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I know why; they're cool, and they have a deep yearning to be free and with the air, which'll be a major theme in the story. But... I don't know how to explain their wings. I don't want them to be a supernatural race, so I think they'll have to be a past genetic experiment, as in decades ago so an unstable population has started to grow.

They have large bird-like wings like in this http://pre05.deviantart.net/a8fd/th/pre/f/2012/199/b/e/bef027abce839b197a664cc6c30e0554-d57r2br.jpg and http://orig07.deviantart.net/2f3a/f/2013/092/b/0/b0bbaff0c7c9d3f212fc371c25191367-d607soj.jpg (I don't own the art).

I'm also not sure if they would be discriminated against in society, or if they'd be dependent on some kind of drugs to suppress any genetic faults. I do know that they have a short lifespan (usually less than 40 years).

It's set in a cold northern city on an alternative earth that borders the Arctic ocean. It's a gritty, tough place with people to match.

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  • Hi Gilbert and welcome to Writers. This question is off-topic here as it's more about plot/setting development than writing. You could ask this question on Worldbuilding, though, and probably get a lot of good input. Since you've already accepted an answer here I'm not migrating this, but feel free to ask a related question there too. (You'll want to ask your questions about how they grew wings and what the societal implications are separately, though.)
    – Monica Cellio
    Jan 17, 2016 at 2:19

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In his novel The Broken God, author David Zindell features a race of Neanderthals on a non-Earth planet who were originally Homo Sapiens, but whose forebears genetically engineered themselves into Homo Neanderthalensis bodies (apparently retaining Sapiens brains and their own identities). "How" was advanced genetic engineering, and "Why" was never as far as I can remember explained in the novel -- but may be because they were seeking a simple life.

You would probably do just as well to say that their creators genetically engineered them simply as an exercise in esthetics. One of these days we may be capable of creating new species just because we want to, and someone is bound to create a beautiful species just "because" they can. Or for that matter, you don't need to explain Why -- the reason might very well be lost in the mists of time.

Let your imagination run wild! You might actually make the story turn around the possible reason for their creation, which is unknown, but finding out causes a turning point in something or someone. Perhaps their original purpose has been lost, but once it is found out it leads to the unlocking of an important concept.

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