Rathari

The Rathari are a short humanoid race

Most rathari stand around two and a half to three (2 1/ - 3) feet tall with humanoid builds. On average females are three to five (3-5) inches taller than men. Their upper body resembles young (8-10) human child with the exception of extra lat muscles used to power their wings. Their lower body has a fine layer of fur with more cat-like feet capable of extending semi-articulate talons from them. They are not able to stand fully upright, always maintaining a slightly hunched over look.

The wings of the rathari are narrow, pointed, and strongly taper away from their body. The feathers on the trailing edge of the wing are sharp and distinctive. In addition at the base of their spine rathari have a small feathered tail. A second furry tail extends out from the muscles of the lower back and reaches to the back of their knees. Using both tails a rathari is capable of great acrobatic feats even when flying at their top speed. There is no more fast and accurate flier in the sky. The downside is that a rathari cannot fly for great distances as their wings are poorly suited to ride the thermal drafts.

The eyesight of the rathari are second only to the jundari among mortals. While flying a rathari can spot a backpack on the ground over 2 kilometers away. In addition to such accurate sight the range of colors they see is far wider than humans. Like the elves they can see into the ultraviolet. They can swivel their heads nearly one-hundred and eighty degrees (180^o) and arch it up enough to see over their wings when folded.

While the rathari can walk slowly fairly well they have difficulty running. Their paw-feet and their high-waisted body make even loping ungainly. Instead when in the open a rathari will step-flap-hop, step-flap-hop along the ground. This still cannot match the speed of a running human, but at least they can reach a jogging speed. This motion is impossible if the rathari cannot spread their wings.

In technical terms the Rathari share a distant but common ancestor with the Jundari. Scholarly works often point to the Age of Legends where the two paths diverged, but most would consider those work heretical. No jundari scholar has accepted this theory. In either case the two species have long evolved along a divergent path.