Shisk: IRL Places for Inspiration?

[Virellius]

So I'm making a shisk PC, and I was curious as to where in the real world any lore, cultural, or design inspo may have come from if any. If NONE, what would be maybe some good design notes to help them feel accurate?

As far as we know, they ONLY live in the Mwangi Expanse, correct? I wouldn't want to just make a bunch of white shisk, for example, if there isn't a precedent for them to exist in Golarion.

Considering the amount of lore on them is painfully small, I was hoping to see other ideas players have had for playing Shisk.

[keftiu]

I believe they are specific to the Mwangi region they’re found in, but you’re right that they don’t have a ton of published lore yet.

[The Raven Black]

Based on this "On a few occasions, when shisk sages or diplomats convinced different groups of shisks to put aside their differences and collaborate, great puzzles and mysteries of Golarion have been solved in a matter of hours.", I feel the Shisks are likely spread much further than the Mwangi Expanse. Maybe those living in other places are even more paranoid and thus unknown to outsiders.

[Virellius]

The Raven Black wrote:

Based on this "On a few occasions, when shisk sages or diplomats convinced different groups of shisks to put aside their differences and collaborate, great puzzles and mysteries of Golarion have been solved in a matter of hours.", I feel the Shisks are likely spread much further than the Mwangi Expanse. Maybe those living in other places are even more paranoid and thus unknown to outsiders.

Oh hey, good catch.

I wonder if there are populations in other mountain ranges?

[The Raven Black]

Shisk seem to be the humanoid evolution of feathered dinosaurs akin to archaeopteryx.

Their civilisation could be extremely old. Maybe they were already around when the Sekmin empire thrived.

[Darth Game Master]

Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse says "Shisks are almost completely unknown outside of the Mwangi Expanse" and goes on to mention there are a handful in southern Thuvia and rumors of an enclave in Nex at the Shattered Range that separates the two regions.

I don't think the Shisk have any basis in real-world cultures or folklore (I am not an expert but have read a decent amount about African history and mythology...though that is of course an extremely broad brush so there easily could be something one of the writers knows about that I don't). One shisk is shown playing a balafon, an instrument of Mandinka origin with equivalents in surrounding regions, so West African aesthetics would fit, but otherwise they seem purely fantasy to me.