Striga-Hyto.
[Sketches depict an array of bipedal beings of various builds and body-types, the only unifying aspect about them being that they are all avian based. One build is shorter and stockier than the others, with a hefty weight and evident muscle mass of a hard manual laborer, while another is tall and lithe, with long limbs and a straight backed orientation. A third build, meanwhile, appears to be between the heights of the other two builds, and are notably more curved with fuller hips proportionate to their body height. A fourth body type is distanced from the others, and is tall and powerfully built with a great amount of potent muscle-mass. Interestingly, despite their avian nature, females appear to have fully developed mammary glands, which the sketcher wrote as 'unexpected' in the margins. Finally, across all, there appears to be various racial markers analogous to various bird species, including crows, owls, hens, and hawks, and the styles of dress are extremely stylish and needlessly ornate, which again seems to have confused the sketcher with them writing 'What tactical use does an unarmored dress that puffy offer?', while others wear clothing ranging from servant attire to more exotically provocative clothing.]
[A note is attached. It reads 'Birb bewba. Biology and nature can suck egg! >
']
Scientific Name Translation: Witchweed Bird.
Average Size: Between 5-8 feet/1.5-2.44 meters tall, depending on build.
Average Weight: Between 200-800 pounds/90.72-362.87kgs, depending on build.
Notable Sexual Dimorphism: Females have full heads of hair, mammary glands, and curvier bodies than males, though exact amounts of curves vary between body-types.
Habitat Range: Floating Isles and cities across Ogra and Skyrunner territories.
Summary:
It is no secret, and indeed a commonly accepted fact about our homeworld of Null that it is a difficult place to survive in prior to the modern day, with even fortified cities prior to the Great Walled Cities being susceptible to large enough incursions by Spider-Ants or other unexpected terrors. Indeed, this made evolving and developing on our homeworld an extremely grueling, difficult process that weeded out Displaced species brought here across the eons until a select few powerful, or fit, enough were able to develop into a niche all of their own.
However, this has led to a question in come circles. Namely, every species that came to Null did so unexpectedly, without warning, and without aid or support, with only their own strength and ability at a more primitive and unprepared level to survive in our world's ruthless environment. The question, therefore, is 'What if a species came to Null, but not only expected it, but was completely prepared?' The answer to that question exists in the form of relative new-comers in the Striga-Hyto.
The Striga-Hyto, commonly just shortened to just the Striga or, if familiarity is earned, the Hyto, stand out among the various races of Null, Displaced or otherwise, in that they are the first of only two known extra dimensional species to actively, willingly come to Null of their own volition, fully equipped and prepared for their own self-sustained survival. Unlike the invaders of 'Mytus Corp', however, the Striga came not as resource exploiters or conquerors, but as refugees escaping a doomed world. Though most are hesitant to bring up the painful memories of their exodus from their homeworld, dimensional long-scry was used to confirm what those that did tell of the tale said: Their world, Hylia, was dying from the sudden onset of a cataclysmic mystical event that would consume their world. [A note is attached. It reads 'Well, that's depressing. A world doesn't have to be a horrible place for something to go horribly, horribly wrong.']
As the only species that lived on this world, the Striga used advanced magitech means to find worlds best suited for a new home, which sadly for them they found only Null as a viable alternative, as our world was the closest to theirs on the dimensional plane and the only one that could easily be accessed. The remnants of their dying civilizations, less than 5 million in total, were able to get onboard and depart on the Great Merchant Cities, floating magitech constructs meant to ferry enormous amounts of trade between far flung lands on their now departed planet, and used them to enter the dimensional planes between our worlds, where they underwent extensive alchemical therapies and extensive mystical reconstruction of all their belongings in order to survive in Null's corrosive filled atmosphere.
Arriving in 1457, almost three decades before the Third Kingdom War began, the Striga Merchant Families, now the rulers of what remained of their race, set about using their advanced magitech to survey and set up new residences and cities on the Floatstone rich isles and micro-continents hovering over Ogra and Skyrunner territories, beginning the long and painstaking process of rebuilding what remained of their cultures in a new, hostile world. Their advanced technology and weaponry, including a breed of magi-tech based energy weapon base never seen before, allowed them to defend themselves from the creatures that claim the skies and floating isles of our world as their home. The Spider-Ant is the hated enemy of all who live on or under the ground of Null, but for the Striga who reside in the skies, it is the Hellhawk Hornets who they have found as their greatest enemy. [A note is attached. It reads 'It's no secret that Null has gotten deadlier over time as things become more powerful to adapt to rising tech levels. Back during those days, a Striga Beam Rifle shot was enough to kill one of those buggos. These days, you need a freaking fighter to take them out.']
Due to their new society being managed and ruled by aristocratic merchants, any chances of them attempting military actions against the less advanced peoples on the ground during that era vanished when the decision was made by the Striga High Council to begin looking into ways to enter mutually beneficial trade relations with those who had overnight become their new neighbors. With the Ogra, they traded them (nonreplicable at the time) shielding and power sources in exchange for mined ores and minerals they could not get in the skies, while with the Skyrunners they traded (also non-replicable) weaponry and vehicles in exchange for military defense pacts and Skyrunner mercenaries assisting in their people's defense. Though all native parties were surprised by the sudden and non-aggressive arrival of their new neighbors, millennia of putting up with Null's eccentricities and brutality led to them quickly accepting the new status quo and a new powerful trade partner to mutually benefit from. [A note is attached. It depicts a cartoon Oros staring at a cartoon Striga and saying 'Okay, birds exist now.']
Culturally, the modern day Striga are formed from about 7 primary surviving cultures to hail from their original world before its destruction, specifically the mercantile classes of these cultures who were closely tied together by their bonds of trade and familial alliances. In Nullian terms, the Bretons are analogous to parts of Royalback nation, while the Qin are of the other parts of the Royalbacks; The Hoya resemble the Icebreaker's primary cultural aspects, and the Bharat are similar to the aspects of the Bughunter's building aesthetics; The Persis reflect a mirror for some of the tribes of the Skyrunners, and the Copt of the primary cultural construction aesthetics of them as well. Finally, the Venia resembles the trading city-state Isla Oro on the coast bordering the Bughunters and the Firebrands.
While it is said their respective nations were long historically rivals with one another, the merchant clans from each have a long history of inter-marriage alliances that has long since led to their forming of a distinct aristocratic culture that blends and melds aspects from all of their cultures, to the point where the remaining distinct aesthetics and cultural markers are more of a remnant held alive by tradition of their respective origins rather than a dearly held cultural distinctiveness common on Null. As a result of this intermixing, the Striga, or at least the mercantile families and their servants brought to the new world, have little in the way of cultural tensions between one another. However, that being said, they are universally quite proud and attached to their shared blended culture and as a result, older generations tend to frown upon younger generations trying to integrate ideas from 'outside' without an extensive, and often very long, process of review by the Striga High Council, which has on more than one occasion caused tension and butting of heads between the two age brackets. [A note is attached. It reads 'It took time for the Median's member Nations to put aside all of their old grudges and beefs to become what we are today. I wonder just how long it took for the Striga to get along like that?']
This is not without reason, however: Following the institution of the Median, the wealthy families and organizations of the newly founded super-nation, known colloquially as 'Upper Echelon', were quick to jump at the opportunity to try and change Striga economic and social statuses to better reflect their idealized view of what is known on Null as 'Cooperative Economic Theory', which posits that in times of stress or poor conditions, it is the duty of the wealthy to expend funds in order to aid economic recovery and assist the market to become healthy in the event of conditions that would harm market health such as monopolies. While in theory an noble goal, Upper Echelon successfully managed to slip away the knowledge of the creation and maintenance of Striga's highly vaunted weapons technology caused relations between the two parties to cool and a tightening of the leash between relations of Striga High Society and Median Upper Echelon's intermingling. [A note is attached. It reads 'Technically, Gramma Alyxia would count as UE, but only because she was born as royalty. Thank goodness she officially doesn't count, though. I don't want to go through the Agoge just to earn the right to access the family fortune. D:']
Ironically, the success of Upper Echelon managing to acquire Striga weapons technology caused them to realize that the blueprints they had acquired were, in fact, completely and utterly useless to any non-Striga: While they do, in fact, utilize mana-magics like most other species, the quirks of how they interact with them means that, while they were able to develop and create advanced magitech technologies, the exact same technologies are completely unreplaceable without Striga involvement in the creation process. Admitting defeat and realizing their error, the Upper Echelon and the Striga would go on to make peace in the ensuing decades after that incident and would work together to pen the Nullian Intellectual Rights Laws, which governs all laws related to or involving copyright on Null to this day. [A note is attached. It reads 'I got to look at a Striga Phased Beam Rifle, which looked like a fancied up musket rifle thing from the way, way olden days. It's actually a very fascinating piece of engineering, using cartridges of condensed, Striga 'woven' mana power cells to fuel and power the weapons. Don't let their aesthetics fool you: Striga like wood-furnishings and making stuff look like they come out of the olden days. But they are
not.']
Society wise, time and a lack of raw numbers has resulted in the once highly stratified social order of the striga becoming something mildly, though not entirely, egalitarian: Social status is not fixed, and ones social class is flexible and malleable based on their successes and failures in whatever fields of career they apply themselves in. The introduction of Median Golem technology also meant that the quality of life between the Servant classes and the Elites are, if not the same, then comparable enough as to not matter in terms of fulfillment, safety, and comfort for the common folk of their species. Nullian mercenaries working as security and body-guards for the Striga have gone on record to find the lavishness of their accommodations despite their roles to be oddly unnerving to them, even if they admit to enjoying the luxuries considered common defaults among the Striga.
Compared to the more egalitarian natives of our world, the Striga have more clearly defined gender roles that, while having loosened over time to adapt to their new world, still influences aspects of their society to this day. It is typical for male Striga to take on roles of builders, engineers, architects, soldiers, and leading businesses and enterprises, while females dominate most other fields. Interestingly, while Nullian 'heads of the house' tend to be which ever partner is the strongest, a hold-over from the days where the strongest partner was the bread winner in a hostile world, females are the heads of their house-holds by default, and oversee family affairs, banking and accounting, as well as officiating business transactions. The Striga have a proverb: 'Men control the market, but women control the house.' [A note is attached. It reads 'Good thing for them they're becoming more open-minded. I can't imagine having to run numbers for the family treasury, my head's in engineering not accounting!']
Interestingly, the Striga religious practices stand out for their worship not of a specific deity or pantheon, but rather the belief of what they call 'The Great Cycle'. They see this cycle in everything, from the changing of the seasons, to the passage of time, to the phases of the moons, to a belief in reincarnation among their people. Due to the nature of the soul being variable from universe to universe, while we know reincarnation to not affect any Nullian race in a way where past lives 'bleed' into current ones, there is some evidence to support this affects the Striga as memories of past lives are not uncommon among them, though its exact mechanics are debated even among themselves as to the methodology by which they are reborn. Another interesting facet is that their belief in the Great Cycle is not, in fact, mutually exclusive to other belief systems: A Striga can just as likely pray to a deity for fortune as they can appeal to the spirits of their ancestors, and it is considered just as viable among them without any affect on their beliefs of the Cycle. Of those Striga to have adopted Nullian religions, the Great Spirit Pantheon is the most common secondary religion among them, particularly the Great Spirit of Loot and Riches, Arara. The next most common is, surprisingly, Nullian inspired Ancestor Worship, with the seeming incompatibility with the nature of the Great Cycle's reincarnation being reconciled as the Great Cycle simply existing in this next life, with their ancestors and them simply being reborn anew in a new plane of existence.
In the modern day, the Striga are officially a neutral party nation in most trade disputes between the Ogra and the Median, being on good terms with both parties. They have cool, but existing trading relationships with the Lasarna Republics, the two cultures finding the other's luxury items to be very appealing. Though relatively low in numbers, the Striga stand out for being the largest source of third-party military supply packages during the Draconic Wars, the Dream Lotus Incursion, and with the most recent Spider-Ant wars to break out. [A note is attached. It reads 'They also have been pumping out gear like mad to fill demands during the Moon War currently going on. You see more Plasma-Locks and Las-Jazzails than any other non-Median weapon system from footage on the Moon. They're not even selling it to us, they're just tossing the weapons and ammo as fast as they're producing them. Makes sense: They already lost one world, they sure as hell don't want to lose another.]
In terms of biological facets, the Striga are possibly one of the most alien to our Nullian sensibilities. On the surface, they appear as bipedal avians with various body-types not unlike the Oros, whose females lay eggs on a fairly frequent basis and who are, in general, greatly attuned to the use of Mana based magics. However, the more one looks into their inner workings, the more unusual they become to our understanding of biology. Males have external reproductive organs, while females have fully functional mammary gland analogs used to feed their newborns, who are not hatched from eggs but rather born viviparously: The eggs laid by the females are unfertilized ova which develop into full, but nonviable, eggs, which is traditionally eaten by the mother to regain lost nutrients. [A note is attached. It depicts a cartoon Oros staring at a diagram of a Striga Baby and an egg and how they don't intersect. The Oros is saying 'Oh boy, more things beyond the comprehension of Mortal man.']
Furthermore, their body-types are not the result of a built in biological system, but the result of various different Striga subspecies interbreeding over the years and resulting in an extremely varied people in terms of build and 'species' aesthetics, with the body-type of a given offspring depending on those of the mother and father, with males getting their father's body-type and females gaining their mothers. These body types include the tall and lanky Alpha, the curved and limber Delta, the short and stout Lambda, and the artificially induced super-soldier Omega forms.
Their hands and feet are covered in typical avian calloused digits, with the odd inclusion of mammal like pads where applicable on them. These digits are tipped with claws that, if not kept dull by rather frequent care, will become sharp enough to claw into untreated stone and leave deep grooves. Their beaks are highly malleable, allowing them to speak and form sounds as easily as any species with lips, though a vocal chamber like structure allows them to indulge in a wide array of sounds not unlike our own such structures in the throat. In addition, they have an oversized Mana Converter relative to their size, which despite a lack of divine power boosting them unlike the Lasarna, allows them feats of magic matched only by Mortalized Spirits and beyond. What's more, despite all of their species being based on primarily predatory avians, they are omnivorous albeit with a slant towards a meat heavy diet, and have an extreme fondness for drinks such as wine and liquors. [A note is attached. It reads 'I'm not even sure if the Striga can get drunk. I've seen Oros get sauced and we have two super-livers and a regen ability, but I once saw a Striga diplomat down enough bottles to get one of us tipsy, and she was just strutting around like she was drinking water!']
In terms of offensive and defensive abilities, physically they are tougher than they look, with even a hit from an Ogra or Oros throwing them back without breaking their bones. This is the result of dense, yet paradoxically light weight bones, as well as their alchemical enhancements to survive better on Null improving their durability across the board. Their inherent magical skill and extensive education on its usage also gives them a wide array of close and long range powers and spells to use or enhance their natural abilities, and their peak vision allows them to be dead-eye shots outstripped only by experienced Oros Normal soldier. They also use their abilities to make up for a stunted, underdeveloped back wings via creating pinions of energy to fly with, as needed, something even their youngest seem to know how to tap into reflexively. There is a fourth form used in the military to create the 'Omega' body type super soldiers from any of the other body-types, however this is not used as often as you would expect, as these new forms, while very powerful, require a lot of resources and maintenance to keep healthy and well fed.
In reproductive terms, a coupling between a male and female Striga will result, after about 8 months of gestation time, one or two infants, their body type based on that of their parents. Born in a live, placental manner like all Civilized species of Null, the infants are fed their mother's equivalent to breast milk and are weened off at around two years old, which is where their development begins in earnest. This long period of vulnerability, as well as their young being virtually defenseless as children, means the Striga are just as protective of their children as any Nullian, especially with the dangers of their new homeworld as Hellhawk attacks are not uncommon.
What is interesting about Striga reproductive strategy, however, is that their birth rates are actually slanted to females, on average of two-to-one. With males traditionally entering the military and Null's dangers ensuring a notable attrition rate, this means during peace time, females out-number males three-to-one. As a result, Striga society has long adapted by marrying their males with a 'headwife', who would go on to pick and choose other females of her choice into their relationship as secondary wives. This is very foreign and alien to most Nullians' sensibilities, but it helps to understand that this system arose out of necessity due to an inherent gender imbalance in their population. However, in times of great conflict, the ensuing casualties that arise can result in overwhelming imbalances. When this occurs, the Striga High Council has been known to reach out to their Upper Echelon counterparts in order to make marriage deals between the two parties, based on the severity of a war's losses to their male population. These political marriages are not done lightly, nor casually, as every instance of an Upper Echelon scion being married off to abate the Striga population stresses is another avenue of influence the UE has with their society. [A note is attached. It reads 'Us Nullians aren't really 'built' mentally wise for polyamory. Like, it happens on occasion, sure, but most of us can't wrap our heads around the idea of having more than one mate you're completely devoted to. Still, if all parties are into it, more power to them.']
Possibly unique among the Displaced on Null to have willingly come here to escape certain death, the Striga have since formed themselves into a vital part of Null's global economic web, becoming invaluable trade partners for most parties on the Arisa continent, a fact not lost on them. While some find their high society trappings and at times haughty attitudes annoying, especially compared to Upper Echelon's more utilitarian and public service based culture, no one can deny their influence has been felt in the economic circles of the world even as far flung as the Lasrana Republics. Despite a rocky start from our own mistakes, the Striga remain a valued trade ally to the Median, and one who won't be going anywhere any time soon.
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