Last updated 1997.
Overview:
Twirrl are sentient avians with the following physical characteristics:
Other physical characteristics vary depending on gender and age:
Other than their feet and beaks, Twirrl bodies are entirely covered by feathers of various shapes and colors, in three general categories:
- Flight feathers
Aerodynamic feathers that help provide lift, stability, steering, and streamlining. To retain their aerodynamic properties, Twirrl must groom flight feathers constantly through scratching and preening; this is a regular and largely unconscious process similar to blinking in humans.Twirrl molt (lose and regrow) flight feathers annually, in late summer/early fall. Flight feathers grow in only during the first molt, so hatchlings don't have any.
Flight feathers are various shades of grey, and grow in a unique pattern every molt -- each fledged Twirrl has a different pattern of flight feathers from every other, and it changes every year.
- Down
Puffball-shaped feathers primarily useful for insulation against cold and water. They also vary from black to white, but rarely form patterns -- all the down on an individual is typically one color.
- Signal feathers
Short, bristly feathers around the neck and breast area. They are brightly colored, but typically hidden within the down or underneath flight feathers, creating a mild irridescence.These feathers are controlled by small involuntary muscles that cause specific colors to display during states of distinct emotion:
- Red indicates attraction, eagerness, excitement.
- Green indicates anger, dislike, hostility.
- Blue indicates fear, helplessness.
- Yellow indicates joy, satiety, repletion.
- White indicates sorrow, grief.
The display of signal feathers is unconscious and uncontrollable.
The Twirrl life cycle runs as follows:
Twirrl courtship patterns are best understood in the context of instinctive reproductive patterns in their animal predecessors:
Proto-Twirrl adult females instinctively create and maintain highly defensible nesting grounds over late spring and early summer. During their fertile period (a 2-3 week period in early fall) they retreat to those nesting grounds.
Proto-Twirrl adult males become sexually aroused during this period and visit nesting grounds to seek mates. They attract the attention of potential mates by a combination of feather displays, songs, and most importantly food offerings. Once the male mates successfully, the sexual compulsion fades, although he remains fertile throughout the courtship period.
The male continues instinctive food-offerings throughout the brooding period, often malnourishing themselves. The female keeps track of this behavior, and if abandoned discards the offending mate's egg, along with a complex vocalization that typically causes other females to reject him in future breeding seasons.
Males typically take only one mate per mating season, unless foraging resources are fantastically rich. Females are more typically polygamous -- if sufficient food offerings are made, each female may accept up to six mates during a courtship period, each of which fertilizes a different egg. Otherwise, they accept only one mate and lay only one egg, which hatches precocially.
In sentient Twirrl, this pattern remains strong -- both sexes go into heat every year, females still feel the nesting instinct, and males feel compelled to provide for their mates throughout the courtship and brooding periods. These instincts can be stronger than the self-preservation urge at times. They are also reinforced by social pressures -- in effectively all Twirrl cultures, males who abandon their mates and females who unilaterally abandon their eggs are stigmatized and rejected as mates in future breeding seasons.
As with any sentient race, though, individual Twirrl can choose alternate courtship patterns. However, because failure to mate results in death for the individual as well as its genes, even "deviant" Twirrl follow some variation of the primal courtship cycle.
Females lay a single clutch of 1-6 eggs in their nests in early spring, after a 4-week gestation period.
The reproductive system includes six-chambered ovaries, where only one egg is fertilized per sexual act. Thus, the female controls clutch size by restricting access to mates during courtship (each egg can be fertilized by a different mate).
Egg size depends on the number of eggs: one egg averages ~3 kg/30 cm, but large clutches are significantly smaller (it's not quite inversely proportional, but it's close). Because one-egg infants are better able to care for themselves, they are more common in hard times.
After eggs are laid, they must be kept warm for a 20-week brooding period. Among the Twirrl's animal predecessors, the mother broods the egg(s) herself while her mate(s) bring food to the nest; these compulsions remain strong among modern Twirrl, but can be sublimated via indirect provisions. For example, males may purchase brooding-care plans for their mates and females may purchase adoptive brooders and caregivers, freeing them to travel during the brooding and hatchling seasons. (Adoptive brooders typically restrict themselves to a single egg and brood it along with their employer's egg(s).)
In a single-egg clutch, the newly hatched Twirrl (known as a "chick") is precocial: covered with down, eyes open, and able to run and (within limits) to forage.
In a multi-egg clutch, the newly hatched Twirrls (known as "nestlings") are altricial: naked, born with enormous heads and abdomens relative to short and undeveloped legs and wings, and cold-blooded. They are completely dependent on the nest for warmth and food.
Consequently, if resources are limited during the courtship season, females typically restrict themselves to a single mate and raise chicks rather than nestlings.
In either case, the infant grows to hatchling status within 4 weeks.
Twirrl remain hatchlings for roughly 20 weeks, growing to their full adult size during that time. Even at adult size, hatchlings do not have flight feathers; although they cannot fly, they can leap large distances and glide for short periods. Hatchlings also have significantly less endurance during the early weeks.
Although hatchlings can forage independently and evade predators (at least for a while), they are not independent. Even in wealthy cultures where little labor is required, hatchlings remain with caregivers who protect them, feed them when necessary, and teach them common cultural lore. (The caregiver is not necessarily a parent -- adoption is common among travelling females.) This is the only time when any Twirrl receives free assistance from another, and is not entirely altruistic -- hatchlings do imprint on their caregivers, and are frequently more suggestible to them as adults, which gives caregivers some political power.
After the hatchling period (in early fall) Twirrl undergo "first molt" or "fledging", obtaining their flight feathers. During this period their feet also change shape drastically, from the large, light running feet of the hatchling period to either the male's curved talons or the female's pointed ones. This process is extremely painful but doesn't last long.
Fledglings are physically indistinguishable from adults, though sexually immature -- they don't experience mating urges during the courtship period -- and intellectually underdeveloped. To compete effectively in an adult world, they apprentice themselves to adult mentors. In effect, they offer untrained labor in exchange for training and (among males) assistance in gathering a nest-price for their first courtship period. (Fledglings unable to find mentors rarely survive this period.)
Not all adults take apprentices, but most do, and many take several. Travelling adults often encounter more wealth than they can readily transport and adult assistance is expensive; lek-bound adults frequently take their own hatchlings as apprentices. In poor cultures, apprenticeship is a within-gender relationship, as females learn nesting techniques and males foraging skills. In wealthy cultures a wider diversification of trade is common.
The fledgling period lasts a year, until the second molt the following fall. Afterwards, Twirrl undergo their first courtship transition as sexually mature adults, at which point their apprenticeship is over (since they are largely in competition with their mentors at that point). They continue to molt annually until death.
Twirrl do not experience age-related senescence: a healthy 2-year-old adult is physically indistinguishable from a healthy 10-year-old adult.
Twirrl live 9 or 10 years on average, and Twirrl who die of old age do so rapidly, during molting time: their feathers fall out, do do not grow back, vital organs break down quickly, and relatively painless death ensues in a few days. This is generally known as the "final molt", and Twirrl face it with relative equanimity -- the fear of death is not nearly as universal among Twirrl as among humans.
Twirrl must mate annually or die. Twirrl who do not successfully mate during a courtship period die shortly thereafter: shortly after the "missed" period, a second out-of-phase molt occurs (this is also known as the "final molt", but with some irony). Several weeks or months of mental deterioration follow, followed by a rapid breakdown of vital organs and death within a few days. (The feathers that grow in during this out-of-phase molt are always dark green, and Twirrl in this phsae are often called "green Twirrl" for this reason.)
Green Twirrl typically exhibit psychotic behavior -- violent aggressiveness, territorial paranoia, and obsessive collecting are all common. They retain all their skills and intelligence, which can make them extremely dangerous: several mass slaughters in Twirrl histories have been initiated by green Twirrl.
A variety of sophisticated masturbatory devices and techniques can simulate the mating experience sufficiently closely to postpone the green period. Twirrl males can avoid the courtship cycle altogether this way -- if the simulated experience is sufficiently "convincing", the mating urge declines and he is safe for another year. Even so, they still experience the compulsion to provide, which expresses itself in bizarre ways depending on the nature of the surrogate mate -- this option is not common except in desperate cases. Females are even less likely to exercise this option, since those who do not lay at least one egg per breeding season run a serious risk of being unable to mate at all the following year, due to atrophying of the reproductive system.
Although individual Twirrl vary as much as individuals of any species, certain psychological attributes are common:
Twirrl do form cooperative units, but they are based on explicit exchanges of services rather than social ties. For example, adults frequently travel with one or more fledgling apprentices, providing training in exchange for cheap labor. Other companies form for a variety of reasons, and can dissolve as easily as they form.
The sole exception lies in the caregiver/hatchling relationship, which is a subtle one.
Two Twirrl who agree to an exhange can rely on each other to perform as advertised. The inability to fulfill one's part of a contract is psychologically devestating for sane Twirrl, as well as socially stigmatizing. It is also extremely rare, since even the most casual agreements among Twirrl incorporate a variety of exit conditions and conditions of noncompliance.
This aversion to fraud does not quite preclude dishonesty, but the need to draw a sharp distinction between simple falsehoods and fraudulent ones makes most Twirrl extremely uncomfortable with deliberate falsehoods in general. Combined with the unconscious display of signal feathers, this makes Twirrl extremely poor liars unless well trained.
This drive is so pervasive and fundamental to the Twirrl psyche that they don't have a word for it; in fact, it often operates unconsciously. It is one of the most predictable aspects of Twirrl behavior -- if you want to know what a Twirrl will do in a given situation, "follow the money."
This is consistent with their physiology -- Twirrl are strong but fragile, and the victor in an inter-Twirrl combat is usually left crippled, unable to fly, and an easy target for predators. Consequently the effect is stronger among males than females, who are physically stronger and tougher than males.
Similarly, Twirrl have instinctive behavioral and emotional responses to certain vocalizations, much like human reactions to the sound of an infant crying.
Twirrl produce a wide range of vocalizations, both intentional and instinctive. These fall into the following general categories:
As another example, mating Twirrl typically indicate the quality of the experience via instinctive vocalizations. As a result, everyone in the lek typically knows who is mating with and rejecting whom, which can cause others to seek out or reject certain Twirrl as mates.
These emotional calls are unintentional, but not uncontrollable -- Twirrl can choose not to utter them if they are attentive.
While this can be a deception technique among other species, it is solely a communications mechanism among other Twirrl, since they can identify each other's voices regardless.
Twirrl learn languages quickly, however, so interspecies discussions with Twirrl tend to take place in the other species' language. Twirrl often serve as translators among other species.
Under certain conditions, Twirrl also produce communal instinctive behavior-songs. For example, seeing an invader may cause individual Twirrl to begin a mobbing-song. Twirrl hearing the mobbing-song will tend to join in (even if not personally threatened), initiating coordinated mobbing of the invader. Insufficient local resources may initiate collective migrations in much the same way. Mobbing and migration are the most common communal-behavior songs, although others are told of in Twirrl history.
Participants experience the phenomenon as a melding of individual consciousnesses, but there is no telepathy involved -- in effect, the songs are network software running on the Twirrl brain which cause participants to perform coordinated actions. Participants encode their perceptions and intentions in song, constantly adjusting their song in response to information provided by other participants. Because this process is mostly unconscious, it is unbelievably fast and efficient.
Participants typically find the experience distasteful, although it can induce mental aberations in some individuals, who thereafter seek out opportunities to join groups.
Most tool-songs are "single-user"... they affect the behavior of the singer only, and can be sung quietly. Also, most tool-songs are non-portable, making assumptions about the local environment or participants. Travelling musicions sell these songs, along with redistribution rights, to local musicians who modify them for local use and sell them (usually without redistribution rights) to other local Twirrl.
Portable and communal songs are much rarer and more valuable. Such songs are typically passed on from one generation of musicians to the next with continual minor improvements, and interested Twirrl pay royalties for their use. The financial arrangements underlying redistribution and royalty payments are beaktwistingly complex even for Twirrl.
Tool-songs are not as compulsive as instinctive songs; participants remain fully aware of what goes on and can end and resume participation at any time. There is no documented case of a Twirrl being forced into doing something via song that he or she refused to do... however, a song can drive participants to perform destructive acts without noticing. This is particularly problematic when green musicians deliberately craft "viruses" to attack others. History and myth is full of cautionary tales about fools who sang untrusted songs that led to their deaths.
Twirrl cultures are defined by a loose network of reciprocal trade agreements and commonly known reputations among individuals. Different cultures vary along many dimensions, but most importantly by economic status -- any two individuals who can trade as equals on an ongoing basis are effectively part of the same culture. The key terms here are "trade as equals" and "ongoing basis": wealthy Twirrl often hire poorer neighbors, especially during the mating and brooding periods, but they remain from distinct cultures, since the relationship is assymetric.
That said, however, Twirrl cultures are extremely mobile... as individual fortunes change, they can move from one culture to another with ease. This is primarily mediated by shared reputations, but also by the rapidly changing private languages created by cultures and subcultures for exchanging secret information. Any individual with sufficient assets to purchase training in a culture's secret language is effectively a member of that culture, and those who can no longer afford it are effectively excluded. (Smaller associations regularly develop private languages as well, and devote a great deal of energy to protecting, stealing, and replacing them.)
On the other wing, some things are common to all cultures:
If a lek is incapable of supporting a given community, the community undergoes either complete or partial migration. Migration is largely instinctive and logistically difficult, and often serves as an equalizer among neighbors of different cultures -- it is not uncommon for migrators to arrive at their destination with trade agreements of their own.
However, Twirrl do take advantage of imprinting during the hatchling period to provide priveleged access to their hatchlings, creating an secondary mechanism for distributing power among matriarchs with large families. This is a subtle, informal, quasi-political network, but in crisis situations it can sometimes operate more quickly than traditional negotiation and trade networks.
For example, Twirrl would consider a phrase like "I'll give you $10" ludicrously ambiguous (when? what happens if you don't have it? etc.) in much the same way that English speakers would laugh at "I'll give someone $10". Instead, there are dozens of ways to express "I will do X", each of which specifies a particular set of conditions (for example, one phrase denotes "at any cost to me, up to and including my death", another denotes "assuming it's convenient, otherwise I won't", and others denote alternatives in betweeen). These terms are all part of the average Twirrl's working vocabulary; there are hundreds of others that pertain only to specialized domains.
Similarly, most Twirrl languages include a dozen or so terms meaning "value" -- value to speaker, value to listener, market value here, expected market value elsewhere, expected market value in the future, and so forth. Again, these are common terms known to all Twirrl, much as all modern English speakers know dozens of relatively precise terms meaning "relative" (father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, and so forth). The speech of two fledglings exchanging sandwiches at lunch is roughly comparable to the legal language underlying a corporate merger among humans (though the negotiations themselves are conducted more quickly and fairly among the fledglings).
As a consequence of all this precision, it is rare for Twirrl to agree to anything they are unable to perform. It is also practically impossible for anyone but Twirrl to effectively negotiate with Twirrl... by Twirrl standards, not only are humans disgustingly likely to renege on agreements, but their languages make them effectively incapable of agreeing to anything in the first place.
In areas where exchange with other species is common, Twirrl generally learn the other species' language and strive for as much precision as possible within it. This is typically exhausting to both sides but gets the job done.
Because Twirrl have eidetic memories and lore is distributed along multiple independent sources, historical data are transmitted fairly accurately from one generation to the next. Also, there is no clear distinction between history and other bodies of knowledge. For example, scientific information is transmitted in a historical context; as an oral tradition of specific experiments and their results rather than a theoretical framework.
Exceptions do exist. Kinetic sculpture enjoys periodic waves of popularity, for example, as do other species' musical art. On the other hand, Twirrl simply do not understand fiction -- deliberately presenting falsehoods as truth is deeply disgusting to Twirrl, even if they understand that no deception is intended.
Note that Twirrl musicians are not artists, they are technicians. Music as art is practically unknown among the Twirrl, except as obtained from other species.
Twirrl economists are exceptional -- really can predict the effects of specific events on the overall distribution of wealth and power among groups of Twirrl (admittedly, Twirrl economic behavior is easily predictable; they don't do so well predicting other species).
Geography and climatology are also of prime importance to travelling Twirrl -- Twirrl are exceptional mapmakers.
On the other hand, Twirrl medicine is poor at best... sick or injured Twirrl tend to die quickly.
Fundamentally it's an intellectual disagreement... Isolationists believe the end result of dealing with insane (by Twirrl standards) species will be to destabilize existing networks of trade, while Globalists believe the end result of introducing new, different markets to their trade networks will be to improve the overall economy. Since economics is a fairly precise science among Twirrl, the ambiguity of this question is fairly frustrating on both sides.
This has become the largest social issue to face the Twirrl in recent times, splitting existing cultures apart (as Isolationists refuse to trade with Globalists) and merging others (as previously valueless items become valuable among other species).
This is the beginning of breeding time, when travelling Twirrl return to the leks. Global and local news is exchanged -- travellers with good reputations as reporters rent speaking-halls to tell the tales of their travels (for a fee, of course), while those seeking such reputations make do with public venues. Males trafficking in more tangible valuables make arrangements to bank their goods and seek out mates; traditional females seek out new final touches to their nesting grounds and make mating judgements. New adults preparing for their first mating compete in the same market (which is largely why apprenticeship is so important), but are far more frantic about it, adding more chaos to the mix.
At the same time, new fledglings are seeking apprenticeships. In most regions this is a centralized event, resembling (in human terms) a cross between a job fair and a debutante's ball. New fledglings compete furiously among each other for status, seeking any advantage... this creates a secondary market in personal gossip, as they seek out inside information about prospective mentors and other fledglings, as well as a variety of often-spectacular (and sometimes disasterous) attempts to gather attention and impress adults with their skills and potential.
Altogether, the combination of economic boom and life-or-death decision making creates a frantic, "festival" atmosphere marked by ritual in every Twirrl culture and region.
Twirrl communities rarely -- in fact, never -- maintain standing military forces. When military actions against a region do occur, the most common response is instinctive mobbing and/or migration.
In the legends, the Illsinger is a psychotic musician able to craft songs of such power and subtlety that they can control the wills of other Twirrl. Many green Twirrl musicians become self-styled Illsingers, though without the power attributed to the legendary figure.
Opinions differ on the literal truth of the legend -- many Twirrl believe that such a figure did exist, and some believe that its songs are still passed from generation to generation, while others believe the legend exagerated. No demonstrated case of mental domination through exists in Twirrl history, but since the legendary Illsinger could also distort Twirrl memories with its songs, that isn't necessarily conclusive.
This difference of belief is not typically of great importance among Twirrl -- the Illsinger is not a supernatural figure, and no larger belief-system is associated with one's position on the subject -- but it is universal, and self-styled Illsingers have occassionally traded on the myth.
Twirrl courtship takes place in established mating areas called "leks". All leks share certain geographic properties, so Twirrl can find them by navigating along magnetic lines, but not all sites with those properties are necessarily being used at any given time.
Twirrl interaction happens almost exclusively in the leks. Some Twirrl stay at the lek year-round, while others leave after mating, travelling as individuals or in small groups. Lek-bound and travelling Twirrl don't really choose their lifestyle -- some Twirrl have the wanderlust, others don't. Lek-bound Twirrl offer services such as brooding-support plans for mates and surrogate-brooding and caregiver services for hatchlings, allowing sufficiently wealthy travellers to bypass the normal brooding season.
Travelling Twirrl often amass more wealth than lek-resident ones, but this is a gamble... surrogate brooders, adoptive caregivers, and mate-support plans are all extremely expensive, so a certain initial investment is required. Also, travelling females don't participate in lek politics, and travelling males often experience psychological symptoms from sublimating the food-offering instinct via indirect brooding-support plans. Ultimately, it's a question of personal taste more than practical reasons.
Females from poor cultures often choose to stay lek-bound rather than travel -- even if inclined otherwise -- since preparing decent nesting grounds can take all spring and summer.
Travelling Twirrl return to a known lek every year -- females do so before the courtship period begins, to prepare nesting grounds; males do so somewhat later. Because males and females fly at different speeds, mixed-gender travelling groups are rare.
Twirrl nests are always easily defended, warm, provide easy access to water and basic foraging grounds, and include storage sites for the additional foods Twirrl need to survive the brooding period. Specific nesting techniques vary depending on region and culture: Twirrl may nest in caves, underground, in artificial shelters, even underwater.