Aug 12 • Lore and World Showcase
[Eldara] Aquilans
Aquilan are one of three related species that descended from a common ancestor that looked like a stock fantasy elf. They've all significantly diverged from that by now, and are their own established species with unique biology, physiology, culture, etc.
Aquilans are, visually, a mix between dryads, fauns, and wood-elves. Their most notable features are:
- Soft treebark for skin
- Vines and lichen for hair and clothes
- Optional (up to 4) horns
- Pointed ears
- A furry lower body
- Legs like that of a goat or deer
- Hooves
- A thin, long tail with tufted tip
Aquilans are extremely strong, innate nature magic users, growing their homes out of living wood, and shaping their horns and lichen-clothes and hair with it as a form of fashion. Their biology and culture are both heavily interwoven with this magic.
They've got 3 sexes, the third one being an advanced version of intersex, with the added twist that any two of these sexes will produce offspring of the third sex. There are some futher complexities on top of this, and females tend to have both stronger magic and more varied options, resulting in a largely matriarchal society for them.
Through nature magic, they've managed to awaken the wood wide web into a kind of nature deity by uploading millions of years of generational knowledge into it as a sort of biologocal internet. Their yoing are sent out on pilgrimages to experience the world around them, and bring back something of value. They bring back knowledge in most cases, and their experiences are uploaded into their nature deity; Ælwao through a neural interface with which most aquilans only interact once in their life. Elders are, in turn, special aquilans of a man-like gender and associated social role of interacting with Ælwao and teaching their young about their accumulated knowledge before their pilgrimage.
Aquilan Matriarchs (a woman-like gender with leadership role) can choose to procreate not the usual way, but by taking a snippet of life force off of their child's "father", and pollinating a flower with it, which they grow from the wrist. This flower can the be either retracted resulting in a usual (~10 month) pregnancy and birth, or plucked and placed in a special pod that is connected to Ælwao, which then incubates the child and grows them into adulthood, downloadong the Aquilans' collected knowledge into their brains in the process. They can then remain in stasis for as long as required, and woken when the time is right. At any given time somewhere between 90-99% of the Aquilan population is waiting to be "born" this way.
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[Eldara] Aquilans
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