Category:Avisterian

An alien race of birdlike creatures who colonized the Cyantian Moon Avistary despite the Wolves already having an Academy there. There was a mass exodus from the home world the Avistarians came from and several of the ships landed on Avistary and simply set up homes there. As a result, the two races generally didn't get along. (Campus Safari, strip 138)

The main details are that the Avistarians landed on the planet without permission and simply took up to living there. The wolves would've been fine with it, but were bugged by the fact that they showed no respect for them being there. They're on better terms now than they were, but Parot doesn't help things.

Avisterian society is heavily flight oriented, with flightless birds being on the lowest rung of the social ladder. The majority of avisterians have legs exactly like their smaller counterparts, very birdlike, with Striker being one of the rare exceptions. (His feet are plantigrade due to an accident he had been in.)

It takes roughly two months from fertilization to hatching for an Avistarians, and Avisterian females often sell their unfertilized eggs to Cyantians for use as food (eggs are about the size of a terran ostrich's).

The female Avistarians may get randy during PES (Pre Egg-laying Syndrome), but aren't turning the males into rutting lunatics with pheromones when in season. Instead, they choose their mate by quietly letting him impress her with physical beauty.

Culture

Someone has to be at the bottom of the heap. Someone has to have the crappy jobs for little pay. Someone has to live hand-to-mouth. Someone has to be the loan sharks and the usurers. Someone has to mix the drugs that the indulgent rich partake of, while punishing their suppliers to make sure they know who's boss. Someone has to exist in tenements designed for rats and built seemingly several millennia ago. Someone has to exist so even the poor can look down on them and think 'I'm glad I'm not them'. On Earth, this sad story has repeated itself over and over, with different nationalities playing host to the majorities ire. For example, in Europe up to the 19th century, the favorite target was the Jew, who was supplanted when international slavery really took off.

On Avistary, it's been the flightless bird - not just the penguin, but any flightless bird... and well, just look at them, would you? They look a bit like us, walk a bit like us, talk a bit like us, but in the end, they sure as hell aren't like us. Because they can't fly - isn't that obscene? An Avisterian who should be able to comb the skies is stuck on the ground like those disgusting foxes. Why, I wager those clippys (clipped wings) are in cahoots with god knows who or what. So, you can walk into my shop, but you better keep your hands where I can see them. You can spend your dirty money, but I'm going to check twice and if I find any credit fraud, then I'll have the law down on you. Don't sit in that seat - sit where I tell you to.

Originally, there was class distinction on plumage and form as well, so this could be a secondary level... you're flightless, you're a penguin, you're on the bottom of the totem pole,... right next to the kiwi.

Oh, there are a few, carefully planned escapes. For penguins, their tough and dependable selves have always been welcomed in the military as grunts and marines, and they're lauded for it. That's right - go fight our wars for us. Go die for us. You'll never make any rank above sergeant (but we won't tell you that). In fact, penguins are required to serve in the military for at least two years, or else to serve two years of Community Service (normally consisting of heavy labor, overseen by flighted birds who generally regard the 'clippys' with contempt).