-Name of Race: Celestian

-Physical Description: Resembling Winged humans. They have a human head, and limbs, including hair and ears shaped like a human‘s. The most notable feature of Celestians is that they have large, feathered wings on their backs. Usually these wings are the same coloration as the hair of the individual. The most common colorations of Celestian hair and wings tend to be light browns, greys, blacks, and whites. Most often, they are solid colors, but banded or speckled patterns resembling that of songbirds are not uncommon. Raptor patterns are also not too far from usual. (these, coincidentally, usually tend to belong to the warriors of the race.) Each wing is averagely two to three arm lengths long. Typically the average male stands 5’11” and the average female stands 5’8”. They (especially males) have strong torsos and are more rounded in the chest region than humans due to the muscular structures connecting their powerful wings to the body. Their legs tend to be proportionally thin to make them less of a burden in flight. Skintones on Celestians tend to gravitate towards the lighter pigmentations on the scale. All Celestians have blue eyes that have dark rings around the pupils. This is a dominant trait that is passed on to children of even partial Celestian descent. Individuals of partial descent usually do not have wings. In instances where they do have wings, usually there are genetic deformities that render them mostly useless, or weak. Wing shape of full blooded Celestians varies much in the way that other identifying features of the body differ between persons of other races. Some have wide wings, some have thin and angled shapes… etc. The bones of a Celestian have a structural make-up similar to birds to make them lighter in flight.

-Racial attributes/abilities/weaknesses: Celestians have eyesight comparable to that of eagles but have difficulty seeing in the ambiguous half-light hours of the morning and evening, when the sunlight tends to have the strongest glare. They see quite well in the full light of day and at night. All pure blooded Celestians have an ability called “Godflare” which is a beam of the individual’s own life energy fired from palm of the hand. It travels only in straight lines, never curves, and can generally be fired up to a distance of approximately 500 feet. It causes a great deal of damage to whatever it hits. Extremely high quality metals have been noted to resist one or two blasts from a Celestian Godflare, and on a few occasions, highly polished surfaces of this type of metal have actually reflected the beam elsewhere, though the force of the impact caused a large jolt to the structure. Practiced individuals can use the Godflare multiple times a day--but inexperienced ones can actually kill themselves by unintentionally expelling too much life-force at once. A healthy Celestian can fly a long distance without stopping if conditions are favorable. The longest non-stop flight ever taken by a Celestian on record was 1,238.5 miles. Most Celestians have a difficult time learning how to swim. Some individuals have been noted as having figured it out, and can actually swim quite effectively, but death by drowning remains the second leading cause of death of perfectly healthy Celestians. Leading cause: mistakenly shot down by land dwellers protecting their livestock. The skin of Celestian wings secretes a natural waterproofing oil that provides some resistance to water for their feathers, but once soaked, Celestian wings are heavy and flight becomes impossible until they are properly dried and cleaned. Celestian ears are highly sensitive and can hear a wider range of sound waves than most other races. Their voices can make sounds that do not register on human hearing scale.

-Social structure/Lifestyle: Celestians live in cities built on the roots of giant floating trees. Any Celestian found roaming very far from one of these cities is probably a scout. These cities drift along the currents of the wind, being pushed along like a cloud. Because of the nature of the cities, it is nearly impossible to put them on a map. They stay in the same place only as long as the wind allows. As the tree grows, so can the city. Typically, the cities are circularly shaped with several rings which tend to divide the city into districts.. (outer ring, inner ring, epicenter, etc…) The higher classes tend to live towards the center, nearer to the trunk of the Founding Tree. Industrial districts are usually along the outer rings. These trees are cultivated in the air by Celestians and become foundations for new cities once they‘ve grown large enough. Often, noble class individuals are given charge of a particular sapling. Founding Trees live extremely long lives as far as trees go, partly due to the care the Celestians take in maintaining them.

Due to the lifespan of these trees, the death of one is a rare thing to witness and is commonly considered a bad omen and is cause for mourning. When for whatever reason a tree dies, or becomes too unhealthy, it falls. (Depending on the conditions, it may fall quickly, or it may fall gradually.) The altitude lost by a wounded/sick/dying tree usually cannot be regained. Once it has fallen, it is probably dead. On the rare chance that it is still alive, it will take root in the ground and live on as a normal tree--but its denizens will eventually, if not sooner, leave and move to another more healthy city.
The Passing of a Tree calls for a reverent ceremony resembling a funeral which is conducted by the elders of the late city.

Each Celestian city is equipped with a distress horn. It is sounded when there is a need to call back every member of its community. Used for calling city-wide meetings, and for announcing danger. The audible sound of the horn is usually a penetrating low-pitched one which can cause resounding vibrations in metal and even stone in structures sometimes several miles away. The humanly inaudible pitches it makes can be heard by Celestians (and other races with the ability to hear that register) even farther away.

Little is known about the Celestian language by those who do not speak it. As it is largely tonal and some words cannot be expressed without a set of Celestian vocal chords. But the word “Ehn’” is one used at the beginning of the name of every city. It has a dual definition. It means both City, and also Circle--which is not surprising to most scholars, as their cities are very commonly arranged in a circular schematic. The circle is also used in a lot of Celestian artwork and decoration. The moon and its phases also seems to be a fascinating theme to them--as their calendar seems to be largely based on them in conjunction with the patterns of the wind currents. Because of their closeness to it, they are quite skilled at predicting the weather into the near future.

Celestians live within their cities as families. It is common to build additions to their houses to accommodate their growing family groups. Relationships are monogamous, individuals marry for life, and there is no such thing as divorce in Celestian society. It is not uncommon for families to arrange marriages for their members, but no marriage can take place unless the heads of the two households agree to be associated with each other. Being a largely benevolent race, families from the same city rarely have opposition to their children marrying (especially if it‘s for love). Families from different cities sometimes face difficulty seeing eye to eye.

The cities (which are commonly named after the one who raised the founding tree) are ruled by a set of six Elders. They meet at the Epicenter, or at the trunk of the Founding Tree. (coincidentally, equal to the number of domains of magic) Generally, Celestians are a peaceful people, but they are not pacifist. Each city has it’s own military. As they drift with their cities, it is common to trade with the land people that they come across as they need supplies that can’t be cultivated or made within their own walls.

Celestians love to reminisce with each other and highly value music, stories, and art. To a Celestian, nothing piques the interest more than the prospect of a good tale. Most of their songs and art are in fact pieces of history and tell of past events.

-Growth and Development: (IE: sexual maturity age): Celestian babies are born live in much the same condition that Human babies are. As with birds, the newborn Celestian does not have feathers until a week or so after birth. Their bodies excluding the wings tend to be smaller than human newborns to allow for the extra mass of the wings to pass through the birth canal without endangering the mother. As infants, Celestian voices are capable of creating high frequency sounds that human ears cannot hear. As they mature into puberty, they lose this ability, and gain the ability to make low frequency sound waves which travel farther. This is commonly used as a means of long range communications. Sometimes called by non-Celestians as “the silent song (or secret song) of the Celestians.” Celestian children usually start experimenting with flight shortly after they’ve mastered running. They are kept close within the family households until 5 years of age, when they are introduced to the rest of society and begin socializing with other children. Education is the responsibility of the individual families, but it is not uncommon for small families to daily send children to study with other, larger families to strengthen community bonds. The Celestians age proportionally at the same rate as Humans. The average healthy life expectancy of a Celestian is 150 years. However, individuals who spend a lot of time raising the “children” of their Founding Tree have been noted to live longer. The oldest Celestian ever recorded cared for saplings his entire life and lived to 225 years of age. Cause of Death: Shot down by land-dwellers.

-Habitats/Locations found: In the sky and sometimes on land, near the floating cities. It’s not common to see a Celestian in a land-dweller city except when there is a Celestian city close by. They will nearly always leave with their city.

-Battle Preferences: Buddy System. Celestians hate to fight alone. If they are threatened, they will usually prefer to retreat to the safety of numbers. Celestians utilize the sky in most of their tactics--as it usually gives them the advantage of being out of range--as such, most of their weapons are reach weapons or long range. Such weapons favored by Celestians are spears, glaives, other pole-arms, slings, rifles and guns, bows, and artillery. It is not typical for a Celestian to wield a sword, knife, or another weapon which might take away the advantage of reach--that type of weapon is commonly seen as the emergency back up plan for those unlucky enough to get cornered on land.

-Other Info: Celestians are generally elitist when it comes to bloodlines. Since half-Celestians don’t have wings, they become “handicapped” according to Celestian society and typically are treated as broken. They can’t fly, they have to be watched, they would become a burden on the society. Unions between Celestians and Non-Celestians are frowned upon in such a way that many times, the rare individuals who marry or fall in love with a non-Celestian are usually shunned by the rest of the community. Due to this, and how difficult life in the floating city would be for any offspring they may have from the relationship, the Celestian would have to leave their beloved home and live with their new family elsewhere.