Atavian

At a glance

Feature	Details
Appearance	Human-like people with powerful feathered wings and widely varied colouring.
Origins and communities	Aerie, a cliff-top settlement in the Vashnars; Atavians also live across Sapience.
Culture	No single unified culture; many have had to negotiate acceptance and preserve their heritage.
Racial abilities	Deep Sleeper; Hover; Flight

Culture and identity

Atavian culture is not unified, as they are far removed from their Atav ancestors and have often been called upon to surrender their heritage to win acceptance and approval.

Aerie

In an epoch long past, the Atav people, who had settled in the mountains of the Vashnars, were faced with slowly dwindling numbers. The young Atav approached their elders about mingling with other races, but were denied. These young ones decided to leave anyway, and for many years, intermarried with other races.

However, they still yearned for the cliff-top homes and passed these stories to their children. As many descendants of the true Atav grew into the race we now know as the Atavian, they became concerned their culture and heritage would be lost among so many others and they departed for the clifftops they descended from.

There, they rebuilt their long-abandoned homes and resettled, keeping their unique culture intact whilst using the mental abilities of their forebears to keep their home hidden from detection. These abilities grew weaker and weaker, eventually allowing the Aerie to be accessible once more, save for the winter months when the snows seal the passage shut.

Conflict and dispersal

After centuries of relative peace ensconced in their refuge, their quiet was finally broken when they found themselves wedged between two dangers – enslavement by the Empire of Bloodloch or sacrificed to the Duiran Council’s Green Mother. Aamiran, their Satrap at the time, refused to capitulate to either city and sought to join S.W.E.E.P.’s collective defence pact. This attempt was ultimately unsuccessful: their petition was rejected and the Aerie found its fledgling armies destroyed by the veterans of Bloodloch.

Aamiran was slain after a failed ritual to channel their God’s might drove them mad. The Aerie fractured: some inhabitants fled their home, while others remained to face their fate.

Racial abilities

Level 1: Deep Sleeper

Syntax: SLEEP and WAKE

While sleeping, your tiredness lifts faster, and you gain additional health and endurance regeneration compared to others.

Level 31: Hover

Syntax: HOVER and SETTLE

Your wings allow you to hover slightly above the ground, granting you the levitation defence.

Level 61: Flight

Syntax: FLY and LAND [TREES]

Your glorious wings have granted you the ability to fly, provided there is room to do so.

Class ideas for roleplay

These are potential starting points for a character’s story and are offered as suggestions only. You can make almost any class or race combination work in Aetolia as your race gives no special advantage with these classes; availability follows the usual class and guild rules.

Bard

An Atavian performer could bring stories from scattered winged communities to Djeir’s Theatre of Shadows. Disguises and light-woven scenery offer ways to explore belonging on stage, while the Theatre’s assassination contracts put that talent to more dangerous use.

Wayfarer

A traveller seeking other descendants of the Atav might learn the Wayfarer’s survival arts to reach isolated communities. With no guild directing their journey, they could trade news around vigil fires and choose for themselves which settlements or causes deserve their help.

Infiltrator

An Atavian who has made a home in Spinesreach could work as an envoy whose charm conceals a second purpose. The Syssin’s arts of influence and observation let them repay that belonging through intelligence work for the Theocracy.

See also: The Races of Aetolia · The World of Aetolia · Character Classes