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--- agavod [2025/12/15 20:17] – Ricolensko Bowenzori
+++ agavod [2025/12/15 20:36] (current) – Ricolensko Bowenzori
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-**I misread something that another scholar had written, which has led to a signifiant rewrite. Thank you for your patience.**
+The **Agavod** (//Aves Passeriformes Agavodidae//) was the common name for the large bird of prey which is the symbol of Hoontz. Agavod's historic range was all of Edevane. In the years leading up to the Great War, the agavod had become rare due to widespread hunting. And of course, after the Reaping, they were rendered completely extinct.
+Agavod are typically a dark brown, and occasionally black. Their beak, talons and eyes are a striking golden color. Or so we are led to believe, although no specimens survive from that time, and we have only drawings in children's books to go on.
+Agavod feed primarily on small rodents. While, presumably, in ancient times, they forraged everywhere, since the rise of more modern civilization, Agavod have increasingly gravitated to towns and cities, where they keep the rat and mouse population in check.
+==== Agavodian Plague ====
+During the brief period in the 2040s (CR) when hunting Agavod became popular in the city of [[Kopel]] and surrounding countryside, the rise of the rat population was immediate and meteoric. As the fad reached its height among the wealthiest Kopelites, the poorer class, and especially rural farmers, were subjected to a flood of rats which destroyed large portions of the nation's crops and livestock. So many farmers died of rodent-borne illnesses - later termed the Agavodian Plague - that it was another decade before the famine was brought under control.
+==== Political Significance ====
+The political symbolism of the agavod is complicated.
+The agavod has been part of the coat of arms and other symbols of the City-State of Hoontz since ancient times. Legends tell of how the then-village of Hoontz was overrun by rats, forcing all of the villagers out of their homes. Suddenly, a flock of agavod swooped in from the sea, destroyed all of the rats, and then promptly disappeared. Naturally, the village elders claimed credit for this miracle. The bird is thus a powerful symbol of safety, and the protection of the Spirits, but also the protection of the government. It appears on banners of Hoontz dated as early as 1650 CR, but was likely used even earlier, as the historic origins of the legend are murky. It became the central symbol on the official flag of Hoontz by law in 1908 CR.
+{{:hoontzflagsketch.jpg?400 |}} The flag of Hoontz features a black agavod soaring over a snowy mountain range. The sky is golden and the mountains are red. (The image included in this article is an initial sketch, presented to the Council of Hoontz as part of the design process, and is on display to this day in the Council Chambers.)
+During the Great War between Hoontz and Kopel (2108 - 2117), the battle flag of Hoontz featured the Agavod clutching a rat in its talons, a reference to the Agavodian Plague of the 2040s, and a very uncharitable reference to the Kopelite people themselves. This flag has since been designated as a hate symbol, and displaying it in either country (except in certain academic works) can result in severe legal penalties.
+As a result it was many years before the Agavod regained its modern popularity as a symbol of peace, health, and protection. Now that the Kopelites and Hoon are close allies, these past unpleasantnesses are mostly forgotten.
+==== Extinction and Rebirth ====
+During the Reaping, the agavod, like so many other species, was completely exterminated. This posed a dilemma for the leaders of Hoontz, for whom the agavod was such a symbol of hope, not to mention their official flag. While there was no risk of another Agavodian Plague, since rats, too, were extinct, there was a strong superstition that other terrors would befall in the absence of the agavod.
+During this time the [[Bosecutian Foundation]], which had already started doing their great work, released a small flock of automaton agavod as a demonstration of some of the same technology that some suggest led to the Unplugged Hive arriving in the first place. (Although that is, of course, still widely debated.) According to contemporaneous accounts, these "birds" looked little like the originals that inspired them, but they so delighted the population that they became much beloved.
+While the original machines have not survived, they were replaced, over time, by a successive series of improved models as the Foundation continued their generational labor, right up to the modern versions which can in fact be seen flying around in the very footage of the arrival of the Unplugged Hive. The mechanical agavod were increasingly used to test new innovations that the Foundation was coming up with. It is said that towards the end, people were coming to mistrust them, since, by that time, even the Foundation didn't fully understand how they worked.