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HARPIES
MAGICAL ALIGNMENT: Light and virtue following, although some harpies cannot utilise magic and are therefore virtue-less.
LIFESPAN: Even the purest of harpie bloodlines have no real biological advantage over humankind, and therefore have an identical lifespan. All harpies are susceptible to illness, injury and death by old age. (70-100 years)
APPEARANCE: The most obvious physical characteristic of a harpie is their wings - existing as a fusion between aviankind and humankind, these beings possess great, ornate wings*, able to take flight with ease or even act as a near indestructible shield. A harpie's wingspan is, on average, 1.8x their overall height. A six-foot harpie, for example, will have a wingspan of around 3.3 yards.
Their feather patterning can often mimic
those of birds commonly found in the
overworld, mostly consisting of neutral
and natural colourations.
More uncommon or even rare features of a harpie include:
- Tailfeathers sprouting from the lower back.
- A secondary pair of head wings, often much smaller and less developed.
- Feet and legs with leathery, keratin dense skin much like overworld birds.
*The majority of harpies also possess head wings, sitting just in front of narrow ear-holes, but this is not a required trait.
A rare but notable genetic mutation may cause a harpie's wings to fuse with their upper arms, or even replace their arms entirely.
ABILITIES: Harpies are versatile creatures, with a wide array of powers at their disposal*. Though the most common abilities are forms of aerokinesis, cryokinesis and wind manipulation, their magic can range from healing small wounds to permanently altering weather patterns. Much like merfolk, some harpie powers revolve around the use of their voice.
OVERALL BIOLOGY: In spite of their decidedly humanoid appearance, harpies have incredibly unusual internal organs. For starters, their skeletons are practically featherweight, with hollow, air-filled bones aiding in respiration. They are, overall, smaller than the average humanoid, especially in purer bloodlines. Other than this, they possess enlarged trapezoid muscles, enlarged hearts with thicker walls, and a heightened metabolism. Some harpies even have tetrachromatic vision, allowing them to perceive colours humans couldn't even dream of.
DIET: A harpies diet is technically omnivorous, though they find plant matter (nuts, fruit and grains) easiest to digest. They require constant nutrition, especially if utilising flight as a mode of transport, so carrying fruit or even a protein bar is commonplace. Much like other avian species, most harpies have a 'crop', an enlarged, muscular pouch at the base of the esophagus: this both stores and softens food (should they forget to chew).
*Not all harpies are magical. The gene that controls this seems to be linked to the number of wings - those with secondary wings are far more likely to be magical.
SLEEP/REST: A remnant of their originally nomadic lifestyle, harpies are adapted to sleep in short bursts throughout the day and night, rather than one 'home stretch'. They are even capable of sleeping with one eye open*, though this is a behaviour modern-day harpies only seem to exhibit when threatened.
*This is known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.
Transforming oneself into a bird is another common harpie ability.
REPRODUCTION: Although female harpies typically only have one ovary, they face little difficulty getting pregnant. How this looks differs hugely depending on lineage, as in a full-blooded harpie, offspring are developed inside of an egg. This egg (or eggs, rarely), are laid around three months after fertilisation, and continue to develop for three-to-four months until hatching.
Due to extensive hybridisation and mixed-species bloodlines, most harpies birth live young. Gestation can vary from a perfectly humanoid time-span, to the extremely short pregnancies of some animalfolk.
HYBRIDISATION: There are only a select few species that a harpie may hybridise with, but they do so with ease.
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- Harpies and animalfolk have been intertwined for centuries, occasionally producing winged animalfolk. Their animalian features do not merge.*
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- A harpie and a coulroban may produce a 'coulrobird', with either light or dark mana. It is 50/50.
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- Harpies and silicans can intermingle freely, combining traits of both species.
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- Harpies and gyels can, but rarely, breed, producing dark-mana offspring. These hybrids usually lack feathers and are not capable of flight.
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- A harpie and a demon will always produce a subspecies known as 'singed harpies', with dark mana and smokey colourations.
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- Harpies and dragonborns can hybridise, though offspring are often just regarded as feathered dragonborns. (Around a 5% chance).
SEXUAL DIMORPHISM: Very broadly speaking, male harpies tend to be larger, flashier and have far more elaborate patterning. Tailfeathers are far more common in males, too.
In contrast, most female harpies have dull, camouflaging colourations (depending on subspecies).
Around 70% of harpies are male, which may contribute to their tendency to hybridise.
The combination of a nymph (or deerfolk), and a harpie can produce a subspecies known as a peryton.
ORIGIN: Like a majority of light-mana species, the creation of harpies can be attributed to nymphs. Due to their ability to fly long-distance and adapt to almost any ecosystem, it is believed that ancient harpies functioned as ambassadors, spreading fables and advisory tales worldwide.
CHILDHOOD AND DEVELOPMENT: Regardless of whether or not a baby harpie (known as a chick) is hatched from an egg or born live, they emerge with a small egg tooth on their upper lip. This flakes off in the first few weeks of life.
It is often hard to predict the colourations that a harpie chick will later develop, as most are born with pale fuzz in place of feathers. 'Adult' feathers do not appear until around 9-13 years of age, and aside from learning to fly, their major milestones mimic that of a human's.
CULTURE: Harpies are notoriously free-spirited, bouncing from location to location, from task to task. Their traditions often stem from more than one culture, cherry-picking what suits their lifestyle most, though there are a few core values that all harpies uphold (alongside their cardinal virtues).
For starters, most of these avian beings pride themselves on keeping an open mind, longing to understand any and all perspectives on life. They're often raised to have a strong sense of justice, and many assimilate into careers of that nature. Politics, journalism, the legal system, to name a few.
After a long history of servitude, the majority of harpie bloodlines have abandoned spirituality entirely. Religion is viewed as a 'box', and if there's anything that harpies dislike, it is being sorted into boxes.
Although they are drastically different species, harpies and dragonborns do share some traits - like their primal need to hoard.
Harpies are also known to engage in 'pebbling', offering small, meaningful gifts in order to show affection.
Mimicking overworld birds, harpies regularly go through molting cycles. Their wings also require consistent preening, and to maintain these delicate feathers, they often rely on friends and family.
Specialised salons are scattered throughout the city, to help the harpie population with this maintenance.
