Nevreans
Nevreans are a species of feathered, bipedal avians from the planet Tal in the Vilous system. They are a species characterized by their chirping noises and plumage, and can be uncommonly found just about anywhere that does not reject their presence. Their society tends to focus on local community, and Nevreans may consider the crew of their station or starship to be their “flock.” Their communal and easy going tendencies as a species make them easy to integrate into most cultures, usually bringing some Nevrean culture with them.
Nevreans share Tal with the Sergals, a more mammalian species. The significance of the Vilous system to the broader galactic community is its stable space lanes and asteroid-based phoron deposits, giving it a place as a commerce hub between the core and the periphery. Through this, Nevreans rapidly spread throughout the stars. The origin of any given Nevrean is likely a story in and of itself, fitting to a species with a common appreciation of a good one.
Overview
- Nevreans typically know their language of Birdsong, a chirpy singing language spoken with ,G
- A Nevrean in Virgo-Erigone could have any number of backgrounds and stories to how they got there. Be creative! Be expressive!
- The average Nevrean tends to enjoy the cultures of others just as much as their own, and will try to fit into that culture.
- Nevreans have no particular favor towards any job, but many Nevreans take pride in creative works and professions in which ingenuity is a beneficial trait.
- When making a Nevrean character, remember that there is not really a “standard” Nevrean. There is no trope or theme binding them to trends and stereotypes.
Biology
Nevreans are an avian-esque species of feathered bipeds from the planet Tal in the Vilous system. Their body is mostly covered in feathers, with scales covering the extremities of the legs and arms. Their beaks are a hard keratin, with females frequently having teeth (comparable to a raptor of Sol 3). Their bones are hollow, although the material is denser than Human bones, leading to a similar strength at a lower weight. Nevreans typically have sharp talons on their hands and feet, varying in size based on sex and diet. Their feathers vary between longer tail and flight feathers, and shorter plumage feathers on their chests and head. Patterns for their feathers typically vary by sex and diet. On average, they will live about as long as humans, largely due to shared medical technology with humanity.
Their anatomy resembles reptiles and birds of Sol 3 to some limited extent. The Nevrean respiratory system is optimized for thinner air and the high oxygen demands of flight, resulting in larger lungs capable of functioning even at higher speeds. Their resting heart rate is typically higher than most species. Their digestive system uses multiple chambers, as Nevreans typically do not chew, and food processing is done by a series of specialized organs. Nevreans are a rare example of clear sexual dimorphism among known, sapient species in the galaxy. The differences between the sexes are vast, with males and females diverging in appearance as they reach adulthood. These differences have societal implications in both traditional, radical, and counterculture views held by Nevreans.
Males are typically shorter and less physically built than females, featuring longer wing feathers that make them flight capable. Their tails are typically fuller, and their feather patterns and colorings are typically brighter than females.
Females are taller and more physically built up than males, albeit at the cost of full flight, being only able to glide. Their tails may be smaller, but their legs are generally larger and stronger than males. Their feather patterns are typically more muted than males, but this is not always the case.
Colonial Nevreans
Nevreans were found to be genetically malleable, similar to Humans. As such, it is not uncommon to find a variety of genetically modified Nevreans amongst the stars. They may be from orbitals in the systems of other species, from colonies set up in the periphery, or aboard ships as pilots and crew. The gene modifications of these Nevreans can vary between internal biology, differing appearances to resemble avians from Sol 3, or even modifications to be more able to live on a world. The nomadic nature of ancient Nevreans went to the stars with them, and thus they can be found anywhere that does not reject them.
((OOC Note: This is for you, the player, to be able to justify why your Nevrean character looks like a conventional anthro bird. You can also justify why they’re from earth, why they look like a mythological creature, or any other reasonable discrepancy from the base lore.))
Society
Nevreans have a family structure typically involving a monogamous pair of nevreans and any children they may have adopted or hatched. A layer above that is the “flock”, best thought of as the local community a nevrean associates with. Flocks are generally not legally defined (and rarely named), but rather an informal societal structure involving friends and relatives to a family. Communalism and cooperation are fairly common in flocks, with successes being shared as well as failures. Flocks may have a “leader” figure but it’s hardly a formal role and often changes. Flocks often include non-Nevreans when relevant, and rarely, flocks can form with just one nevrean and many non-nevreans.
In ancient times, every community had its “Wing”, a council of (generally) elder Nevreans intent on guiding the community. Ever since Industrial times, the Nevrean government has become far more complicated as they integrated with Sergals and now, the galactic community. In part because the highest government of the Vilous system resembles a parliamentary republic while regional governments range from councils with an external representative to a government with ultimate authority. Xenoanthropolgoists describe the halls of government on Vilous to be “quite loud, but functional”. The official Galactic Common name of the government of the Vilous system is the Vilous Central Authority. Nevreans used to have a fairly strict and family based caste system. In part, this was due to the passing down of trades and businesses over time. As the industrial era demanded new skills and brought greater access to education, the caste system was softly laid to rest, the bardic caste being the last to go as the printing press became more commonly used for recording history and stories. In the modern era, who you were born to does not indicate your life direction, but it may influence it.
Generational Stories
A common staple of Nevrean culture is oral tradition, generally in the form of storytelling. It exists within every tier of society, stories being passed by word of mouth are often used as lessons or situational relatability, or sometimes just for enjoyment and socialization. Up until relatively recently in their history, oral tradition was the normal method of conveying information to future generations, with an entire caste of bards existing up until a few centuries ago.
Nevrean stories are often expressed either in lyrical poetry or song form, but this isn’t always the case (laws were always written down in plain form, for example). Entire family trees and histories were recorded by this method until written tradition became more common in the early industrial era of Tal (largely due to printing methods being more commonplace).
Modern Nevreans may still have oral traditions relating to their family, history, or life. Sharing these is often shown as a sign of respect and trust, and is generally not done casually to strangers (although it is not faux pas to sing in public). Some of these are written down for cultural archives while others, primarily more traditional nevreans, forbid this.
A relevant, ancient Nevrean saying passed down for millennia is a simple one. “The first time someone dies is when their body expires. The last time is when they are not spoken of again.”
Gender
The sexual dimorphism of Nevreans has led to the traditional view on gender being based on specialization for inherent ability. Females are often encouraged to take jobs that require physical prowess and where aggression is beneficial. Males are often encouraged to take jobs less focused on physical work and more socially based. This was rarely a hard rule, but instead a natural trend observed throughout history. Children, from outside xenobiologicial studies, do not seem to have a discernible preference for the gender of who they play with. Gender and its roles in society are not enforced by the prior generation, rather just an occurrence with every generation. Much of this way of gendered thinking persists to the modern day in subtle ways, never being overt.
Counterculture
For some Nevreans, the way society naturally became structured around gender dynamics is indicative of a subconscious problem. They are not wrong; gender does play a large part in how relationships (of all kinds) are formed, how people are employed and housed, how business is conducted etc. It is a complicated societal game with no clear victory condition, although its vaguely defined nature and weak overtness also means that many Nevreans simply don’t know or don’t care about gender’s impact on society.
Religion
A central religious belief never really formed in Nevrean society. Instead, many localizations exist of a variety of spiritualistic beliefs. The most universal trait of these beliefs found in nearly all instances of this religion is “Ancestor Stars”. The Ancestor Star is the belief that when a person dies, they look down from the heavens upon future generations. A good person blesses and watches over their descendants, while a bad person curses them and bestows misfortune. This is why you might see Nevreans referencing “by the stars” (or other similar phrases), a shortened form of the phrase “By the stars of [my/your/their] ancestors”.
Outside of fringe groups, the vast majority of Nevreans accept that stars are hot balls of gas that are vast distances away from Vilous. Yet, this spiritual belief of ancestor stars does persist. Some believe that the ancestor is metaphysically tied to the star. Others believe that the star is simply a way of communicating or identifying with the ancestor, rather than actually being related to the ancestor. There are many variations of explanation as to why the stars still relate to their ancestors, but some just simply choose to not take the belief at all.
A nevrean who believes in ancestor stars may feel empowered by living in space where they can be clearly seen, and distraught living for long periods of time in a place without the ability to see them. A Nevrean who has adopted another belief system or rejected belief systems will likely not hold the same superstitions.
Voidwings
Vilous is a small place in the scope of an entire galaxy. Tal is the only habitable planet in its system and there are no garden worlds within a close distance to Vilous that aren’t already owned. What Vilous does have is natural Phoron deposits and an incredibly stable space route between Sol and the periphery. The result is widespread space infrastructure cropping up over the decades, making Vilous an incredibly profitable commerce hub in the periphery. The area is relatively free of pirates and raiders due to Task Force Vilous (TFV), a sizable navy of (mostly) patrol craft fielded by the Vilous Central Authority. While in no way comparable to an actual naval power, sovereignty has been guaranteed by skillful economic and diplomatic maneuvering rather than pure military might.
Vilous has a robust and thoroughly unorthodox ship building industry, primarily owned and operated by Nevreans. An industry focused on rapid adaptation and custom tailored designs means that two ships are rarely the same, and the process to make a single ship is often more expensive than a standard template with prefabricated systems. The expense is justified by time, Nevrean designs going from purchasing to completion in far less time than it would take to get the same work done elsewhere. An additional benefit of this unique industry is that if a ship built in a Sol yard breaks down, they don’t need to wait months to years for parts to arrive from Sol. Instead, the local shipyard industry’s adaptability can create a locally engineered solution in a fraction of the time, sometimes one that ends up being better than the original component.
Locally produced Nevrean ships tend to be very built to purpose, featuring little to no modularity outside of dedicated refits. They also tend to be smaller vessels, casual civilian craft and patrol ships with the largest spacecraft produced being patrol frigates and civilian medium transports. Nevrean naval architects learned from their human colleagues over the decades since first contact was established, before taking the principles they learned and advancing (in some respects) past their teachers and into indisputable design supremacy in regards to sublight propulsion, sensor profile, and anti-ship missile systems. However the lack of serialized, mass production of ships means the subsystems are built to order, and thus difficult to acquire on the scale needed for export. Some trans-stellar corporations have interest in forming more conventional, subsidiary ship yards in the Vilous system, but political concern over locally owned industry has bogged down this effort.
Nevreans Amongst the Stars
While Nevreans may generally be found around Tal and the Vilous system, the intersection with multiple peoples and cultures has led to Nevreans being uncommon, but not unusual, to see amongst non-Nevrean and non-Sergal societies. Their general acceptance towards others and willingness to adapt means that, even if their genetics have changed or their body has been augmented, they are still Nevreans. They may have interesting stories to tell or still be living through them. Their many shapes and sizes and origins and lives are all part of a cultural identity of adaptability, a species that permeates through the stars to anywhere the solar winds take them.
Relations
Nevreans typically favor tolerant, if not inviting, views of other species. While they may prefer their own kind, this preference is rarely exclusive to others. It is not uncommon to see Nevreans “flocking” with non-Nevrean species. Typically this is found family, the crew of starships, neighbors, and coworkers. Part of the reason the species has proliferated across the stars is due to their openness to others and their cultures, though this is not a view held by all Nevreans.
Sergals
Sergals were the other sapient species that Nevreans grew up with on Tal. A rare case of simultaneous evolution, early historical records indicate aggression and conquest that eventually turned into cooperation as equals. As such, Sergals and their culture may be familiar to Nevreans, but they are not inherently biased towards or against them.
Humans
Humanity is typically well regarded by Nevreans for a variety of reasons. While initial contact during the Vilous incident was a hilarious misunderstanding of local cultures and customs, the Sol-Procyon Commonwealth rapidly repaired this political kerfuffle by taking the locally space faring Nevreans and Sergals, and giving them interstellar capability and maintaining good relations with the government of Tal. The well recorded, written histories of Humanity were also fascinating to Nevrean scholars early on during first contact, and Human media has made its way into Nevrean culture. Recently, Nevreans have been increasingly associating with the various members of the Ares Confederacy for a myriad of reasons of varying legitimacy.
Skrell and Teshari
When two communal, feathered species find each other, it shouldn’t be surprising to see them associate freely. Teshari are a rare sight in the Vilous system but are usually treated as esteemed guests by Nevreans. Their independent nature, despite their origin as uplifts, gives them an endearing credibility. Birds of a feather flock together, as it may be. Skrell are less warmly received, or at least the trend of self placed superiority isn’t liked. Relations are not bad per say, just rare and marred by the few past instances of contact.
Lore 
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