Avian Alert System

About

PLEASE NOTE: Aeron, Panda and Charm are the only ones who have advanced knowledge as to how crows are trained and how they work. Even though this information is available to players here, please keep realism in mind! Your character is not allowed to know how the Avian System and its training works unless they speak with Kentaro about training or become an Anzu to work directly with the birds.

After acquiring an albino crow in April 2011, Alaki became fascinated with crows, their intelligence and their potential ability to aid the pack. Working with various ideas in mind, he began to work with his crow, Beyaz, starting with the basic commands of ‘return’ and ‘fly ahead’. The training gradually grew more complex as the pair acquired greater understanding of both High and Low speech. As Beyaz began to show results with the training he was receiving, Alaki then mentioned his ideas to the former Angela, Naniko. She also saw the potential benefit of training crows, and with luck, Beyaz soon became attached to a hooded crow, called Chiya, resulting in chicks. Beyaz and Chiya’s chicks were also trained to form an alert system, which was put into place October 2011.

After almost a year of the Alert System being in place, Alaki left Anathema and took most of the crows with him. This left Aeron with the issue of a very broken alert system, but from the combined efforts of Lillith and Charm, they were able to fix the system and train new crows. Slowly the system began to sort itself out, with Aeron and Panda's crows and Lillith's raven dominating the others. Aeron decided that a select few members would have access to the internal workings of the system.

Each bird is taught to raise the alarm if it sees an unknown canine or potentially large predator too close to the borders or within pack lands. Because of this, the crows and ravens are known to cause a small racket when they see new members because it takes a while for them to get used to a new member being part of the pack and not a threat. The birds that are stationed at the borders are also trained to locate a leader if an unknown individual is seen waiting outside the borders, but doesn't appear to pose a threat. However, sometimes the birds' judgments aren't always correct and they can occasionally sound the alarm when there is another waiting, and is not posing a threat.

For the most part, the birds remain high up within the branches of the trees or airborne to avoid the reach of others beneath them; the majority of the crows are either carrion, hooded or black, with the rare occasion of an albino. These birds are not pets or slaves; they work for Anathema’s safety and the free food given to them by their owners or any members who wish to feed them.

Some of the birds share close relationships with canines, and when not patrolling the borders, spend their time with them. While this is not uncommon, it is realistic for members to socialize and spoil particular birds. Recently, the Avian Alert System has taken on more ravens and even some owls. Aeron, Charm, Panda, and Kentaro have been putting in their efforts to train the owls kept in the barn for the alert system as well.

Patrol Areas

Area 1

Area 2

Area 3

Area 4

Area 5

Due to there not being enough crows to patrol the complete border, there are gaps in the areas where they patrol. This is simply because no matter how well-trained the crows are, there aren't enough to patrol the entire borders as well as the Howling Caverns, and so crows are assigned to an area and work only within that area.

Interacting with the Crows, Ravens, and Owls

Any member of Anathema is welcome to interact with the birds of the Avian System, and a few ideas as well as the rules are listed on Anathema's Bird page. If you have any questions pertaining to interacting with the birds, please ask one of us!