Homebrew Aurvai Species Details

The Aurvai are a winged humanoid people descended from harpy bloodlines so far back that the connection is biological record rather than lived identity. Harpies are territorial and feral. The Aurvai built cities in the sky. The distinction matters to them, and they will make it once, politely, to anyone who conflates the two.

They are lean and deceptively strong, built for sustained flight rather than ground-based endurance. Hollow bones, low body mass, upper body and core strength disproportionate to their frame. Wings emerge from the upper back and span ten to fourteen feet fully extended. The face and torso are humanoid with fine down. Feathers cover the wings, forearms, lower legs, and a dorsal crest from skull to neck. The feet are fully avian, clawed talons built for gripping vertical surfaces and narrow perches. They do not wear footwear. A mid-length feathered tail handles flight stabilization and cliff-face balance, and betrays emotion the face suppresses.

Five tribes exist across Mortalum, each shaped by their environment into something distinct. The Spiir build permanent cliff-face cities in desert canyons and run alchemical industries, most notably in Durr'waha, a city carved into and suspended throughout a deep canyon system whose floor has been cultivated by Spiir alchemists into a lush hidden oasis. From the canyon rim you see almost nothing. From the air you see everything. Ground-level access was deliberately severed after an attack in the city's history and has never been restored. The cultivated flora along the canyon floor can be triggered to release a toxic spore cloud as a defense system. The Spiir have been biologically conditioned to immunity over generations. The Vael navigate coastlines and have integrated most thoroughly into ground-dwelling trade networks. The Keth live in old-growth forest canopy and maintain minimal outside contact. The Halvur occupy arctic tundra and are the most culturally accessible to outsiders, with a regular presence in northern ground settlements. The Mourne live in volcanic highland storm country, fly harder and higher than any other tribe, and carry a fatalistic philosophical tradition built from generations of living inside weather systems that could kill them.

All five tribes share one piece of sacred geography: Auren'vhai, the holy city, a floating island settlement above the cloud line, home to the most revered elders, spiritual leaders, and keepers of song-memory across every tribe. It is not a political capital. It is something closer to a place where the sky is treated as what the Aurvai have always believed it to be. Reaching it is not a casual journey. For most Aurvai it is a destination carried for years before it becomes a reality. For outsiders it is effectively inaccessible.

What all five tribes share beyond Auren'vhai is vertical orientation. Height equals status, safety, and spiritual standing. Every Aurvai settlement builds upward regardless of environment. Ground level is for landing. Every young Aurvai completes the Drift, a solo survival season by wing with minimal supplies, genuinely dangerous, no exceptions. Those who return are adults. Their oral tradition encodes law, genealogy, battle history, and trade agreements in song. Destroying that knowledge is considered equivalent to burning an archive.

Outsiders call them Malakin, loosely translated as winged angels. The Aurvai find this flattering and reductive in equal measure.

Roleplaying Your Aurvai

Your character completed the Drift or is defined in some way by their relationship to it. Whether they went, what happened out there, and what they brought back are some of the most formative questions available to this character and worth thinking through before session one.

Height is instinct, not performance. Your character will naturally seek elevated positions in any environment, assess rooms from the highest available vantage, and feel mild ambient discomfort at ground level for extended periods. You do not need to make this dramatic. It can simply be the way they move through spaces.

The harpy distinction will come up. Someone will make the assumption. Your character corrects it once, without aggression, and moves on. How they feel internally about the assumption, whether it is wearying, mildly insulting, or simply tiresome, is yours to define.

Tribal origin shapes your character significantly. A Halvur has grown up around ground-dwelling cultures and reads outsiders more fluently than most Aurvai. A Spiir carries the insular pride of a civilization that has never needed anyone else. A Mourne has a relationship with danger and mortality that is philosophical rather than anxious. Decide which tribe your character comes from and let it inform how they move through the world.

Song-memory is cultural infrastructure. Your character likely has songs they carry, things encoded in them that they may not fully understand yet. That is a detail your DM can use, or you can develop it yourself as flavor.

Aurvai Traits

As an Aurvai, you possess the following traits:

Flight

You have a flying speed of 50 feet. You cannot fly while wearing medium or heavy armor.

Keen Sight

You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Talon Grip

Your feet are clawed talons. You have a climbing speed of 30 feet on natural rock surfaces. Your talons are a natural melee weapon that deal 1d6 slashing damage.

Avian Resilience

You are immune to the effects of altitude sickness and high winds. You are immune to Constitution saving throws against exhaustion caused by environmental cold or wind.

Thermal Read

You always know wind direction, wind speed, and approximate altitude. You have advantage on Survival checks made outdoors in any environment.