Valley of the Vulture

|| 18 • holothere ⚓︎Δ (Gypaetus barbatus barbatus) • he/it • artist & writer || ailiye.carrd.co

[e-li-ye]

¶ Intro

× Last updated Jun 05 2026 @ 7:10 PM

That's me.

Names >> Elliot / Ailiye / Eliye / any other transliteration of "Elliot" if you so please

Pronouns >> he/it exclusively.

Gender >> trans male, [link>] gendergeier geierboy

Theriotype >> Eurasian bearded vulture (holothere), my only theriotype.

Hearttypes >> bald eagle, snowy owl, red sprite (transient luminous event), kokanee, giant siphonophore (Praya dubia) (in order of importance or connection, from most to least)

Other >> I am indigenous (Shawnee) and I practice tengrism and the traditional Shawnee spirituality.

I am literally a bearded vulture. I use avian vivterms, but I don't really mind being called a person, however I prefer being called a bird. I am permanently shifted and as such I often display birdlike mannerisms. I am typing this with my talons right now.

I use the term transspecies because I am also transsex and my dysphoria has an overlap with both identities. Yes, that means I do experience both gender and species dysphoria. It hurts a lot and I do post about it so be warned if you find that triggering.

I know that therianthropy isn't limited to gear and such but I do love it. It makes me more comfortable in my skin.

I often post art here. It's mostly self portraits because that helps to ease the dysphoria too, but I also draw other things. Like birds. Lots of birds.

Very, very anti-endo, anti-radqueer, anti-transID and anything adjacent to those. Read my carrd (in bio) for DNI. That's important.

Gypaetus barbatus ssp. holothere & transspecies flags + userboxes by me ^

[e-li-ye]

gendergeier - definition and flags below the cut. long-ish coining post

umbrella definition: a gender that is experienced in the same way as a bearded vulture might experience gender. it can be considered non-binary.

gendergeier umbrella flag:

[image id: a rectangular flag with nine stripes. the center stripe is a thin white bar. the upper four stripes are a gradient ranging from pale red to pale yellow. the lower four stripes are all gray-red, with the upper of those being light gray-red and having a gradient to dark gray-red. this is the gendergeier umbrella flag. end id]

geiergenderless definition: a gender that is genderless, agender, or nonexistent in the same way that a bearded vulture might experience gender, as nonhuman animals do not have the same social constructs as humans do.

geiergenderless flag:

[image id: a rectangular flag with nine stripes. the center stripe is a thin white bar. the upper four stripes are a gradient ranging from pale red to pale yellow. the lower four stripes are all gray-purple, with the upper of those being light gray-purple and having a gradient to dark gray-purple. this is the geiergenderless flag. end id]

geiergirl definition: a gender that is female or feminine-aligned in the same way a bearded vulture might experience femininity or femaleness, as nonhuman animals do not have the same social constructs as humans.

geiergirl flag:

[image id: a rectangular flag with nine stripes. the center stripe is a thin white bar. the upper four stripes are a gradient ranging from pale red to pale yellow. the lower four stripes are all gray-pink, with the upper of those being light gray-pink and having a gradient to dark gray-pink. this is the geiergirl flag. end id]

geierboy definition: a gender that is male or masculine-aligned in the same way a bearded vulture may experience maleness or masculinity, as nonhumans do not have the same social constructs as humans.

geierboy flag:

[image id: a rectangular flag with nine stripes. the center stripe is a thin white bar. the upper four stripes are a gradient ranging from pale red to pale yellow. the lower four stripes are all gray-blue, with the upper of those being light gray-blue and having a gradient to dark gray-blue. this is the geierboy flag. end id]

flag meaning: the upper four stripes are simply representative of common colors that bearded vultures dye their feathers. the lower four are grayish to continue that, but the geiergenderless, geiergirl, and geierboy flags have dramatically tinted lower stripes to represent the gender experiences tied to them. the lower four stripes are related to increasing (read bottom to top) or decreasing (read top to bottom) connection to the gender the respective flags describe. the white bar or stripe represents an empty spot where species and gender can meet and go hand-in-hand.

the name "gendergeier" comes from the German word for bearded vultures, Bartgeier (or Lämmergeier), and the root "Geier" was chosen because it relates directly to the bird. this term was coined with holotheres, transspecies folk, and plutoids in mind, as i am a transspecies holothere/plutoid, but anyone outside that can use them.

these terms are meant to be inherently anti-radqueer. if this term has been coined before, consider these flags and definitions to be alternative versions of it. feel free to base your own flags and terms off these ones.

[e-li-ye]

Hihi !! We stumbled across ur blog n wanna say u seem super duper cool !! We love ur art n hope u have a pawsome day >:3

aww thanks :> so glad y'all like my art!!

have a good day and don't explode!

[e-li-ye]

[image id: a cartoonish drawing of a bearded vulture playing in a bowl. he looks quite happy to be there. the caption reads "'get a job' nope im playing in da bowl". the background is a flat gray field. signed "ailiye". end id]

drew myself playing in da bowl

[e-li-ye]

funny little self portraits

traditional sketch i based the digital one on

[image id: a traditional sketch of a bearded vulture looking at the viewer. he stands facing the left of the page he is drawn on. it is drawn in pencil and is a bit messy. end id]

and the digital one

[image id: a somewhat cartoonish digital portrait of a bearded vulture with unstained feathers. he looks at the viewer while standing facing the left of the canvas. the background is a blue sky with white clouds. end id]

i like the traditional one a lot better ;-; his eyes and mouth are shaped better i think but the digital one is good too i guess

[e-li-ye]

when u r mean to me this is who ur being mean to ok,,.

this is me

[e-li-ye]

i want to get off my meds because they make me ridiculously tired and they're over the top expensive but ik i will never be stable so whatever i guess fuckkkkkk

[e-li-ye]

my funy creature

[image id: a vaguely humanoid creature with fur and a reptilian face and horns. it has black and white fur and yellow eyes. it stands in a neutral pose with its head down while side-eyeing the viewer. its name, Akar-il, is written in fancy Alnilamese script at the left. end id]

i think it's easy to tell who my favorite alien oc is lol. totally not this one

anyway i have a new lore piece on unvale for this species

Achernarsaurus sp. (link)

[e-li-ye]

happy 100th birthday to Sir David Attenborough! thank you Sir for your kindness to our planet and its creatures and for being its most trusted voice for so long.

[e-li-ye]

some critter designs, Achernarsaurus sp.

[image id: a drawing of two bust portraits of reptilian aliens with furred bodies and bald faces. the one on the left has four red eyes total, is gray, and has pointed ears. he faces the left of the canvas. the other, on the right, has ram-like horns, yellow eyes, and a black and white color scheme. it faces the right of the canvas. in the top right quadrant is a size comparison between a six-feet-tall human and one of these aliens, which towers over the human. end id.]

on the left is Azghul-an and on the right is Akar-il. i have redesigned these two a quadrillion times over the past three or so years and i think im finally satisfied. probably never gonna change them again lol

yes i am making a conlang for their species. also credits to my boyfriend for Akar-il's species name (A. ceratovenatrix) :>

as a rule both species are always digitigrade and upright bipeds with tails for balance. proportions may vary but they all have the same general body structure, with the fur and bald faces and long snouts. they come in all sorts of colors. only A. ceratovenatrix have horns, and only A. argentum have external ears and up to six eyes. they are omnivorous but largely prefer fish over anything else.

i love monsters i love drawing them they're so cool brotatos

[e-li-ye]

side profile practice piece im pretty proud of lol (my sona)

[image id: a drawing of a bearded vulture-like humanoid standing with his arms crossed facing the left of the canvas. he is wearing white pants and a white shirt with a dark gray poncho over it. the light points to the left, casting a shadow over his front. the background is a cloudy blue sky with a waning crescent moon in the top left. an alternative nonhuman symbol is overlaid on the background. end id]

i loved drawing this so much it was actually really fun once i knew what i was doing lol. i figured out that using guidelines when i draw side profiles is what messes me up, so i just wing it without guides and fix it as i go.

also yes i am investing in a poncho because they are like wings

[e-li-ye]

oh my goodness speaking of me 🥰 uhm

i would love to try making plushies. of like baby birds or something because those really dont exist unless you commission them from an artist. i can sew and draw and i can buy the materials. i just need to actually execute it. oh and more money i suppose

the only problem is, if i make a plushie and i get attached to it, i will probably forget about all of my other ones. which makes me sad when i remember. but to hell with that i want to make bird plush :>

[e-li-ye]

had a dream shift where i was a Balaur bondoc. what the flipflarp bro. stop it. just let me be a bearded vulture dont make me question ANYTHING else

[e-li-ye]

boyfriend introduced me to astralspiff. love this guys and his cat. i think his fans should be called beLOAFers. cuz cat. haha. im funy

[e-li-ye]

sort of a long post about my experiences with a particular aspect of bipolar 1–associated psychosis so be warned for lots of unreality talk, mentions of medication, mentions of violence, and maybe mildly unnerving imagery below the cut

ever since i was young — don't know exactly what age — but before i was ten years old, i had experienced psychotic symptoms like hallucinations and delusions ranging from "mild" to "severe". i now know that these are/were part of my complex post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar 1, but at the time it was all so real and terrifying. i would see figures, hear voices, and i felt like someone was watching me and out to get me. it got to a point where i was so paranoid that i would outright attack anyone who looked at me "funny", especially at school.

things got better eventually, although i don't know how or why. it seemed to fluctuate. however it all became the absolute worst starting at age 15 or so, when one voice named itself. it was the loudest one, so to speak, and it latched onto the Tsalagi word "utsonadi" (ᎤᏦᎾᏘ rattlesnake), and decided that was its name. i thought, "okay, you haven't done anything to hurt me, so i will just live with you." things were okay with this Utsonadi figure for a long time. in fact, it went out of its way to stop me from hurting myself and others or doing stupid things. i started to sort of cherish it and put it on a pedestal for protecting me.

everything went downhill with Utsonadi when i started consistently seeing it as an actual physical figure in my field of vision. it could look normal-ish, or it could look mildly terrifying, but for the most part everything was the same — its colors, its body type, its hair. the face would change and that would be it. it started to get aggressive when i began acknowledging it was "there". it became angry and jealous over my boyfriend, who it thought was there to "take over" as a protector.

Utsonadi eventually started getting straight up violent, in a way, and would constantly bombard me with visions of hurting my cats or urges to hurt my boyfriend. i know for a fact it was Utsonadi because it would always, without fail, try to push me into doing such things. of course i didn't. but it was hard, because it felt possessive and i often said its words as if it were speaking through me. i was going very deep into psychosis again, and i didn't very much realize it until i was prescribed new medication.

i started talking to my therapist and psychiatrist about Utsonadi. i came to the conclusion that it could have been an alter, specifically tied to other specified dissociative disorder 1 (OSDD 1b). i was wrong, but for a while i was left without proper explanation. then i got a new psychiatrist. she told me that i had been properly diagnosed with bipolar 1. i did research into it, and found it could cause psychosis. so, that is my explanation for Utsonadi.

everything stopped a few weeks after i started taking 3 milligrams of cariprazine (Vraylar). i don't know if i would be able to function without that medication. i'm really just glad it's all over. i'm not confused or scared anymore.

i still draw Utsonadi on rare occasions. i wrote it into my current project as an antagonist as well. i have a few portraits left of it.

these are both a bit old but still accurate nonetheless. i think that its more degraded appearance was heavily influenced by the amount of horror media i intook as a little kid.

[e-li-ye]

my stickers......... they are here,,

the littel guys

"darkest demon overlord great power" and it's just this thing

[e-li-ye]

i feel like this bald eagle is the best one I've ever drawn lmao

[image id: a digitally drawn portrait of a bald eagle. it faces the left side of the canvas but looks at the viewer. the background is a light blue sky with white clouds. end id]

i will probably make another version with the medicine wheel like i did for the last one...