Welcome back Thursday's Pact Day. I'm going to piggyback off last week's post about the GyrFalconi and the Twenty Year War to discuss GyrFalconi culture and society prior to Terren occupation. In the middle of writing this post, I got a story idea that takes place on post-war Aries 7. LOL!
Before the Twenty Year War, the GyrFalconi only lived in the high places. They lived in their mountain cities that oversaw the agriculture production and their massive sky cities that several million called home.
Aries 7 is not the homeworld of the GyrFalconi. Only the adept of the Divine Egg has recorded their origin world which the GyrFalconi left in order to explore space. For several centuries, GyrFalconi crossed many solar systems and a galaxy until their wanderlust abated. They then split into seven groups, each group settling on a different world. In their language, Aries means pioneer and applied to those who fearlessly trek into the unknown. The number 7 is the number of their group. They were the last to settle after seeing groups one through six safely ensconced into their new homeworlds.
When the GyrFalconi settled Aries 7, they retired and dismantled their space program, using the technology to build the sky cities and concentrating on making the planet their home. They are relatively peaceful and don't physically war with each other. Their battles are waged in politics or certain professional games, so they have no air defense and only police their city streets.
They allocated land for crops and flowers that were maintained by machinery. The manufacturing facilities were built underground to keep the planet surface pristine. The overseers live in the mountain based cities. Vehicles are used by nesters caring for non-flying hatchlings or young chicks. If the distance between destination is too great for flying, there is a public transit system. But if they can fly to their destination, they will.
Their society is built around age and gender tiers. Chicks stay in the nest until maturity (which depends on the gender) and then they leave to begin their own nest. During their breeding age, they have steady work but take jobs that allows them to be home as frequently as they are needed. After the breeding age, they become a part of the infrastructure. GyrFalconi have three genders: female, males, and nesting males. (I will probably come up with official names for the tiers later.) Males and females are brilliantly colored and distinct. The nesting males have dull feathers in tones of white, gray, and browns.
The parents of the hatchlings who are nesting males and females will take the chicks for community play dates. The chicks will play with each other and the parents will watch who their chicks are most drawn to. It is considered abuse if a parent is found trying to force/coerce their chick to have relationships with hatchlings they have no interest in. That will get their chicks taken away and the authorities digging into every personal aspect of their life. As the nesting males and females pair up, the parents will arrange a betrothal and ensure the two chicks spend much time with each other so that they will bond.
Around the age of fifteen, male and females will leave their family's nest. Females starts a foundation and gradually builds a nest of her own in preparation of the nesting male joining her when he matures. The nesting male will stay in the parents' nest the longest. He cannot go to his bonded female until he has matured. If he goes to his bonded female's nest, it will spur her into the breeding stage. If he is not mature, then his cloaca is unable to hold an egg. So he stays with his parents until he molts, loosing all of his dull feathers and growing new, more colorful ones. The breeding males and females are both very colorful and pretty, but when a nesting male matures, they are stunning beyond compare. After the nesting male's new feathers come in completely, he can join his bonded female.
When a male leaves the nest, he too will build a nest but it isn't the same. Sometimes he will only house himself, but often times males will join together with other breeding males. Breeding males start compiling finances and commodities that will later be used to help support any chick they sire. A breeding male can only sire additional chicks if his portfolio says he is capable of supporting them. Being able to provide for multiple chicks is a point of extreme pride among breeding males. They don't have relationships with the chicks until the chicks are older, but that is a natural part of their makeup.
Something to note about GyrFalconi, sex and relationships are two different things. Males and females have sex for fun and to breed. Females are friendly with breeding males outside the breeding grounds and they respect each other but they don't form bonds or relationships beyond light friendships. If for some reason the females dies, the breeding males will check in the nesting male caring for their chicks but they won't nest with the nesting male nor will they take the chicks from the nesting male. It's just not done.
Females bond to and have deep emotional relationships with their nesting males, but they don't have sex with them. Nesting males are asexual. They enjoy cuddles and romance and taking care of the chicks, but they have no desire for sex. On the other hand, breeding males love to have sex. If he nests with other breeding males, they will have sex with each other when they are not trying to attract a breeding female. Rarely, a breeding male will be invited into the nest by both the nesting male and female. This doesn't happen often and is considered weird by society's standards but that nest isn't shamed (to keep from scarring the chicks) but there is gossip because most don't understand why.
In the middle of the cities are protected breeding grounds where the males and females go when they are ready to sire a chick. The female will choose a male and see him every day until she conceives. The egg takes about 40 days to grow and at that time, she will line up her cloaca with her bonded and pass the egg to him. The nesting male will hold the egg in his body until it is ready to hatch. When he feels the egg is ready, he'll lay the egg and within the hour the hatchling will break free. (GyrFalconi don't have the feather mass to lay an egg and sit on it until it hatches. This is an adaptation they underwent the centuries they travelled space.) Once the chick hatches, the hatchling is the sole responsibility of the nesting male. The female supports him but doesn't help rear the chicks. Therefore, chicks are very close to their nesting parent and that closeness never dims.
When the GyrFalconi move beyond breeding age, the females will take jobs in the government. They aren't required to be at home as much for their nester and will choose public service careers that consume most of their time. Even the nesting male will become active, mainly in home economics and helping out young nests. Post breeding males will also enter public service, going to school for higher education, become philosophers, cultural teachers, or studying with the adepts, becoming spirit walkers or spirit trackers.
If a GyrFalconi dies, spirit walkers will collect the spirits and help it return to the Divine Egg from where they will be reborn. If the spirit is lost or trapped, a spirit tracker will find it and guide it to where it needs to go. Spirit walkers are known for their ability to speak to the spirits before they return to the Divine Egg. This is how they are able to record unusual information about the universe. If the GyrFalconi is murdered, the spirit will stay until the spirit walker can relay such so their death will be avenged. GyrFalconi believe that if they die anywhere in the universe, their spirit will always return to Aries 7. Since a spirit tracker can always find them, there had never been a permanently lost spirit.
This is the society and culture that was torn apart when Terrens invaded Aries 7. There are those in the sky cities who want to pretend that the last twenty years didn't happen, going so far as shunning the wingless from returning to families and homes. The victims of the Terrens stubbornly forge on once again becoming the embodiment of what it means to be Aries, fearless pioneers into the unknown.
Thank you for stopping by and reading!!
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