, lima beans, and squash make up the bulk of Tengu cuisine, with at least one of these being served with every meal. Lentils, rice, sunflower seeds, beechnuts, hazelnut, walnuts, chestnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, peanuts, onion, cucumber, potato, rhubarb, cabbage, carrots, turnips, pumpkins, parsnips, and rutabagas are also quite common. Spices such as garlic, black pepper, parsley, sage, and nutmeg are also quite common. A peanut, apple, rhubarb, tomato, cucumber, or yogurt-based sauce may also be poured onto food. Common fruits include apples, blueberries, cranberries, plums, grapes, tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, and elderberries.   Tengu are, as a rule, incredibly lactose intolerant, so milk and cheese are not found within their food. Likewise, "ghee" (clarified butter), which has almost no lactose, is preferred in Tengese cuisine. As they cannot drink milk, alcohol is the primary drink of the race, though, admittedly, the native Tengese liquors are fairly poor, so most Tengu enjoy beers and ciders imported from elsewhere. Tea, of course, is also commonly enjoyed.   Due to their build and biology, Tengu only need to eat twice a day, although they will often take a social meal on weekend afternoons. Bihānakō Khājā (Breakfast) is the first meal of the day and is usually made up of some corn flatbread with fried potatoes, and perhaps some sliced bread with jam. Tea is usually served alongside breakfast. Bhōja (Dinner) is held in the evening after the day's work is done, and is made up of a hearty plate of vegetables and nuts, and usually a corn flatbread.

Most Tengu live within the Prefecture of Zingitar (the native Tengese word being Zanja, although the word "Zingitar" has become more and more common as a way of rejecting nationalism), one of the two that make up the Imperial Union State. Even if a Tengu lives within the Western Reach Autonomy (which is technically part of Sakarzor) they live within what is called a Nesting Ground. This is a tract of land, comparable in size to a county or so, over which a Great Flock rules. While in other societies, an individual rules over the land, a Tengese Great Flock (a noble family) owns it in common. Some members of the family will run the tax system, some will oversee agriculture, others will handle the infrastructure, so on, so forth. Of course, female members of the Flock are not often given jobs, but that's just how things are.   In days past, the Flocks would rule over the citizens of a Nesting Ground in a feudal system, but those days are long past. Now, they simply bind them to the land via the same sharecropping system common in the rest of the Empire. While the new Empire has given sharecroppers greater rights and protections, it is still an inherently exploitative structure meant to keep the common folk down.

Like most, the Tengu use a very simple naming system of a given name and a patrilineal surname. Some examples of male Tengese names are "Pradeep Karkee" or "Yadunath Jhapali" and some examples of female Tengese names are "Reeti Timsina" or "Saroja Banskota".   After the Great Flocks became a proper political force, their members would adopt House names and the nobiliary particle of "kō". For example, a nobleman's name might be something like "Nandan kō Manandhar" and a noblewoman's name might be something like "Ajeeta kō Bhagat".   Tengese Noble Titles   Priphēkṭa: Prefect
Jamindāra: Lord, the title for an individual belonging to a Great Flock

Tengese society has been a patriarchy from almost its first days, and this has hardly changed in the modern era. Women are seen as something to be protected by their male counterparts, and as such it is quite taboo for them to not be accompanied by a man, to engage in vices, or to do non-agricultural, physical work. Tengese women do not often wear the Trinitist headdress common in other places of the world, but they do take the Cult's teachings on the place of a woman seriously. Men, on the other hand, must be hard-working, but not stoic. Emotion and kindness are at the center of Tengese society, so stoicism and rugged individualism are looked down upon in this community valuing society.

While the Great Flocks still practice arranged marriages, they have fallen out of favor elsewhere. Whether arranged or not, marriage celebrations in the Tengese lands are huge. To propose the marriage, the Tengu man will present his loved one with a ring, and then the two will begin to plan the wedding. Traditionally, Tengese weddings are held in the local Church, right at the altar, with the rings being placed upon it. Incense is spread around the room as the pair say their vows. After they are done, the entirety of those in attendance (usually the friends and extended family of the bride and the groom) will pray for their marriage, before the Vicar sprinkles dirt upon the rings before placing them on the fingers of the married couple, officially blessing and approving their marriage.   What follows is usually a few hours of feasting and games, with toasts abound. Oftentimes, the celebration will happen in the church itself, but post-wedding celebrations in the summer are often celebrated outside. At the end of the party, the bride and groom will shatter their drinking cups (usually made out of glass for the ceremony) in order to symbolize the beginning of a new life together before being presented gifts by the guests.

The Prefecture of Zingitar is incredibly advanced due to its kind geography and the fact that it has the most important ports of the Empire within its borders. The Prefecture has all the trappings of a modern country, and consistently stays near the top where living standards are concerned, although the system of sharecropping prohibits the people from reaching the heights they otherwise could.

Tengu speak a language known as "Tengese" which is in essence real-life Nepali. This language uses an alphabetical system of writing known as "Runic", which utilizes 40 letters to form words and phrases, with the letters themselves looking quite like those used in the real-life Deseret Alphabet.

The Tengu have an incredibly interesting cultural quirk that is not replicated elsewhere. While businesses and private property are greatly respected, the Tengu have no concept of personal property. The race deeply values community, and those in your community let you borrow. As such, Tengu will often take things from each other without asking, although they will almost always give it back as soon as they don't need it anymore. This is seen as completely normal and is encouraged by society, as you would not want to be caught denying a community member assistance. However, there are some limitations to this rule. Borrowing from members of the Great Flocks is forbidden (as it is said they do enough for the community already), and borrowing things that someone else intends to sell is likewise forbidden. In line with this, if you borrow money, you have to pay back whoever you borrowed it from with a greater amount than what you took. Aside from this, anything can be borrowed, be it tools, jewelry, llamas, or most anything else. Of course, all Tengu belong to the same community, but issues arise when they travel to other Prefectures of the Empire. This idea of borrowing is not shared by their brothers, the Dwarves, who will get quite angry if "borrowed" from. As such, the governments of both Prefectures have taken strides to prevent these sorts of incidents, but they do still arise.   While they do value community, Tengu are also quite materialistic, which may sound paradoxical, but really is not. Personal wealth is a sign of the community's wealth, and showing off that wealth is showing off the community's wealth. As such, adorning yourself in the shiny things the Tengu love so is not at all a sin, but is instead a show of your community and all it has done for itself.   Social events are, of course, very important to the race. Every Third-Day, after church services, close friends will gather in one of their homes for an afternoon meal known as an "adda". The men of the group will sit at the table and converse over tea, fruits, nuts, and bread. The women and children will be sent outside or into another room during this, where they will have their own adda. The event is incredibly beloved by the Tengu, who can hold adda that go on for hours at a time.

While their feathers can insulate them good enough, the Tengu, in line with Trinitist modesty, will cover themselves up. Neither gender wears pants due to complications with their talons, and shirts are not used either due to their large wings. Male Tengu can often be found wearing a dhoti, a type of long fabric that is tied around the waist that has checkered patterns. A dhoti is knotted in the front or back so tightly that it, at a glance, resembles a type of loose pants rather than a sarong. Men of the lower classes will, traditionally, not wear any upper garment. While they have nothing to cover up there, influenced by Trinitist modesty, women will wear both an upper and a lower garment. On their upper body, they will wear a phulkari shawl going over both their shoulders and covering the stomach, over which they wear a sari, a type of long drape that is wrapped around the waist and thrown over one of their shoulders. In addition to this, they will wear a ghagra, a type of pleated skirt. Most men will also wear some sort of decorative ring or bracelet, while women prefer necklaces.   Of course, upper-class Tengu have the same problems with the clothing of other races that their lower-class counterparts do. Male, well-to-do Tengu will cover up their upper body, as they often deal with those of other races who have taboos against shirtlessness. To this end, they will wear shalwars, wide, baggy, heavily embroidered garments that go down to the knees. Slits are cut at the back of the shirt, though due to the size of the race's wings, they are very uncomfortable, owing to why they are only worn by the upper crust while in public and why most Tengu do not wear them at all. Under the shalwar, men will wear silk dhotis with embroidered borders. Likewise, upper-class Tengu women will wear a "choli", a blouse-like thing with slits for their wings (unlike the real-life version, the choli of the Tengu covers the midriff), along with a lehenga, a heavily embroidered ankle-length skirt, and a large Kashmir shawl. Both sexes will also drown themselves in jewelry of all sorts.

Houses And Architecture
Most rural Tengu live in Uthland-Frisian style houses, long buildings made of brick or wood with a thatched roof. No matter what the wall is made of, there is internal framing made of wood. These houses also have gabled entrances to prevent burning thatch falling in the way of the door in the event of a fire, and also often have half-doors both in entrances to the house and entrances into rooms.   Most within the cities of the Prefecture live in towering high apartments and squished together bungalows. Tengu urban buildings tend to be built high instead of wide. Skyways connect the heights, and stairs are very seldom used (not just in the city, but everywhere), and instead, different levels are connected by open areas with ample room to fly. However, to accommodate other races, the more cosmopolitan buildings include small stairways.   Music And Art
As a passerine (songbird) species, it is no surprise that the Tengu have a great love of music, so much so that other art forms have historically taken a back seat. Interestingly, in addition to singing in spoken word, Tengu often utilize avian vocalizations within their songs. While such vocalizations have no real tangible meaning, they are incredibly beautiful and serve more of an instrumental role than a vocal one. Most Tengese folk songs are incredibly fast-paced and designed to be danced to, although more contemplative religious songs also hold prominence. Speaking of instruments, some common Tengese instruments are rattles, water drums, courting flutes, dhyāngro, dholak, panche baja, aarbajo, golki, sitars, sarangi, ransingha, bansuri, ghyaling, and sahane.   Sports And Games
Although Tengu are fairly physically frail, at least on average, rugby remains the most popular sport in the country. Aerial Races are very common and are practically just regular races, except using wings, and are often set in forests for some extra challenge. Field lacrosse is also incredibly popular. Amongst the nobility, cricket is preferred.   Funerary Traditions
When it is believed that a Trinitist is dying, they are brought with haste to the local Church, specifically a secluded and comfortable basement room. There, while doctors care for them, the Church's Vicar will pray with them and the dying Trinitist will give their "last rites" to the Vicar. This last rite comes in the form of a poem that the individual made beforehand and now recites, professing their piety and humility for what might be the last time. If the Trinitist does indeed die, they will then be washed by the family, wrapped in red cloth that covers all but the head and hands, then buried in a stone casket within church property, under earth that has been prayed over by the Vicar. While the body is being buried, the individual's family will often watch over it, singing a prayer for their soul and leaving small gifts by the headstone. However, if the Trinitist does not die after professing their last rites, they must be held to the promises made in their last rites.   If a Trinitist dies suddenly or is unable to make it to the Church and perform their last rites before they die, they are buried with their last rites folded under the head of the burial cloth.   Philosophy
Since the 2nd Century E.D., the Tengu have been under the thumb of another power, be it the Dracons or the Dwarves, and it is only now that they stand on equal footing with the Dwarven race. This has given them a strong sense of community and culture, but that does not mean they wish to conquer and destroy all others. The average Tengu wishes to cooperate with other cultures while maintaining his own culture at home, as the race has never really known freedom. All it knows is the cooperation, both internally and externally, but this is not always a good thing. When they were oppressed by the Dracons, they did not once revolt, and now that they are under the Dwarves, they have fully embraced the Empire. Admittedly, though, this may be a good thing, as the Tengu now stand on equal footing with the Sakarzori Dwarves, who they see as brothers. This feeling is more than reciprocated, and it is unlikely that a Tengu-Dwarven union, made not of iron, but of love, will be broken.

Offensive Slurs And Insults
Slurs for the Tengu include "Birdbrains", "Caw-Caws", "Chickens", "Featherfaces", and "Hollowbones".   Tengu often refer to other races as "Bareskins" and "Grounded Ones".   Cultural Taboos
Perhaps the greatest taboo within Tengese society is borrowing something and never returning it. This is seen as a horrible violation of a community's trust, and there is only one proper punishment for it: to clip the offender's wings. Those who steal, murder, or commit another incredibly heinous crime have their wings clipped, as the power of flight is an incredible source of pride for the race. To be denied that pride is nothing short of the greatest humiliation. Due to their natural frailty, fighting without a good cause or if it can be avoided is also looked down upon sharply, after all, the Tengu have always valued dialogue and reason over senseless violence.

Horses are not native to Western Sahul, but luckily, Tengu are light enough to ride llamas. Of course, they could just fly everywhere, but flying is quite tiring due to their size, especially if they have to carry things. All and all, a llama with a cart is much more efficient and can help with other stuff, such as farming.   The Tengese and Dwarven races are brother peoples, their history permanently intertwined as the Ancient Empire fell around them. But, some Dwarves do not see the Tengu as partners, but as traitors. Indeed, many within the Montanakan Republic (a Dwarven state through and through) despise the Tengu, for they, by and large, led the Loyalist resistance against secessionist nationalism and, later, Republican revolution. This feeling does not go both ways, though, the Tengu much preferring to bide their time and wait for the day the Republic will be torn down than to bluster and bluff about "burying the reactionaries".