Worldbuilding: Creating a Fantasy Race | Avian-human Biology and Genetics
Hey, so sorry for the hiatus. I am moving. I’ve finished moving out of my house, and I’m
closing on it tomorrow actually, and I have two weeks until I close on the new house. So in the
meantime, my sewing stuff is all packed so I can’t make anything, I have footage for sewing videos,
but just I haven’t been able to focus on them. The only thing I’ve felt like doing was art,
so I figured, you know, it’s been a long time since I did a worldbuilding video,
let’s do that. But don’t worry, regular sewing content will resume shortly.
Today I wanted to tell you about another race on my world, an Avian-human crosspieces. I have
a LOT of ideas for different ethnic groups that could be within this species, combining different
birds with different cultures and different biomes, but to start with, I’ll tell you about
the group I’ve spent the most time developing. This group lives in an open prairie, much like
the American Western Plains. It is fairly dry, with hot summers and cold winters. They are a
nomadic people, following regular migration routes in small familial groups, let’s say between 25 and
50 people each. They hunt during the spring, summer, and fall, and spend the winter months
in centralized towns and villages. For bird, I wanted something small and mostly brown.
Something ordinary looking. This particular group is not meant to be super special or powerful or
cool. Just people living their lives on their own land. I was originally thinking sparrows or wrens,
but a couple years ago I started raising Coturnix Quail, and I found that they are just amazingly
beautiful little birds, in very subtle ways. While brown is the most common color to find them in,
there are countless variations. And the thing I find most striking about them, is that they almost
all have the same feather pattern, no matter what color they are. They have v-shaped ribbing, with
long, stark white streaks. Even this bird of mine, which I originally thought to be plain white,
does have the same pattern. It’s just in the faintest possible creamy silver.
So I thought it would be cool to make this race based off of coturnix, and use coturnix color
variation to spice up the individuals. For now I’m calling this people Quaalyon, though I think that
name is a bit on-the-nose, and I’ll probably change it once I think of something better.
But let’s talk biology and body type. The wings would be anchored to their shoulder blades,
with the adjoining muscles, tendons, and skin extending to a point about at the waistline.
A wingspan twice the length of their height would make for a good mid-sized set of wings,
though this might vary between different ethnic groups, with wing size and shape reflecting their
lifestyles and flying capabilities, whether they be fast flyers, have greater endurance,
be strong and capable of carrying greater loads, or quick with optimized maneuverability. In
order to support and operate these wings, the Quaalyon have very broad, muscular shoulders,
with great muscle mass centered at the shoulders, upper back, and chest. They would also have great
core strength, and their thighs and legs would be powerful for sprinting and jumping, but not great
at any kind of long-distance. Overall, this will make for a fairly triangular body type.
Wide shoulders, a narrow waist, tight glutes and thighs, but relatively thin arms and legs.
Hair and eye color correspond with their wing coloration. Men typically wear their hair
in a single tight braid down the back. Women twist their braid up into a bun,
which could be done more elaborately for special occasions. I’ve always loved the
description in Artemis Fowl of “nut brown”, although I don’t exactly know what it means.
I always pictured it as medium brown skin, with yellow undertones, rather than red or blue.
I want to address clothing quickly, because I haven’t fully fleshed out their clothing,
and that’s not really what this video is about. But they need to wear something,
goshdarnit. Avian people are one of my oldest fictional race fascinations, and I’ve swung many
different directions over the years of what I think they should be like, and look like,
and what they should wear. But for a while now I’ve been drawn to the idea of fitted leather
leggings. This particular group, the Quaalyon, are an isolated people with little access to trade and
materials other than what hunting provides. So for them, soft, flexible, fine sueded leather leggings
would be perfect. A pair could be cut from two antelope hides, and laced up the outside, allowing
for better fit and greater flexibility. Underwear such as we wear would probably not be a thing, but
with fitted pants like this you’re going to want some kind of liner. So how about something roughly
hourglass shaped, with holes at each corner. The holes would line up with holes on the leggings,
and liners could be tied in, or switched out for cleaning however frequently you want. One more
issue though is that leather is not breathable, and the prairie climate can be quite hot in the summer.
However, the leather could be easily ventilated by perforating it, which is a common thing to
see in leather, and has been used historically. The perforation could be simple and functional,
or it could be done by punching in elaborate patterns. One thing I really want to focus on
is how much detail you can incorporate, using the simplest possible tools and materials.
Now for the tops, special consideration will need to be given to the closures,
as the wings will make need for a unique system. But more on that later. The tops could be quite
simple, sewn from leather. They could be laced up at the shoulders and connect in the back with
a t-strap between the wings. For the women, a simple drawstring could add a bit of bust support.
However this is very plain and way more basic than I want. I’ve been thinking for a while about
how they could create texture by taking leather cords and weaving or knotting them into a garment.
Then I saw macrame. And it’s just perfect. So, Quaalyon tops are made by taking leftover bits
of leather, and cutting them into spirals. The spirals are then stretched out, forming long
cords. The Quaalyon have particular patterns they follow to knot the cords together, patterns that
might vary by group or be passed down in families. Ivory beads and carved ivory medallions might be
woven into the designs, and those beads could be colored using natural plant dyes. The shirts
will typically feature a collar, often elaborate and beaded. To emphasize their flight strength,
and suitability as a hunting partner, both men and women wear elaborate shoulder caps,
heavily beaded and embellished. The designs would be most elaborate around the shoulders, and for
women the shirts would be woven a bit denser and tighter over the chest. They would often
be edged with thick fringe and extra tassels, to catch and dance in the wind as they fly. The
shirts would close with ties at the back. Usually, women’s shirts feature a slit in the back-neck,
and tie closed there and underneath each wing. Men’s shirts have a slit in the front neck,
but also tie closed at the base of the wings. Men’s shirts are usually looser fitting,
while women’s are a bit tighter, with strategic cording for bust support. If the women had
problems with the shirt gapping at the sides of their wings, the edges could be stabilized by
weaving in a couple boned strips, either made from wood, ivory, or bound bundles of their own quills.
While this provides minimal support, I think that these women would tend to have smaller busts.
Two reasons: one, the dense muscles in their chest would lend towards lower body fat,
therefore a smaller bust. And the other reason, is that I think their childbearing would be much more
spaced out than human’s. Ewa mentioned in one of her Worldbuilding videos, I can’t remember
which one, that historically hunter-gatherer women had much fewer children than say farmers would,
typically only conceiving once every 3-4 years. I think it would work similarly here. And I think
that, because it takes several years for children to learn to fly, and even longer
before their wings have grown enough for them to keep up on long migration routes, so the parents
would need to carry them frequently. This means that two parents could not easily care for more
than two small children at a time, so even having a child every 3-4 years would be a lot to manage.
And while we’re on this bunny trail, let’s talk about wing development! Babies are born
with wings, but the wings are proportionally tiny, cherubic even, with fluffy, downy feathers, each
wing about half the length of their body. At about age two they begin to fledge, and the feathers
don’t finish growing in until age 6. However, the wings are still not fully developed. So while a
6 year old might begin learning to fly, they will have lower endurance until their wingspan catches
up to their height, which happens about age 12. At age 15, they are considered young-adults,
and at this point they often leave their parent’s migration flock, joining another. They will spend
the rest of their teenage years jumping between different flocks, and this stage will typically
last until one of three things happens. Either they tire and miss their family, returning to
their home flock. Or they find a new flock, make friends, and settle. Or they marry. This is good,
and encouraged. It helps the teenagers learn who they are, independent of their immediate families,
and how to take care of themselves, and how to make themselves valuable to a flock. They
have the chance to explore other lands and territories. And, most important
in a society of small family-groups, it helps to keep the gene pool circulating.
Alright, let’s get back to clothes. You know, I was actually almost done.
This is a summer look. Bare feet would be helpful for gripping as you took off or
landed. But in the winter, warmer clothes and shoes would be necessary. Perhaps fur-lined,
or as someone on instagram suggested, padded with down. But we’ll get to that another time.
They are not very fond of jewelry, however earrings are significant. The only earrings
they wear are the fangs of the Nash-diotsoh, which young Quaalyon earn through a hunt,
establishing themselves as warriors. The earrings cannot be passed on, sold, or traded,
and it is very taboo to wear the fangs of an animal you did not battle yourself. Therefore it
is mostly only men who wear earrings, and a woman who wore them would be considered fierce indeed.
Now, let’s talk about wing coloration. I’ve made charts. I did my best to illustrate the
patterning on coturnix wings, with the long white streaks, the v-shapped ribbing. Also worth noting,
one of the ways to tell the male and female coturnix apart, is that females will often have
patterned feathers across their chest. Males will have smooth colors, often white or cream.
But that is consistent in other parts of the bird world. Males will be bright and showy, and females
will be dull. This does have practical function. The females have better camouflage, allowing them
to blend in and protect the nest, while the males will be flashy, allowing them to draw predators’
attention away from the nest. It’s a bit contrary to how humans think of male and female, but I like
it. This will probably be more useful with other Avian races, but for the Quaalyon, I’ll bring that
smooth or patterned feathering to the undersides of their wings. The primary feathers will be
lighter, as you’ll be seeing their undersides, but the upper feathers give me some room to play. I
think the females will have a stark contrasting pattern, and the males will have smooth colors.
Now for the color schemes of coturnix, in life, there are many, many, many variations.
But I find it useful to limit myself. I have a Brown, based off Wild coturnix. I have Goldens,
based off Italian coturnix. These will probably be the most common colors. But there are also
Dark Brown wings, based off Tibetan coturnix. And Charcoals, based off Falb Fee coturnix. Scarlets,
based off of Scarlet coturnix. And Silvers, based off of Snowy coturnix.
These 6 variations make up the core of Quaalyon colorations. But wait, there’s more. Avian races
tend not to intermarry between each other, but within the Quaalyon flocks, wing coloration is
no different than hair color, and intermarrying can produce all sorts of unique patterns,
though solid colors are the dominant gene. For example, say you have a Brown father
and a Golden mother. You will have a 30% chance of being a Brown yourself, and a 30%
chance of taking after your mother and being a Golden. But you will have a potential for
your parents colors to mix, either a 25% chance of a smooth blend between the colors, or a 15%
chance of a speckled pattern, incorporating both. Let’s say you are a Golden/Brown Speckled male,
and you marry a Scarlet. This is where things begin to get interesting. Your children will still
have a 30% chance of taking after their mother, and being solid Scarlets. Because colors speckling
and blending are a recessive trait, they will only have a 10% chance of inheriting your Golden/Brown
Speckled pattern. But they will have a 10% chance of taking after your Brown father, and
a 10% change of taking after your Golden mother. They might be blended, with a 9% chance of being
a Scarlet/Golden blend, and a 9% chance of being a Scarlet/Brown blend. They will only have a 5%
chance of being a smooth blend between your wife’s scarlet colors and your speckled pattern.
On the speckled spectrum, they have a 7% chance of showing a Scarlet/Golden speckled pattern,
and a 7% chance of showing a Scarlet/Brown speckled pattern. They will only have a
3% chance of speckling your original pattern with scarlet. So in all, though you are mixed
and show two color lines, your children will have a 50% chance of showing one solid color,
be it scarlet, brown, or golden. Though you are speckled, they will only have a 26% chance
of showing a speckled pattern. They will have a 16% chance of showing a smooth two-color blend.
And they will only have an 8% chance of showing all three color lines from their heritage.
The same rules would also apply if you were a Golden-Brown blend, and you married a Silver.
Your children would be only slightly more likely to show a blended coloring. But what if you were a
child of two parents with multi-color patterning? You might take after one of your parents,
or have an interesting new mixture, but you would be just as likely to take after one of
your solid grandparents. The more mixed the genes become, the weaker they are against a dominant
solid color pattern. Having a child that shows a mixture of two colors would be fairly common,
but the chances of showing a unique mixture of three or more colors would be rare.
Obviously genetics are way more complicated than that, if you count recessive traits
within the solid individuals, and if you count the mild dominance of, say brown over silver.
However, the general trend would be for genes to revert back to solid whenever possible.
So blended or speckled patterns, though beautiful and unique, would constantly be trying to
eliminate themselves from the population, which would further incentivize young people to mix the
gene pool when pairing off. They would be more likely to be attracted to partners with a color
pattern different from their own, hoping for a speckled baby or a rare color blend, which would
be a significant beauty factor in such a culture. Okay, that is all I have for you right now.
Let’s do it again sometime. In the meantime, I have 3 sewing videos worth of footage I
need to get through, so, we’ll see. Oh, and I buy my hatching eggs from My Shire Farms,
which I will link below if you are interested in quail. And feel free to correct me in the
comments on my very simplistic understanding of genetics. It’s not that I don’t care,
it’s just that I’m just very limited as to how much I care about perfect, scientific accuracy
in my completely fictional, made-up world. You know how it goes. So… thanks! Bye!