Culture of Third Earth
The Birds
All Birdmen
*The Birds of Third Earth live in electoral governments. Both the Bird Nation and Avista are part democracy, and part meritocracy.
*Birds have seen the good side of technology, and with the help of the Tech Stone, another Power Stone, they have achieved a lifestyle where tech provides for their every practical need, especially in Avista, where the technology is more advanced. This is in sharp contrast to the Lizard army, who use their technology as destructive weapons for Mumm-Ra's cause.
*The Birds are also the most culturally and artistically advanced race on Third Earth, more so than even the Cats. They wear refined and well-tailored clothing that almost always fits them like a glove, though some wear more of it than others (the Birds of Prey, who usually served as high-ranking politicians, usually wore less clothes, male and female alike, as did some other Birds). Vultaire only wore a purple kilt-like skirt, a medallion, and four gold bands on his arms. His aide, Horus, on the other hand, always dressed in a long, green robe.
*The Birds have a wide variety of sub-species, such as Birds of Prey, Crows, Ravens, Pigeons, Parrots, Geese, Magpies, Storks, Ducks, Pelicans, Macaws, Cockatoos, Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Doves, Cranes, Swans, Warblers, Sparrows, Woodpeckers, Swallows, and many more.
*The Birdmen have a tendency to be arrogant towards non-Birds from the ground, thinking that they are unsophisticated and primitive savages with no sense of style or manners. Nonetheless, they live by a set of principles, and one of those principles is to treat visitors with generous hospitality, no matter how little they may think of them.
*Bird cuisine is unique and elaborately prepared, and their chefs make fine and delicious (to Birdmen) dishes, such as millet seed casserole, larvae of bark crawler, beetles-on-the-half-shell, and crispy fried mealworms, as well as a variety of main courses, like carrion cordon bleu, antelope sliders, and grass pizza pie.
*Birdmen, like real birds, place high value on family, with their Birdwomen caring for the young passionately while the Birdmen defend their young from troublemakers. They believe in unconditional love between parent and child.
*All Birdmen, again like real birds, court their Birdwomen with their brightly colored feathers.
*Birds have technological entertainment, like digital books and television. They value reality TV very highly, not just as entertainment, but as a crucial part of their culture. Competitive reality TV judges who deserves the most merit to the vital ways of the lives of Birds, and who is destined to be greatest or least in every aspect of a Bird's life. Non-competitive reality TV is either interactively educational or show the Birds how to fulfill their destinies. A few examples of Bird reality TV are:
*Legacy
*The Winged Migration Race
*The Call
*Avista's Next Top Model
*Avistan Idol
*Avista's Got Talent
*Chick Nation
*The Hen
*The Cock
*Full Family
*Sky Chef
*Bird House Hunters
*Long story short, the Birds as a whole live a very western lifestyle, unlike most of the other races on Third Earth.
The Bird Nation
*The Birds of the Bird Nation, while wholly sapient, live and behave more like actual birds than humans. They have less (but not no) technology than Avista City, although they shared books and television with Avista.
*High-ranking Birds always wear a green vest or skirt that is refined and well tailored, just like the rest of a Bird's clothes.
*The Bird Nation has a well-established legal system, and when a criminal is judged to be too dangerous to be imprisoned or let go, they are dropped from a high altitude to the ground and executed. The Birds usually generously allow the criminal to have a last meal first, however, although there were exceptions when the criminal was a savage barbarian who ate sentient life, such as Addicus the Monkey.
*The Bird Nation is in the treetops high above the ground, and uses less technology than Avista, so its homes were simply-furnished "bird houses," nests, tree holes for Woodpeckers, and mass colonies for Birds like Swallows.
*There are a larger number of spiritual Birds than pragmatists in the Bird Nation.
*They value education, knowledge, and social status in the Bird Nation, just like in Avista, and different families and species of Birds usually have specialized jobs and careers, like Ravenmen as military, Kitemen as police, Raptors as rulers, Pigeons and Doves as advisors, and small Birds like Warblerfolk and Sparrowmen as laypeople.
*The Bird Nation values community and nature above all else, next to reality TV, and they love their chicks dearly.
*Bird songs and calls are used territorially and to warn and alert other Birds as well as for entertainment.
*They do everything, body care, sleep, eat, display feather patterns, and store food, like actual birds.
Avista
*Due to their greatly advanced culture, the Birds of Avista, while entirely bird-like in appearance, act more like humans than birds.
*The bulk of reality culture is practiced here in Avista, since they have more technology, more resources, and for the most part, more locations to film in.
*Avista is powered by the Tech Stone, which improves their technology and makes it perfect so that it cannot break down unless the Stone is removed from the power core. It also generates anti-gravity emissions, which keep the city afloat, which means it will drop to the ground very fast if the Stone is taken.
*One could say that the Avistan Birds don't just "use technology; they live technology." – (Godfrey Reggio)
*Avista is highly democratic, and believes in hearing the voice of all the city's inhabitants when it comes to social, religious, and political matters. But it's also meritocratic, meaning that the Birds believe that education, experience, sport, and reality competition determines which Birds are most fit for all kinds of roles in the city's everyday life.
*In addition to a prefect who runs the city as a whole, Avista City is governed by wealthy and intellectual elected aristocrats.
*Avista is also governed by COMPALOR, the Commission for the Perseverance of Avistan Law and Order, which promotes and supports the high status of the Birds as a species and seeks to uphold their values till the end of Avista. It was they who wrote the Avista's Creed, and chose the city's official mottos, "In Tech We Trust," and "Potens Volucres."
*The FLGroup is a youth organization dedicated to upholding and supporting the ideology of Avista and the Birdmen. It has divisions for a headquarters, education, recreation, motivation, and refinement.
*Avezone is the official sport of Avista, which involves two teams of Birds gliding in an invisibly fenced-off area in the air, trying to land goals in a deep basket while flying without flapping their wings. Some Birds are accepted into certain academies for their high Avezone scores.
*The Avistan seal consists of a Raven looking to its left, a banner with "potens volucres" written on it in its claws, and a scrap of bread in its beak.
*The Raven is the official Bird of Avista, due to its high intelligence and dangerous courage.
*The official dishes of Avista are rodentia tartare, carrion cordon bleu, and avesburgers. Fried mealworms and millet seed casserole are the official side dishes, and Avistan red wine and Koda-Cola are the official drinks.
*Though Avista has some spiritual citizens, the city is, by a rule, more pragmatic than the Bird Nation.
*Being more human-like than the Bird Nation Birds, the Avistans value art, literature, films, sports, and computers, including computer games. They also eat a little more human-like than bird-like, in spite of their beaks.
*Because of their affinity for technology, they also fly around in airships, SkyCutters (air force jets for the Kitemen and Ravenmen), and other flying machines, such as the prefect's personal flying machine. The Avistan Birds still do fly under their own wing power, too, when it suits them.
*Avista is probably the closest to a modern western society on the whole of Third Earth.