"The first one I hired, I paid in fruit. The second one asked for coin, and a contract. Now my whole crew is hadozee, and they're the best canal hands in the city." — a barge captain of Aethovenezia
No one knows where the hadozee came from. They're nimble and monkey-like, with long arms, strong grips and feet that hold a rope as well as their hands do. For most of their history they were treated as clever beasts of labour. Sailors worked them like deckhands without pay, and few stopped to think they might be anything more. Only in recent generations has that begun to change. More and more hadozee now earn wages, sign contracts and carry names of their own, but plenty of folk still see a beast before a person.
Names
Many hadozee carry names given by the crews who first took them in. Those who've earned their place sometimes choose a family name of their own. Examples:
- Remo Velaro, named for an oarsman of the canals
- Pip, a ship's name she chose to keep
- Chiccio Tamburo, who chose his own family name
Hadozee by Homeland
Aetheria
In Aetheria, hadozee are agile sailors who help run canal transport, about 2 to 3% of the people. The canal crews were among the first to treat them as equals, and Aetheria is where hadozee have come closest to being seen as people.