The Harpies of Torin City (and Iracal Island)
- HeavenlessStar
- Mar 14
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 19
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The Harpies of Iracal Island
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Torinian harpies that have migrated to other parts of Felarya have a way of distinguishing themselves from harpies that are raised elsewhere mainly due to their appearance, their speech, and their behavior towards humans. Torinian harpies tend to wear piercings or accessories with details to indicate that they were crafted by humans specifically for them. Torinian harpies also wear clothing crafted by humans due to the complaints of the human wives that their husbands spent too much time "bird watching."
A harpy who is not native to Iracal Island might be endlessly curious about the distinctively human-made items that Torinian harpies wear, and even more curious about how such a relationship between predator and prey species can work. The harpies of Iracal Island also attract attention when they open their mouths to speak because some of them don't master the "harpy language" to the same degree that the majority do. There are even very rare cases of harpies from Torin who speak in "polite human language" and rarely use the typical "harpy language". These nuances might go unnoticed by most other predator species but harpies will spot them almost immediately.
Many harpies who hail from Iracal Island might take a brief moment to be sure that their potential prey does not have any Torinian features before eating them. A big reason for this is that they would prefer to avoid eating a possible friend. Obviously, that's not the case for all of them. Some do not care so much about who they eat as long as they can get away with it. A sure way to avoid making a mistake is to seek out non-human prey; other humanoid races such as Elves, Inus, Nekos (etc.) are in grave danger around Torinian Harpies. The threat level to non-human humanoids should be considered "Very High" because a Torinian Harpy has a lot of pent-up hunger from having to use so much restraint around the humans of their homeland.
Finally, a human who comes across a harpy from Iracal Island might be surprised to discover how much they know about the human experience. One wouldn't expect a natural predator to know anything about them but these harpies are experts. That said, such a harpy who has decided to eat a human is also the most dangerous type of predator because she knows exactly how her human prey thinks - good luck trying to escape that.
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General Harpy Information
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[Rumors; Origin of Harpy Dialect]
"A rather strange man who made wild claims to have lived among harpies in his homeland" amused many Negavians with his “historical facts” concerning the predator species. Among the most interesting was his explanation of how the harpies’ peculiar insult-laden manner of speech came about. As he tells it, the harpies had developed a harsh and militaristic culture many years ago during the height of their conflict with the sphinxes. While not as organized as one would expect a military to be, the flock leaders drilled their respective groups daily. There was rampant physical and verbal abuse back then meant to make those who thought they were tough even tougher, and expose the weaklings for the “sphinx turds that they were.” Eventually, the insults spewed about so often simply became a permanent part of the harpies’ speech mannerisms. While the young may find the harsh words shocking at first, most quickly develop the skin thick enough to brush them off and even start throwing insults around themselves. He went on to add that when dealing with harpies, becoming offended by the harpies' colorful language is actually offensive and disrespectful towards them.
[Harpy Customs; War Dances]
Karamachy (War Dances)- While humans often reenact past battles through acting, harpies use dances. Slow, graceful movements balanced with occasional burst of quick and sharp movements to the backdrop of wings beating like drums serve as an effective way to emotionally charge the scene being played out. Those chosen to play harpies are often ballerina-like in their movements while those that play the sphinxes, adorned in fur and wearing masks, aim more to exude auras of physical power and ferocity in their portrayals.
[Games; Yrucrem Ronoh]
Yrucrem Ronoh is favorite pass time of harpies. The game involved two teams of harpies and the object of the game was to score points by successfully tossing the Ikau (the word for an item, usually a living prey) into the goal, which is the mouth of the "goal keeper" on their own team. This game is sometimes played above human spectators at the Gladitorium in Torin City, using a criminal who has been sentenced to death as the Ikau. Most Torinians swore off watching those spectacles, but the allure of watching some prisoner get his comeuppance is too much for some others to resist. And there are those who are admittedly attracted by morbid curiosity.
[Harpy Legends: The Curse of the Silver-Tongue]
Not long ago, terrifying tales of a inedible human began to spread among harpies like a wildfire. These words often whispered painted a picture of a human (or some humanoid creature) who had talked his way out of being eaten by countless harpies and for the most part seemed uncatchable. But one particularly determined harpy came along and attempted to devour the man in spite of his efforts to talk her out of it. What happened next is what terrifies all harpies who hear the tale: the harpy was pleased with herself for not allowing the man's smooth words to dissuade her. She was on the verge of swallowing her prize when she realized her mouth had gone completely numb. Was there anything in her mouth at all? She couldn't tell. To her great shock and dismay, the man casually let himself out of her mouth and waved goodbye. He then fled, escaping the panicked and angry harpy's sight as she yelled incomprehensible blabber at him. Later, her flock was shocked to find that the harpy's tongue had become shiny and metallic. The effects never wore off for the poor harpy who could neither speak nor enjoy the taste of her food. But what of the man who caused it all? He was still out there somewhere! The thought lurked in the back of the minds of many harpies at that time and still does to this day. Who's to say that the next human they try and eat won't be the one carrying the curse of the silver tongue?
HARPY CHARACTERS:
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