The Sky Tribe is a winged race of beings that serve as the main inhabitants of the Clear Sea, being visually similar to normal humans and other sky people with main exception being the fact they've evolved to fly through the usage of the wings bestowed upon them. They have specifically evolved in order to survive the harsh environment of the Clear Sea and the creatures that reside within it.
The Sky Tribe often refers to each other as Skymen (天人 Ten'nin?).
Appearance[]
The common folk of the Sky Tribe are visually identical to humans, sharing very noticeable features and traits with the denizens of the surface world. However, the main aspect which sets the members of the Sky Tribe apart are their aforementioned wings which can vary in size, quantity, and even position ー either being attached to their back or taking the place of their arms.
Typically, the people of the Sky Tribe have set of bird-like wings, meaning they are covered in feathers. However, in rare cases, certain members can have different-looking wings with a similar appearance to the wings of a mythical dragons. Nonetheless, despite their unique appearance and slightly different biology, these wings function the same as their feathered counterparts.
Gallery[]
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Skymen[]
Variants[]
The Sky Tribe is associated with every humanoid creature that can survive in the Clear Sea. Unlike sapient species found in Blue Sea levels, all the sapient, humanoid species in the Clear Sea are all classified as members of the Sky Tribe, while only being considered a different variant.
There are two known variants of Sky Tribe members. They are referred to as Avians (鳥類 Chōrui?) and Fiends (悪魔 Akuma?) who are distinguishable by the shape and type of their wings and general appearance.
Avians[]
Avian type Sky Tribe members are the most common type of Sky Tribe members, and are distinguishable via their feathered wings. Their wings are similar to those of existing bird species that can be found in the Blue Sea. The Avian types can further be distinguished in three different subtypes.
One kind of Avian types are the Bird-Kind (鳥類 Tori Rui?) which are typically very similar in height to an average human, and have one pair of bird-like, feathered wings. They are exceptionally fast flyers and are very agile and maneuverable in the air.
Another kind are the Angel-Kind (天使類 Tenshi Rui?), who are very similar to the Bird-Kind, save for the fact that they are much bigger on average and have multiple pairs of bird-like wings. The average being three pairs of wings. Nephele is an example for this kind.
Finally there are the Harpy-Kind (ハーピー 類 Hāpī Rui?), who are defined by the fact that they have wings for arms, and typically also boast more bird-like features, such as talons, a beak, or by looking like anthropomorphic birds altogether. Their size varies from very small to as tall as the average Angel-Kind.
Fiends[]
Fiend type Sky Tribe members are slightly less common than their Avian type brethren. They can be distinguished by the fact that instead of having feathered wings, their wings are more akin to something that one would relate to mythical creatures, such as dragons. The reason for that being that they share a lot of similar DNA to the Sky Devil that terrorize the Clear Sea. Some of them even have more dragon-like parts, such as claws or a tail. Because of this, they often get ridiculed by their Avian type brethren.
They can be distinguished in two different subtypes. One being the Dragon-Kind (竜類 Ryū Rui?), who are the most common type of Fiend types. They have large, scaly wings that are very reminiscent to those that a Sky Devil would have. Furthermore, Dragon-Kind don’t have any members who have more than one pair of wings. Some even have features such as claws or a tail, which makes them resemble dragons even more.
The second kind is the Serpent-Kind (蛇類 Hebi Rui?) whose entire lower half of their body is that of a long, scaly reptile. They share even more DNA with the Sky Devils than the Dragon-Kind Fiends. Some even have more than just the lower body, much like the Dragon-Kind, by having things such as claws. They also have wings, but they can either have feathered wings or scaly wings. Despite that though, both kinds are classified as Fiend types regardless. The ruler of the Clear Sea, Satsuka is an example of this kind.
Avians and Their species[]
- Nephele: Pigeon
- Sariel: Northern cardinal
- Ayaka: Raven
- Taros: Common blackbird
- Zeekey: White cockatoo
- Theia: Starling
- Morningstar Michael: Swan
- Remiel: White hawk
- Raguel: Grey goshawk
- Ford Henrietta: Swan
- Bell D. Ver: Harpy eagle
Biology[]
Wings[]
The most notable trait of the Sky Tribe is the fact that every member of their race has at least one pair of wings. Unlike other sky dwelling people, the wings of the Sky Tribe have evolved to the point where they are either big enough, or plentiful enough to create enough lift in order to give the people the ability to fly. This is further made capable thanks to how their bones have evolved.
These wings can vary in color and size, as some people’s wings are comparable to different bird species, or have a dragon-like appearance. Every Skyman has a similar ability of flying however, regardless of what kind of wings they have. A difference in flying ability can only be achieved by experience and training.
60% of the Sky Tribe population is classified under the Avian Type, while the other 40% belong to the Fiend Type of Sky Tribe members. The most common kind of Sky Tribe member are the Bird-Kind, while the least common ones are the Serpent-Kind. No matter what variation however, they all have wings that grant them the ability of flight.
Hollow Bones[]
Similar to birds, the Sky Tribe has evolved in a way to make flying as easy as possible. And in order to make their bodies even lighter, they have evolved to have hollow bones, instead of solid bones typical for humans. Not only do these bones make the Skymen a lot lighter than the average human, but because of the structure of the bone, they are also considerably more durable and much more difficult to break with blunt force alone. They are however weaker to crushing force.
Their hollow bones make it easier for them to fly and generally easier to move. In the air in particular, the Skymen are exceptionally fast. Their abilities are best showcased in their very homes, the Clear Sea, where they are one of the few species to effortlessly fly around the otherwise unforgiving area.
Low Altitude Sickness[]
While Blue Sea dwellers suffer from the oxygen shortage that is present high up in the sky, the Sky Tribe has become so accustomed to the oxygen shortage present in the Clear Sea that they suffer when there is too much oxygen present. Their lungs aren’t used to the abundance of oxygen, and thus if a Skyman were to enter the Blue Sea, the abundance of air would cause them to feel intense chest pain and very high blood pressure.
A Breathing Dial
When exposed to it for too long, people of the Sky Tribe might even be rendered unable to breathe altogether. Their systems are being poisoned by too much oxygen, until they fail to breathe. It is possible for Skymen to get used to the oxygen levels at lower altitude, but at the same time risk their ability to breathe at higher levels.
Some scientists in the community have tried to circumvent the issue by creating Breathing Dials (呼吸 貝 Kokyū Kai?), which can be worn like masks and balances out the air intake at Blue Sea levels, allowing Skymen to breathe without suffering. They were created in case someone falls down to the surface, or goes down for other reasons.
Overall Strength[]
The Sky Tribe in terms of physical strength are very comparable to humans. They can match humans in strength, and can also gain strength by training. On average, a member of the Sky Tribe is stronger than an untrained human, simply due to the fact that the Sky Tribe always uses their whole body when moving around in their home by flying. Giving their entire body a workout and increasing their physique. But that is only because of constant activity, and not due to naturally being stronger, unlike some other sapient species.
They have adapted to high altitudes, which unlike other races that were born in lower levels, means that they can live in incredibly high places without suffering from oxygen depletion. They can breathe in the White Sea and Dark Sea with ease. Furthermore, they can survive even higher. They can survive the incredibly low amount of oxygen all the way up in the exosphere. This ability makes them weak to a large abundance of oxygen however, since it essentially poisons their lungs. Resulting in the low altitude sickness.
Sky Tribe members cooperating to create a giant tornado
One of the Sky Tribe’s greatest strengths is their speed. Since they spend most of their lives flying, they have learned to maximise their speed and reduce friction while flying. Granting them their speeds while flying. Trained members of the Sky Tribe are fast enough to travel from the Clear Sea to the Blue Sea and back in just a few seconds. Their skill to fly at great speed had naturally evolved over hundreds of years while trying to survive against the threats that the Clear Sea has to offer. While they are incredibly fast in the air however, they are not as remarkable on the ground. On average, a member of the Sky Tribe is slower on foot than humans. This is mainly because of their wings.
The wings of the Sky Tribe are their most important and noteworthy features. The wings are the strongest parts of their body and are incredibly durable and take a lot of energy from the bodies of the Sky Tribe. So much so that when wings happen to get damaged or even broken, the natural healing process is boosted for the wings. Allowing them to recover much faster should their wings ever get damaged. The durability of the wings is so great that it takes a lot of force to try and remove them. The wings are so strong because once they are somehow removed, they can’t ever grow back, and thus permanently crippling them.
Their wings can also be used as weapons. Due to their naturally greater durability than the rest of their body, they can use them to hit their opponents with. Some members have even trained specifically to weaponize their wings. Experienced fighters have learned to utilize the winds generated by their wings in order to fight. Resulting in them creating powerful gusts of wind using their wings. These can become especially powerful when a lot of trained members work together to create devastating hurricanes and tornadoes.
Culture[]
Due to how few of them actually exist, considering how few Sky Islands actually exist in the Clear Sea, the Sky Tribe is heavily dependent on their own people, and constantly seek support from one another, while also offering their assistance to each other. They cooperate the best with one another and respect each other despite how different their body might be. People with wings for arms, while a lot less common and seemingly less versatile than the typical kind with wings on their back, earn the same respect as anyone else would.
Much like other races pride their physical features, the Sky Tribe greatly value their own wings, since they are the main reason why they are able to survive in the harsh conditions that the Clear Sea put them through. Having wings is considered important for survival, and thus the lack of them is considered to be inferior, or having fewer chances at survival.
Because of this, they refer to humans as Wingless (無翼 Muyoku?) and other sky-inhabiting races with wings unable to fly Small Wings (小さな翼 Chiisana Tsubasa?). Since they have their own people to take care of, the Sky Tribe cares little about other races, and sometimes even looks down on them. If a person is unfit for surviving in the Clear Sea, they won’t try and go out of their way to help them either.
Similar to other sky inhabiting races, the Sky Tribe has become accustomed to utilizing Dials as a replacement for traditional technology. Due to the harsher living conditions and difficulty in simply finding them, the Sky Tribe hunts down and searches for the shellfish that produce these dials, and selectively breed them in order to create more dials.
While they don’t think highly of the White Sea or Dark Sea, they still see potential business opportunities in both of them by selling their Dials as high prices, or allowing for trading routes by carrying goods from sea to sea. They only do this for both seas that they are in between. They have no interest in doing business with the Blue Sea. Further upkeeping the elusive nature of the sky islands.
Dial Usage[]
Compared to the standard of the White Sea, Dials are even more important in the Clear Sea. Much harsher environment and the inability to create traditional technology has left the Sky Tribe to improvise over the course of many generations to utilize dials that can be found within the Sea Clouds. They are thus considered to be even more dependent on them than inhabitants of the White Sea.
In order to make living easier over the course of many years, the Sky Tribe has practiced advanced dial production and modification. In order to create enough dials for people to use, the Sky Tribe catch the shellfish themselves that are responsible for the creation of the dials, and breed them in order to create desired dials. Selective breeding over many years has allowed the creation of entirely new and unique dials that have never been seen before, and wouldn’t have been conceived otherwise.
The procedure of breeding for dials is considered inhumane by many, yet necessary for survival. Once a dial has been created and reached its desired size, the shellfish will be killed off. Otherwise, the shellfish might grow too big and grow up to become a monster that roams the sky, and unleashes devastating damage with its shell that has been empowered due to years of selective breeding.
Because of their breeding procedures, the Sky Tribe is able to produce dials that are otherwise considered extremely rare, such as Reject Dials. The more powerful these dials become, the more difficult is it to mass produce them. Some Dials are also considered to be too powerful of weapons, and are thus not given out to the public and only used by trained soldiers.
Dials have become an extremely important part of Sky Tribe society. Various warriors utilize Dials that are completely unique to them, and not found anywhere else. A warrior is often defined by the power they wield, and what Dial they use for combat. So much so that someone’s Dial is even considered part of someone’s very being.
Warriors of the Sky Tribe undergo a ritual and surgery that is said to forever bind them to their unique Dials. Dials connected to someone’s life essence, similar to how Vivre Cards work. That way the Dial is literally drawn towards their user, in order to never be lost or stolen. It’s said if the person wielding it dies, the Dial will cease to function forever. And upon death, they are buried alongside their Dial.
Dial Implants[]
A more recent usage of Dials used by the Sky Tribe is a procedure known as Dial Implantation (貝 移植 Kai Ishoku?) where a Dial is directly implanted into someone’s body via surgery. This specific surgery is similar to the procedure of creating Sky Tribe specific Dial Weapons, where a weapon itself becomes tied to a user’s life essence. However, instead of getting a weapon, the person themself becomes the weapon for the Dial.
Using this surgery, the Dial is implanted into the body in a part where there is enough space to fit it and grow, or it is replaced with an organ entirely. Usually one that isn’t necessarily vital for survival, such as a kidney, or the spleen. The Dial becomes part of the Sky Tribe member’s body that grants the one who is implanted with it the ability to utilize the thing that the Dial controls. The user can generate the material that the Dial inside of their body stores through orifices such as their mouth or pores.
With the Dial part of the body, it will naturally absorb and store energy that the Dial can take into itself. This happens by simple breathing, or through the skin. Like absorbing heat in order to fuel a heat based Dial. Because of this, Dials that can somehow release a solid material are considered impractical for this specific surgery, and thus said surgery is mostly limited to elements that are either liquid or gaseous in nature.
This procedure is mainly done with infants using small Dials that can still grow. Essentially trying to make them grow up with the Dial in order to naturally adapt to it. The reason this surgery was created was due to threats of the Clear Sea continuing to increase, and wanting to try and create soldiers that are naturally more adept in fighting off the large creatures that threaten the lives of the Sky Tribe.
Slavery[]
The people of the Sky Tribe don’t tend to practice slavery amongst each other. Slavery is much more prominent in Blue Sea levels, where not even they are safe from those who wish to use them.
Since they are incredibly rare and difficult to catch, they fetch an impressive average price of 
10,000,000 or more. Females in particular are highly sought after, due to some of them resembling angels. In particular those with white wings, which can fetch an absurdly high price on the market.
Due to their ability to fly, Skymen are exceptional slaves that are often used for airborne transportation. Vehicles made specifically for them to carry, which are used by the likes of World Nobles who don’t even wish to walk the same earth as peasants.
A Sky Tribe slave with their wings removed
They are also sought after for their wings. Either due to their plumage, which is forcefully harvested and used in pillows by the World Nobles, for no other reason than the fact that it’s more expensive than pillows with regular bird feathers. Those who are exceptionally cruel take it a step further, and even remove the wings entirely, only to stitch them to their clothes or use them for other decorative reasons. Permanently crippling them. Removing a Skyman’s wings is considered to be one of the greatest sins in Sky Tribe culture.
Since their ability to fly makes them very difficult to capture and keep, special masks were designed just for them, which function similarly to breathing dials, but have mechanisms inside of them that control the oxygen intake that can be remotely controlled. When they misbehave or try to flee, these masks allow their captor to switch to a mode that enforces large oxygen intake, which will negatively affect them incredibly quickly.
These acts of slavery only further makes the Sky Tribe dislike humans and stay away from them, while also not helping them should one ever find themselves in the Clear Sea. Some even express so much hatred towards them that they travel to the lower sea just to terrorize them and avenge their enslaved bretherem.
Inter-Species Relationships[]
Skymen have a troublesome relationship with other races. Many of them consider those with the inability to fly as inferior and thus do not wish to associate with them. Regular people such as humans typically don’t deserve their respect, uness they have showcased that they have the ability to survive in the Clear Sea.
They show more respect towards those that live in the sky themselves, such as the inhabitants of the White Sea and Dark Sea. However, since those that inhabit those seas typically can’t fly either, they don’t treat them as equals either.
Due to humans commiting various acts of slavery to their kind, and do things such as harvest their feathers and cut off their wings, the Sky Tribe is the most hateful towards humans, and some even them consider them iredeemable enemies.
Despite this, it’s not impossible for a member of the Sky Tribe to like other people, or even get attached to them. Romantic relationships can also exist between them, and offspring can have mixed genetics with different races. However, a child that is only half Skyman has smaller wings than pure-blooded Skymen. Thus they lack the ability to fly, but can still glide and float, as well as travel on airstreams. Their lungs are also much better adjusted for life on lower altitudes and thus don’t suffer the same downside as regular Skymen.
Trivia[]
- The kanji used in the term Skymen also refers to Tennin (天人? literally meaning "Heavenly Person"), a divine kind of spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism that are similar to western angels, nymphs or fairies.