[hider=Augury race][color=red][h1][b]Augury[/b][/h1][/color]
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[b][color=red]LIFESPAN:[/color][/b] 60-65 Years|
[b][color=red]HEIGHT:[/color][/b] 4’6”-5’0”  |
[b][color=red]WEIGHT:[/color][/b] 90-100 lbs |
[b][color=red]FREQUENCY:[/color][/b] Uncommon |
[b][color=red]MAIN SETTLEMENT:[/color][/b] The southern end of Sorrowfield, into the Bone Sea and extending to Darington |
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[b][color=red]DESCRIPTION[/color][/b]
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[INDENT] The augury are a seclusive and mysterious race of crow-people who have lived in Deadwood for many tens of thousands of years. Various tribes of auguries have varying physical features, but they all share mostly black feathers, beaks, and claws on their hands and feet. Despite being birdkin, the auguries cannot fly, though they are quite dexterous and make excellent climbers. The auguries are a nomadic people, traveling from place to place following herds or scavenging the ruins of civilizations. Auguries are rarely openly hostile unless they vastly outnumber their opponent. Their bones are hollow, making them lightweight but also very fragile. A single well-placed hit with a club or other blunt object can pretty much drop an augury no problem. They prefer to slink around in the ruins of cities or the edges of a battlefield, foraging for equipment and all-too-important jewels amidst the wreckage. Auguries are obsessed with shiny things, from glittering golden coins to gemstones, but they lack the permanent settlements required for mining so they must take their gems from the ruins they find. 

Auguries are viewed by many in Deadwood like we view vultures— scavengers and omens of ill fortune. When you see auguries around, it generally means there has recently been great strife in the area which they have come to profit off of. Auguries are physically weaker than humans, goliaths, or Kaimerians, but they make up for it with dexterity, wit, and keen senses. An augury’s sense of sight is legendary, and it is said they are so perceptive they can find a single gold coin in a sand dune. Despite lacking the typical trappings of modern civilization, auguries are quite smart and extremely resourceful. They have an intuition for finding hidden things, from gemstones to wells, and they strategize exceptionally well. Auguries are highly social within their small, tight-knit tribes, and they are excellent at coordinating. 

As is on brand for a race of scavengers, auguries worship a death god known as Khiar-koff, the bringer of death and suffering that all auguries hope to appease. If a drought or famine arrives, it is Khiar-koff’s wrath being taken out upon people who have not given enough to satisfy his demonic hunger. Auguries perform rituals of all kinds to appease Khiar-koff, usually through sacrifice. This cruel religion has opened the auguries to one unique path, though, the magical art known as Kisha making. A kisha is a bone homunculus, a hodge-podge skeleton composed of the skeletons of several animals smashed together. A kisha may have the body of a bear, the tail of a snake, and the head of a troll, all knit together into one skeleton. 

When a kisha is complete, a ritual is held by which a living being’s consciousness is transferred into the kisha, giving it life. Kisha are used for all kinds of purposes, from hunting guides to bodyguards. Some kisha even contain the consciousness of an augury, a form called a Kiy-Kisha. These Kiy-kisha are legendary monster-despots, using their authority as prophets of Khiar-koff to command absolute power over a band of auguries. Kisha are valuable assets to auguries, but they come at a price. A kisha regularly needs animals sacrificed to it to remain conscious or else it “starves” to death. A kiy-kisha is even more dependent on sacrifices, and tribes who worship a Kiy-kisha often end up looking more like death cults, dragging travelers away in their sleep to be sacrificed. Additionally, healing a kisha is difficult, as it requires a complex ritual, so if a kisha is wounded it can’t heal naturally. 

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What say you, oh Allen-san?