The Carvax

 

Having covered the two species largely unique to Kreos Phal we move to the southern continent for the first of two species from that continent, the Carvax.

Who are the Carvax?  They are one of the engineered races of the setting, so share some similarities with the Trollkin and Mageborn Jotun; but they also differ in some key ways.  First the origins of the Carvax are a group of mages who performed a ritual on themselves.  It is unclear if the ritual went exactly as they intended, as some versions of their creation story suggest that several of the mages died during the ritual.  The ritual occurred a little over 1200 years ago, and the exact date isn’t exactly known.

This ritual transformed the mages into hybrids of a raven like bird and humans.  They are shorter than the average human, averaging 5 feet tall, and their bodies are covered in feathers.  They have six limbs, two wings, two arms and two legs.  They can fly, though most Carvax can’t carry more than a few pounds while flying or fly for more than about an hour without a break; that being said, a Carvax who significantly trains and practices flying can majorly improve both how much they can carry while flying and how long they can fly for.  They have short beaks and very human eyes.  They are thought to have excellent eyesight and hearing but weak sense of smell.

Their feathers have many different colours, though one Carvax only has feathers of one colour, which appear to generally be inherited from one’s ancestors from white and grey, to black and brown, though red feathered Carvax tend to appear at random before being claimed by the cult of Kalthandos, the god of assassins.  Few of the Carvax know or want to know what use the cult has for so many of their kind.  Different regions tend to have different distributions of feather colours.

They can live to about 70 but many of them, especially in less civilised areas don’t live much past 50.  They have multiple children in one birth, on average 3 but it can rarely be as high as 7.  Single births are also rare, but often considered to be destined for great things.  Oddly, for reasons that no one can really explain, single birth Carvax are the most likely to mages by far.  Only one child from a birth is ever red feathered.  Generally Carvax live in single family homes rather than extended ones though they also generally live close to relatives.  When possible however they will always cluster their homes together, so in rural farming areas you will find several homes together where several farms border each other.

Carvax are very adaptable and can live in nearly any climate except extreme cold and their communities can be found all over the southern continent in the mountains, deserts, plains and jungles.  They tend to deliberately build their settlements, when possible, in places that are challenging for non-flying creatures to reach, so built up the sides of a steep valley, or in the top of huge trees in the jungle.  Sometimes when they share communities with other species, they will basically have different districts, so the carvax will live in houses built on ledges of a cliffside while the others live above or below them.

When Carvax fight or hunt, they try to use their flying to give themselves advantages, often preferring to fight from range when possible.  They do understand that they cannot always avoid hand to hand combat however and have plenty of warriors and town watch that are trained melee fighters.  Their wings can make it difficult for them to fight in tight ranks so they often chose fighting styles that favour more loose ranks.  In combined armies with humans or other sentients they generally serve as skirmishers and scouts along with ranged and magical support.

They almost never ride horses or other creatures, though they still used beasts of burden for ploughing fields or transporting bulk goods over long distances.  Such creatures are less common than in human settlements.  They will herd basically any animals that produce enough meat or milk to be worth herding.

Carvax don’t generally wear traditional clothes, but do wear things that function like tool belts, linked pouches and backpacks.  A Carvax smith for example would wear a leather apron to avoid getting burned while working, many of them wear gloves to avoid damaging their hands while working.

Carvax tend to keep many birds in their settlements and some Carvax who otherwise do not demonstrate magical abilities can communicate with birds, some of them seem to speak to them in a language spoken by no sentient culture, while others can do it telepathically.  It seems like they can have detailed conversations with birds, both getting information from them and giving relatively complex directions to them.  Sometimes they can even get birds to attack their enemies.

Other than Kalthandos who they tend to fear as much as worship, they frequently worship Barban the god of farming, Zartu, the god of smithing and tinkering and Horin, the god of magic.  Wealthy Carvax tend to have small shrines in their homes, and even the smallest and poorest hamlets will have some kind of shrine, often open air.

They love shiny things, and any Carvax of means, male or female, will wear jewellery made of shiny metal and precious gems.  These can be bracelets, necklaces, amulets, rings and torcs to name a few.  They seem to value pretty colours more than rarity for gems so much of their jewellery uses coloured glass, as long as the Carvax knows what they are buying and believe the price is fair there will be no issue with that.

What do you think about the Carvax?  Are there elements of them that you wish I had covered in more detail?  After the Carvax there are still two species to cover, the Bratun and the Farkember of the Wilds of the West.