Hunters' Era

The current period is known to nightlings as the Hunters' Era. It began shortly after the catalysm, and continues to the present, though it has changed in shape over that time. It is characterized by the existence of a certain kind of hunter. The name for this type of person in Shotali is vakoth, sometimes translated to Solan as The Vakoth. In Solan, they are called simply Hunters, given a distinct weight to distance them from everyday hunters of a less drastic style. Their existence altered nightlings' place on the surface permanently.

Before

In the years preceeding the cataclysm, the area around the mountains and the northern span of the rift experienced a steady stream of earthquakes as the magma chamber shifted and upset before finally bursting. A few of these quakes created cracks in the rift walls that connected the caverns to the surface for the first time in thousands of years. Curious eyes looked from below and above, and nightlings met tellurans for the first time.

First contact was shaky but welcome- both sides were eager to meet their newly discovered neighbors that seemed so different from what they'd come to expect. Nightlings had never met another humanoid- tellurans had never met a new one. There was a language barrier- nightlings could not speak Solan, something foreign to tellurans by this point in history. But diplomacy was friendly and moved quickly. Over years, some nightlings began to learn Solan and fewer still stepped out of the caverns to live amongst the surface- tellurans did not follow them into the caverns, as they found them hostile and near-inhospitable to those accustomed to wide spaces, sensitive to cold, reliant on eyesight. Their Solan name, nightling, was coined due to their nocturnal habits, stemming not from true nocturnalism but from aversion to the harsh light and heat of the sun. This was different than other tellurans but not terribly so, after all, satyrs were naturally crepescular.

Relations proceeded smoothly for years. And then the cataclysm struck.

Telluran cities fell. Nightlings living amongst them tried to flee to their home caverns, only to be unable to find them, the entrances buried thick in ashfall. That was if they even made it that far, as traversing the open spaces of the surface was still unfamiliar to many, and they found themselves lost easily- not helped by the chaos of the cataclysm. And among sunlings, distrust seeded.

Nightlings suffered through the cataclsym, the same as everyone else, but the vocal minority didn't see this. They instead saw this: nightlings met the surface just a few short years before the world ended, whether by cause or by omen mattered only as much as you wanted to blame them. They instead saw this: nightlings did not suffer sickness in the same numbers as sunlings, immune to the poison of the volcanic gasses for reasons nobody really knew. They instead saw this: people were dying and something was different, and those stuck in anger wanted to quell their grief however they could.

Thus, the Hunters' Era began.

After

It began with the justification of protection. Defense.

If they were omens, better yet, if they caused this, then we don't want them anywhere near us. It didn't start with death. It started with exile. They were chased out, at a time when being alone, being without a home, meant almost certain death, in a world that seemed as if it was dying itself. Knowing this, some refused to go. Eventually, they were not allowed this choice. Exaggerated paranoia and grieving violence began the killing that didn't stop once it started. Once it's begun, it's so much easier to keep on as you are. The threshold has been met, now you just maintain.

The beginning was messy. Very few tellurans were at ease with the idea of killing nightlings, but they allowed it nonetheless. Maybe the vakoth were right, and they're safer without omens of death- schemes of ill will- or maybe it was just too much work to stop them. Vakoth sometimes took trophies- they fancied themselves mercenaries, dragon slayers. Doctors and scientists began paying them for nightling blood- it was visibly, drastically different than sunlings', and they posited that it was the secret to their immunity to the volcano's sickness¹. This began a different justification- a reason. An end goal. Greater good, necessary evil.

And so it continued.

Generation 1

The first generation to live in the Hunters' Era were those who'd built their lives in the caverns before they opened. They experienced first contact, transitioned to the surface for a variety of personal or professional reasons, and lived through the cataclysm. They saw the gradual decline from curiosity to apathy to distrust to blame. To violence. The vakoth of this time justified their acts through paranoia, false goals, and dehumanization². Nightlings were hexapodal, nocturnal, avian, and spoke imperfect Solan or none at all. All of these things were used against them. These nightlings watched even those who were not outright hostile enable the violence against them by way of silence.

Generation 2

The second generation were young or not born at all during the cataclysm. If they lived it, they remember it only in a haze of early memory. If they ever lived in their home caverns, they, too, are unfocused and shadowed in recollection. These were the first to live on the run, and the first to raise fledgelings in a world where they are hunted. They are adapting to a world that is unfamiliar to them, all while more and more eyes turn to them for answers that require their deaths.

In the caves, deep beneath the surface, life returns to normalcy. They know, from scattered survivors and fleeting connections, what happened above, but it doesn't touch them. They are aware of something terrible, but not specifics, and only mourn those they lost sight of through the mouth of the caverns.

Generation 3

The third generation had no memory of where they came from. It's been 70-80 years since the cataclysm. They lost much of their culture, what was passed to them done so hurriedly, insistently, for they knew it would die with them if they didn't. The most danger followed this generation- as the rest of the world stabilized, vakoth doubled down, unable to even pretend to have a viable reason anymore. Nightling hunting occupied the same niche as dragon hunting, griffon hunting- it was sport- for novelty and courage. Nightling feathers are an expensive commodity, fashioned into clothing to signify wealth, renown, or both. Some went further, either passing the gruesome work to another or doing it themselves- those specializing in shadowling trade emerged, operating on the fringes for the violence of their work, but remaining easily in the communities they set themselves in. Experienced hunters formed blade hilts of black bone, fledged arrows with deep feathers.

There are others. The third generation saw the worst of it.

Generation 4

The fourth generation doesn't even have first-hand stories of what was. Hunting plateaus, losing some of its novelty, but mostly its practicality. A shadowling is no longer a fearsome enemy, but a quietly dangerous upset. They are still unwelcome, but this is gradually shifted from violence to mere apathy. It is an improvement.

Generation 5

The fifth generation are isolated and cautious. It's been 140-150 years since the cataclysm. They are scattered. Some form communities far away from other humanoids, many are travelers because while hunting is a dying practice, there is still enough to prevent them from really settling. Sunling ideas of nightlings can range from clever, skulking predators creeping in the dark to feral, skittering creatures that flee at a sound. Despite this, they are granted their solanity³. They are no longer chased away by the average person. They are not welcomed, either, but most sunlings will leave them be. But only most, so they still must watch their backs.