@verdanda and @domimagetrix - yes, the birds do party!
Here are some of the more common celebrations/parties Tyrkovanii put on and how they go down!
Parties for the heck of it:
Parties/celebrations are large, loud, and hectic affairs, often involving lots of food. Massive cauldrons of stewing veikyonpuvi make up the centerpieces of these occasions, each attendee often bringing something to add to the mix. Everyone takes turns stirring, keeping the fire under the cauldron going, or making sure it doesn’t boil down too much over the course of the party - it’s a community effort, and a sort of symbol of the party itself. As long as the stew’s going, the party’s going, and may it ever stew eternal.
Another tradition for all celebrations is the painting of feathers, though colors and designs used vary based on the specific type of celebration. For basic get-togethers for the fun of it, Tyrkovanii will often just dip or fleck the ends of their feather crests, tail feathers, and wing-wrist feathers in varying shades of blue and yellow paint - a fun splash of color to liven up the scene.
“Birthdays:”
Birthdays, as we think of them, are done a bit differently in Tyrkovan culture. Before a child learns to fly, their ‘hatching day’ is celebrated (Tyrkovanii are oviparous). These parties are typically small and may not even be celebrated at all, especially once the child starts learning to fly. The day/week that the child is able to fly on their own, they are considered ‘born,’ and a ‘flight day’ is celebrated instead. These parties are larger than hatching day celebrations, involving family and close friends, but are still smaller than the general get-together. On the first flight day, the child is granted a ‘flight name,’ which is a portmanteau of the name(s) of whoever contributed most to teaching the child to fly (usually the biological parents, but not always, for example Torvi) and the word ‘aalos’ which means ‘flight’ (using Torvi as an example again, her full name is Jokanaalos Torvi, as her uncle, Jokan, raised and taught her to fly). The child is also typically given a single feather from each of their flight parents, painted and preserved for use as ornaments, jewelry, ect. Subsequent flight days are loud celebrations of life, involving (of course) lots of acrobatic and stunt flying and ending with the typical veikyonpuvi at sundown.
Weddings:
Traditionally, weddings are an all day party from sunrise to sunset - it’s considered good luck to be wed during the longest day of the year, and horrible luck to be wed during an eclipse, planetary, lunar, or solar. Attendees will paint their feathers with delicate, swooping designs in highly reflective silver and gold paint, and will often wear reflective clothing and shiny trinkets as well. Everyone glitters at weddings, especially the newlyweds, who will also often decorate their faces, hands, and chests with the same reflective paint. The whole party comes to a crux when the sun is highest in the sky - the couple take flight, fly as high as they can, lock feet talons, and plummet toward the ground, separating and ascending again just before impact (humans were very surprised to see this occur, as it mirrors the behavior of certain birds of prey back on Sol-Gamma).
Funerals:
The typical Tyrkovan funeral is a solemn, yet no less quiet, occasion. As wind is highly symbolic to them, playing a major part in many creation myths and legends, funerals are seen as ‘giving the dead back to the wind.’ The dead are decorated from head to toe in blue and white paints, designs often symbolic of their accomplishments during life and sometimes incorporating short eulogistic texts or goodbyes. Attendees decorate their feathers with dark paints instead, often grays and blacks, to camouflage themselves against the often dark and sooty ground of funeral sites. Where the ceremony goes from here depends on the deceased - if the deceased was a war vet/important figure/rich enough/ect, a massive pyre is lit, and the body is burned away while the attendees chant/sing elegies at the tops of their lungs and flap their wings (if there’s no natural wind at the time) to fan the flames and help scatter the ashes. For most Tyrkovanii, however, it’s a much less pyrotechnic ceremony. The body is simply laid out, the attendees sing and chant, and then they leave the site entirely, lighting small braziers filled with a specific mixture of substances to attract kaminleraii, nocturnal carrion eaters approximately the size and general appearance of a flying fox. The kaminleraii devour the body, bones and all, usually within a span of two to three days, and symbolically carry the spirit to the next life, doing the work of the fire in more opulent ceremonies. Criminals who have been sentenced to death get simply buried in the ground - the highest insult to a dead Tyrkovan.
Going with the prompt for today: People and Races!
As was said yesterday, C-Beta was build specifically to house carbon-based, oxygen-breathing species, of which three sapient ones were found in the entire galactic neighborhood; Humans, Tyrkovanii, and Suraskon.
Humans: Hey, that’s us! No real difference here, other than we’ve adapted to C-Beta’s climate and atmosphere, which are a bit colder and denser, respectively, than Earth’s. If a C-Beta human were to come back to earth, they would find the air too warm and too thin to their liking. Most humans live alongside Suraskon in coastal countries clustered around the equator of C-Beta, where the climate is the warmest and and most humid. Humans and Suraskon were brought to C-Beta simultaneously, so their cultures, cuisines, architectures, and such have blended together rather well.
Tyrkovanii: Tyrkovanii, also called ‘Storm-Riders,’ ‘Avarians,’ and, less politely, ‘Harpies’ or ‘Turkeys,’ are a race of bi-pedal, six-limbed, avian-reptilian beings, the last of the three races brought to C-Beta. Harboring intense anger for what they perceived (perhaps rightfully) as a mass kidnapping, they came into conflict with the Human and Suraskon inhabitants of C-Beta, who had already created a functioning and collaborative society before the Tyrkovanii arrived. At present, Tyrkovanii maintain a highly isolationist society separate from that of the Human and Suraskon, and are extremely wary of, and hostile to, foreigners. They inhabit the far northern and southern reaches of C-Beta, as they are far better adapted to the cold than either Humans or Suraskon.
Tyrkovanii have six limbs: a pair of bat-like wings where a Human’s arms would be, a pair of shorter, thinner, and more dexterous secondary arms situated further down the torso, and a pair of digitigrade legs meant to fold up tightly against the hollows of the torso during flight. Wingspans vary as much as wing shape, yet an average wingspan runs about 20 feet. They also sport finned and feathered tails that, usually, are just as long as the rest of their bodies, meant for stability and balance rather than dexterity.
95% of Tyrkovanii are protanopic (red-green colorblind), with the remaining 5% being unable to see color at all. Their sight is instead more heavily geared towards contrast and movement.
Tyrkovanii have no hair. Instead, their heads are adorned with expressive feather crests that can either grow in a fan shape or in a more mohawk-like arrangement. Regardless, the feather crest always ends in a trail of feathers down the neck and spine, eventually forming a feathered ‘cape’ across the wing shoulders and down the wing arms, providing extra warmth for the joints there despite not aiding in flight in any way. Some male Tyrkovanii grow feathers on their chins and jawlines as well - often times, this is the only way to tell males apart from females. Feathers are sometimes painted for weddings, funerals, flight ceremonies, and other special occasions. Skin tones are highly varied and sport different patterns, ranging from stripes to spots, that often remind Humans of the coloration patterns of birds on Earth.
Also, they’re big.
Suraskon: The smallest and longest-lived of the three races, the amphibious-looking Suraskon speak at a frequency above what Humans and Tyrkovanii can hear (though Suraskon can hear Humans/Tyrkovanii/each other just fine), additionally communicating with each other via color and pattern changes of chromatophores on their skin. This occurs all over bodies but the greatest communicative areas are the face, neck frills, and hands. Suraskon refer to each other based on the default color and pattern of their skin - to ‘say’ someone else's name, an individual would mimic that color and pattern momentarily. This happens when Suraskon are referring to Humans and Tyrkovanii as well - with Tyrkovanii, it’s simpler, given their distinct markings, but with Humans, other features like the shape of the hair around the face and any accessories (glasses, piercings, tattoos) are often mimicked.
Communication between Suraskon and other races is made simpler through step-down sound modulators, the blueprints for which were provided to them when they arrived on C-Beta (who provided them, I’m saving for another day...). This setup consists of an external vocabulator, which sits at the base of the throat and interacts with the Suraskon’s vocal cords and spits out whatever the Suraskon is saying at a hear-able frequency for Humans and Tyrkovanii. These also translate between nearly every language spoken on C-Beta, which is handy. Those who choose not/can’t afford to get a vocabulator usually learn sign language, which is taught all over the place in multi-species countries (about 80% of people in Savania know at least the basics of sign language).
Suraskon names come in three major flavors - either a verbalization of their default color and pattern (often shortened or corrupted to make it more name-like), a name/word that sounds nice to the Suraskon that they then adopt as a name for themselves, or a hand sign that looks visually pleasing to them in the case of a Suraskon that has no vocabulator. This results in names like Trace Anhydra, Screwdriver Tappings, and Alba Noncere. Suraskon names frequently change with interests, color and pattern changes (though it takes a significant event to change this, such as emotional upheaval or injury), and other things.
I only learned about this yesterday, and thought it’d be a great opportunity to expand on the world from my original novel series, Phantomwing.
For today, a look into the cuisine from the Vojakantii, Torvi’s home country.
Tyrkovanii, like Torvi, are obligate carnivores with amazingly strong digestive systems, allowing them to eat raw, cooked, and even rotten meat without getting so much as an upset stomach. In fact, many dishes will combine these three states to create something with a myriad of textures, temperatures, ect - Tyrkovanii have a blunted sense of taste, so texture and temperature are the focal points of their cuisine.
Because of their fast metabolisms and on-the-go lifestyle, Tyrkovanii rely heavily on small meals multiple times throughout the day. Thus, food carts in cities are insanely popular, serving everything from stuff on sticks to jerky to eggs done many different ways. Insects, too - they love the texture and it’s a good source of protein.
In the cold winter months, hot bone broth is a popular drink. Dubbed ‘Turkey Tea’ by Humans, bits of meat and bone are left in, and sometimes, eggs are boiled or scrambled in the broth for extra nutrition.
A particular favorite among Tyrkovanii is something called veikyonpuvi. Translating to ‘eternal food,’ this dish is a stew prepared in massive cauldrons and is a staple of parties and special events. Ingredients differ wildly based on the particular tastes of whoever is making it, and if served at a gathering, everyone attending will bring something to add in. Different cuts of meat, bones, marrow, tendons, eggs, whole fish, even blood goes in. The result is different every time, and might smell and taste vile to Humans, but to Tyrkovanii, it’s an explosion of textures that lasts as long as the party chugs on. It’s easy to make and feeds an army.
Restaurants in the Vojakantii are open-air cafes, usually attached to butcheries and meat shops - drop in (literally), take a perch, and order something to your liking. You can have anything you want, as long as it’s meat.
