Camaeries

Just an idea I've had... (Edits in green.)

Camaeries

Camaeries are also popularly known as “butterfly girls”. Although they are sometimes considered fairies, they constitute a distinct species. They average 8 cm (3 inches) in height, and, unlike fairies, cannot change their size. However, they possess the magic to shrink any creature no taller than 3 metres (10 feet).

Appearance

Approximately 63% of camaeries are female. Males and females of the species display significant physiological differences. Both have a humanoid body, with ‘human’ arms and legs. Both have moth-like antennae attached to the upperside of their wrists. Both have wings, attached to their back and to the upper part of their arms. Females’ wings are highly colourful on the underside, with beautiful, complex and varied patterns; males’ mirror their skin colour, and are therefore usually an unmarked dark brown. The colours on females’ wings are bright and varied, and may include yellow, blue, green, red, orange, brown, purple or almost any other conceivable colour; patterns are unique to each individual. The topside (backside) of their wings matches their skin colour. Females’ skin colour is ‘camouflage-like’, and depends on their habitat :
· forest: a pattern of brown (from light to dark) and green (likewise)
· mountain: a pattern of rock brown, rock orange and grey
· desert: sand-coloured.

Males’ skin colour is, on the whole, ‘simpler’. Forest males almost all (97.4%) have unicolour dark brown skin. In rare cases (2.1%), they have dark green patches on that brown skin. In very rare cases, they have unicolour dark green skin (0.3%), or dark green skin with dark brown patches (0.2%). Mountain males almost all (96.4%) have unicolour dark grey skin. Some (3.6%) have brown or orange patches on their grey skin. There have been a tiny (negligeable) number of males born with dark orange or dark brown skin, with or without patches of another colour. Desert males, like their female counterparts, have sand-coloured skin, usually a little darker than females’.

Eye colours are variable, as follows:
· forest
o female: brown (38.3%), green (31.7%), greenish brown (29.2%), orange (0.5%), one green and one brown (0.3%)
o male: brown (40.1%), green (32.3%), greenish brown (27.4%), orange (0.1%), one green and one brown (0.1%)
· mountain:
o female: brown (37%), orange (26.5%), grey (21.5%), orange-brown (14.8%), one orange and one brown (0.2%)
o male: brown (39.1%), orange (28%), grey (25.4%), orange-brown (7.4%), one orange and one brown (0.1%)
· desert: various shades between orange and yellow

Hair colour matches skin colour. Thus a female forest camaery will have mixed brown and green hair. A desert camaery will have sandy-coloured hair.

The three types of camaeries are genetically compatible subspecies, but rarely reproduce between one another, due to lack of contact. In addition, children born of parents of two different subspecies display an ‘intermediary’ appearance, which may diminish their ability to camouflage themselves in their habitat.

The colourful underside of female camaeries’ wings detracts from their camouflage, and therefore they rarely display it. Their wings are spread out only when they need to fly, or when they wish to impress and attract males, or simply show off in a relatively safe environment. When retracted (folded in), their wings conceal their bright underside, and thus do not detract from the camaery’s skin colour’s ‘camouflage’ effect.

Diet

Male camaeries are herbivorous. They consume very small fruit, leaves, nectar and plant sap. They are unable to digest meat. Females are omnivorous. In addition to the foods also eaten by males, females diets include small animals, and creatures shrunk by their magic to an edible size. Just like fairies, female camaeries do shrink and eat humans and nekos (swallowing them whole and alive).

When hunting prey who are aware of camaeries’ diet, females will rely on their camouflage for a discreet approach. When hunting clueless-looking humans who appear to know little about Felarya, they will, on the contrary, show off their wings to attract unsuspecting prey marvelling at their beauty.

It should be noted that, since they cannot change their own size, and are very small, camaeries are themselves prey to other beings. In addition to some birds and animals, they are sometimes devoured by creatures who are able to catch them – notably harpies, who view them as a very small but enjoyable delicacy. Most harpies are large enough to be immune to camaery shrinking magic. Camaeries are also viewed as a rare delicacy by nekos; camaery sweat, which flavours their skin, is said to taste much sweeter than that of most species. Hunting camaeries is, however, a dangerous business for nekos, since a camaery may easily shrink and eat her neko would-be predator. Like fairies, camaeries cannot use their magic if their wings are damaged, and skilled nekos will therefore aim to injure their wings.

Society

Camaeries are social beings. They tend to live in smallish ‘bands’ of about three to five families, related or not. In the forest, maintaining a small group is a way of remaining discreet. In the mountain and desert, the scarcity of food makes small bands a necessity.

Camaery bands have no formal system of government. Decisions are usually taken by consensus among adults.

Because some bands happen, due to demographics, to have few adult males, a band may ‘share’ a man with a neighbouring band, if a female wishes to reproduce and he consents. This helps maintain good relations between communities. Children are raised by the band as a whole, although their mother –and their father, if he lives with the band– are particularly responsible for their well-being. Camaery children are born wrapped in thick coccoons, from which they emerge after about three weeks. Upon emerging, their body consists in a humanoid head and torso, but a "caterpillar"-like lower section; their wings are not yet fully formed, and canot be used to fly. Full maturation, whereupon the wings develop and the lower part of the body morhs into legs, takes two to three months. Twin births are rare. Children are closely cared for by their community.

Although they often seek the safety of a well-known territory, camaeries remain fairly nomadic, and migrate in search of food and safer grounds. Migrations most often involve several bands coming together in a beautiful swarm of colours, flying together towards new territories.

When not banding together for great strength of numbers, camaeries rely for their survival on being discreet, and therefore do not build homes. Virtually their only creation are musical instruments – wooden flutes. They are traditionally carved by males, although it is not unknown for females to make them. Flutes are played by members of both genders, often with great skill. Flutes were originally made by forest camaeries, but were distributed to mountain and desert communities many centuries ago. Camaery music is soft, melodious, beautiful, sometimes a little haunting.

Camaeries are particularly renowned for their aerial dancing. It is both an artform and a form of recreation. Camaeries dance mainly when bands come together, and take to the sky in spectacularly graceful swirls and swoops, enhanced by their soft, melodious humming. While their dance moves appear free-flowing, they are in fact coordinated to a significant extent, resulting in a truly beautiful show. Such dances often occur at sunset, adding the visual beauty of the sky to that of the dance. Unbeknownst to most people, camaeries may also communicate by dancing, and group dances are, in many cases, a mute performance of ancient stories – an artform unique to camaeries, which blends storytelling with dancing.

Hmm...interesting having a species like that which can't change it's own size...

Hmm... If their shrinking magic's only effect is to shrink others, then their magic would be different than that of fairies, which change the laws of physics in order to make themselves and others larger/smaller. Also, it would seem that their magic is proportionately more potent than that of fairies, seeing that camaeries invert the size of their target from giant (for a tiny) down to tiny... For a tiny.

We've seen butterfly-winged fairies before (Think Melany), which for me doesn't make these stand out so much. If you wanted to stick with the butterfly theme even more, you could have them hatch into caterpillar-taurs, which some people have expressed a liking of, but normal Felaryan fairies do not give birth to. From there entering the pupae stage, and then the adult would help complete the butterfly 'vibe' if you will, and perhaps help them stand out more distinctly as a race.

Given the rarity of males among the tribes, I wonder if they would seek out fairy mates if they were desperate. It seems that such a high ratio of females to males is a very risky and unreliable way of reproducing.

EDIT: It would be interesting if they migrated, as do butterflies. It would be a great sight to see the different tribes grouping together in a swarm, possibly for mating in a safe(er) zone.

As already specified by you, they can be exchanged for fairies, maybe a good way to make them a little more different would be moth-like antennas growing from their heads, or, to "change the obvious spot to place antennas", hips.

/Fish/ wrote:

Hmm... If their shrinking magic's only effect is to shrink others, then their magic would be different than that of fairies, which change the laws of physics in order to make themselves and others larger/smaller.

Yep. They're sometimes viewed as fairies for the same reason that spiders are sometimes viewed as insects: miscategoration on the basis of apparent similarity.

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We've seen butterfly-winged fairies before (Think Melany), which for me doesn't make these stand out so much.

Hmm. I'd forgotten Melany. Although, based on her image in the wiki, it's the shape of her wings that's "butterfly-like", whereas they seem to be white in colour. Whereas, for camaeries, it's pretty much the reverse. The shape isn't at all like that of Melany's wings (their wings are attached to their upper arms as well as their back, and can be "folded in"), and (in the case of females) they're very colourful.

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If you wanted to stick with the butterfly theme even more, you could have them hatch into caterpillar-taurs, which some people have expressed a liking of, but normal Felaryan fairies do not give birth to. From there entering the pupae stage, and then the adult would help complete the butterfly 'vibe' if you will, and perhaps help them stand out more distinctly as a race.

Good point. I tried to hint at it by having them born in cocoons, but they emerge from that fully-formed.

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Given the rarity of males among the tribes, I wonder if they would seek out fairy mates if they were desperate.

That might create interesting hybrids...

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It seems that such a high ratio of females to males is a very risky and unreliable way of reproducing.

Maybe I should change that... I'm not sure what the usual male/female ratio for other species is, though. Are there actually a high number of male nagas slithering around, for example?

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EDIT: It would be interesting if they migrated, as do butterflies. It would be a great sight to see the different tribes grouping together in a swarm, possibly for mating in a safe(er) zone.

I really like that idea. Thanks.

nksrocks wrote:

As already specified by you, they can be exchanged for fairies, maybe a good way to make them a little more different would be moth-like antennas growing from their heads, or, to "change the obvious spot to place antennas", hips.

Antennae on hips... That conjurs up a rather interesting image. Their wings give them a significantly different appearance to fairies, I think, but... yes, antennae, why not.

French snack wrote:

Good point. I tried to hint at it by having them born in cocoons, but they emerge from that fully-formed.

Ah well, I know that having caterpillar-taurs would satisfy some people's view that fairies in fact should, but it's your choice to have them fully-formed upon hatching. I do implore you to consider the idea though.

French snack wrote:

Maybe I should change that... I'm not sure what the usual male/female ratio for other species is, though. Are there actually a high number of male nagas slithering around, for example?

Believe it or not, yes. People just don't have many male characters of Felaryan races, and so they are rather underrepresented. There's nothing wrong with going 50/50 for the male to female ratio.

French snack wrote:

Quote :

EDIT: It would be interesting if they migrated, as do butterflies. It would be a great sight to see the different tribes grouping together in a swarm, possibly for mating in a safe(er) zone.

I really like that idea. Thanks.

You're welcome.

/Fish/ wrote:

Ah well, I know that having caterpillar-taurs would satisfy some people's view that fairies in fact should, but it's your choice to have them fully-formed upon hatching. I do implore you to consider the idea though.

It an interesting idea. I'm just trying to figure out how it would work. They'd start off with a human head and torso and the lower body of a caterpillar... then the caterpillar part would transform into legs?

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Maybe I should change that... I'm not sure what the usual male/female ratio for other species is, though. Are there actually a high number of male nagas slithering around, for example?

Believe it or not, yes. People just don't have many male characters of Felaryan races, and so they are rather underrepresented. There's nothing wrong with going 50/50 for the male to female ratio.

Hmm. I need to mention male characters more, then.

For camaeries, maybe 35/65, or 40/60 - some sort of imbalance that would encourage the bands to come together?

French snack wrote:

It an interesting idea. I'm just trying to figure out how it would work. They'd start off with a human head and torso and the lower body of a caterpillar... then the caterpillar part would transform into legs?

Yep, pretty much. As a caterpillar-taur, they could have some effective ways to protect themselves from predators:

"The appearance of a caterpillar can often repel a predator, the markings and certain body parts can make it seem poisonous, bigger in size thus threatening, or non-edible. Some types of caterpillars are indeed poisonous, and are capable of shooting acid.

Or something along those lines, until their human half, wings and magic develop from their metamorphosis?

French snack wrote:

For camaeries, maybe 35/65, or 40/60 - some sort of imbalance that would encourage the bands to come together?

That sounds pretty balanced to me if you want to give them reason to band together, and still give them leniency for breeding chances if not too many males die off.

I think it's a great idea
I especially like the cultural details you gave with their dance and music. And having such colorful wings would sure be a treat to the eyes ^__^

I've made a few changes, based on suggestions. Thanks, everyone.