Feathren

A Wonderous and Unexpected Peoples

Reil’s talons moved quickly across the surface, tearing through concepts with her charcoal on the paper as easily as flesh. Her piercing eyes darted about the page in search of ideas to explore. Finding none, she moved to a new sheet and put the old one atop the stack to the side. She stared at the now empty parchment in front of her and twirled the stick of charcoal in her hand. Her feathers were ruffled and the rings on her swinging tail clinked softly as they moved back and forth in concentration.
The sound of hammers against metal could be heard from workshop below, resonating with a familiar rhythm and ring that matched the pace of her thought, charcoal, and tail. She was a pendulum in motion: a clock that counted down to the stroke of brilliance, and when it rang out, the satisfied trills of victory would echo throughout the chamber.
-Vyrre Olmeck, The Face of Creation

Feathren are the representation of something new from something old. A step beyond their ancestral griffon heritage, these bipedal creatures celebrate their individuality amidst the cries and jeers from common folk. Originally born from the machinations of an ambitious wiazrd, the Feathren have become a people in search of a place in a world that never anticipated their existence.
Feathren have the following features;

• Ability Score Increase: Your ability scores increase depending on your feathren ancestry. Use the Feathren Ancestry tables to determine your combination of physical features and corresponding ability score increases, choosing one Avian option and one Feline option.

Avian Feathren Ancestry:

Avian Ancestry	Ability Score Increase
Jay, Owl, or Raven	Your Intelligence score increases by 2.
Eagle, Falcon, or Hawk	Your Wisdom score increases by 2.
Cardinal, Mockingbird, or Parrot	Your Charisma score increases by 2.

Feline Feathren Ancestry:

Feline Ancestry	Ability Score Increase
Lion, Panther, or Saber-Toothed Tiger	Your Strength score increases by 1.
Jaguar, Lynx, or Snow Leopard	Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Cheetah, Serval,or Tiger	Your DExterity score increases by 1.

• Size: Your size is Medium.
• Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision: Your mix of predatory blood has given you eyes that can cut through darkness. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Natural Creator: You have proficiency in two artisan’s tools of your choice, and can gain proficiency in a new tool inhalf the normal amount of time.
• Talons: Your talons are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
• Arcane Ancestry. Due to your curious lineage stemming from arcane magic, you have a limited ability to magically harness the arcane energy that exists within all things. You can cast identify and enhance ability with this trait, without requiring material components. Once you cast either spell, you can’t cast that spell again with this trait until you finish a long rest.
• Kindred Speech: You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with cats and birds that are Large or smaller, including griffons. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. When choosing a language to study, feathren tend to value the sounds they make more highly than their practicality.

Varied Heritage:

Feathren unite remarkable aspects of two otherwise disparate species. Their strong legs are feline, while their chest, arms, and head are avian. Despite their distant relation to griffons, feathren stand upright as and can use their sharp talons to manipulate objects as deftly as any other humanoid. Their voices often bear some bird-like resemblance to their ancestry and contain the occasional trill, coo, or caw.
Few feathren look the same. Their fur, plumage, and build can vary widely, forming unique combinations of origin and aptitude. While some feathren are born with the body of an eagle and lion, others combine the likes of owls and crows with tigers and leopards. All Feathren track their lineage back to the Kulonon wizard that created them. Since then the Feathren have spread across Thinia and individual communities have developed unique patterns in their appearance.
Feathren find particular pleasure in jewelry and decoration: an inescapable personality trait from their heritage. Without wings to embellish, most turn to adorning themselves with baubles and rings on their talons, feathered ears, and tail. Others enjoy body art, such as tattoos, paints, and other unique means of self expression. Most feathren struggle to resist the urge to preen or adjust their worn finery whenever they catch a glimpse of their reflection.

Confident and Curious:

Born with the innate gifts of two naturally skilled creatures, feathren have a shared sense of confidence in their abilities. Feathren spend their lives learning and mastering new trades to sate their curiosity, preferring to answer a puzzle or question on their own rather than ask for help. Many feathren find camaraderie among those that share a common passion, and while they’re remiss to turn to peers for help, they enjoy the sharing of stories and conversation about their interests.

Friends, Foes, and Feathren

Despite their intelligence, many people see feathren as little more than walking, talking griffons. As a result, they’re often treated with the same caution their large ancestors receive, but unless given a reason to be afraid, most people will simply steal glances at them from across the way or avoid them all together. The other feline and avian humanoid ancestries strugle to classify Feathren and are sometimes uneasy around them. Someone familiar with griffons can be as likely to belittle a feathren as they are to befriend them, depending on that person’s history.
Those that see past a feathren’s ancestry find themselves with a lasting companion. Dragonborn, dwarves, gnomes, and half-elves in particular are likely to be befriended by feathren, who see them as either natural creative peers or kindred spirits caught between worlds. Half-orcs and tieflings can spark this same sense of camaraderie, but often lack the creative drive that can cement a lifelong friendship.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

As is their nature, feathren enjoy experimenting with names and playing with the combinations they can make with them. Feathren are given a name at birth that’s used as a first name, but give themselves new surnames as they grow.
Throughout a feathren’s lifespan, they may go through as many as twenty surnames: some may last for years, while others are kept for mere weeks. These names are typically combinations of words that describe them and act as either loose titles or personal mantras, and can come from a variety of languages.
Male Names: Acero, Astraios, Caicias, Cleve, Fhyriad, Gyrin, Iapet, Ipsideo, Jurat, Klost, Lostro, Quyll, Ronta, Strey, Untreyo, Yulla, Zwayne
Female Names: Accra, Axellia, Coora, Ereya, Finneli, Fuli, Herata, Hyla, Juip, Leies, Lucine, Lustra, Monit, Omi, Parra, Reyda, Velrin
Example Surnames: Birthwoven, Crownfeather, Downy, Gemcrest, Ghostwing, Goldtail, Mistwalker, Ricket, Rightedge, Starborn, Wavecrushed
Further suplementation to the above names can be found at the following link: Griffin Names

History

During the Age of Magic a powerful imperial court arose in the eastern land of Kulono. This imperial court ruled over the continent of Kulono and was known as the Kama Empire. The Kaman emperors and empresses were viewed as individuals who had been choosen by the great weave, the source of arcane magic, to rule. As such, the Kaman court was filled with wizards, sorcerors, and warlocks capable of great and terrible accomplishments.
Chief among these arcane chamberlains or Kurodo was Rea Tao. Tao was such a talented arcanist that she was elevated to the station of Councilor, a position subservient only to the Emperor of the Kaman Court. Using her influential position and the freedom it granted her, Councilor Tao began magical experiments. She had always had a fascination with magical beasts that others refered to as monstrosities. Her greatest interest was in the avian and mammalian hybrids such as the owlbear and the griffin.
With the promise of taming and breeding these powerful creatures to serve the Kaman Court, Tao was granted a large laboratory and limitless purse to draw research funds from. Tao began by capturing a large number of magical beasts with a particular emphasis on griffons. Then Tao conducted experiments. She would test the griffons' ability to reason, to problem solve, and to feel. Tao's takeaway from these experiments was that griffons were a small evolutionary leap from having intelligence equal to that of humanoids. Tao wished for the world to acknowledge magical beasts as more than mindless dangers born of arcane experimentation. She wanted the term monstrosity to be done away with and for people to see these creatures for the marvels of nature and magic that they are. Tao thought people would see what she saw if she could force the development of griffons into humanoids, and thus show how close humanoids are to magical beasts.
Tao's research uncovered a means to force the leap. An arcane ritual known as soul transmutation could rip the soul from a humanoid and place it into another creature forcing humanoid mutations upon the vessel. This process was extremely painful for the vessel and deadly to the donor humanoid. Tao told the Kaman Emperor that if she was permitted to conduct the ritual he would be supplied with a legion of sturdy soldiers with the hardiness and ferocity of griffons. The Kaman Emperor was intrigued and saw the potential of the new ancestry.
Tao was supplied with prisoners, deserters, debtors, and political dissidents to fill her rituals. Soon anyone that created issues for the Kaman court found themselves in the dungeons of Councilor Tao's lab. With so many donors, Tao perfected the ritual and was able to create thousands of Feathren.
When this came to light, the people of the Kaman Empire revolted. They claimed that this was a perversion of magic and that the Kaman Court had lost the mandate of the Great Weave. At the same time, the destructive wars that ended the Age of Magic were raging across Thinia. Unable to put down the revolts while also staving off attacks from the northern continent of Penglai, the Kaman Court was shattered. As the palace of the last Kaman Emperor was burning, the people turned their attention to the lab of Councilor Tao and her monstrosities.
As the lab was assaulted Tao looked at the Feathren and conversed with her creations. Unwilling to let them die in the revolt, Tao ordered her creations to take teleportation circles and find refuge across Thinia. The Feathren asked her to follow them, but she said no. Tao knew she had done something unforgivable in her creation of the Feathren, and she knew that she would not escape judgment. When the last Feathren left, she broke the circles and destroyed the lab. Shortly after, Tao was captured and killed by the family and friends of the men and women she had used to create the Feathren.
The original Feathren found themselves spread across Thinia. Most of the circles lead to other arcane institutions that were sympathetic to Tao's experimentation. However, several of these institutions were unable to avoid the destruction of the Wars of Magic. Many of the Feathren found themselves in strange lands and abandoned academies. Some were accepted by the humanoids living nearby. Others were feared.
At the conclusion of the Age of Magic, the ritual of soul transmutation was one of the magics that Mystra altered to be impossible to cast. Fortunately, Feathren were able to naturally reproduce and the horror of the ritual was no longer needed to create new Feathren. Since their creation, Feathren have developed seperate communities, traditions, and physical characteristics. The Feathren of the north often have characteristics of Sabertoothed Tigers, Snow Leopards, Eagles and Owls, while the southern Feathren tend to Cheetah, Jaguar, and Parrot like characteristics. Many Feathren have forgotten their ancestral origins and each community may have different and contradictory stories as to how the Feathren came to be.

A Feathren Adventurer Setting Off On An Adventure.

Lifespan

70 years

Average Height

5'00"-7'00"

Average Weight

100 lbs-300 lbs