Ee'aar

Ee'aar are lean, stocky elves, slightly taller than their grounded kin, with huge feathered wings spanning 30% more than their height; folded, the wings reach from heel to just above the head. Eyes are elven but paler, hair mostly silver or white (sometimes light auburn or blond). Most feathers are white, gray or pale blue, though up to 40% have brown, gold or black plumage. They speak a soft, wind-carried tongue of their own plus the speech of the winged bull-folk, often with other mountain or coastal languages, and have elven infravision, sharp senses and resistance to sleep and charm.

An average ee'aar fights as a 2nd-level warrior, many far better. They get +1 to hit with ordinary swords and one clan hunting weapon (bolas, blowgun, lasso, net or spear) and shoot short bows aloft without penalty, but shun long bows and two-handed swords. Natural AC is 8 on the ground and 1 better in flight. Leather armor drops maneuverability to C and is loathed; they never use full shields, rarely bucklers, and favor rings of protection and bracers.

They can hover and fight, make passing attacks (one blow, maybe a defensive move, while flying by; a multi-attack foe needs haste or a similar special rule to hit more than once per pass), or strike ground targets with missiles, by landing, or by diving. A melee dive grants another -1 AC, negates the defender's Dexterity bonus and doubles all damage, and may be repeated every round, though not while dancing.

Dancing maneuvers, sharp spins, leaps and turns on the ground or aloft, improve AC by half the ee'aar's level against all but area attacks (a 4th-level warrior gains -2) and allow a save for quarter damage against direct spells like lightning. Armor, shields or missile fire make dancing impossible.

Speed is 240 feet per round, 60 climbing vertically, 120 forward and 120 up on a 45-degree climb, 240 forward and 240 down when descending, and 480 of each in a dive. Load is 50 pounds plus 5 per Strength point; beyond that, speed halves and maneuverability becomes C. Each flying hour needs a Constitution check at -1 per extra 50 pounds (or part) over 50 and -1 for each 5,000 feet of height beyond the first 5,000, ceiling 20,000 feet; strong updrafts or sea breezes allow gliding for +4. Failure means landing to rest half an hour per hour flown.

Below half hit points an ee'aar must land; past 75% lost it cannot fly or glide and falls if aloft. Wings have AC 1 worse than the body, never take armor, and can be hit from the front only by a taller attacker; side attacks that miss the body's AC but beat the wings' strike the wings, and every rear hit lands there. Wing damage of 25% of total hit points forces a landing and 50% grounds it until healed. Fire burns wings for 1d6 more each round until put out or until the ee'aar has lost over 75% of its hit points.

Wings heal one week per 10 points of total hit points, plus extra points from the Constitution bonus (16 Constitution adds 2 a week). Magic heals wing damage last; cure spells do not regrow feathers, but heal and regeneration do. As damage falls back under each threshold, gliding and then flight return.

Ee'aar are badly claustrophobic. Confined, one checks Wisdom daily or goes temporarily insane (cured by heal or cure disease); four failures in one confinement make it permanent, curable only by wish or limited wish.

Their home is the cold peaks of a remote mountainous peninsula, where down-lined furs, soft boots and thick leggings suffice. A few have lately come down to join the bull-folk on the frontier coast, needing months to adjust to lowland heat, and outside the bull-folk's capital they are rare. Families form aeries, several to a village and hundreds to a city, all working for clan and people. Noble clans lead by proven merit and may yield to worthier ones, taking honored places in the armies. Marriages are arranged with clans of equal rank, or within one when an adopted orphan is involved. Twins are rare, but ee'aar breed more often than other elves.

Aside from the bull-folk, whom they helped reclaim their homeland from the manscorpions, ee'aar keep apart. They quietly think their long history puts them above the 'infant' races without lording it over anyone. Their jewelry, figurines and ornate weapons command high prices along the coast.