Avan

Avan is a catch all term used to describe any bird like race, more as a species rather than anything else.
Best known for their embroidery and stitch work. Some find a place in societies as bards and mercenaries, many more simply wanted to live in peace and found a place among weavers and tailors of the matirial plane.

Civilization and Culture

History

The oldest legends say that the first Avan came from the same tribe as that of the Yuan-ti that escaped into the elemental plane of wind. In these legends they tell of a feathered serpent that they may have been worshiped rather than the traditional serpent gods of the yuan-it, such as Yig or Zehir. While others say they worshiped a bird like deity, regardless these original people found themselves in this other plane and used the same magic the yuan-it used to merge and hybridize themselves with snakes, but with birds instead.
Unfortunately legends are what most scholars have to go by as like the yuan-ti and many other early beast folk choose to keep oral histories in stead of a written one. However many scholars, particularly avan scholars, have made it their life’s goals to collect and categorize these stories to give their people a true identity. However a moment of context for why and what was meant by them escaping into the elemental plane.
Again we look to legend to hear the story. Many say that the first avan fled after the cult of the Cloaked Whisperers, the cult of Zehir, came to power among their original people. Following the path of grand feathered serpent that many believe to be The Rainbow Serpent, Quetza. Now whether they were simply following her or she lead them is much to debate, combined with other stories that claim is may have actually a tempest roc, elder tempest or even Yo'fun the wind god, but regardless of who they followed it matters little. For the avan still found their way to the plane of wind. However, more than half the stories point to a feathered serpent and as such is what we will go with Quetza for simplicity. Were these original avan promptly realized that while there are rocky outcroppings in the plane, the plane of wind is just that, an endless sky scape that makes terrestrial living extremely impractical. To get around this the people chose to use the magic they normally used to worship the serpents of their past and evolve. Instead of snake like qualities they took on bird ones sprouting wings of magnificent plumage in vast varieties. The Harpy and Garuda were the first of the two avan people to appear. With the Kenku appearing later but this would not be until after the avan faced one more trial.
In the plane of wind the avan learned a hard lesson, the nature of Djinn. These original avan found themselves hunted and enslaved by Genie and traded to djinn of other planes like exotic pets. Some found themselves hunted because of the unique plumages they now sported. It is for this reason the avan history history is hard to track down. As well, writing down a history become impractical when you may need to just leave everything because of a djinn hunting party. Also, sort of hard to write things down were there’s a lack of material to write on, ie the lack of stone to do carvings or paper to write on. Tough some found ways of recoding some parts, through weaving and embroidery. But this too unfortunately further lead to them being sought after by the djinn, now if not for their feathers but for their skills as weavers.