...well, I've been fleshing a few more things out since then, and while I still need a damn story to tell, I've got a lot of skyfolk stuff figured out now. Spoiler: Concerning Harpies Physically, a harpy is a little smaller than a human and roughly anthropomorphic. The arms are huge feathered wings, with a thumb and two fingers at the alula. (These fingers are not strong, but can be used for fine manipulation if an item is brought to them- the wings’ bulk gets in the way of trying to use them to grasp.) The talon-feet are used for perching, grasping, and coarse manipulation. As in owls or osprey, these have a reversible outer toe. The mouth is somewhat beaklike instead of having teeth, keeping labial and dental sounds out of any harpy language. A syrinx is present instead of a larynx, allowing for dramatic changes in vocal pitch. (Yes, I think I just committed myself to making this shit tonal. Because I'm a masochist is why.) Harpies do not have external genitalia, and no part of the body is considered “indecent” to leave uncovered. They wear only lightweight accessories; cords knotted with lucky or protective spells are popular, as are shiny/colorful/valuable beads. Some harpy cultures practice feather-dyeing. (The natural coloring of most populations is black-and-white-barred for amabs, with afabs slightly larger and mostly buff with some black and white markings. None of them have fucking boobs because why would they.) Civilization means they don’t necessarily need to migrate, but evolutionary leftovers include serious seasonal restlessness. Some harpy cultures are probably going to fill the role of "barbarian" nomads. Those that have settled down will still maintain multiple “camps” near their settlements, so that a restless harpy can get a change of scenery. As for seafolk, I have these mental images of a sort of merchant caravan that's just strapped all their shit to a whale that hardly notices them, and broadly-Venetian-looking mixed earth/sea cities.
The harpies have stationary permanent residences? in humans this development from nomadic tribes was the result of a shift to agriculture as the main food producer , instead of gathering wild plant stuffs. How would harpies differ or resemble human cultures in this regard ? How would harpies, and mermaids for that matter deal with tool use? surely their anatomy and environment would impose unique challenges .
Their tools- at least, those they make themselves- are crude by human standards and mostly made of stone, bone, shell in the case of seafolk, and wood in the case of harpies. They mostly get metalwork from humans- but that's great! Humans are the dwarves of this setting anyway. Harpy settlements, on second thought, are going to be very much in the minority of their cultures. I think they originated as just a case of site fidelity, slightly cultivated so that they'd have good stuff to come back to next year, then maybe some of them got fed up with having their stuff picked over in their absence? Or stepped up cultivation in order to care for some harpies who were for whatever reason unable to travel? Now, the earth/sea/sky thing is reflected in magic. Technically none of the elements are off limits to any of the three species, but they definitely have strong affinities. So harpy agriculture is supported by weather magic. Too much of this, or careless application, or intentional malicious use, can of course lead to catastrophe; I suspect I'm going to have several civilization-ending events in this world's history chalked up to "fucking harpies broke the climate again".
What technology do the various cultures posses anyway? I suspect the humans are either bronze or iron!?! Age, but the other two are paleo/neo lithic? But, is that true? Harpies making farms is rare, or even unheard of, what about mermaids? Humans? Humanity bent cattle, goats, sheep, horses,and dogs to our needs, is that true of these humans? What about the mermaids, what relationship do they have with the animal kingdom around them? Harpies? "Stop global warming, put a cap on harpy magic today!"
I don't think applying our world's tech-level terminology to the nonhumans is going to make much sense. Seafolk aren't "neolithic" so much as their environment prevents them from doing metalwork at all, for example. There's not going to be a single answer to most of these questions, I hate Fantasy Monoculture Species and am trying to avoid it wherever I can. I do know that I kinda want seafolk to have a similar relationship with cuttlefish (or whatever the domesticated version would be) as humans do with dogs, though.
Yes, of course, but I assume there's some equivalent of their tech, to ours? Even if it's not a perfect match. Of course not! There really shouldn't be a monoculture unless the species is too small to support more than one social group. However having some base idea on the general way people tend to do things, or a have a good idea of specifics for a single culture. For example knowing that they tend to use cuttlefish as symbiotic guards/ blood hounds may not be true where theyare not typically present, but it still tells you how much of their societies deal with their hunting and predatory problems. Seeing how different cultures react to simular, or situationally unique problems might be a good launching point. So: kids, family, reproduction, how do they tend to do it?
true. OTOH, this isn't just a single snapshot in time, either, they're at different places at different times? I feel like seafolk have probably been herding (shoaling?) food animals for longer than either of the others. Probably bred some herding cuttles. Harpies are oviparous. They pair-bond and tend to find monogamy comes easier to them than it does to humans (though of course it's still not universally adhered to). I figure they probably have about two or three to a brood (single eggs probably have some superstitions attached to them like we've had with multiple births) and just one brood a year- sapient beings do take a lot of resources to churn out. As for seafolk, I'm still pondering, but of course humans are still biologically just humans.
One brood a year might be too many. Lots of larger birds, like harpy eagles, have only one brood every few years. Since harpies are sapient and probably live for ages (birds often live longer than mammals of comparable size-macaws are comparable to cats in size and live for a century) they probably don't have broods as often as shorter-lived, nonsapient birds. They are smart enough to understand the concept of family planning as well, so it's unlikely they'll be churning out broods as often as possible.
I was thinking the one-a-year as what's biologically-possible-if-you-really-try rather than what happens in practice because, yes, they don't usually want that many. But yeah, I should probably step even that back slightly. Hmm. Maybe their intelligence and their settlement-building sort of co-evolved? If it started to take too long for the chicks to be ready to travel but they managed to make the place fit for a few to winter in? It's a thought...
Not completely certain of what their cosmology is, but seafolk definitely have a legendary monster that's basically Tamatoa. Because Moana was fucking great.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_silk SEAFOLK TEXTILES They cultivate fan mussels like crazy wherever it's warm enough. They... don't personally have much use for cloth, but they started out using the byssus for cordage and then surface people just couldn't get enough of the stuff...
I'm given to understand that birds that aren't specifically nocturnal have super-crappy night vision, and I feel like some things about harpy myth have fallen into place. There will be none of that stuff about darkness having its own value that various human and seafolk cultures will probably be into. Harpies just hate the dark, and thus the winter, and migration is mythologized as "chasing the sun"; they definitely have at least one culture hero that caught it and then gave them fire.
On the topic of migration being 'chasing the sun', I saw a terraformed Venus concept where the rotation was still slow enough that a whole day/night cycle took like 2 weeks, and that was compensated for by a set of orbiting mirrors and an atmosphere that was left thick enough for human-sized creatures to fly in easily. There was a whole subculture of people, 'daybirds', who wore strap-on wings and flew east every day to stay in constant daylight. The tour guide viewpoint character and the implied reader-insert joined them for a bit, but decided they didn't like that life and went to explore elsewhere.
This brings up two interesting questions: What do the mermaids want in return for the seasilk? What items do the surfacers have that the sea won't rust and rot in a mermaids hand. How do the cultures interact with each other in general? Hostility, trade, symbiosis, parasatism, war?
Research suggests that certain bronzes are corrosion-resistant enough for seawater-related applications. Not completely so, but enough to give them a reasonable usable lifespan. And of course if I give them any fantasy miracle metals, like mithril, those'd be even more valued. Then of course there's the luxury end of things; shinies like gold (again a difficult-to-corrode substance) and cut gems are usually popular, there may be some surface (or underground!) foods that are considered tasty (or at least a status symbol), and I think glass would hold some fascination for them as well. I mean, it's like warm ice! Colorful warm ice! And then of course there's the question of bribery/tribute, depending on how much of a position of power you're working from. Keep your fishing fleets out of our pasture-waters and don't dump your sewage into the estuary and you can have pearls and silk and us not boring your hulls and flooding low-lying settlements with sea magic.
Personally I find "uneasy truce" to be the most interesting state of affairs, so most story in this world will likely happen in such periods. I also want as many mixed locations as I can get away with. Gotta have those canal cities, all pearl and marine bronze, with their glassworks and their trading wealth and maybe a harpy winter camp just a little ways inland.
A random thing about possible harpy body language: birds wag their tails. this is something a surprisingly small number of people know.
So... I think I mentioned child rearing before, but I'll say it again. No matter how different the culture, all humans practice child rearing very similarly: the child is the responsibility of both parents, thought often to a greater degree the mothers, and is taken care of until some legal definition of 'can care for self.' I'd argue that of the many different things, child rearing tends to be almost exclusively influenced by biology. The stated reason for humans having such a long gestation period, and such a long adolescence ( baby dear can run minutes after being born, compare with human kids..) is that our wonderfully competent brains require a lot of upfront learning to be used to their maximum advantage, and that by protecting the child and making sure it learns things humans assure their own reproductive success a lot better than simply having a hundred kids and leaving them to fend for them selves at childhood. Any idea if bird/mermaid people would do anything different in that area?
Well, I'm pretty solid on harpies raising their kids in pair-bonds. I don't see the kids being especially matured at half a year of age, which makes baby's first winter a bit tricky for these guys, but there's a couple ways to resolve it. It's possible that their bodies mature relatively faster than their brains, allowing them to follow their parents on that first winter. Or I could go the settlement-building route I already mentioned, where they have to make a place they can winter in at least for a year or two. I think that way's more interesting. I can mythologize it, use that culture hero. Catch the sun, protect your chicks with its fire. Seafolk I'm still not sure of.
