The Shinoar
This beautiful sketch of me was done by one of the most talented dragon artists out there. Please go visit Leccathu Furvicael's website, Leccathu's Lair
The information presented below is a little jumbled/incomplete now, but I *will* be working on that.
Society
Shinoar is my species/clan name. At the time of my incarnation, the Shinoar were a primative society, with a technology level on par with the earliest modern humans.
We lived in small, close-knit clans that were governed by a group of Lo'orras that are chosen by all the adult members of the clan.
Younglings stay very close to their parents until around the age of 15 to 18 years. By age 21 or 22 they will have most likely found their own mate and pairbonded. The pairbond is a permanent bond between the two, and they will remain mated for life. Unlike many other species, this bond does not include monogamy. Sex is a way of showing extreme affection for another shinoarii, and was most often performed with a particular individual's suukri or suure. The breeding mating/heats were, however, only performed with the pairbonded herrarras.
The Shinoar were a female dominant society. The females were the heart of the clan and respected by all of the males. In everyday dealings the sexes were primarily equal, though a male would likely defer to a female as they were more prone to nip when annoyed. The only time a male was dominant is during mating. Females want a mate who is capable of overpowering them for even a short time, as it shows he is strong enough to help protect any potential offspring, and equally that he is not afraid of her.
The Lo'orras
These were the elders of the clan, individuals, both male and female, that were chosen because of age and experience as well as temperment. The Lo'orras were the mediators in disputes that individuals could not resolve on their own and the general caretakers of the clan. They were the ones who initiated formal contact between tribes. Lo'orras literally means "one who teaches." They passed on all the knowledge of the tribe, ranging from the lore of our history, to what plants were okay to eat, and general manners as well.
Religion
Circling our planet were several moons of varying sizes. We believed that from these moons our goddesses watched over us and guided us. They were viewed as being similar to the clan Lo'orras. They each had male counterparts amongst the stars. Equally, shinoar deities were not ompnipotent. Beyond having created the world the godesses and gods did not interfere in shinoar life. Thanks were given each year for things like the land, the hunt, and for young but they were never worshipped. They had, supposedly created our society as it was and taught the earliest shinoar what was right and what was wrong, as is proper for a Lo'orras to do.
Self Expression (art) and Courtship
The Shinoar didn't produce much art, in the way that we think of it now. Of course, the fact that my clan lived on the open plains and didn't bother to work stone probably had something to do with that. After all, if you have four little daggers on each hand, there's no point (pun!) in making a sharp rock. Instead we danced and we sang. These were often spontaneous bouts of self expression, wordless spiraling croons and calls to match the prancing and hopping and wings flaps that we would do to show our excitement over something. The only really formalized dance we had was during the first breeding heat. All the males and females would gather with the new "adult" and begin dancing. The males courting the females, and the females courting the males right back. Usually the female would have already found a compatable male with whom she wanted to bond and sometimes the choice was made during the dance. Other clans would often send their young, unattached males to different clans in order to spread the genepool around a bit and also cement the tribes together.
Linguistics
Most of this information can be found on the dictionary and grammar pages. On one side note though, at the time I was alive there was no true, or at least regularly used, written language. I can remember one of the Lo'orras crouched over a hide akwardly holding a crude brush of some sort while trying to figure out what to put down. As I was young still, I had no real interest in what was being done.
Boring stuffs:
Physical:
Height: 6-7 ft
Length: 14-15 feet
Wingspan: 28-32 feet
The above is the head of a juvenile shinoar. Adults had significantly longer horns.
The Shinoar are a tawny color, not too dissimilar from those of modern day lions. Their camaflouge is a lot better adapted, though. Namely, if you stuck one in a field of wheat, they'd blend in almost exactly.
The Shinoar are bipedal, and bear a strong resemblance to both the raptor family of therapods and the gallimimus of the ornithomimus family. They have long, agile legs. Their arms are also quite long and really quite strong. Their hands have 3 fingers and a thumb, all of which are tipped with sharp talons.
While clearly built for hunting on the ground, the Shinoar are also decent flyers, just as often employing raptoral hunting techniques as those of traditionally ground based predators.
[Main Page] [Word List] [Basic Grammar]