Aarakocra of Eberron

“It smells like a weird noble's pigeon house in here,” Ardiane complained, very pointedly not looking at the squishy substance she had just put her hand into. Rhen was standing at the entrance to the woven hut, seemingly oblivious to the swaying motion and the long drop just outside. For a moment, she considered pushing him. Just for a moment. After all, he'd promised they'd get out of here alive. She briefly glanced over at Immok. If it stank in here to her, what did it smell like to the gnoll?

Fortune9 didn’t even have a nose. She envied them. A particularly strong gust shook the floor and sent the whole building swaying. “

The word is aviary, love,” Rhen explained, after he'd found his feet after a heart-clenching few seconds. “And you're just tetchy because I haven't bought you a drink in a while.” The half-elf woman looked up from wiping her hand on the straw, a biting response already on her lips.

The warforged shifted from its statue-still position to look at the two. “Tavern visits are inconsistent with the number of drinks you have owed and fulfilled,” Fortune9 noted in that bland tone they got when meditating or thinking hard. “I have begun to believe that you do not mean beverages, alcoholic or not, when you speak of drinks.” Ardiane and Rhen looked at each other and laughed. “I do not understand. What is amusing?”

The silent debate between the couple on who would answer and how was interrupted by the arrival of one of their hosts, one of the bird-men of Daanvi, an aarakocra holding the dangling end of a rope ladder. “The elders have given the outsiders permission to plead their case for the use of the gate. Please follow me.”

          -Reddit user regitnui

Beak and Feather

Standing upright, aarakocra might reach 5 feet tall, but they are shorter than most of the common races in Khorvaire. They are still taller and heavier than halflings and gnomes, but at around ninety pounds, the aarakocra are about as small as a creature can be and still be in the Medium category.

Aarakocra are also remarkably short-lived; reaching adulthood at 3 and living only around 30 years, aarakocra are shorter-lived than any other intelligent race. They are agile, quick in the air though slower on land, and perceptive, with strong religious traditions and a reverence for the power of nature. Aarakocra also have talons which they can use as natural weapons.

Compared to the aarakocra of the surface, the aven of the the Rings of Siberys are taller (around 6-7 feet) and can live around 900 years. Aven of the Ring of Siberys are also more owl-like than the hawk-like aarakocra living on the World Below. They view themselves as a completely different species, similar to the difference between an elf and a human. These Siberyne aven possess darkvision and are highly intelligent.

Other planes of existence have birdlike humanoids that will intermingle with aarakocra and avens. From Daanvi are the Apkallu, librarians obsessively measuring and categorizing the most obscure phenomena with absolute dedication. They have the appearance of herons or ibis. In Lamania are the Garuda, fierce celestials with vibrant wings of red and green and gold. Syrania Dovriel tend to have a softer, more gentle appearance, as a dove or songbird, and are as small as halflings or gnomes. In Irian, noble Avoral Agathions take on the appearance of fierce eagles or falcons with eyes that glow like suns. In Thelanis are shapeshifting Tengu, often associated with ravens. If an aarakocra's lineage include one of these extraplanar denizens, they might have similar features.

Aarakocra in the World

Aarakocra favor high places, mostly mountaintops in Argonnessen and Sarlona, though a respectable population lives in Xen'drik as well. Argonnessen in particular has a several flights, as flying servants are quite useful to the dragons of the region. Never populous, the Aarakocra stay safe by staying on the move, though they don't lack for courage and will fight to protect their nests when the need arises.

In Khorvaire, there are a only few flights in the Starpeaks of Aundair, as well as a small colony in mountains of Questor in the Lhazaar Principalities. They are popular to hire for work on House Lyrandar Elemental airships, so this formerly obscure people have lately become a more common sight, among the elite of society at least.

Adventuring is not uncommon among the free-loving folk of the air, who often scout out possible new nesting sites in high mountains and steep cliffs. Uneasy below ground, they are nevertheless sought-after companions and guides for explorers in Xen'drik, who value their keen eyesight and rapid scouting abilities over rough and shifting terrain. Among the scarce flights of Khorvaire, it is rumored that a whole city of Aarakocra might be found in the heart of the mysterious continent.

Aarakocra from Argonnessen may be sent from their eyries on special scouting missions by the dragons of the Chamber. Though rare, these aarakocra have a proud sense of purpose and an ancient culture in marked contrast to the wanderers of Khorvaire.

Others find it harder and harder to subsist among the cliffs and mountains of Adar as the long siege of the Inspired continues. They flee to western Khorvaire, mingling with orcs in the Shadow Marches and the monster communities of Droaam, and farther east into the Eldeen Reaches. A few were even rumored to have fled to the Demon Wastes, where they took up service with one of the Rajahs, or else battled for a meager place among the Carrion Tribes.

Aven of of the Ring of Sybaris rarely descend to the World Below. Faithful servants of the celestial couatl, they descend to the surface world to combat fiendish and extraplanar threats wherever they may arise.