Birdfolk and other avians are an interesting bunch to look at from a culture perspective since they have a completely different experience of the same geographies everyone else is living on.
For this I am going to split avian culture into two - the gregarious ones that live collectively (think starlings) and the independent ones (think hawks).
Big drivers:
- adaptable and all-seeing
- travelling light
- transient and seasonal
Immediate thoughts are that they live in 3-dimensions - in disconnected blobs with lots of spaces between the foci of their society - they fly over the rest.
Aspects of migratory birdfolk society are:
1. An 'only the best' mentality because they can just move on from anything less.
2. Tendency to communicate with a lot of observing and displaying patterns visible from the sky.
3. Messy culture - with a tendency to dump things and move on.
4. Traditions are strong with set migration movements and seasonal behaviours, practices and rituals.
5. Wilderness harvesters - scouts, traders and news-bringers.
6. Intrusive and hard to keep out - fighting avian society is like fighting smoke - groundling powers have trouble getting to grips with them to deal a decisive defeat. Most of their neighbours just let them come and go as long as they stay off their crops and herds.
7. They know where all the best delicacies are and when they will be ripe to test. 'Birdfolk advent' is known as the moment when the good things are coming to readiness; when the birdfolk begin to arrive to sample things you know it will be good and in danger of being consumed.
8. Avoiding of dragons territory. Dragons are hated and feared as their breath-weapons and swift flight are hard to flee and fighting dragons needs heavier weapons than bird-folk typically carry.
9. Foods tend towards cold-cuts, fruits and salads as fuel-gathering for fires is avoided as heavy work.
10. Allies know that smoke or fire signals can call help from the skies.
Individually, these birdfolk that have turned up in this groundling town are:
1. fascinated - well travelled and curious about local customs
2. arrogant - believe they are above others in a real sense
3. obnoxious - been everywhere and loud about what others do better
4. gossipy - keen to pass on the news and culture from elsewhere
5. heretics - prying into local taboos and enraging local power-players
6. gourmands - thrilled at this years local crop and delighted to have all they can be given
7. worried - something bad is happening out there and they saw it is coming this way
8. fans - squabbling for the services of a group of local craftsfolk who they say are the best
9. posturing - wearing heavy items like dwarven work, arms or armour to display their personal strength
10. celebratory - renewing ties with this community in a big seasonal feast, with much gift-giving
Birdfolk settlements tend to be:
1. High, airy and spare with minimalist decors.
2. Open to the weather with lots of terraces and places to launch and land.
3. With only external accessways - stairs are rare, just fly up or down.
4. High above a trash midden. These accumulate below settlements as it is easier to just shove 'waste' out and let it fall. There are frequently midden-dwellers who live nearby and comb through the scraps.
5. Draughty. Since the birdfolk can move to where the weather is always fine, their homes are not weather-proofed. Because of this anomalous storms or heat/cold leaves them miserable and complaining.
6. Adapted to the season. Settlements tend to have a 'seasonal towns' atmosphere strongly adapted to a particular activity that is good in a particular season - beach or ski towns.
7. Built in large trees, cave systems or other inaccessible adaptable locations are favoured
8. Extensively carved and painted, especially temples and public structures with bare altars and niches waiting for a few group idols and icons to be brought when the community arrives
9. Decorated with art that is brilliant and extensive across surfaces, with 'near and far' aspects that give one impression from a distance as you fly over and another aspect up close.
10. Surrounded by wild fields and orchards. In isolated places, the birdfolk may plant crops on a 'plant and hope' basis, trusting there will be something there to harvest when they come back.
Treasures of the Birdfolk reflect their relationship to heavy crafts.
1. The heavy work of fetching fuel and working ore is avoided. Birdfolk will trade for things that require hot, heavy work - metal working, distilled goods - and things that require a lot of time in the same place like cheese making.
2. Communities are focused on 'cold working' of both food and crafts - gems, stone, wood, bone and other gathered materials are worked into textiles and crafts
3. Bird folk will pay well for others to prepare things for them - especially for feasts to be ready when the migratory flock arrives at a certain date.
4. Isolated 'heirloom' caches of bulky or heavy valuables are hidden away in inaccessible spaces or left in care of allies.
5. Appreciation for light, high value things - valuable trade goods and high quality tools
6. The treasures of the bird-folk as seen by others are the maps and astronomical texts they write as well as broad geographic knowledge.
7. Their craft works tend to focus on rarity of materials - feathers, types of ivory, exquisite patterns.
8. Value artistic craftworkers with distinctive style - both their own and other races - and are willing to make large efforts to get prestige pieces from them
Independent birdfolk are a different bunch. The big mobile society birdfolk are typically set in their ways. The independents are typically unfairly stigmatised as a worse bunch. The story of independent birdfolk is of individuals more than a collective culture:
1. Perceived as thieves and predators - a birdfolk alone is likely to be suspected of having been cast out for whatever reasons.
2. Independents tend to be jumpy and suspicious, even paranoid, as a consequence.
3. Most sustain themselves as scouts, trappers and regional guides.
4. Vengeful or offended independents will often try and run their foes into other foes - luring beasts into enemy camps or setting traps for them.
5. Famed as herbalists and hunters.
6. The slowness of groundfolk getting around compared to their swiftness gives independents reputation for impatience.
7. Inability to strongly contest big dangers and with a world of options to choose from gives independents a tendency to abandon difficult circumstances.
8. Decisiveness due to precariousness of living in isolation, they act quickly after they make decisions.
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