Medes are Half human/half eagle. They live to around 1,000 years old. Medes are the most peaceful species in Zalonia and try to avoid war if at all possible. They like to gain knowledge and are highly sophisticated. Sometimes they view themselves as better than other races due to their intelligence. While they may be prideful, they will help others when needed.
Medes tend to be the most civilized due to their antiwar stance. They do their best to avoid war, but under certain circumstances they may agree to go to war. They get along with each other more than any of the other races do. Medes are generally allowed to go anywhere they want to do research. They have no enemies to be afraid of among the Seven Species of Spoken Language. There of course, sometimes be a tyrant or evil leader that will try to involve the medes in their wars.
They don’t marry or have romantic relationships, but only reproduce when it is decided on by the voters. When they come together to have a child, they live in a larger house that is made for three of them. When the child is eight years old, he or she can go live in one of the individual houses, and the parent medes move out of the large house and into individual ones.
The medes invented a form of paper that can be easily made and used, similar to the paper we use. The medes like to write a lot because they want to keep a record of the knowledge they obtain and to show other medes and species their books. Also note that these societies have been around longer than the writing system of our world. Most books are written by the medes, but there are humans, frolm, quintum, and elves that also write.
For most of the first four ages, they lived in the far eastern land in the north. When they divided during the Great Battle of the Fourth Age, some of them moved to the Southern land. The Elements Pentalogy focuses on the Southern land known for its volcanoes constantly erupting.
The Mede government setup is similar to Communism. All the medes have what is needed, and no one is considered a leader (besides the First Age), even though there are organizers who try to keep the flow of things going. There is very little law enforcement because medes don’t generally break their own laws. They don’t own private property individually, but rather collectively.
The medes do have soldiers in case of an invasion. They often hold spears and are very accurate with them. They also use shields and medium-sized swords. They would be accurate with arrows, but their feathers get in the way when they pull back the bowstring.
Their eyesight is the best out of the Seven Species of Spoken Language and is generally about seven times more powerful than humans.
There are no specific grudges between the medes and other races besides the medes’ territories that hold grudges against each other, but the medes typically keep to themselves and are very untrusting. The grudge of the medes began when they were divided on fighting in the Great Battle of the Fourth Age, when the Southern medes left the Northeastern territories because they didn’t want to fight. They are now known as cowards.
Instead of hands, medes have eagle-like talons which give them a strong advantage in hand-to-hand combat. They know how to be vicious when battling close up. Their strength is similar to that of the average man, but none of them are weak, and none of them have the strength of a warrior.
Medes don’t mate for pleasure, but only for reproduction purposes. This helps keep the mede population around the same so they don’t struggle with overpopulation. Since they live around 1,000 years, there isn’t a significant need to rapidly reproduce.
Jobs are often handed out by talents such as doctors, hunters, gatherers, warriors, scholars, entertainers, magic users, builders, plumbers, etc.
The medes religious beliefs vary from atheism to pantheism. They know magic exists, as they have magic users among them. Some think that magic is only part of nature and has no basis in supernatural forces. Others disagree and believe there is some kind of divine power being called upon in order to do a spell.
Some of them have a different theory of creation from most of the rest of the world. Their theory is more similar to evolution, and they believe the planet is much older than what other races believe. It is true that no race truly knows the origin of the world. History has only been recorded since the First Age. Some believe there was a period of great destruction before the first age, but no one knows what came before that.
There are a few medes who believe in the possibility of pantheism, where they believe everything is endued with the divine power, but it is still considered impersonal.
All medes are considered as equals by law.
If a couple of medes want to reproduce, they need to present their case before the village and there is a vote cast, depending upon what the population is at the time. This and many of the laws are put forth in a democratic vote. There are various ways in which a law is decided upon. Sometimes in heavy matters 65% of the medes have to agree to a new law. They rarely change laws and stick with the basics like no murdering, stealing, or harming others.”
The Southern mede land gains its water from the ocean which is pumped to the highest point in the territory and ran down to all the buildings through pipes. They are known for their extravagant water systems. Sometimes they have to use the water to put out fires caused by volcanoes. They have a system that filters the ocean water to make it drinkable by using a system of boiling and condensing the water.
They also breed their own fish for food in mede-made waterholes. They also eat mammals and reptiles.
Instead of beds, they sleep in nests.
The medes celebrate very little holidays. If a child has a birthday, they give gifts and celebrate for the mother rather than the child. Mothers are greatly respected due to their ability of bearing the pain of childbearing. They also celebrate the final harvest, which would be near the beginning of the eight month (There are 9 months in Zalonia.
Th Southern mede territory is generally hot and they never have any snow besides ash which sometimes appears like it is snow. The north eastern territory is much cooler and has snow in the winter.
Medes are meat eaters and find dead carcasses for food. They set out traps to hunt with. They also raise their own livestock, mainly birds such as chicken and turkey. They also capture fish down by the ocean along with shrimp and crab. They also eat rabbits, mice (for snacks), crickets. They sometimes eat grains and bread because of their human side.
Some people are put off by what the medes eat, but they have a digestive system that protects them from getting sick by eating raw meat. They still like their food clean and prefer it cooked.
Both mede territories contain a center where most of the people live and shop and all that. The Northern Eastern territory has one large city which includes the world’s largest library by size.
The volcanic medes know of themophiles which are microscopic organisms that can thrive in relatively high temperatures such as volcanoes. Medes know about these because not only is their eye-sight seven times as strong as a human, but they have devices that are similar to microscopes that allow them to see things up close.
Bears and bobcats roam the area which can be used for food. However, there are laws regulating this because if too many of these animals are killed, then they will go existence and the medes will lose this food source.
Before the Great Battle of the Fourth Age, most of the mede population was in the Northeastern Territory, However, some migrated to the Southern territory during the war. During the Great Battle of the Fourth Age, a majority of the medes wanted to participate in the battle against the forces of evil. They did a draft and tried to force every mede to join.
However, a mede who was anti-war started up a rebellion and many medes joined along with him. There was a lot of strife among the medes and eventually a council voted that the rebel medes be exiled. They migrated to the south which had not been affected by the war yet. They figured hiding up among the volcanoes would prevent the war from reaching them. History shows that they are the only territory with a significant population that the war didn’t affect.
Medes often travel to Sashtan to gain knowledge since the Book of Knowledge has legendarily has all the information of the world, even more information than the Great Mede Library of the Northeastern territories. There have been medes who have been trained to cast spells of protection in order to enter Ruinoneo to try to gain knowledge of the city and its writings. Some medes use magic where they can create portals allowing them to travel the world.