Excultida
Excultida is the clade of intelligent keratoplexans that include all the land-dwelling, native peoples of Torvalen. They consist of two genera, the beccans and the labians.
Physiology
Excultids are bipedal, with long necks compared to humans. They all possess a well developed syrinx that allows them to make a full range of sounds, even without human-like anatomy. Their hearing is slightly poorer than humans, especially in higher ranges, except for the varhani. But their ability to pick out individual sounds or voices in a noisy environment is superior. Like all keratoplexans, excultids possess lungs composed of multiple chambers that allow them to breathe very efficiently. They also all produce liguro, a type of nutritious milk analog, from excretory glands in their esophagus to feed their young.
Communication
Excultids communicate with a wide range of speech vocalizations. Humans describe their native languages as bird-like, but deeper in tone and more complex. Excultids can produce any sound humans can, in addition to the clacks and clicks of the beaked beccans, a range of hisses, booms and roars created in their throats and a strange, two-toned harmonic voice possible only with a syrinx. Humans can only approximate their languages without magical aid and are called ‘mumblers’ and ‘dead-mouths’ by more unkind excultids.
In addition to vocalization, excultids use a variety of physical cues to communicate. These vary depending on genus and species, but include eye pinning, raising or lowering feathered crests or movements of keratoplex limbs, in addition to move conventional body language.
Behavior
Excultids have many personal traits in common with homo sapiens. They are social, they raise and teach their young, are warm and affectionate within social groups, possess forms of government, and within groups are technologically specialized. They create art and are intellectually curious within their level of cultural sophistication. However there are some interesting differences from homonid culture.
The first difference is a habitual bearing of emotional detachment. They appear generally less emotive than humans, who perceive this as indifference or apathy. This is punctuated by sudden bursts of animated interest, emotion and excited speech, usually when something occurs that is of importance or great curiosity and interest. Humans deem this behavior ‘unpredictable’ or ‘erratic’, however it is only truly unpredictable if the observer is ignorant of the subject’s interests, their culture or the subtle physical cues unique to all excultids or to certain excultid genera and species, such as eye pinning or plumage ruffling. Humans also observe that excultids do not seem to respect personal space to the same degree and will lean in uncomfortably close to humans with whom they communicate.
Many humans also note that excultids enjoy harsh, dark, predatory humor and are also quite loud and noisy, often talking over each other continuously, creating a cacophony of conversation that humans have difficulty in separating into distinct conversations. This however is probably due to slightly less sensitive hearing of excultids as well as differences in brain architecture that allow them to process multiple streams of speech at a time that sound like a confused mess to a human.
Excultids, for their part, often describe humans as nervous, anxious, restless, aggressive, often morose and just generally jumpy and easily offended. Some excultids, especially beccans, believe it results from humans being so literally thin skinned and possessing no natural protections in the way of claws, scales, feathers or horns. It is not uncommon for excultids in company with humans to amuse themselves by attempting to startle a human with a lunge or sharp cry just to watch them jump or yelp.
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