Merkanary
The merkanaries, also known as "birdfolk" or "canaryfolk," are a race of sentient avians native to the Southern Spur of the Grand Triskele Lake.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Merkanaries have many morphological features in common with birds, including a chest dominated by a keelbone, well-defined leg, chest, and back musculature at the expense of distal limb musculature, and a beaked head with eyes set partially to the sides to afford a wider field of view without giving up binocular vision. The stance of a merkanary is more upright than that of a similarly-sized bird, such as an emu, resembling more of a hominid posture overall. The arms of a merkanary also have a more hominid arrangement, with the bones past the ulna being evolved into four-fingered claws for manipulating objects rather than a last set of wing supports; the individual can still glide and make long jumps, but can no longer fly in a sustained manner without the aid of equipment. The whole of a merkanary's body is covered in yellow, gray, or white feathers in a small variety of patterns, with the longest sprouting from the underside of the arms, the tail, and the very top of the head. This and certain other structural traits suggests that, contrary to the nomenclature, merkanaries may actually be closer in relation to cockatiels and other passerines than canaries.
An adult merkanary stands shorter than a comparable human at an average of 5'3" for males and 5'0" for females.
Genetics and Reproduction
Merkanaries are sexually dimorphic and generally mate for life. The canaryfolk lay eggs and protect hatchlings as couples, then raise the resulting children for the nineteen or twenty years it takes for them to reach maturity in their own right.
Ecology and Habitats
The merkanary people inhabid a large island and a number of small islets located in the Southern Spur of the Grand Triskele Lake, their territorial holdings neighboring the southeasternmost extents of the Kingdom of Rosethorne with enough of a boundary to avoid territorial disputes.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Merkanary are omnivorous, enjoying fruits, nuts, and fish most of all. Canaryfolk are skilled fishermen, moving between fishing grounds around their islands with the turning of the seasons to help prevent overfishing. Being more southerly - and, thus, more temperate - than most places on the Grand Triskele, the island home of the merkanaries support an abundance of tropical fruits, such as pineapples, coconuts, and mangoes. The merkanary are generally less-inclined towards tubers and legumes, but these may be added to the diet to provide bulk and additional protein.
Biological Cycle
Merkanaries generally live around sixty years without the aid medical intervention, but can reach almost one hundred with the support of their community.
Much of merkanary culture touches in one way or another on the concept of death, and visitors often express that there is an undercurrent of morbidity or fatalism to many practices. The major extant merkanary society regards death as an important part of the natural cycle of life and, thus, encourages the friends and family of the deceased to celebrate an individual at their funeral rather than mourning the loss. This is not to say that merkanaries do not feel sadness at the death of a loved one or miss them when they have fled the mortal coil, but that the community aids in overcoming these feelings by placing emphasis on the joyous parts of the deceased person's life and the notion that brighter days lie ahead as a part of the ancestors' legacies.
Behaviour
Merkanaries are at human levels of intellectual development, though their avian ancestry causes them to have a somewhat different psychological set. Erkani, the language of the most populous extant merkanary society, is a tonal language that resembles a combination of bird song and snatches of speech from other individuals, complicating the task of identifying an individual by the sound of their voice alone.
Merkanaries become somewhat more irritable during the fall months due to hormonal shifts (see Genetics & Reproduction). The shift is brought on by changes in daylight and humidity indicating the approach of the monsoon season and is a hold-over from the bird ancestors of the merkanary species. Merkanaries in positions of responsibility must either do their best to spend more time in the light of the outdoors or otherwise innoculate themselves through consistent exposure to conditions (i.e. moisture) that would induce the shift; indeed, the desire to take control of their emotions may have been what inspired the first merkanary fishermen to take to the water, where such acclimatization is more likely to occur.
Merkanaries have a notable propensity towards bright colors and shiny accents in their cultural artifacts, and this may also be a hold-over from their avian ancestry. Even (and especially) the temples and funerary houses of the canaryfolk are richly adorned in bright silks and tapestries; a traveller might initially assume that such places are places of celebration, not mourning or introspection, though religious merkanaries do blend these activities together.
Geographic Distribution
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