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!