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Field Report: Raptorian - Supplemental

This is a supplemental document from Dr. Doppler's Field Report.

Raptorians Overview

What can be said about Raptorians that hasn’t been said in works such as Mimicry and Me: So Your Voice Has Been Stolen?, Out of this World Fashion and the controversial One Flew Over The Raptorian’s Nest? Hailing from Raptoria, they entered the galactic fold a decade after the establishment of NOX and the end of the Military Age, citing “We weren’t sure about all the war, but if you’re going to relax now we’ll talk.”
While some might call the general disposition of raptorians “cocky” and “vain,” they prefer “proud” and “worth it.” Xenosapients that are easily overwhelmed by colors and loud sounds should stay clear of Raptorian territory. If that doesn’t describe you, however, it is highly recommended to visit during any of their festivals and celebrations for a rich sensory experience. As long as it isn’t Ovumtide.

Homeworld - Raptoria


Called the gem of the Garuda system, Raptoria is a temperate planet that orbits an A-class star. Dominated by oceans, waterways, and marshes, its extreme habitats are limited to its polar ice caps and deep ocean trenches.
The planet’s rings are important to the raptorian people, not just as an awe-inspiring skymark that makes afternoon walks more pleasant, but religiously too. The predominant religion believes that the rings are remnants of the Egg Mother when she hatched from her own shell. We now know it to be the leftovers of what used to be Raptoria’s only moon.

Colony - Raptova


Called the diamond in the rough of the Phoenix system, Raptova by contrast is an arid mono-continental planet that orbits a similar blue main sequence star as Raptoria. It’s shared with the Scorpian people who live in the inland deserts. The settlement was brokered by NOX, to allow separatist Raptorians a safe place to self-govern.

Biology

Raptorians are warm-blooded, feathered bipeds. On top of their heads are erectile feathers that act as a way to focus in on sound, like a satellite dish. Their limbs end with black scaly webbed claws, the webbing having receded as they evolved to inland life. In their thick necks is an incredibly developed syrinx that allows unparalleled mimicry.

A selection of different raptorian phenotypes.


It’s believed that raptorians originated as coastal predators, before gradually moving inland. They retained the slight webbing between their claws and their waterproof feathers, which doubled as an important way to retain heat during the cold months, which were extreme.
Ancient Raptoria’s weather wasn’t the only cycle that shaped raptorian evolution. An aspect that’s unique to Raptorians are their estrous cycles. While xenos that go into heat will have these cycles last a week or three, Raptorians let loose for only one night of the year. The short window to breed causes Raptorians to endure a massive influx of hormones. While not as bad as the Kovlins, who go into self-described “sex madness” when in heat, Raptorians are on the lower end of the spectrum of lucidity during their cycle.
But why go about breeding like this? If we look at the daily life of an ancient raptorian, it becomes clearer. Half of the year an ancient raptorian had to stay clear of cyclones and lightning, and the other half blizzards and hail. The hostile weather conditions of the past only allowed for a very narrow time of the year in which looking for mates wasn’t a death sentence. For the rest of the year they only had a limited amount of time during the day where they could safely hunt.
But raptorians weren’t the only ones hunting. Other environmental factors such as ancient predators trying to off any competition in gathering scarce resources could have had an impact on when ancient Raptorians felt it was safe to breed.
However, none of this explains why multiple partners are encouraged during ovumtide. Were they promiscuous? And why is their fertility rate so low? Were they shooting blanks? The answer to both of those may lie in a retrovirus that seemed to have plagued Raptorians at the time. Whatever mutations it introduced were combated by this new way of breeding and raptorian researchers believe genetic variety was the only thing that could ensure the safety of their species, and mating annually.
And as one can expect from a species only able to have sex once a year, they party like their lives depend on it. Multiple partners are expected in what most of the galaxy calls “the largest communal orgy in the Milky Way.” The Raptorians named that night Ovumtide, and it remains their most important spiritual and social event.
Other than the pomp and circumstance, Ovumtide has the usual mating ritual aspects, such as decorating your breeding grounds and flaunting your assets, but also includes something Raptorians hold dear even today; pageantry.

A flume dressed for Ovumtide.

Pigmentation and feather patterns can be drastically different after centuries of intercontinental movement and different habitats. Raptorians are able to change the color of their feathers either with topical dyes, or a diet focused on certain compounds, such as the carotenoids in their seafood heavy diets. Blue and pink shrimps are popular choices for their wide range of hues, and due to the effort of committing to a diet for an entire year, are considered the classier choice. For the raptorian that wants to impress a mate during Ovumtide, a concentrated effort must be put into eating a singular natural pigment, so that their coat can coordinate with their Ovumtide outfit.
And like last year's fashion, they molt their feathers once Ovumtide ends, to begin styling for next year’s festivities.

Gender

Raptorians have two genders, flume and auct, which roughly translates to egg layer and soul giver respectively. However, despite the etymology, sex has been decoupled from gender for most of Raptorian history. Sapients that hail from cultures with a male/female gender binary often make the mistake of assuming aucts are men and flumes are women, mostly due to universal translators giving them masculine and feminine pronouns. Rather, it relates to their relationship with community and society at large.
Put simply: aucts top, and flumes bottom.

A typical auct.

Raptorian society is heavily influenced by dyads. The shell and the yolk, the feather and the talon, and so on. Balance between flumes and aucts is a crucial aspect to a functioning raptorian community.
Work is divided by “talon” and “nest” and is defined by what is being manipulated. If a physical object is manipulated then its “talon” work, like moving cargo, crafting incubators, or repairing power lines. If what’s being manipulated isn’t real, like keeping ledgers, coding programs, or reading the voltage outputs on factory machines, then it’s “nest” work. The balance of this work is meticulously maintained, and if there aren’t enough flumes, aucts will change to better help the group in nest work. Likewise, if there aren’t enough aucts, flumes will do more heavy lifting. These expectations aren’t just societal, but biological as well.
In a form of phenotypic plasticity, a lack of aucts or flumes will cause some from the majority to undergo hormonal changes. Muscle mass is gained when filling the role of an auct, while pattern recognition and eyesight improves for those that become flumes. What triggers these changes isn’t well known, but well documented. In one case study a group of aucts were sent to a research outpost in the polar ammonia lakes. Due to unforeseen events, the all-auct team was forced to bunker down at the outpost for a year. Half of them lost 40% of muscle mass without a negative impact on their health, and gained improved hand eye coordination. During ovumtide they were accommodating.
Another instance of this phenomenon occurred in a production town that specialized in leather and steel crafts. The assignment computer glitched out and filled the town with primarily flumes. In a short amount of time nearly half of them traded their stored fat for a high amount of muscle bulk in their arms and chest. Ovumtide wasn’t an issue for the town residents thanks to production tool crafting access.
Because of this biological phenomenon, Raptoria’s governments and religions believe in what the body says rather than the mind piloting it. This became the cause for the mass exodus to Raptova—the belief that gender shouldn’t exist for the purposes of society, but rather the individual.
The separatists believed that just because someone was physically an auct didn’t mean they wanted to do manual labor all day, or fill someone during ovumtide. Some were physically flumes, but spiritually aucts, and even without the added muscle mass could help their community like any ‘Talon Man’.

An ovumarch. They have went through the muscle loss of an auct turning into a flume.

On the separatist colony world of Raptova, a third unnamed gender arose. It was reserved for the Ovumarch, the leaders and guides of this new world. They act as both auct and flume as a way to say all forms of identity were welcome, as well as a way to see from the perspective of both sides. Physically, their bodies will still undergo the changes that will occur naturally.

WARNING: AUTHORIZATION STATUS [18+]

If you have clearance with the above security check, you can learn more about Raptorians in Dr. Doppler’s Field Report.


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