Work Text:
An Introduction to Aven Society
We Aven draw our cultural ancestry from the Humans, a featherless species whose own hubris led them to a self-destruction we believe was accidental. We draw our genetic ancestry from the creatures the Humans called 'birds'. Although we follow the Humans in many respects, we are making sure we learn what lessons we may from their failings, because we do not wish to repeat them. You may notice this very text is written in a Human language they called 'English'; we Aven refuse to develop writing systems for our own languages, instead choosing to write only in Human languages, which we do to ensure that there will always be Aven who can understand and learn from the things the Humans wrote.
Aven Tribes
There are as many tribes of Aven as there were kind of 'bird' around in the last days of the Humans, because each tribe is descended from one of those kinds. Each tribe is named after the kind of 'bird' it descended from, and largely lives in the same way as those ancestors. The most numerous Aven tribes are the Penguin tribe, a flightless tribe found mostly in what the Humans called Antarctica; the Sparrow tribe, a tribe of small fliers found everywhere the Penguin tribe aren't; and the Quelea tribe, whose large flocks cover most of what the Humans knew as Africa. Each Aven tribe has its own language, and common languages may be developed where tribes frequently encounter one another. As mentioned before, no Aven language has a writing system; instead everything that needs to be written down is translated into the Human language that was most popular where the writing is to occur, and written in that language. Conflict between different tribes of Aven is rare, because we have learned about the causes of conflict between different tribes of Human and chose to avoid giving rise to those causes as much as we could.
Aven Technology
Most tribes of Aven forbid the use of any technology that involves burning, as a way of ensuring we do not repeat the tragedy of the Humans. Although some few tribes disagree, even those tribes have no intention of industrializing as the Humans did. Indeed, Aven society as a whole is purposefully kept in what the Humans would think of as a 'hunter-gatherer' state, as we have no need for agriculture and no want for industry. Human construction technology has been of immeasurable assistance in building stronger and more secure nests for our eggs, however.
Aven Religion
Religion is very rare among Aven. While no tribe outlaws religion, instead universally leaving it to the individual's choice, every Aven who chooses to study Human history is taught how religious division led to several of the Humans' most devastating conflicts, and almost all choose to not participate in religion as a means of avoiding those conflicts.
Conclusion
Although there are no Humans left to read this text, we Aven have written it as though it were for Humans to read, in the hope that doing so will help any beings who live in this world after us to understand how we Aven lived.