Keap
Native to the floating islands of Kel’di, the keaps are a friendly race of mountain-dwellers that spend much of their lives in the upper cave systems of the floating islands alongside the skibbits and the cinguls in a joint culture referred to as the Skystepper people, or the Skystep Trinity.
They are a small, quadrupedal people, only standing on average 30cm measured at the shoulder. Their bodies are limber and their paws are dexterous and clawed, with their natural mobility comparable to a rat or raccoon.
The majority of a keap’s face is made up of a large, keratinous beak; of which their nostrils sit at the very end. Though their tongues are rather small they have an extra layer of skin underneath them that can be used as an inflatable air sac. This air sac can expand and contract at will, and is used to quickly fill the space within their beaks, both acting as a resonator to amplify sound and as a way to force air out of their beaks through their nostrils to create a sharp whistle. These whistles have various meanings, and carry a great distance across mountains and through underground tunnels.
Their eyes are placed rather far back in their heads, near the base of their conical ears, and often become hidden by their fluffy manes that grow from their heads and down their backs to or over their short tails.
A keap’s skin and mane can come in any colour, adorned with any kind of markings. These markings are often compared to those of the dassen people.
They are known as proficient tunnel-diggers, able to dig up to a meter per minute, and often brag to travelling Sentients about taking on jobs as manual labourers within their culture.
Even with their labouring jobs, keaps like to adorn themselves with jewellery of all different sorts. Bangles, rings, and piercings are popular. Despite the popularity of jewellery, most keap do not seem interested in other kinds of clothing unless it has some sort of practical use to it, such as bags or protective aprons.
Though the keaps, skibbits, and cinguls all share a religion and culture with one-another, they are considered Mystics due to Skystepper beliefs being a closed practice that they do not allow others to participate in. They mostly avoid travelling to other parts of Demrefor, keeping as much to the floating islands as possible, and by their own preference do not integrate into Sentient society. Despite this, they are friendly people who often welcome travellers to rest the night within their homes.
The best-known keap in Sentient history was Pigsnort, formally known as Oink, who moved to the Kuturian library for several years and spent her time feverishly researching portal jumping magic. She was convinced that there were alternative universes that paralleled Demrefor’s own and wanted to explore them. She eventually disappeared, the majority of her research vanishing with her.