Female Sh'vaire

This is a female of the race I created called the Sh'vaire (pronounced "shhh-eh-v-air" only alll slurred together and emphasis on the "vaire" part and silent end "e").

You can see the male/Harrion here! [link]

Race Name: Sh'vaire (in their language), Harpies (slang in other languages)
Plural Name, or name of Race memeber: Sh'varian, Sh'varians (pronounced "shh-var-ee-an" with emphasis on the "var")
Females: Harpiers
Males: Harrions
Teenagers/Adolescents: Fledgelings
Kids/Children: Chicks
Average Height: 8 to 9 ft with some taller members at near 10 ft.
Average Wingspan: 27 - 31ft (with 3 ft wide shoulders included in the total; about 12 to 14 ft individual wings [meaning from wingtip to shoulder]; and the actual length from shoulder to wrist is usually 4 to 5ft).
Average Crest height: About 2 to 3ft. Taller in males than in females and longer for adults than for chicks.
Diet: Primarily carnivorous with teeth very similar to this [link] only with more ordered and even teeth with long canines both top and bottom. They like to eat the meat of the cow-sized prey that roam the forests in their lands. Can steal and eat eggs of other Races if they're desperate and hungry enough.
Place on Foodchain: Top. Apex predator (sometimes need to be wary of the lone starving Dragon but both Races are at an understanding that if either Race member is killed by the other Race then they will band against that other Race and hunt them down and severely hurt the other Race's numbers).
Natural Habitat: The sun-baked cliffs of hard stone riddled with shallow caves and depressions that rise up high above the surrounding forests and mountian valleys. Prefer the old forests with sturdy branches, and enough space between the old thick and strong trees for even a Sh'varian to fly through.
Typical Lifespan: Females live longer than males since the males tend to frequently fight among eachother and with other Races to prove their strength and worth to the females.
Body Build: Tall and lean with hard whipcord muscles. Has ability to fold legs to chest, as well as use their wing-arms with almost the same felxibility and range of motion as human arms (what they can do is restricted by the flight feathers getting in the way) but with the flying power of bird wings (and same ability to "lock" the wings in place for long distance flying/gliding and thus able to doze while flying with help of strong air currents).
Walking Stance: Bipedal and walks on their bird toes with a jerky gait and can hop as well. Tend to be ready to leap into the sky at any time and that shows in their manner and tendency towards flightiness. Can jump (without flapping) at almost 15ft high with ease due to their well developed jumping/leaping skills.
Body Details: Have human faces with elongated elf-like ears and feathers on the fringe of the ears. Have eyes like Navi eyes (with the round pupils and little whites in the eyes around the iris) only in different colors (ranging from dark brown almost black to bright yellow to blue [blue is the rarest eyecolor to see] to amber-orange to hazel brown-green [full green is also rare]). Human-styled hair on head with a bird-like crest rising out of the head and trailing down the spine. Human-like torsos (with flat chests for males and small breasts for females), with bird feathers on arms that are a cross between bird wing and human arms. Has human hands of three fingers and a thumb tipped with bird talons and covered with scales that peek out of the feathers at the wrist of the wing-arm. Human-like legs at the thighs and calves but switch to scaled bird legs from ankles down to pure-bird feet (three toes facing forwards and one toe backwards, good for perching and grasping, not so good for running). Bird tail starts at the small of the back.
Feather Details: Transparent short downy feathers cover all the "skin" areas such as the face and most of the ears, the chest (for the younger members, since older members or adults have opague feathered chests), the abdomen, the butt, and top part of the upper thighs. This means that the actual skin color shows through at those areas. Their faces have human-like "hair" which is really feathers without barbs and barbullels like some birds have (such as kiwis) but can be styled as hair would be (though favored haircuts are often of the short variety for practicality and some bangs to spice it up). True opague feathers start at the neck and cover the chest to the abdomen in the front (on adults) and cover all the back. Those true downy feathers also start at mid-thigh and go to the ankles where it switches over to hard scales. There is a tertiary layer of "wing" feathers on the back like birds have (of which the wings fold under when cold or to warm up) that they call a "ruff" (the phrase "get your feathers ruffled" as in get upset is used in this culture with similar connetations only more derivative from the habit of very upset members to fluff up even their ruff feathers in a gesture of their strongly felt emotion). Tend to have natural bird colors (such as hawks, eagles, falcons, owls and other predatory birds) and rarely have outrageous feather colors or feather ornamentation.
Dess/Attire: Males and females favor wearing as less "clothing" as possible and usually only wearing loincloths as a whole (both sexes). Chicks may go around with no "clothing" to speak of at all. They do like jewelry such as necklaces (no dangling kinds which just get in the way of flying), armbands (more of "shoulder-bands" since they can only be attatched at the shoulder), decorative sashes, anklets, feet-bracelets, earrings (again do not like the long dangling kinds since they get in the way), and rings on the fingers and toes. For all that they seem to scorn clothing (understandable when you have feathers in the way in a lot of places that you would not be as inclined towards clothing) they place great pride in cleanliness of appearance so preening and well-being of the feathers and plumage is vital to them (not just appearance's sake as well, if feathers are messed up or dirtied then its harder to fly or glide at all). Care is also taken with the claws and scales, but not as much the teeth since they don't show the teeth as much.
Natural Weapons: Sharp teeth that they use like birds use their beaks (for tearing and ripping and nasty biting), talons on feet and hands, kicks from the feet, punches with the hands (rarer), slaps/blows with the wing itself (since a blow from a swan's wing is strong enough to crush a toddler's skull, imagine the blow from a 9ft tall bird-man who wants to kill you... NOT pretty... would see the wing blows and kicks be strong enough to break human spines and bones rather easily).
Instincts: Have stronger "flight" instincts than "fight" ones though which means that they are more liable to fly away from danger like birds do, than to actually attack with intent to harm. Can be rather aggressive if territory is intruded upon or if important (to them) things are broken. Are more ruled by instincts than by their heads/minds.
Important Note: ARE strong enough to lift off boulders from the ground and carry them short distances to drop them and crush someone from above, as well as swoop down and pick up and carry off a 6ft heavy man with ease and carry him for considerable distances.
Natural Skills: VERY strong senses with sight and hearing as well as touch being the strongest (smell is not as important nor is taste). Able to see as an eagle would in the daytime and have some limited nightvision (more of able to see motion well too) and have bird's color vision (with the ability to see that fourth spectrum of color that humans cannot [humans can see three color spectrums: blue, red, and green]). Can hear tiny sounds from far away similar to an owl but can also consciously dampen their hearing so as to not be bothered by the sounds of their wingbeats when in hard flight. Sense of touch is very strong and all the skin/feather areas are extremely sensitive which aides in sensing the air currents in flight and also pleasure in the preening given by close members (like very good friends, lovers, and family) of their kind. Very good and quick fighters (though may be hampered with the long flight feathers if the wing is folded) and natural strong jumpers and kickers due to suberb leg strength. Very strong and able to carry heavy loads for long distances in flight. VERY fast and agile fliers as well as able to long-distance fly at very high altitudes with ease (can fly up to the level of the Jet Stream in the tropopause layer of the atmosphere [around 5 to 11 miles depending on the seasons and location on the earth with 5 miles abover the poles and 11 miles above the equator] and a bit above into the layer of the stratosphere; frequently use the Jet Stream for long distance fast-travelling).
Cultural Values: This Race values flying abilities (arial agility and speed as well as long-distance stamina flying) and strength and quickness of blows. They also value the neat and tidiness of plumage and crest feathers (with the crest being more of display than anything). Also value height and wing length/width and the females often go after the taller males with more impressive wingspans.
Culture Overview: Males tend to prefer females though gay male pairings and lesbian female pairings can and do happen. If such pairings happen they can "adopt" the "abandoned" (for whatever reason; unable to feed them, true parents died, unwanted, etc.) chicks/eggs of male/female pairings and raise them as their own. Mating pairs tend to be for life though if one of them dies the other (after a long grieving period) can find another mate (though rare since usually they prefer to be romantically alone after the death of their Mate-Pair). Young adults (not mature adults), new parents, fledgelings, chicks, and the elderly tend to roost (live) together in the main Home Nests on the cliffs and socialize with others. The mature adults and the mated pairs tend to find their own nests away from the Home Nests, and enjoy their privacy away from the often noisy and rambunctious younger ones. Showing teeth is often a threatening gesture and done only when one wants to engage in battle or tests of dominence (males are fond of "play-fights" and testing eachother's fighting skills), so if they smile they smile with closed mouths and often "speak" with closed or almost closed mouths.
Language: Speak their own language which is comprised of all the sounds any and all known bird species can make including some sounds of unknown bird species (such as hisses, growls, shrieks, coos, croons, an odd purr-like noise, chirps and cheeps, caws and croaks to name a few), and thus they can understand all the bird species that they come across and such be understood by them in return. Can make human sounds and words in the manner of parrots and have the human intelligence to understand them. Can understand but not speak Dragon language (too low and deep and growling for them to mimic well without throat damage), and can learn to speak Elven (since the musicality of the Elven language suites their natural musical linguistic abilities), since the Dragonlands and the Elven Woods border the lands of the Sh'varians.
Mind Mentality: Tend to have a more animalistic way of veiwing the world and not as aware of the past or future as Humans, Elves, and Dragons are. Language tends to be more simple and describing words and such reflects how they think as well. They favor more "wordless" thoughts of feelings and sensations with some choppy sentences of thought. More simplistic than complex. Focused on the here and now more than future or past. But they can and do use their memories (which is more visual and sensations-based than auditory and language-based) and can recall locations and environments and appearances with precise accuracy as well as air conditions and streams of movement with the same focus to detail. What was said and how it was said is not as precise nor as focused on (the opposite one may say of Humans and Elves and Dragons).

Congrats on making it this far through my verbose description! XD Sorry with the word overload but I wanted to put down a detailed description of my fascinating original Race!

Sh'varians belong to me!