A Nesi male showing off his brightly dyed cloak and hood to a partnered pair of prospective suitors (a hen and a faeder, these are not constructed as wholly separate genders by the Nesi), in hopes that he will be chosen to sire and raise their offspring.
Ornamentation that so thoroughly conceals a cock’s breeding plumage is relatively rare among qilik peoples. The exception here is due to the extreme significance of trade and mercantilism in this culture, resulting in a heavy prioritization of the quality of the costuming over the quality of one's own plumage. Colorful, high quality decoration emphasizes that a suitor comes from a wealthy family with secure trade connections, an ideal situation for one’s offspring to be raised in.
There is no permanent association between parents, rather the goal of this union is to best provide for the resulting offspring and to receive a hefty child price from the male suitor’s family (children of all sexes remain with the father’s family, and are effectively ‘bought’ by them.) The mother's family benefits from the money and goods received in this exchange, the father's family benefits from having additional children who will eventually provide labor and care for other family members.
This particular individual is of upper-middle class means, an especially rich mercantile family can afford more ornately woven robes with a greater variety of colors. The parts of the body deemed most attractive (the tail fan, the brow plumes, the seasonally bluish legs) are the only parts exposed. There is some intra-cultural division over whether even these parts should be exposed, as it is sometimes seen as a desperate or wanton diversion from a suitor being unable to afford more extravagant costuming.
Hens, faeder, and cocks all wear minimal clothing in day-to-day circumstances, with the exception of headdress (as seen here with the couple)
Nesi are a relatively genetically isolated population in spite of their significant trade relations, maintained partially by cultural resistance to reproduction with foreigners who do not share these customs. The population is distinguished by many individuals having naturally whitish and brown-gray feathering that acquires bright reddish pigmentation from a diet heavy in crustaceans.
