Qaueq

A qaueq (pronounced /ˈkaʊ.ɛk/) is a type of tzanta found on the world of Arianiga, with a human gadjuun and a heron kaptara—specifically the great blue heron, Ardea herodias. Qaueqs are found almost exclusively in the sky nations; they rarely descend to the surface of the veigur, and when they do it is usually only on a quick excursion, and they take care not to be spotted by any earth people.

There have been a handful of isolated cases of qaueqs becoming beastbound, but these qaueqs have invariably been unusually solitary individuals. Beastbound qaueqs gain powers including increased speed, magical flight, and the ability to transmute themselves into water.

Description

Like other types of tzanta, qaueqs vary in which parts of them match the gadjuun (i.e. are human) and which match the kaptara (are heron). It's very common, however, for a qaueq to be human except for a heron's head. Only slightly less common are tzanteii with a heron's wing instead of an arm. (Of course, these tzanteii cannot fly with only one wing; even if both arms were replaced by wings, their denser human bones would likely prevent flight.) Other variations include tzanteii with feathers instead of hair, or with a single heron's foot, or a heron's tail and uropygium. Qaueqs with heron's heads are able to speak human languages, but humans often find their voices harsh and difficult to understand. (Of course, other qaueqs, more used to hearing their voices, have no such trouble.)

The relative size of the human and the heron is such that when undergoing darsis, a typical qaueq can detach its kaptara part into a single blue heron of below-average size. However, as an alternative to producing such a small heron, it's common for two qaueqs to combine their darsis to jointly produce one large heron.

On Earth, great blue herons include a white morph which some ornithologists regard as a distict subspecies (Ardea herodias occidentalis) or even a separate species (Ardea occidentalis). This morph, however, is not represented among the qaueqs, the kaptara parts of which are invariably of the widespread blue morph. There are (very rare) qaueqs with very light or white feathers, but this is because they are albino or leucistic, and their hypopigmentation will be reflected in their human kaptara parts as well.

Psychology and culture

Qaueqs prefer to live in large cities, or failing that in small but dense enclaves, with many public buildings and communal areas. In their communities, they are highly social, frequently visiting each other and hosting gatherings of various sorts. Somewhat paradoxically, however, outside their home communities, they are solitary creatures, preferring to pursue professions in which they work alone with minimal contact with others, and seldom traveling in groups larger than their immediate families. Despite their gregariousness in their communities, when at work or otherwise away from home they tend to be uncomfortable with any sort of unnecessary social interaction, even with individuals they know well.

Heron tzanteii have a reputation for ambition and temerity, for icarian striving above their means. While it may be true that they often attempt more than they can achieve, this is in most cases less due to presumption than due to an apparent tendency toward underestimating their limitations once engaged in an activity, and to an insistence on giving every endeavor their full effort. Stories are plentiful of heron tzanteii overextending themselves and losing much because of it, but in most cases this overreach seems motivated not so much by arrogant pretension as by their getting caught up in the moment. How much of this character trait is innate and how much is a result of qaueq culture remains debated.

Qaueqs generally enjoy swimming, and often live near lakes and other bodies of water, or, if they can afford it, install bathing pools near their residences, or live in complexes that have them.

Interactions with other folks

For the most part, qaueqs get along well with other folks, not exhibiting the xenophobic tendencies for which the related blywecks are sometimes infamous. Though it's true that in many parts of Arianiga (especially in the Oes) qaueqs tend to form their own isolated communities, in other parts (especially in the wolk of Adighen) they live in integrated settlements of diverse folks, and seem perfectly comfortable there. While in some cultures qaueqs have a reputation for coldness and inaffability, this comes primarily from their reluctance to interact with people outside their home communities, which holds no less true—but nor any more true—with other folks as with their own kind.

When in mixed communities, qaueqs tend to gravitate to occupations that involve decisive action and minimal contact with people from outside their communities. They frequently work as exterminators, as detectives, and as medics. The last, in particular, has become something of a stereotype, and the qaueq medic has become a stock character in many comedic works—often with a name that is some variation on "Yog", after such a character that appeared in a popular set of puppet shows in the Blue Century.

A very few qaueqs have settled in the earth nations and found places in cities there. For the most part, the earth people who know of a qaueq assume they are a unique entity, being unaware of the existence of qaueqs as a folk.

Diet

Like their grallatory kaptreii, qaueqs are particularly fond of fish, but they eat a wide variety of different meats, including but not limited to frogs, turtles, grubs, and thelliwecks as well as more common meats such as poultry, beef, and mutton. They do not eat only muscle tissue, but also enjoy organ meats and eggs—not only the eggs of fowl, but of fish and reptiles as well. They are, however, almost exclusively carnivorous; there are qaueqs who supplement their diet with nuts and legumes, or who manage to live entirely on vegetable fare, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

This is not to say that qaueq cuisine is monotonous. They may eat only animal tissue, but they have developed many creative ways of preparing and combining it. Qaueqs may stuff one kind of meat with another, reshape it into various forms, dye and flavor it with substances including blood, bile, and cephalopod ink. Marrow and roe see frequent use as garnishes, laid out in designs much like icing on a cake. A few qaueq dishes have become particularly well known, and popular even among humans and other folks. A great number of now-widespread sausages and cheeses originated with the qaueqs, including wesekel, seimwurst, eminence, kassel, and zoff. Stone pudding is a plat similar to a haggis, but with no oatmeal or other vegetable ingredient. Pockles are fried turnover-like preparations that use rendered skin as the casing instead of dough. Bonebread is what its name implies—a concoction resembling bread, but made with bone meal and other animal ingredients. One qaueq dish not widely eaten by other folks but notorious as representative of the (supposedly) more repugnant side of qaueq kitchen is eyeball soup—which, again, is what its name implies.

Reproduction

Though there are many stories about qaueqs and blywecks laying avian eggs, they are just that—stories. Like most tzanteii with human gadjana, qaueqs reproduce as humans do, giving birth to live young. Like herons, qaueqs are dasypædal; the kaptara parts of baby qaueqs are covered with soft gray down, although, like the young of both herons and humans, they are not fully precocial, and require a good deal of care from their parents. The full coat of feathers grows in when the tzanteii reach about six months of age.

Qaueqs tend to be serially monogamous, remaining faithful to a partner while the two are together but then moving on to a different partner after a year or so. While it lasts, a partnership between qaueqs is passionate and expressive, but it seldom lasts long. Unless there was some unpleasantness involved in their union, qaueqs do generally remain friendly with previous partners, and may return to an old partner years later; it's not uncommon for a qaueq to alternate between two or three partners. Usually qaueqs mate with other qaueqs, but it's not unknown for a qaueq to take a human partner—though such partnerships are as temporary as unions with other qaueqs, and as likely to be resumed later. There have been a few instances of qaueqs mating with other tzanteii—blywecks, piswecks, or even on at least one occasion a nilis—but this rarely happens; while a blyweck could in principle mate with a tgol or a caswick, there are no accounts of this occurring.

Of course, when two of their dartic herons mate, they do lay eggs, pale blue eggs that come in clutches of three to seven. Since the dartic herons seldom exist long enough as entities separate from the tzanteii to properly incubate the eggs, this task falls to the tzanteii the herons belong to, who usually foster them with regular herons they thelctically influence into the task. The resulting demitzanteii are not readily distinguishable from ordinary herons.