The Skyborn are a diverse group of people with ancestry from all the major corners of the world, who once ruled much of the seas and lands between the Elven and Sheng Empires in the far west and east respectively. They built vast flying cities with their technology in clockwork and steamtech, but eventually came into conflict with the Dragons and suffered internal strife. Following the calamity of the Great Storm, their Empire fell and their people were scattered in the winds. Now a fractured people, many of the Skyborn seek to return to the past or look toward a better future. The Skyborn are well known worldwide as the pre-eminent technologically advanced people, with a specialty in machinery and robotics, known as automata to them, while secretly holding out hope for the return of their Skyborn Empire.
Design
Due to their reputation for being the world's foremost technicians and engineers, many Skyborn who come to Regalia open up mechanical shops and services.This half-Eronidas Reclaimer Skyborn's Sky-weave tattoos glow. Sky-weave does not always have to be beige or golden, it can be any color.
The Skyborn are not exactly homogenous in the same way an Ailor, Dwarf, or Lanlath Elf might be. Due to their Skyborn Empire having existed for tens of thousands of years, their population became very diverse from large population migrations in and out of their Empire. Skyborn generally appear like Ailor (standard Humans), with the sole notable exception of all of them having beige eyes and darker pigmented skins being more common due to their proximity to the equator. Secondly, Skyborn are set apart from those with other Heritage due to their Sky-weave. Sky-weave is a pattern of skin pigmentation, coloration, or tattooing, that appears on the bodies of the Skyborn (usually on the hands, though it can originate from anywhere), which grows and spreads throughout their life in mandala-like shapes. These shapes record events in their life that can be read as these shapes much inspire the Skyborn script. Finally, Skyborn are roughly divided into five subgroups which may dictate their appearance. These groups define a Skyborn's ancestry and may also inform some of their culture.
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Founder Skyborn are the most common ancestry of Skyborn that descend from the original inhabitants of Ard-al-Nur, the continent from which the Skyborn created their Empire. Founder Skyborn are visually and culturally inspired by real-world Umayyad Iberia (Al-Andalus), and Middle Eastern people. Founder Skyborn filled the roles of the majority of the engineering classes and citizenry. Following the Empire's fall, the majority of them gravitated to the successor states in the south, continuing to try and reclaim part of their lost Empire's territory from the Dragonkin.
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Scripter Skyborn have ancestry among the Elves who migrated into the Skyborn Empire millennia ago, and slowly mixed into the population. Scripter Skyborn are not Elves, but they do remind others of their ancestry by their Elf-like ears and extended lifespan. Scripter Skyborn often fulfilled bureaucratic and scribe work in the Skyborn Empire. Following the Empire's fall, many of them scattered across the world, founding Skyborn Academies in far flung nations while preserving as much literary work from the Empire as possible, and searching for more long lost treasures.
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Reclaimer Skyborn have ancestry among the Velheim Ailor who migrated into the Skyborn Empire's northern territories millennia ago. Reclaimer Skyborn unlike the other Skyborn who rely on steam-tech and clockwork, use diesel-tech instead, extracting oil from the Hadravyan provinces in north Ard-al-Nur, and using it to fuel their technology. Reclaimer Skyborn were often seen as outsiders in the Skyborn Empire and latecomers compared to the other ancestries, but since the fall of the Empire, their technology has made leaps of progress and rivaled the common clockwork.
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Charger Skyborn come from far away, the Zhong Kingdoms to be exact. When the Sheng Empire expanded westward into the lands that would later become the Zhong Kingdoms, they pushed out the local population whose name has been lost to time. These people migrated to Ard-al-Nur where they slowly integrated into Skyborn society. The Charger Skyborn are visually and culturally inspired by real-world turkic peoples, especially those form Central and South Asia. Charger Skyborn often filled military roles in the Skyborn Empire due to their old homeland's martial customs.
