Avali are similar in appearance to prehistoric raptors, being bipedal and feathered, with large wings ending in rudimentary hands, long tails, and four rabbit-like ears.
They are typically 1.5 to 1.8 meters long from nose to tail, with about half of this length being in their tails. The tail aids in balancing when walking on their rear legs. Standing, they average 1 to 1.2 meters tall.
Their multiple ears permit them to track prey through hearing alone. Each ear has a separate audio processing center, allowing a single Avali to listen to and process multiple simultaneous sounds or conversations.
Having evolved on a small, cold moon with a dense atmosphere, Avali biology has several adaptions specific to that environment.
The lack of readily drinkable water means they use liquid ammonia to support biological functions. Their bodies are thickly insulated with feathers to deal with the cold. They have large eyes, adapted to see in the dim light far from their home star. Their relatively small stature and high arterial pressure assist in tolerating the dense atmosphere.
Conversely, Avali wings are only capable of sustained self-powered flight in low-gravity environments and they struggle with temperature regulation in hotter climates. Despite their large eyes, they have relatively poor eyesight.
Female Avali tend to have muted, two-tone feather patterns whilst males have bright, iridescent color bands across their bodies. Avali reproduce similarly to real-life birds, with the female Avali laying a single egg which typically takes 4–5 months to hatch. Avali children are raised communally.
Avali originate from Avalon, a small icy moon that orbits a large gas giant. Most Avali live around the equatorial regions where
They are a nomadic species, initially freely roaming their home moon before acquiring space travel and establishing colonies and outposts elsewhere in the solar system.
History
Early Avali history is difficult to trace. Their extremely nomadic lifestyles left little by way of permanent or long-lasting structures that they could be identified by, and the hostile conditions of their home frequently destroyed or buried other potential artifacts.
Avali traditionally practiced an animist belief system, however, this adherence to religious tradition has become rare in modern society.
Societal structure
Historically, Avali society was made up of nomadic packs. Packs are typically made up of 3 to 6 unrelated Avali who were raised together and have come to specialize in a specific skill set. Several of these packs will come together to form tribes: free companies each with a distinct history, cultural tradition, and internal governance. Tribes have no permanent structure, usually formed to accomplish a particular task, with different packs joining and leaving the tribe as their skills are required.
Tribes may decide to settle in proximity to one another if they have complementary goals. For example, a tribe that manufactures electronics may form near a tribe that builds components, which in turn may form near to a tribe that mines the rare earth minerals needed to produce them.
Over time, many of these colonies joined together to form the Illuminate, a centrally-governed federation of Avali colonies. As the Illuminate developed into a post-scarcity society, it became commonplace for modern Avali to no longer need to work or to belong to any tribe, instead indulging themselves in individual goals, art and creative endeavors. Almost half of Avali live on worlds under Illuminate jurisdiction, including on their home world of Avalon.
Technology
The Avali are a highly technologically-advanced race, having developed consumer electronics, advanced communication networks, faster-than-light space travel, and cybernetics.
The Illuminate government is managed with the help of the Oracle, a powerful artificial intelligence that has been intentionally "shackled" to prevent it from developing self-awareness.
Almost all Illuminate Avali have some form of cybernetic augmentation. The most common of these is the Guardian nanites that maintain the physical health and well-being of their hosts. Most also have neural "jacks" that allow them to interface with the Nexus—an interstellar virtual reality that exists parallel to physical society—allowing the various Illuminate colonies to access databases of the species' combined knowledge, communicate, collaborate and relax together in a shared environment.
Intrusive physical augmentations, such as artificial limbs, are also common in cases of injury or amputation. A subset of Avali known as the "Oracle Cult" willingly undergo such extensive augmentation, considering a technological singularity to be the inevitable next step in Avali evolution.
Technology on worlds outside of the Illuminate government's control varies greatly, but is largely less developed, as they are denied use of resources like the Oracle, Guardian nanites, and the Nexus.
