Aves (Civilized Birdfolk)

Civilized birdfolk to inhabit the jungles of your world. Brightly colored and impatient, they prize the shiny. Playable in fort-mode! Make sure you are playing as the civ you want when you start, as the Aves tend to be the default pick, possibly because they start with "A"

Sadly, they currently cannot fly. This is due to this bug[dwarffortress.mantishub.io], this bug[dwarffortress.mantishub.io], and this bug[dwarffortress.mantishub.io]. These may be caused by the same underlying issue, but either way, please help get these issued fixed by spreading the word and contributing to the bug tracker!

• Adds the Aves, a race of small, winged, parrot-like humanoids of little patience.
• Adds the Aven civilization, with a structure somewhere between the Dwarves and the Elves, and with a tiny bit of inspiration from the Ancient Roman Republic.
• Adds cuffs, a glove-like item that Aves prefer to wear instead of gloves.
• Adds a complete sprite set for the Aves, including all weapons, armor, and clothes. The Aves can have feathers in 46 of all 122 vanilla colors!

• They tame nearly every animal they can get their hands on. Embark with giant peach-faced lovebirds!
• Greatly value their free time, and party, sing, and dance, all day and night.
• They fall in love, a lot. I mean a lot. And then break up. A lot.
• They grow up fast, and treasure their gigantic families of half-brothers half-sisters, and two-time removed cousins.
• They dig for gems and metals, and prize them greatly. But they tend to not dig deep or greedily.
• They make currency out of gems! This behaviour is only seen in adventure mode though.
• They have a silly bird language full of K’s, E’s, A’s, and comically long words.
• They love music and have a natural talent for it.
• They tend to have little focus or patience.
• Active in the Spring.

• Aves have 6 limbs, two arms, two legs, and two wings. They also have scales on their feet and hands, unlike vanilla birds, which don’t have any scales for some reason.
• Aves lay eggs, which creates a new challenge when increasing your population without migrants. The weirdness of egg layers, and how to use them, is explained below.
• They prefer to use their talons to scratch in unarmed combat, which can be fun when their target is unarmored.
• They are too small to wear dwarven clothing, and sometimes have to hold weapons using both hands.
• They have not discovered the secrets of steel or adamantine, but will happily buy such treasures from the dwarves.
• They cannot make wind instruments, because they haven’t figured out how to play them with a beak.
• They have quite a different selection of weapons they know how to make. They use bows and arrows, scimitars, scourges, morningstars, spears, axes, and picks if they have no other option. They cannot make crossbows or the other regular dwarven weapons.
• They tend to wear tunics, trousers, cuffs, sandals, and headscarves.
• They tend to get along with other civs, but I have seen them at war with each civ at least once, due to their differences in ethics.
• They have a representational "democracy". There are three "highests", which are similar to the consuls of Ancient Rome, elected from a group of representatives, called "cresteds". The cresteds are suceeded by their site’s elected mayor, called "skylies". If I could I would give them all terms and term limits, but this is not possible yet.

How it Works

• Ave females will seek out nestboxes if they can lay.
• If they have a spouse, and have spent time near them recently the eggs they lay will be fertilized, and can hatch.
• They will sit on their eggs during their free time, whether fertilized or not, and will get up to eat, drink, and work.
• After 3 months exactly, fertilized eggs will hatch, unrelated to whether the mother was there the entire time or not.

What to Do

• Disable Ave Eggs from all your food stockpiles and in the Kitchen Menu!
• Build a hatchery room with enough nestboxes for all your females, preferably not too far away from general traffic.
• The hatchery does not need to be a meeting area or any type of zone, but it is likely a good idea to do so for social interaction.
• Ave females will seek out those nestboxes if they can lay. And believe me, when you first create them, they will all lay.
• If you feel up to micromanaging, you can dump eggs from unwed females as soon as they lay them.
• Or if not, bulk dump all the eggs (or enable them in a stockpile) 3-4 months after they lay them, and immediately again after they lay more. This will let them have a break from sitting on eggs to go party in the tavern, and more crucially, ensure wed aves will have seen their husbands by the time they lay again.
• Enjoy the tiny bouncing baby chicks who will be carried around by their mothers!

This mod does not alter vanilla files, and therefore should be compatible with all other mods.