Royal Son was a sentient Kea on the planet Nest.[1] He was first introduced in The Last Shadow.
History[]
The Last Shadow[]
When Peter Wiggin II and Si Wang-mu arrived on the surface of Nest for the second time, they were swarmed by Keas who took their belongings. Royal Son, nameless at the time, spoke into Wang-mu's ear as he was the one with the best human speech among the group. When Dog appeared they scattered. After some time had passed, Wang-mu stressed to Dog that they needed their belongings back or else they would leave. Within moments, the Keas had swarmed all over them, returning everything. Wang-mu asked for the Kea that had origininally spoke in her ear, and she named him Royal Son after explaining her own name. However, Royal Son was offended that she did not know his gender by the color of his feathers. Royal Son asked to return to their planet with Peter and Wang-mu, to which Wang-mu deferred to the Council. Dog said that Royal Son was of little impotance so they agreed. The three teleported to the Q-Bay on Lusitania, where the workers immediately began inspecting them. Wang-mu explained the quarantine proceudre to Royal Son, who asked what he could play with in the room.[1]
The next morning, Royal Son asked to go back to his planet, and so he, Peter, and Wang-mu teleported back to the forest where the Council was at. When they arrived, the Raven Phoenix flew over and spoke with Royal Son for a short period, and then Royal Son flew abruptly back to the trees. Royal Son then told the birds there the story of the past day, and that he had seen two other kinds of creatures in the Q-Bay, which were the Formics and Pequeninos.[1]
Later that day, Thulium Delphiki and Brussels Delphiki teleported to the planet without warning. The Keas stole their possessions, and Royal Son spoke in Sprout's ear asking why they had come. Thulium insisted they could come as they pleased but Royal Son stressed that when one sends emissaries to a strange land, either the emissaries speak for the whole or they do not. Realizing her mistake, Thulium teleported herself back to the Q-Bay. However, in her rush to escape she left behind Sprout. Then the Keas just started shitting on the poor guy. When the Keas had stopped, Royal Son told him it would dry like concrete. After some back and forth he agreed to lead Sprout to the river so he could wash off. The water did nothing, and Royal Son said the only solution would be for the birds to piss on him (please kill me). After the downpour he washed off again and it came off. He looked at the bank and the fucking kleptomaniac birds stole his clothes for whatever reason. Sprout decided to just float in the lake until Royal Son said fine we'll give your clothes back. He dressed and Royal son told him that the planet was called Nest by the humans who lived there. Sprout explained that they had been calling the planet Descoladora after the humans of the planet had sent them a transmission of a digital representation of the complete genome of the Descolada. Royal Son found this interesting and decided to report the info to the others. Sprout asked to know how the planet came to be inhabited with humans and Royal Son said he would try and find someone who wanted to answer the questions.[1]
Following Royal Son for a great distance, he and Sprout eventually stopped in a clearing. Soon after, a human walked over, but he did not look like a normal person. He wore no clothes and swung from the branches with arms at least twice as long as his legs, and large grasping hands where feet should have been. Despite these ape-like features, he walked upright. Royal Son enticed him to introduce himself to Sprout, but he said he was not deserving of a name, but said that he noticed Sprout observing his unusual features. Sprout asked if he was unique or did everybody from Earth on the planet look like him, to which he expressed surprise that Sprout believed in Earth. Sprout explained that his parents were born on Earth, which he explained by mentioning the centuries of relatavistic travel. When Royal Son spoke, the man told him to shut up and not to try his patience. The man told Sprout that the Keas are usually much more rude to his people than Royal Son was being at the time. The man explained that he was sent because he speaks unusually clearly, so Sprout asked if he should call him Clear Storyteller, but the man said to call him Ruqyaq, a powerful name in Quechua. Beginning his questions, Sprout asked when Ruqyaq's people changed from being normal humans. Sprout explained the story behind the Leguminids which surprised Royal Son and Ruqyaq, hoping that his story would encourage him to open up. Ruqyaq explained the orgins of his people, who were called the Yachachiyruna, as well as the normal humans who lived underground on Nest (known as the Runa) as well as the Keas and Ravens, and how they came to be sentient. Ruqyaq explained that they had sent the Box a transmission of a virus as they assumed that the people in the Box were the ones who had sent it to them, to ask them if it was them. Ruqyaq explained that they encountered the virus but it caused no destruction, and called it the Recorder because it records genomes. Sprout then returned to Lusitania.[1]
When the rest of the Descolada team arrived to visit the Folk, Royal Son greeted them and asked for Wang-mu, but she had stayed behind. Royal Son explained that he and other Keas would guide them to the Folk. The group came to a doorway built into a recessed place in a rocky cliff, and the door opened automatically, but Royal Son and the other Keas did not follow them down. However, when they arrived, the Folk used a biological weapon and attempted to kill the Lusitanians. When they escaped, they turned against the other species of Nest with an ultrasound and infrasound riot control weapon that the Yachachi Ruqyaq had created 20 years ago, killing hundreds of Ravens and Keas. The Lusitanians returned with a Box that could take the Ravens, Keas, and Yachachiyruna to Lusitania and they swarmed in. Jane sent the Box full with birds back and forth dozens of times, including Royal Son.[1]
The humans then went to the meadow to sort the birds. Jane told them to divide themselves into their breeding populations, then instructed the Keas to form a group who wanted to be alone and a group that wished to be with the Ravens, as they could not be trusted with humans. One by one the patches of birds disappeared as Jane sent them to the colonies.[1]
A few months later, Thulium, Wang-mu, Peter, and their newborn son Fei-Tzu Wiggin came to visit Royal Son on one of the colony worlds. Wang-mu and Peter introduced their son, and Royal Son joked that he must then change his name, but Wang-mu told him to treat him as his brother. Royal Son thanked them for freeing the Keas from the dominion of the Folk, as well as the Raven Council. Over the next week, Wang-mu, Peter and Thulium visited the keas every day. Eventually they said their goodbyes, with Royal Son giving his respect to Thulium.[1]
Personality[]
Trivia[]
"Royal Son was offended that she did not know his gender by the color of his feathers." Unlike on Nest, apparently, the plumage of Earth's male and female keas is identical. What sexual dimorphism there is relates to body size and the shape of the upper bill, with the male being five to seven percent larger and having a slightly more curved upper bill.