Rën (race)

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The Rën are an avio-reptilian race native to a small region known as Gerena (native: Xerëna), currently floating stably in the eye of the storm raging in the Southern Hemisphere. They are quite rare elsewhere in the world, and are very poorly adapted to life outside of a stable Oasis.

Physiology

Rën are elongated and serpentine, often reaching five meters in length. They are one of the only fully winged species in the world, sporting two fully functional and feathered pairs as well as plumed stabilizers. This plumage, as well as their scales, can be a variety of often bright colours. Their front wings end in a set of prehensile claws allowing them to manipulate objects, and albeit awkwardly they are able to manage most technology produced by other species. Their mouths are fully reptilian, with articulators not too dissimilar to the Sehali, suggesting a distant genetic relationship between the two species.

Government

The Rën are an organized and highly pacifistic race, and as such have little in the way of government. For matters pertaining to the survival of Gerena and its very occasional relationship with the outside world, a democratic committee is formed to discuss the issue until it can be resolved in a matter deemed satisfactory to all present. This has historically taken a very long time, and in extreme circumstances decisions may be made entirely on the basis of which side of a debate can last the longest without leaving the premises.

Culture

The Rën are a culturally bizarre species in that they have all but lost the notion of the individual as an inflexible unit. They believe that all of existence is merely a reflection of an immanent deity, called Rën, and thus to them, all living individuals of any species make up, and are made up of, and thus effectively synonymous with, Rën. The Rën do not have names apart from Rën, and do not have a means of identifying one individual from another, even in ways that would be covered with pronouns by other species. They have few convictions and fewer conflicts, as they imagine that at any moment they are not only themselves, but every other creature at the same time. They are Rën, and so is everyone else.

Diet

The Rën are carnivores and live off of fish and eggs.

Technology

Rën technology is relatively undeveloped, although they have some rather remarkable architectural techniques for the construction of towering structures of soft metals, likely purchased in early interactions with the T'ikts. These structures serve as perches, homes, gathering places, and monuments.

Sex and Reproduction

Rën are typically monogamous and mate for life. This usually is formalized with a marriage ceremony in which, through song, an intertwined couple announce their devotion to one another. Due perhaps to their extremely restricted geography, a female Rën will only lay between one and three fertile eggs in her lifetime.

Religion

Religion is intrinsic to Rën culture, and every aspect of their lives, to their very language and thought patterns, refers back to their unshakeable belief in a single transcendent divinity that encompasses and defines all reality, for all time, and that everything else, including one's own thoughts and physical form, is merely an illusory facet of this true divine reality called Rën. They go about their daily lives in recreation, conversation, fishing, eating, mating, all with the understanding that it is not them doing these things, and further, in truth, they do not exist at all, but are merely a part of a natural system. Before the Ascension of Gerena, Humans and T'ikts who interacted with the Rën almost universally found a complete lack of discrimination by the physiologically disparate Rën people, and their own self-identity eroding the longer they lived in Gerena.

Language

The Rën language reflects the people and their ingrained philosophy. While not phonologically remarkable, and indeed many Humans became fluent in it before the Ascension of Gerena, Rën is unique in that it entirely lacks any animate reference at all; any creature, sapient or otherwise, is referred to simply as "Rën", with a modifying vowel that serves to keep track of it in a discourse as the only means of distinguishing one "Rën" from another. It is common in Rën dialogue for the subject of a discourse to never be explicitly labelled.

Furthermore, the language also lacks any reference to time or order, and instead only uses degrees of certainty, and cause versus effect. So while it is impossible to say explicitly that an event happened in the past, instead a speaker may state that it seems, or might have happened. Similarly, it is impossible to say something will happen, but rather that it should or must occur, or occurs as a result of something else.