Birds of War?

I had thought of the Rinliddi as vaguely comical. Lost in their obsessions with birds, maybe functioning as reasonably useful economic and magical cogs within the empire, but really more a source of odd NPC rather than heroes or armies.

Reading the write up in ILH1 made me revise my opinions somewhat, making them seem a little less silly, a little less inward looking. Still, I confess to thinking of them as somewhat effete, the sort who would be doomed to conquest by their more martial neighbors.

Then I read their homeland spread more carefully, and was surprised to see that they "all" know spear combat and either archery or javelin combat. They are close to unique in this, almost no other homeland gives close and ranged combat skills. And this applies to men and women alike.

So much for my view of the peaceful and affected Rinliddians!

Now my question is: Is this martial focus a long standing cultural thing, or is part of their resurgent "nationalism" (for lack of a better word)?

On a mostly unrelated note, any thoughts on what the Rinliddians think of the Durulz? I can imagine things ranging from "They are birds, so should be respected," to "They are not part of our mythology, so who cares that they are birds," to "They are birds who have lost their flight, clearly they commited some great crime and were deprived of their place near Yelm, and are now a cursed and evil race that should be extinguished."

--Bryan