Aeryardi

Fae Involvement

Fae simply cannot contain their curiosity, and as beings of whim and wildness, they have enjoyed relationships with the wish-chimera, the riardi. Their resulting offspring are the aeryardi- and these families reside in mountaintops, cloudscapes, and among fae society. They are friends to valkirie, and enjoy the fae culture of learning ethic, virtue, morality, spirituality, and cultivating the riardi’s collective desire for flight.

While their numbers grow, so too does their culture. Esteemed aeryardi become Caelbinders, individuals as a cultural group committed to trapping harmful chemicals which can be later harvested for study, ritual, and other uses.

Though many do not become Caelbinders, their culture has grown into one which honors this occupation, monkhood, diplomats, couriers, chemists, smugglers, archivists, pharmacists, engineers, mechanics, laboratory specialists, botanists, fireworks-makers, dancer, storyteller, artist, and more. Being an aeryardi is to be in a unique position where one can not only be a preserver and/or archivist, but also a mage specializing in the preservation of form and intent. As a whole, the aeryardi are keen-minded, with a personal collective emphasis on neutrality.

Aeryardi are capable of pristine harvesting of expelled magical byproducts without corruption of soul. This retention of soul integrity enables them to fulfill a unique role in life, and though they are a young Intirrian as a whole, they are a mature fulfillment of ri’perafi survival.

Appearances:

Depending on their fae heritage, the aeryardi have several unique appearances. Most notably, they are earless, with only the barest hint of cartilage protruding from their heads, although their ears might fully develop into pointed, short ears. Individuals who carry a lop-ear mutation will display it in one of two ways- firstly, if they are short-eared, the tips of their ears fold over like a dog’s; secondly, if they are earless, their ears will instead develop longer lobe material which at first glance might resemble lop ears to a casual observer. Their ear width is always narrow, and their ear tip type is mixed between round and pointed. Aeryardi have hock spikes and vestigial spikes along their backs.

Their tails vary from medium, long, to extra-long in length, rather than one specific length among their whole population.

Their fur is unique: unlike any known riardi lineage. It is a highly-specialized hair which has hollow cores and assist in subtle aerodynamic modulation. Their fiber surface is not glossy nor velvety, but is insulating, light-weight, and mutable. It conforms with air pressure and scent signatures. It does not mat or overheat the aeryardi’s body. Their tail fur is much longer, and ripples under velicline’s viscosity. Aeryardi call their fur type gossamer.

Velicline & the Art of Suspension

Aeryardi have tail-heads, no wax, nor venom which grows from their tails. These traits are missing. Instead, they produce a carrier-binder on their tails called “velicline”. Velicline manifests as a translucent oil which shimmers faintly as the aeryardi moves, and enables them to carry potent substances without triggering any adverse effects- rendered inert and delivered intact. Unlike nexus riardi, velicline doesn’t purify nor cure. It has no scent, warmth, or other impressions that can be measured physically aside from the translucent, oily nature. However, it has a distinct magical signature- that of a protective fae presence who carries power and chooses not to wield it. For the aeryardi, especially among smugglers and sky-monks alike, a well-trained tail is incredibly valuable.

Energetic Corruption & Lack Thereof

Aeryardi speak of a few “spirals”- painful experiences that are to be avoided for one’s own health. These are as follows. Across their history as Intirrians, they have noticed and recorded distinct side effects they have seen in a few of their individuals who experienced them. With these sins, Caelbinders do not ‘fall’ through domination nor power-lust- they’re not made for that. Instead, they behave like a glider carrying something so long that that containment corrupts them, like air becoming toxic in a sealed space. Here’s how their corruption might manifest, despite their precision, self-accountability, training, virtue, and integrity:

The first “spiral” they speak of is that of glass-lung; over-burdening. Should a Caelbinder experience this, they take in too many bindings- be they toxins, venom, chemicals, or magical knowledges with significant personal risk- and their velicline becomes unnaturally thick. It begins to absorb, rather than suspend. The Caelbinder to whom glass-lung occurs grows into a living repository, rather than a carrier. They lose sight of their own intents and begin to reflect others too strongly- and this is reflected physically by their eyes becoming mirror-like. Their voices begin to sound like a multitude of people speaking at once. In advanced stages, their lungs grow brittle and glass-like in magical residue which they cough up. The velicline-binding capability becomes saturated or reactive with glass-lung, and the aeryardi’s nervous and circulatory systems need recovery from fatigue, tail tremors, irregular breathing and sharp coughs, dissociation, oxygen in the blood dropping, and rarely, breakdown of tail hair follicles and chunks of skin shedding off.

This condition can be cured, but it takes a long, aggressive treatment during which the Caelbinder must be retired from their work. Glass-lung is treated spiritually, medically, and chemically to restabilize the physiological and neurochemical overloads in their biology. Chelating aerosols and subdermal neutralizers are administered in order to arrest compound diffusions. The aeryardi is put into a negative-pressure rest den with controlled air-flow and scent isolation. Low-friction emulsions are provided for soothing effects on the body, and the affected Caelbinder must be below 5% saturation for their glass-lung to resolve. Their tail’s velicline-generating follicles are issued protein blockers from special berries in order to prevent over-production. Their diets are adjusted to support a tail lipid balance and a neuromuscular restabilization process. Their anti-saponin medications help delay their tail’s velicline production. Caelbinders are encouraged to stay slightly mobile inside these recovery dens to keep airflow active and reduce stagnation; many practice meditative forms of movement during this time. Should the aeryardi have bound emotions, they are monitored for sympathetic imprint behaviors- mimicry of others whose compounds they held- and are given things that they loved in life prior to glass-lung. This remembrance of self assists them greatly. Glass-lung is not shameful. It is viewed as simply accumulating too much.

When someone has recovered from glass-lung, they do not usually return to active Caelbinder field work. Their tail’s capacity is permanently reduced, as may be their thresholds. However, they instead train new Caelbinders in exposure protocol, compound classification, and containment designs. Survivors wear silver tail rings- be it one or many- and eventually retire from this survived saturation.

Skyfracture

Skyfracture as a condition is worse. If an aeryardi intentionally uses what they’ve carried to harm others or shift original intents to their own uses, their tails dry out and splinter. Their scent changes to that of scorched ozone and crushed, foul herbs. They lose their title of Caelbinder and become Fractured Wings- those who broke the sacred contract of containment. Symbolically, they use dragonfly wings after the insect who can travel in any direction. The Fractured Wings are not exiled from aeryardi society, but they are different ideologically- and thus are permitted and even expected to be selective in binding, ratehr than passive, to serve, but never impartially, and to retain honesty about thei breach, because only those who are secretive are true threats. Some Fractured Wings more actively risk-seed airborne deterrents, disrupt toxic ritual zones, and/or fly into battles where neutrality means death. Others serve as lone couriers, and carry messages and memories which are too volatile for traditional means. Regardless of being drifters or cloud-cutters, the Fractured Wings wear the same vow- they carried too much, but chose to let it fly instead. “The dragonfly moves without prediction, but never without choice,” they say. They have known direction and movement, and thus chose to hone their velicline into weaponry.

The side effects of being skyfractured are thus: their tail’s hairs harden into glassy filaments. This generates rigidity, transparency, and occasionally numbness which may interfere with flight. “Shard-tail” is a common slang for being sky-fractured. Airflow no longer ‘welcomes’ them- they have a slight difficulty as the sky itself recognizes them as a threat. Their bodies replay echoes of scent, ghost venoms, and forgotten substances- which in turn creates involuntary emotional shifts, speech glitches, or moments of shivering as if reacting to poison which isn’t there. Their bodies have sustained trauma from their past bearings, and as such, they may find their thoughts braid with past bindings, that they remember things they were only supposed to contain and not internalize, and that they’ve been a part of battles they’ve never fought on if they’ve carried someone who did.

The velicline in a skyfractured aeryardi seeks action, not balance. Binding responses become pre-emptive, and hyper-reactive- potentially harmful to the aeryardi. They must wear inhibitors to prevent automatic secretion of velicline when threatened, and upon emotional stress, their tails might exude a modified version of former compounds along with their emotional scent- for example, grief might trigger a narcotic floral scent they once had bound. Rage might create a caustic mist their body never learned to use as a weapon.

Glass-lung and Skyfracture is not trauma. Both are bio-magical responses to boundaries being snapped in Intirrians whose lives revolve around neutrality. It is an alchemical, mutation, and binding overload, instead of a mental health analogy. Mental health struggles are real, and not to be glorified in role-playing games. Crystallization is not a metaphor for trauma, and is a physical ossification of magical overload.

Caelbinders and Fractured Wings are dangerous, effective, respective, and sometimes feared for the responsibilities and powers they understand and work with. Their conditions bring new agency and possibilities to them, despite the harms they have sustained in the course of their lives and occupations. Game Hosts should ensure players’ characters do not undergo ‘fracture’ for edge or depth unless their campaign will handle and integrate it mindfully. It is a lore concept, not a PC morality plot seed. Skyfracture happens due to biochemical overflow and/or magical breach, not emotional damage. Skyfractured aeryardi are not exiles- they serve as strategists, scouts, crisis-binders, and forbidden-materials specialists. These outcomes are their biological adaptations to edge-case events, and their side effects are not metaphors. Skyfractured are no longer neutral, and can never carry sacred compounds. They serve as high-risk ops, airfield recon scouts, and as venom bait- at a distance, always- and most importantly, they know how to fall and how to keep going. They are clarity sharpened into blades.

Vexail

Those who are Skyfractured Caelbinders and considered high-risk operations, ceremonial binders, and loyal to their ideals above all are the Vexails. A Vexail is an aeryardi who uses their intent like a loud flag- and shakes the ground beneath them while stirring up the currents of both wind and change. Vexails are the wild, untamable fae-like aeryardi among the Fractured Wings and Caelbinders alike who have earned their way into the privileges they hold. They undertake the toughest of journeys, and are marked by arcane and chemical runes. They are masters of broken neutrality and are honored for their wildness by all aeryardi. Their muzzles are always covered by fancy cloths connected about their heads by chains, and adorned with metallic threads and tassels.

Vexail protect against the last spiral that aeryardi society knows of: resonance bloom. Their velicline holds emotional overages, and when they are over-saturated, this affects them through dream hauntings, their flight becomes erratic and liftoff fights them, and in extreme cases, they are unable to ground, caught in air currents. It is only the Vexail who lose their ability to wish. Others have believed this is due to their hearts being so full of compassion and empathy that it generated an overage, and that this overage of wanting to grant so many wishes to so many Intirrians that they ‘pushed the mountain’ and found the magical pressure took their ability away.

Sacred Passing of the Rings

Aeryardi hold ceremonial rites with much bell-tolling, flight acrobatics, incense, and joy. One such noteworthy ceremony is the Sacred Passing of the Rings. Skyfracture survivors and Caelbinders are honored for who they are, what they do, and their new lives ahead by being presented with silver tail rings in front of their communities by their elders and medical team. Regardless if it is for initiation or retirement, these observances must occur- and these events are not goals for any youth present to attain in their own lives. It is likened to a bell being shattered and then mended- still, a thing happened, and still, it may yet serve.

Sacred Painting of the Runes and Cloth

Vexail are marked in ritual full of drumming, paw-stamping, bell-tolling, whooping, screeching, bell-tolling, and revelry. Vexail are painted with arcane and chemical runes by elder Vexail, and the initiated are given cloths to paint. Upon completing this, they explain the runes they chose, how it relates to them, and the elders then receive the cloths- a symbolic gesture of entrusting to the future one’s intent, before being given it back (which symbolizes being given new time in the future). Once the Vexail have this placed upon their head for the first time, they are then ritually driven to the skies, and all are encouraged to fly about freely. Any existing resonance bloom is purged, and they are then able to receive any new work they must do in the short-term future with or without other Vexail.

In Summary

Thus, trained aeryardi are Caelbinders- neutral practitioners. Fractured Wings are Caelbinders who are outliers post- Skyfracture. Vexail are post-Skyfracture who work with magic.

Aeryardi Role Profiles Chart

The following table categorizes the specialized roles within aeryardi society, and defines their differences among one another.