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Atavians! What’s your wing type?

RyssaRyssa
in The Blank Canvas

Atavians of Achaea! I’ve a question for you!

What is your wing build and style of flight? The different wing types are:

Passive Soaring Wings(High-lift/Broad soaring Wings)- I.e. eagles, storks, most hawks, vultures.

Active Soaring Wings(Long Soaring wings)- ie. albatrosses, gulls, gannets

Elliptical Wings- ie.crows, sparrows, ravens, thrushes, some small owls

High-speed Wings- ie. Swifts, terns, falcons, ducks, sandpipers.

(now, some sources site the next as separate, some keep it to the above four wing types) hovering wings-ie humming birds

I ask cause many take pride in the appearance of their feathers, but what about flight, shape, span and build?


For Ryssa, her wings look more like a barn owl’s in pattern and colour, but are built to be in the elliptical category. She can glide for long travel when need be and get herself up with many wingbeats, but that isn’t her joy.

She takes off quickly like a sparrow flitting from place to place, dives and relishes in barrel rolls like acrobatic ravens. She loves going from a full on nosedive to pulling up into a sharp corkscrew spin, heart pounding as she carves her path through the clouds. Darting through the tops of buildings and weaving her way through trees, a reckless grin on her face as she pushes for sharper turns and greater busts of speed. Touching a wall with her boot, nearly stalling midair as she pulls off a bobby pin turn, leaving larger fliers to crash and break their bones.

She won’t win in a flat out race for speed, but, oh boy, try to best her in aerial acrobatics or a flying game of tag, she’ll leave you vomiting or crashing into water, ground and wall.


I encourage you, Atavians, do some research and take into consideration your character’s body type, battle class and armour usually worn. Reference specific birds. This could be great for shaping your character.





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Comments

  • FreelingFreeling
    Very nice! I hadn't really researched wing type, I only know that Freeling's wings are large and powerful (probably like an eagle or vulture's wing in shape) and that she is very acrobatic in nature, both in flight and on the ground. She enjoys aerial tricks the same as you described.

    Of course it makes little mechanical sense, since she has a small body, there is no way she has the muscular strength for operating big wings like that - but I don't care. 
  • NavarrNavarr
    I like this post!

    Ryssa said:

    Atavians of Achaea! I’ve a question for you!

    What is your wing build and style of flight? The different wing types are:

    Passive Soaring Wings(High-lift/Broad soaring Wings)- I.e. eagles, storks, most hawks, vultures.

    Active Soaring Wings(Long Soaring wings)- ie. albatrosses, gulls, gannets

    Elliptical Wings- ie.crows, sparrows, ravens, thrushes, some small owls

    High-speed Wings- ie. Swifts, terns, falcons, ducks, sandpipers.

    (now, some sources site the next as separate, some keep it to the above four wing types) hovering wings-ie humming birds

    I ask cause many take pride in the appearance of their feathers, but what about flight, shape, span and build?


    I tend to do a lot of background research into a lot of things, like when it comes to designing clothes, jewellery and...anything really. Long ago I did research into wing and feather anatomy in order to accurately paint one of my Virtuosi house tasks that included Lord Scarlatti with an emphasis on his wings. 

    Later I applied this to my character's wings when I swapped to Atavian. I took into account that my character is quite tall, heavy and well built so his wings had to be equally quite enormous to support his size and weight, so his wings are akin to a large bird of prey. I'll include a snippet of his wing description since his overall description is quite lengthy and don't want to bore you with that:

    A pair of enormous wings juts out from next to his shoulder-blades, their size matches his natural bulk when fully outstretched but able to fold in neatly behind him. Stygian feathers adorn his wings, natural melanins lend their refractive qualities to create an iridescent shimmer of indigo light that plays across it. A number of his large flight feathers shimmer with an intense violet colour, a few of them decorated with rune-engraved wooden beads. 


    I also set up some custom emotes for when he flies and lands just for added immersion for his role-play:

    You have emoted: Bending his knees lightly in preparation for takeoff, Navarr spreads his enormous indigo wings out behind him. His violet gaze looks up before his wings flap with a loud 'whooosh' as he ascends.

    You begin to flap your wings powerfully, and rise quickly up into the firmament.


    You begin to descend, the wind whistling past you as the earth draws ever closer. You land easily, back on the ground again.

    You have emoted: A rush of wind followed by a reverberant thud of air being stirred by wings precedes Navarr as he descends from the sky. His enormous wings flap with resonant 'whoosh' sounds that make bits of dirt and leaves spiral up off the ground until he finally lands, folding his shimmering indigo wings behind his broad shoulders.


    Oh and another custom 'flitter' emote:

    You have emoted: With a ruffle of soft feathers, Navarr's enormous indigo wings stretch out behind his broad shoulders slightly, flittering lightly to send a shimmer of reflected violet light across the silken feathers.


    Well that ended up being more rambly than I anticipated, either way thank you for the post! I very rarely lurk in the forums, nothing much catches my interest :P 
  • ShirszaeShirszae Santo Domingo
    I have to admit, other than the fact that they are black and rather large in comparison to herself, I never really put a lot of details into Shirszae's wings. Partly because I really don't/didn't know a lot about wings back then, and partly because the change from Siren came rather suddenly and was overall relatively unplanned and  a spur of the moment thing that she eventually fell in love with.

    It is possible the weight of her wings is why she absolutely abhors wearing an actual fullplate suit as a runewarden and instead prefers lighter things to fight in most of the time. The huge sword is just a n unimportant detail.

    And you won't understand the cause of your grief...


    ...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.

  • MinifieMinifie
    Bloodied and maimed, her clipped, alabaster wings are stained crimson, mangled beyond uselessness. 

    Add “pet bird” wings. *sqawks angrily from an ebony cage*
  • RyssaRyssa
    @Navarr
    How'd you set up the take off and landing emotes? I use Nexus, and would love to add something like that to Ryssa's expressions.
  • SynthusSynthus
    edited June 2019
    Ryssa said:
    @Navarr
    How'd you set up the take off and landing emotes? I use Nexus, and would love to add something like that to Ryssa's expressions.
    You could probably set them up using custom aliases in combination with the fly command.

    For example, you'd set the alias using:
    Setalias sparklefly em (Eyes sparkling with amusement,) shouts out "Catch me if you can!" before taking flight. / fly up

     So then whenever you typed "sparklefly" it would trigger the emote, and then have you fly up. (That syntax/command for fly may be incorrect, I don't have wings so I wouldn't know.)

    Then you'd just do the same sort of alias for landing, just in reverse - land, then emote.
  • ShirszaeShirszae Santo Domingo
    I'd actually suggest triggering on the landing and flying line so you only do it when you actually fly and land and not when you try to, if that makes sense

    And you won't understand the cause of your grief...


    ...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.

  • ArchaeonArchaeon Ur mums house lol
    edited June 2019
    Mine are made of wax
  • SynthusSynthus
    Shirszae said:
    I'd actually suggest triggering on the landing and flying line so you only do it when you actually fly and land and not when you try to, if that makes sense
    The landing one would definitely work that way, but if you triggered it off flight, wouldn't that trigger when you're already in the air? Or is there a delay between using the fly command and actually flying?
  • Arin!Arin!
    edited June 2019
    Synthus said:
    Shirszae said:
    I'd actually suggest triggering on the landing and flying line so you only do it when you actually fly and land and not when you try to, if that makes sense
    The landing one would definitely work that way, but if you triggered it off flight, wouldn't that trigger when you're already in the air? Or is there a delay between using the fly command and actually flying?
    Set up an alias to execute emote <whatever> then fly? That’s what you said earlier, I think I’m stuck on the same thing. A trigger would work for landing, but it might be easier to just wrap the emotes into the command? 

  • SynthusSynthus
    Arin! said:
    Synthus said:
    Shirszae said:
    I'd actually suggest triggering on the landing and flying line so you only do it when you actually fly and land and not when you try to, if that makes sense
    The landing one would definitely work that way, but if you triggered it off flight, wouldn't that trigger when you're already in the air? Or is there a delay between using the fly command and actually flying?
    Set up an alias to execute emote <whatever> then fly? That’s what you said earlier, I think I’m stuck on the same thing. A trigger would work for landing, but it might be easier to just wrap the emotes into the command? 
    Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If you were to trigger off the flight, I'd be worried about lag making the emote show up in the flight room instead of the room you flew from. Example:
    Location: Centre Crossing
    You begin to flap your wings powerfully, and rise quickly up into the firmament.
    >> Trigger Pattern matched
    >> Player moved to flying room

    Location: Flying above Centre Crossing
    >> Trigger code executes
    You emote: (With an annoyed huff,) spreads his wings and takes off with a single, powerful flap.


  • NavarrNavarr
    @Ryssa just going to include a screenshot, it's a custom emote setup I have.



    For the landing I have a timer included so the emote appears when I've landed and not still in the air.




    Hope that helps  :)
  • VhaithVhaith
    I just changed into Atavian, because I had an image in my mind of what I wanted and she's not really a bird-type.

    I've designed/described her to be similar to a fairy, because I like fairies and butterflies.

    Though she can fly, she's more like a hummingbird, she flits from place to place and has sparkly, colourful wings. Though they're only really ocean colours so not too bright and decadent.

    We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.


  • VashaVasha
    Passive Soaring Wings(High-lift/Broad soaring Wings)- I.e. eagles, storks, most hawks, vultures.

    She is a winged atavian and carries herself with the innate grace of her race, despite the occasional obstruction caused by her wings. Making more of an impactful impression than her tiny form, her wings are massive - meant to carry her soaring up into the skies. Each feather is delicate and the colours range from an aphotic black, into soft and downy chestnut, and hazel browns.


    I always pictured as above, that she had the wings of a particularly dark desert hawk. But then again, like 90% of how she looks was meant to be evocative of some sort of desert tribal or wild middle eastern woman.

    As for the custom triggers/emotes - those are things that you've inspired me to try and impliment! all around loving this thread <3
  • NumiraNumira
    So, until I saw this, I had never really thought about the differences in wing size or shape, so my thoughts on Numira's wings might have been a bit underdeveloped. (Granted, I'm a fan of short descriptions, and that could just be a side effect. If it is more than 5 lines, I probably skimmed it. Idk If that is a bad mindset, but whatevs.)

    I always imagined the typical valkyrie/angel image, with paper white wings. My description says "crisp white". As for size, they would definitely have to be huge and/or pretty dang ripped to carry me and my full plate armor. After looking at some pictures, I'm probably gonna say they look the most like swan wings, but I'm not sure which category that would be.

    Also, slightly off topic rant about how adding additional limbs makes it really hard to figure out how to frame a subject in a drawing. Like, I can go up close to do facial features well, and loose the wings, or get the whole wing, and have teeny tiny facial features.  
  • RyssaRyssa
    edited June 2019
    @Numira
    At first I thought that, since swans and ducks are both wading birds, they'd be in the same category. 

    But with research, I found that swans and other large wading birds are in the same category as eagles and vultures. Thusly, they, and Numira, are in the passive soaring wings category, also known as high-lift.

    Which makes sense, as many large waders like geese and swans migrate, and would need that type of wing for the soaring travel.

    Edit: I guess if you wanted a short desc, you could just say broad wings.
  • SthenoStheno
    Birds are the best, and I like this thread. I'm curious! How do you reconcile your racial wings with other wings? Is it strange seeing non-atavians with artefact atavian wings or custom wings? Do you react to it or handwave? I'm a siren, but I use my daemonic wings as an extension of character when I highlight they're there. They unfurl and take up space.


    Reaching down with a massive hand, Sartan lifts your head and draws a taloned finger across your throat, the wound closing as He does so.

  • RyssaRyssa
    @Stheno
    I know Ryssa kinda blinks with a 'wut' look on her face whenever some just pulls out eagle wings and straps them on.

    As for artefact Atavian or custom wings... I guess there's be ranges, from *smirk* "poser"/"wannabe" to "Coolio! You like having wings too?" (I don't think Ryssa's run into someone with such items so, I dunno)

    For daemonic wings, since they're often more akin to bat wings, they'll probably merit a 'wut' blink from Ryssa, but not much more.  
  • NavarrNavarr
    Thank you @Cailin :)  

    Kind of just came up with the idea soon after swapping to Atavian and pondering how to roleplay it, had played human for the majority of Navarr's life and needed a change.

    Same with the flitter emote, didn't want to use just the pre-defined racial emotes, so did that and might think of a few more things to add. Might do something when Navarr is irritated, you know how birds ruffle their feathers and puff up a bit when they might be scared or anxious or something of that sort? Either way, ideas to ponder upon! ;)
  • RyssaRyssa
    @Navarr
    I though a lot about that too, and have a list of emote for Ryssa to express herself with her wings. Flits, flips, flutters, fluffs and flares. All quite fun. One I haven't used yet cause no one's made her angry enough
  • NavarrNavarr
    And love the description you have there @Vasha especially how you describe the range of colours :) 

    And hummingbirds are amazing @Vhaith , mind sharing that description so we can see?
  • NavarrNavarr
    @Ryssa Heh I also have a special emote set up, but no one has made me angry enough to use it. Alongside using wings as part of emotive expression, I like to use my pets! So the angry expression also has my direwolf growling with his hackles raised and stalking closer with fangs bared. Also have a triggered emote for when I drop the direwolf from my inventory. So many things to play with and incorporate!  :)
  • NumiraNumira
    I have thought about making an emote, with wings fully extended in a threatening, "come at me, bro" sort of way. Would have minimal use for that tho.

    I don't really react to people with artifact wings. I just get sad that I can fly to clouds myself. I do kinda go "wut" when people are nice enough to lend me a pile of artifacts, and they give me wings. Or when dragons grab me and they are like "oh wait, right. You fly".
  • ShimiShimi
    Active Soaring Wings(Long Soaring wings)- ie. albatrosses, gulls, gannets - I always pictured her wing-span and shape as incredibly broad like an albatross.

    She is a winged atavian and she is easily describable as petite, especially when seen against the backdrop of her oversized and ombre-hue wings. ((The rest of my overlong description.)) Behind her at near 10 feet tall, are a matched pair of silvered wings which protrude from behind her back, and are mounted amidst a healthy amount of shoulder muscles. Each feather is small and well groomed into place, coloured in an ombre like fashion as the broad and tall wings shimmer from near charcoal hues into lighter arboreal flashes.

    Like several of the other people I do use my wings as an expression for emoting things, from things like being perturbed or persnickety to being happy.

    examples: Shimi ruffles her feathers rhythmically, causing a susurrus of whispers to fill the room, her wings almost seem to shimmer and roll in waves of foamy white down into cerulean, and oceanic blues at the very tips of her longer flight feathers.
    or when happy: Shimi whistles softly, the high notes fading quickly as she trills out a near perfect imitation of happy birdsong.




  • RymaRyma
    Ryan's wings are shaped like a raven, but the coloration is half-raven half-male-frigatebird. Since he often soars instead of flapping when he can, he often uses his wings as umbrellas by locking their position. His wings are also described as "somewhat larger than average" as well.

    I plan for him to use them for display when he loses his self-consciousness. Seriously, the coloration is pretty I think as a player.
  • SanyssSanyss
    Sanyss has passive soaring wings described as "the scavenger" which basically means his are vulture-shaped. The colors mimic a northern mockingbird, though.
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