A Chi drake carrying a week old chick under his robes. He wears typical robes and headgear that supplement feathers for sun and heat protection, and shoes that protect against hot sands. His legs are almost entirely bare of feathers, a trait common only in the most genetically isolated desert qilik populations of the contemporary.
They are one of the many peoples of the region collectively known as the Deadlands, a massive area of desert stretching beneath the equator and trailing out into grassland and savannah in tropical latitudes of a southern continental mass. In the distant past, this region itself held grassland and open savannah and was predominantly inhabited by humans. It experienced rapid desertification over a couple thousand years due to a changing climate, and now vast swaths of the region are completely uninhabitable to large vertebrates. In the contemporary, the only sophont peoples to permanently dwell within its interior are qilik and some nomadically flying caelin.
The Chi are based around a settlement built upon the remains of an ancient human city and around its lake (once potable, now far too salty to drink or for agricultural uses). This salt lake, while not drinkable, supports the basis of the Chi's survival. They feed primarily on the massive swarms of brine flies that dominate the lakeshores, as well as brine shrimp. Parties of foragers venture beyond their home territory in search of other desert insects and reptiles, and forage the coasts and a few scattered oases. Of particular significance is the seasonal appearance of small, migratory wading birds that stop over at the lake to feed on flies and shrimp. This temporary abundance supplies the majority of their meat intake and is of great cultural significance.
They are in closest contact with the Sisisistse people, a collection of semi-nomadic qilik clans who establish themselves around the region's scattered oases and desert springs. A few Sisisistse clans are allies and trade partners to the Chi, but the majority are hostile due to a long history of territorial conflict and the brutal destruction of one clan by the Chi. The closest desert spring to Chi territory was once home to a Sisisistse clan, who, after trade relations decayed, were driven out by Chi warriors, with many of their number slaughtered. This spring is now a permanently occupied Chi outpost and frequently skirmished over.
They are one of few peoples of the vast Deadlands that have sustained and regular contact with the outside world via a few small coastal ports, where salts and a few rare dyes are traded with seafaring qilik peoples from outside the deserts (primarily for textiles- native textile sources are scarce).
Somewhat rarely among qilik people, the Chi place limited significance on gender roles, with drakes, hens, and faeder all performing most of the same tasks and living fully co-mingled lives. The sexual dimorphism of this population is substantially less dramatic than most qilik, to the point that they are imagined as a race of androgynes by many foreigners. Most individuals have bright red-orange plumage (derived from brine shrimp), which drakes emphasize via contrast with predominantly monochromatic garb. Drakes are still tasked with the majority of childrearing (as is nearly ubiquitous among qilik.)
A four month old qilik in the hands of an elowey caretaker, both of the Ulelilwa people of the western White Sea
Qilik have a relatively short period of helplessness after hatching and can run at a couple weeks of age, but take quite a while to moult into full feathering. This has no apparent survival benefit (and makes them physically needier) and is likely an indirect result of an extended infantile period during which complex language is rapidly acquired. A qilik chick generally will not have fully developed juvenile feathering until a year to a year and a half in age.
Qilik are the most phenotypically diverse sophont and have a massive degree of variation in coloration and feathering across and within populations. This is partly due to being composed of at least three ancestral species and multiple subspecies (mostly interfertile and widely hybridized), partly due to their extremely wide range and often isolated populations, and partly due to the significance of color and display features in mate selection (and varying and ever-changing cultural conventions of attractiveness).
(A few here display body modifications, namely clipped brow feathers and selective plucking. The most vivid orange and pink shades require carotenoid pigments derived from the diet)
A Nesi male showing off his brightly dyed cloak and hood to a partnered pair of prospective suitors (a hen and a faeder, these are not constructed as wholly separate genders by the Nesi), in hopes that he will be chosen to sire and raise their offspring.
Ornamentation that so thoroughly conceals a cock’s breeding plumage is relatively rare among qilik peoples. The exception here is due to the extreme significance of trade and mercantilism in this culture, resulting in a heavy prioritization of the quality of the costuming over the quality of one's own plumage. Colorful, high quality decoration emphasizes that a suitor comes from a wealthy family with secure trade connections, an ideal situation for one’s offspring to be raised in.
There is no permanent association between parents, rather the goal of this union is to best provide for the resulting offspring and to receive a hefty child price from the male suitor’s family (children of all sexes remain with the father’s family, and are effectively ‘bought’ by them.) The mother's family benefits from the money and goods received in this exchange, the father's family benefits from having additional children who will eventually provide labor and care for other family members.
This particular individual is of upper-middle class means, an especially rich mercantile family can afford more ornately woven robes with a greater variety of colors. The parts of the body deemed most attractive (the tail fan, the brow plumes, the seasonally bluish legs) are the only parts exposed. There is some intra-cultural division over whether even these parts should be exposed, as it is sometimes seen as a desperate or wanton diversion from a suitor being unable to afford more extravagant costuming.
Hens, faeder, and cocks all wear minimal clothing in day-to-day circumstances, with the exception of headdress (as seen here with the couple)
Nesi are a relatively genetically isolated population in spite of their significant trade relations, maintained partially by cultural resistance to reproduction with foreigners who do not share these customs. The population is distinguished by many individuals having naturally whitish and brown-gray feathering that acquires bright reddish pigmentation from a diet heavy in crustaceans.
There are eight distinct sophont genuses and/or species in the known world of the blightseed setting. above are examples of each to show overall difference in anatomy and size.
note- terms like 'genus' 'species' 'subspecies' have no meaning in-universe, and do not necessarily have a role in the formation of cultural groups and identity.
Yotici
Yotici are large marine grazers. Their place on the tree of life is an offshoot of very early fish, all of whos modern representatives live in alternating generations, with a sessile asexual stage that resembles a plant, and a long-living reproductive phase (shown here).
The sessile phase appears in the form of 'gardens' that grow from a seabed where eggs were lain. The reproductive phase begins when tiny yotici (yotlings) develop and emerge en-masse. Yotici do not actively protect yotlings until they begin to speak, and many will die within their first year. (though they provide passive protection by allowing their yotlings to school around them, and through the shielded garden environment)
Their sessile young, however, are closely guarded. Yotici are ecosystem engineers that modify their environments to protect their gardens. They build enclosed and controllable environments with coral, rocks, mangroves, shipwrecks, etc, in shallow waters. They manipulate their environment via their 'tentacles' (actually highly modified genitalia, very dextrous and present regardless of sex).
They have likely domesticated more species than any other sophont, both as an unintentional byproduct of their ecosystem engineering and through intentional breeding. Their most important domestic animal is the garden shark, a species of bullhead kept to protect their sessile young from predation by invertebrates and other small animals.
They primarily eat sea grasses, certain corals, kelp, and occasionally shellfish, crustaceans, and other small animals. They require large, healthy expanses of seagrass to be sustained, and will readily kill or drive away competition. They also take an aggressive stance towards predation, generally being highly aggressive until predators recognize them as a threat leave them alone. This includes encroaching landdwellers- yotici territories utilized by land dwellers are often sites of conflict. Peaceful coexistence in the same waters requires the creation and maintenance of treaties and pacts, historically rare due to difficulties in interspecies communication.
They have aesthetic sensibilities, and may decorate themselves by allowing barnacle growth, or via scarification.
Yotici exhibit no sexual dimorphism and near-ubiquitously do not construct gender. Their genitalia-arms no longer have a sexual function, and they reproduce via group spawning.
The most basic social unit of the yotici is the pod, related individuals who hatched in the same garden and maintain it throughout their lives.
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Human
Humans are upright bipedal apes. They are notable among midsized mammals for lacking protective fur, making them vulnerable to both sun exposure and the cold.
There is only one species of human, sole survivors of a once broad family of upright apes. Humans came into behavioral modernity as mobile plains dwelling hunter-gatherers- a highly efficient mode of living utilized to the present day. They are omnivores, capable of adapting to a wide variety of diets and thus a great variety of environments.
The first humans likely developed south of the now inhospitable equatorial Deadlands. Known contemporary populations exist mostly within the eastern and northern parts of the supercontinent.
Humans exhibit modest sexual dimorphism, less pronounced than other apes but with some unique display features such as permanent breasts and bright lips. They can reproduce year-round, and typically bear one child at a time. Childbirth is very dangerous, and many young and mothers die in the process. Their young are completely helpless, and may take over a year to even begin to walk.
The most common basic human social unit is composed of reproductive pairs and their families, though there is tremendous variety in how they form groups.
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Elowey:
Elowey are primates, most closely related to lemurs. They average around the same height as humans, but are heavier. They are capable of both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion.
Two relatively distinct subspecies of elowey are known to survive, though with significant gene flow between the two. Southern elowey (pictured here) are larger on average with bigger guts and more exposed skin, and northern elowey are smaller, with denser fur and slight aquatic adaptations.
Elowey are omnivores, but better adapted towards plant eating. Southern elowey can subsist entirely on plants and digest much tougher plant material than humans with their large guts. Northern elowey rely more heavily on meat, especially during the winter months. The gene for lactase persistence is widely found in northern elowey and largely absent in southern populations.
Elowey have a strong sense of smell. They have two sets of scent glands, which at their most basic communicate territoriality and identity, but the social implications are far broader.
They come from highly territorial ancestors, and most individuals become stressed and uncomfortable when living in dense populations with unrelated elowey. This discomfort is lessened towards members of other species, though they are still prone to social claustrophobia.
Elowey lack significant sexual dimorphism, with nonreproductive females being indistinguishable from males (aside from genitalia, which is brightly colored in males). Reproductive females go through a pronounced estrus, and hormones from pregnancy induce permanent bodily changes, mostly in the form of longer fur and greater muscle mass.
The most basic social unit of elowey is a reproductive pair, their young, and nonreproductive siblings/family. Typical families only have one reproductive pair at a time, and the presence of a reproductive female actually suppresses the fertility of other females. They give birth to 1-2 young at a time, which are helpless for a couple months until they begin to walk.
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Caelin and Delkhin:
Caelin and Delkhin are two closely related drakes (pterosauroids of this setting), with locomotive forelimbs (wings) and manipulative hind limbs.
Both are obligate carnivores who supplement their diets only occasionally with plant matter, and as such large populations can only be supported by ecosystems with massive herds, or intensive animal agriculture. Both have ancestors who scavenged on the dead, with active hunting being a byproduct/driving factor of sapience.
Males develop large, colorful wattles, and all possess the ability to create booming songs with their gular sacks (though the calls of males average louder). Females are typically smaller than males in both species, and have dull coloration
The two are closely related enough to produce young, but their eggs are often inviable and the young are rarely fertile. In spite of this, there is frequent gene flow between the two and hybrids are relatively common.
The sex of offspring in both species is determined by incubation temperature, with profound societal implications- often sons are intentionally limited.
The pre-sophont ancestors of both reproduced in lek based mating systems, which remains an influence on modern social behavior. The basic social unit of both caelin and delkhin societies is the lek, typically one (sometimes more) breeding males, several females, and their offspring.
Caelin:
Caelin are about the size of egrets, and capable of powered flight. Their ancestors followed herds of bison, aurox, horses, and khait to scavenge on the dead and dying, which developed into more active management and domestication.
There are a few subspecies of caelin, though most are indistinct from one another (aside from the very small polar caelin).
Caelin are the most widespread sophont of all, having settled anywhere in the world that could support them, though the areas with highest populations are the great steppes of the west. There are few populations historically existing in human-dominated areas, as they tend to compete for food resources.
They are capable of a unique mode of subsistence, scavenger nomadism. Scavenger-nomads fly from place to place seeking dead or dying animals as food sources.
Delkhin
Delkhin are flightless and significantly larger than caelin, standing between 3-5ft in height and weighing several times as much as their relatives. They possess a small horn jutting from the back of the skull, larger and colorful in males.
There are few populations of delkhin outside of Cynozepal and the western grasslands. Their reliance on meat and relatively large size keeps their populations at a low density with great difficulty adjusting to other regions.
Delkhin have notched beaks and strong necks that allow manipulation of larger and heavier objects, and their 'hands' are deft at handling smaller ones.
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Qilik
Qilik are roughly turkey sized protobirds. Their ancestors glided, but modern qilik have lost much of their gliding ability as their wings were re-repurposed for manipulation. Their hands have two mobile fingers and one mostly immobile claw.
Qilik would be considered a genus rather than species. There are several species + subspecies of qilik, with the most distinct species being the plains qilik (which are larger, with long thin tails and smaller wings) and the forest qilik (which are smaller, with fans on their tails, broader wings, and are better climbers). More isolated populations have more derived features, such as the small and nocturnal cave dwelling qilik of the deadlands. All are interfertile with significant gene flow between most.
Qilik are omnivores and primarily insectivorous. Their ability to survive on insects makes them one of the least competitive for resources with other sophonts, and as such qilik populations commonly overlap with others and may be indigenous to the same areas.
Most populations are native to forested regions with a high density of insects. Those who have taken up animal husbandry spread to the plains and eat a more meat-based diet.
Qilik have sexual trimorphism - large, dull colored females, smaller, brightly colored males, and larger, dull colored 'feminine' males (faeder).
Mating occurs seasonally, and most individuals lack any significant sex drive out of season. Hens typically mate with multiple males and mating pairs do not form permanent bonds.
The most common social unit is same-gender (or hen/faeder) flocks which are interdependent but live primarily homosocial lives, with hens/faeder doing most work while groups of males care for children. Their social systems are highly plastic, however, and great variety exists.
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Talking crows
Talking crows are crows. They produce language and have complex societies, and can intelligently communicate with other sophonts via mimicry. They may give the impression of being child-like or 'animalistic' to other sophonts, as they struggle with large numbers and certain abstract concepts (and live overall similarly to their non-sophont corvid relatives) but excel beyond any other at cognitive mapping, memory, and navigation.
They do not differ significantly in anatomy from other crows, though notched beaks and flexible feet allow for more deft manipulation of tools. Because of their appearance and relative isolation from other sophonts, they are often interpreted as supernatural beings or 'talking animals'.
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Archin
Archin are sapient ant colonies. The only known extant population of the species occurs in the Red Rock Archipelago far southeast in the world-sea, and has been isolated from other sophonts for the majority of its history.
Rather than an individual animal, archin consciousness and personhood exists in the collective. Archin consciousness is an emergent property of colonies, with individuals being somewhat akin to cells composing a brain.
They are not a hivemind in any literal sense, rather they use the same methods of chemical and touch communication as most other eusocial insects (only highly specialized and with enough plasticity to communicate abstract concepts and understand language).
A single archin has more complex cognitive ability than most ants, and most vertebrates for that matter (better memory, complex motor skills, problem solving) and fully functional as an organism, but is not sapient on her own. Individuals are also very large for ants- about an inch long, with strong jaws capable of deft tool manipulation,
Archin colonies are composed of ‘units’ of 50-100 ants, each unit being functionally an individual personality. A single archin lives about a year, but a unit can survive and retain memories for decades. A unit usually has a set job within the colony, but their role may shift throughout their life. They will usually choose a 'name', and identify themselves with chemical and some visual signals.
A full colony (~1000-3000 individuals) blurs the lines between a person, family, and tribe. It can function as one broad consciousness, but cannot ‘think’ quickly and efficiently as a unit.
Each colony has one queen, who functions as the womb of the group. Her lifespan determines the lifespan of the colony, (up to 60 years in a healthy individual), during which time she will lay eggs yearly. The queen is no more or less intelligent than any other individual archin and contributes little to the collective consciousness, but her importance to the colony's longterm survival makes her uniquely valued over any other individual.
Drones (reproductive males) function as the sperm cells of the group, and are used to forge alliances with other colonies. They die upon mating and contribute nothing to archin consciousness, though their reproductive value makes them the second-most protected individuals in a colony.
Individual archin instinctually reject 1:1 inter-colony communication, which is necessary to not interfere with their consciousness. When parts of different colonies combine, it can lead to units becoming confused and disoriented, or 'mentally ill'. This may be resolved into rogue units, who roam apart from their colonies until they die (or are successfully divided and restored).
Consciousness does not extend beyond a colony. However, due to the highly plastic nature of archin consciousness, it is possible for colonies who lose their queens or suffer great loss of population to perform mergers with other colonies and form new identities. Relations between colonies vary- each has allies and enemies. Allied colonies may form 'nations' and even have forms of governance, though this is near-universally decentralized.
While their mode of consciousness is quite alien to other sophonts, coexistence, communication, and even friendships are possible. A unit is functionally a person with their own personality, with likes, dislikes, curiosity, favorite foods, aesthetic sensibilities, etc. Archin also exhibit highly abstract thought and have forms of religious sensibility.
seems like for the qilik, obligate sophontry interrupted the transitional proto-avian glider stage and the hands are of some rationale trouble for an otherwise beak-using lineage. have you considered having the digit based tool use stem from increasingly dexterous handclaws to pry insects out of bark and tree trunks? i mean clinging to the side of trees is the general vibe of proto-avian gliders, and clades that focused on beak use for catching prey on the wing would continue into true avian lineages, while solidly gliding lineages focusing on digging for buggies woulda coulda shoulda be pushed by desertification/forest collapse occuring at geological speeds greater than that of evolutionary adaptation into terrestrial obligate sophontry. maybe. maybe they farmed termites or something. love the world hope they get that cow to the place :)
That's a really good idea, i think I'll go with it...
It fits perfectly with established lore of them having stemmed from climbing/gliding proto-birds (I haven't picked out a definite place in clade avelae (esp since the 'trees down' hypothesis of avian flight is contested) and there's some tremendous artistic license taken there, I've referenced microraptors and auorinis most for anatomy).
Also fits very well with established lore that they are predominantly insectivorous with populations outside of forested regions relying more heavily on vertebrate prey, and the fact that they have a pre-historic coevolutionary relationship with a species of ant, AND with the fact that their terrestrial lifestyle developed in response to fragmentation of forest habitats (separate to the 'contemporary' climate change event in the setting, which resulted in behaviorally modern qilik fragmenting into three distinct subspecies)
I'm thinking it would probably be the 'thumb' digit that is most specialized into tearing bark (as a better excuse for opposability lol) while the other two digits remain strong and flexible with curved claws to grip bark and assist with tearing. A flexible 'thumb' used to extract insects from bark could give way to more specialized tool use than could be accomplished with the mouth (probably stripped twigs to 'fish' for ants/termites in a similar fashion to chimps).
Their tool use probably predated this adaptation, ancestral gliding qilik may have been corvid-like in intelligence, but more dexterous manipulating limbs would allow for refinement in tool use and reinforce the ''hand''s dominance as a manipulating limb over the beak. And this would be further reinforced by a more terrestrial lifestyle.
As it stands their wing and hand anatomy is like this with great diversity in extent of feathering, given their flight feathers are vestigial in all three subspecies, which themselves are highly hybridized (flight feathers are most retained in only the most genetically isolated populations that dwell in forests and cliffs, where they are used for wing assisted incline running and to slow falls (though no anatomically modern qilik are capable of actual gliding)).
Sloppy as hell ref image
They have lost their curved gripping claws on their 'fingers' but retain a shorter version of the probing claw on their 'thumb'. I definitely need to refine the anatomy here but it's a start
Do qiliks ever artificially colour their feathers?
Yes, it's VERY common, but there's huge variation in how/how much/when/why
It's very typical across qilik cultures for males to dye specific areas of their feathers in a way functionally similar to wearing makeup. There are usually complicated and specific standards as to how much is 'too much', and it's most common for dyeing to be limited to the brow feathers. In some circumstances males will stain their feathers in naturalistic shades if their own coloration is not sufficiently bright for their cultural beauty standards.
Some qilik peoples uniformly (or uniformly by gender) stain their colors as a culture/clan/etc identifier, or have males dye their feathers unnatural shades during the breeding seasons (often as means of advertising wealth via access to rare and expensive dyes).
Gender is predominantly assigned based on coloration, so gender/sexual variance in qilik often manifests in dying feathers brighter or duller. For example there's a gender identity in the Chit-Sut-Susit where naturally bright colored individuals dye their feathers black, this is reckoned as a 'fourth' gender (in addition to the typical gender trinary of bright males and dull brown-gray females and faeder).
The value of dye for personal ornamentation makes pigmented materials widely sought after and a core trade material, to the point that full scale wars have erupted over rare dye resources and several plant/insect/mollusk species have been driven to extinction due to overexploitation for their pigments.
Three qilik species: plains qilik, desert qilik, forest qilik. All hens, depicted as a theoretical 'wildtype' phenotype. Modern qilik are almost all hybrids and cannot be distinguished as shown here.
'Qilik' does not refer to one species, but rather an entire genus over a broad geographical range. There were originally 3 distinct qilik species and upward of 10 subspecies. The common ancestor of all qilik adapted to new environments both physically and culturally, resulting in this great genetic variety. Unlike genus homo IRL, multiple species continue to coexist long into recorded history and hybridize extensively.
Plains qilik speciated in the northwestern steppes of the supercontinent. They are the largest by far, and most have long tails without plumes. Their brow quills are also the longest, reaching over tall grass to signal to other qilik. They are adapted to a more heavily meat based diet than other qilik (who are mostly insectivorous). Plains qilik have the most brightly colored males.
Desert qilik speciated in the deserts in the southwest/south central areas of the supercontinent and what is now the Deadlands. Their most distinct feature is entirely featherless legs, which assist in thermoregulation. Desert qilik are substantially less sexually dimorphic than other qilik, and tend to have more uniform feather coloration.
Forest qilik speciated in the central/central-east forests of the supercontinent. They tend towards lifestyles involving climbing. Their wings are far more developed than the other species, powering effective wing-assisted incline running and limited gliding abilities.
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These taxonomic distinctions have little to no meaning in-universe, and do not necessarily predict modes of living, culture, or social construction of ethnicity among qilik. All qilik are interfertile, and all but the most isolated contemporary populations are highly hybridized regardless of their phenotype.
