THE AERA
SINGULAR: An Aera PLURAL: Several Aera POSSESSIVE: Aeran items
SOCIETAL THINGS:
GENERAL ATTITUDE
The Aera are usually irreverent, cheerful, aggressive, highly energetic folk; at times flighty, they seem to consider many of the things other races hold most dear, such as religion, unimportant. They are usually controversial, and enjoy a good fight...though they don't try to actively start them, they don't mind aggravating a situation. A happy-go-lucky people, they are also very amiable and loving. They enjoy good jokes and laugh often and uproariously.
RELIGION
The Aera worship a pantheon of gods (though worship is not a large part of their life), over which presides the greatest God, whom they call the Greater Master. Few Aera swear by the Greater Master save when they are taking great oaths. Other major gods and goddesses include The Wanderer (Zleayron), the Warrior Mother (Laera), the Warrior Wife (Taleyira), and the Warrior Maid (Seleya), who are partnered by the Peace Father (Luer), the Warrior Husband (Tasenear), and the Warrior 'Bachelor' (Yesier), the closest translation. There is also the Child Granter (Aura), and the Stiller (Zenoa), who stills the breath of all living things...equivalent to a kind of Grim Reaper. The Aera believe in no afterworld, nor in reincarnation.
RELATIONSHIPS
Women settle with the Clan of their spouses. In those old days, Aera females used to mate with a male as much as to gain into a powerful clan as for love, thus they tended to hold onto a male as hard as they could; to this day they till do. The Aera do not believe in soulmates.
FAMILY
The Aera, on setting down, became a nomadic race and settled in Clans. Clans were patriarchal in rule (ruled by the Clan Leader), however, the leadership was passed down through the mother's line, not the father's. The Clan Mother, traditionally, held all of the lands and monetary assets of the Clan, while the Leader made the major decisions of what to do with it. The Aera live in Clans to this day, and pick up and move their entire families every five years at least, sometimes less. Their cities, while full of modern conveniences, can be packed up and dragged off with no real effort (save for a few stationary things, such as energy generators).
LAW SYSTEM
Crimes committed by Aera are usually brought to the head of the Clan for judgement, and though there is no death penalty or torture, there are some unusual punishments involved, as the Aera liked punishments that reflect on the crime.
GOVERNMENT
The Aera are governed by a democracy, a council consisting of the Clan Leaders of every Major Clan, and a Congress of the smaller Clans. The majority of a Clan is determined by its wealth and population. In all, there are eight Major Clans, in order of status: Kearens, Roseyan, Flait, Sereon, Bransean, Aleyan, Zooir, and Tranean. There are 242 lesser Clans that embody the Congress.
ECONOMY
The Aera have free trade with anyone. Mining gold, ore, and precious stones is one of the biggest drivers of the economy.
HISTORY
The Council aboard ship decided to keep part of the technology, but to discard the fact that they were engineered; this knowledge, however, was in the back of their minds as soon as they realized the tenants of evolution and engineering. There was no other way they could have acquired wings on their feet.
SPECIAL CUSTOMS/RITES
The Aera celebrate their nomadic heritage with a Great Bazaar, a wild affair of tents the size of a small state. The Great Bazaar moves from place to place, usually settling near cities for a month or two before moving on; it is an important affair. Businesses hire people to move with the Bazaar for advertising purposes, as a great deal of business has its roots in the Bazaar. Also, the Bazaar has a Harvest Dance the night it arrives, for the young people to get together; its whole purpose is to allow young ones a chance to 'harvest' anything, either a good night's workout with a willing partner, or a mate. You can buy anything and everything at the Bazaar; off-worlders often come as well to peddle their wares. There is even a part of the Bazaar that trafficks black market goods, though the Aera never seem to notice.
When a friend or Clan Member has died, Aera wear traditional robes of dark blue and bind their wings to their feet; the pain, they say, of their wings being so tightly held, makes them think of something besides the pain they feel at the person's parting.
Inevitably in the Aeran culture, other women (it was usually a female....a male wanting another male's woman is rare but happens occasionally) want the mate of another Aera, and thus in the elden days the Rite of Defiance was developed and is still in practice to this day. The Rite of Defiance is in two parts: verbal and physical; the challenger must win both to gain an attempt at the Heart (the mate being fought over). The challenger may call the Rite, or the spouse if she sees someone else is eyeing her mate. Two days of preparation follow, and then the Rite lasts two days. If the Challenger wins, then she gains the right to ask the Heart if he wishes to come with her. If he does, it is called the Heart Trade; if he doesn't, it is called the Heart Denial. If the Heart Trade occurs, the Challenger is united with the Heart in a Marriage of Fire; if he does not, he remains with his mate in a Marriage of Stone. After five rites won and the Heart denies the Challenger each time, the marriage is called a Marriage of Suns. (Before any Rite is called on the pair, the bonding is called a Marriage of Heart).
The proper way to address married couples is as follows:
Heart "Young sir/lady"
Fire "Bright sir/lady"
Stone "Deep sir/lady"
Suns "Blazing sir/lady".
If a couple has children, they have entered a time called 'Time of Light'; during this time, the couple cannot be challenged or call a challenge until their children have come of age. There are no 'divorces' while children are young. When a child is born, all the Clan comes and holds a four-day celebration. Children are NOT had until marriage...the celebration custom came about because the fertility of male and female was not assured until the technological age.
The Aera are a fit people because of the Rite of Defiance; in general, the Verbal part requires great wit and intelligence, also memory; there are a large set of rules to remember. The Verbal side is like a sparring match, calling one another names while answering questions about basic knowledge and not so basic knowledge. The physical part requires that the Challenger choose a weapon for them both and that they run a maze/obstacle course, at the end of which they come upon each other and fight until one calls 'yield'.
TRADITIONAL DRESS
All Aera wear earrings; these indicate two things. First, how wealthy the Clan is (measured in land, monetary assets, and amount of kin)...this is indicated by the thickness of the hoop. Second, it shows by the color, shape, and cut the specific Clan the Aera belongs to, and how close in lineage he/she is to the Clan Mother (size of the stone). The Clan Leader has three stones, the Clan Mother two.
LANGUAGE
The language of the Aera is full of chirpings and rolling vowels, frequently several vowels following one another and enunciated separately. Off-worlders, having problems with this, write their names often with apostrophes to separate these strange combinations of vowels.
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL
The Aera are up to par with the most technologically advanced races in the Alliance, and often engage in much trade amongst these races.
CITIES
Being a nomadic race, the Aera have 'portable' cities as mentioned above. They love tents in especial.
PEOPLE OF THIS RACE MENTIONED IN STORIES Ra'aila, Du'er, La'aina
PHYSICAL THINGS:
HEIGHT male:5'10" - 6'7", female: 5'11" - 6'9"
AVERAGE AGE male: 140 years female: 148 years
HOW THEY EVOLVED
The Aera were engineered by humans. They were an experiment, a divergence from the safe engineering of the first three races; Aera have in them the DNA of foxes, mongooses, big cats, humans, and deer, as well as sparrows. This muck of DNA has made them a little odd, and mutations in this race are not uncommon.
LOOKS
The Aera are a tall folk, short and finely furred against the scrubby heat of their planet. They are in general fit, kept that way by their Rites. They have ears slightly longer than a rabbit's, and elegantly tufted with hairs that sometimes reach a length of nine inches. They have four fingers and four toes, and have small wings sprouting from their ankles.
Pictures:
http://stardancer.org/art/masq6.jpg
http://stardancer.org/art/alyshabunk.jpg
Special Attributes
REPRODUCTION
Though the human engineers had improved the reproductive capabilities of their products, they still didn't have the hang of it when they were engineering the Aera. The Aera have fewer problems then the Tam-illee, but are not worry free. Aera females go into reproductive fertility, a sort of heat, twice, or if they are lucky, thrice in their lifetimes. The period (called 'bright spot') can last between three days and three years. Scientists are currently attempting to make a drug that will allow women to reproduce when they wish, but so far are unsuccessful. The males of the Aeran race are in general, free of the problems their women suffer.
GESTATION seven months
AGE TIMELINE
From birth-2, baby; from 3-17 a child; from 18-26, an adolescent; from 27-40 a young adult; from 41-79 a normal adult; from 80-120 they are middle-aged; and from 120 on they are elderly.
COLORING
The Aera can be any number of colors and patterns (though they do have the genetic material of big cats, it is unusual for them to be patterned like a big cat). Amber, yellows, white, cream, buff, black, brown, gray, silver, blue-ish, red, russet, orange, and tawny are all normal colors, with their hair echoing them. Aera are usually patterned like foxes without the darkening of the extremities. Eye color covers the human norm, and their wings may be any of the above colors, which patterns reminiscent of some of the smaller birds.
PLANETARY THINGS:
NAME OF PLANET Aren
CLIMATE Aren is moderately temperate to hot, and very dry.
Land masses
SPECIAL ORES/STONES
Aren is rich in precious stones and metals -- it is one of the biggest suppliers of gold in the Alliance. Aren is also the sole provider of the flitirel, a precious gem of a rich, red-orange color, and of rulent, a gem of a dark, clear turquoise color.
Special plants, fauna?
Exports specific to?
NUMBER OF MOONS One, blue, called Celereiol.
TYPE OF SUN Yellow, like ours.
LOCATION Sector Veta, adjacent to planet Tam-ley.