Vanthropoid (Species)

     This is an open species! 

     It’s somewhat basic, though.

     I’m not the first person ever to make up a humanoid-thing with bird wings replacing arms, and I don’t own that idea. However, since there’s a bit more detail to this species than that, I do own the specific idea of “Vanthropoids.“

     If you want to make a character who’s specifically in the vanthropoid species, and works the same way they work, feel free to! Just give proper credit for this specific species idea. If you have any questions about this species or are wondering if your Vanthropoid character would make sense or not, feel free to ask!

     Welp, here y’are. Have a species.

Humans v. Vanthropoids: The only physical difference between humans and vanthropoids is that vanthropoids have bird wings instead of arms. There. That’s it. That’s all.

Sexuality/Romantic Orientation/Reproduction: All of this works the same way that it works for people. Vanthropoids can have sexual/romantic feelings for, or reproduce with, other Vanthropoids as well as humans— humans are a close enough species that reproduction works with them, too, as well as with any other closely related humanoid. 

Not surprisingly, the offspring would have a mix of the Vanthropoid‘s physical features and the physical features from the other close-species parent. 

Vanthropoid Commonness: There are about half as many Vanthropoids as there are humans.

If you have an Earth-sized world for your characters where there are no humans or barely any, but you still want Vanthropoids there, then the Vanthropoid population would be about half of Earth’s actual human population OR about half of the population of whatever the dominant species/group of species is in in your characters’ world. 

If you have an Earth-sized world for your characters where humans are really rare, then you could also decide whether you‘d want a Vanthropoid population to be half the amount of humans there, or half the amount of Earth’s actual human population.

Bird Wing Basics: Vanthropoids can have bird wings from any bird species, scaled up to the size that would fit a human. For example, my character Sparrow has house sparrow wings enlarged to match her body. 

If the bird in question can fly, the Vanthropoid can, too. So, Sparrow can fly. However, if the bird in question can’t fly, the Vanthropoid can’t either. So, for example, Vanthropoids with ostrich wings, kiwi wings, or penguin wings can’t fly. Vanthropoids with penguin wings are good swimmers, though. 

Bird Wing Commonness: How common each kind of bird wing is depends on how common the bird in question is in real life.

For example, house sparrows are common, so lots of Vanthropoids have house sparrow wings, while kakapos are critically endangered, so not many Vanthropoids have kakapo wings.

Separate Species for Bird Wings: A Vanthropoid can have a bird wing from one kind of bird, and then a different bird for the other. These two kinds of birds must be closely related enough to mate. 

For example, a Vanthropoid could have one wing from a Eurasian tree sparrow and a second wing from a house sparrow. They’re very closely related to each other, enough to be able to mate.

However, a Vanthropoid could not have a wing from a hawk and a wing from a falcon— those birds are too different. 

About 4% of Vanthropoids have bird wings from separate species like this. 

Being Intersex: The percentage of intersex Vanthropoids is the same as intersex humans, which is debated, but around 2%. 

An intersex Vanthropoid will have the same human body as an intersex human, along with the bird wings replacing a couple human arms. The Vanthropoid will have one biological female bird wing and one biological male bird wing.

For a Vanthropoid with something like peacock wings, it’s pretty easy to tell that they’re intersex, while it might be more difficult with other bird wings. Not that there’d be a necessity for a random John Doe to know whether anyone is intersex or not.

Why are they called “Vanthropoids“?: The word “van” has a few definitions. One of its definitions is kind of archaic, but it’s still a correct definition. “Van” means “a bird’s wing.” And the rest of the species name is just “anthropoid”, meaning “resembling a human being in form.”

So, “van” + “anthropoid“ = “Vanthropoid”

Example of a Vanthropoid: Sparrow 

*Last Updated: Saturday, Feb. 26th, 2022