It occurred to me after a while that it seems the identity of the Cath Bruig, as a race, has never been layed down. We know they had a really long history, at least as long as humanity, and it seems that the Heron Guard are themselves Cath Bruig. However, I don't know that we can point to any one character or group and say "THAT'S a Cath Bruig".
From what I figure, the Cath Bruig are human, or at least derived from human stock, much like the fir'bolg and, to a much lesser extent, the Baer Serce (as I prefer to call them). It seems that the Heron Guard are Cath Bruig, but this brings up a problem with the septannual tournament; if anyone can compete, then some of the inaugurated Herons are CBs and some are not. Then we have many indications from non-CBs that indicate they are extinct, a la the quote from Ibis Crown, "The Bruig were a proud race".
The conclusions I came to is that the CBs are indeed a RACE, in the modern sense. While in fantasy, we tend to interchange the terms species and race, they are obviously different; ghols and humans are separate species, while black and white are separate races. I think a CB is a racial derivative of humanity, albeit very small and select. On top of that, it is not entirely an evolutionary condition; since newly inaugurated Heron Guards are commissioned as, shall we say, "honorary", Cath Bruig, and they receive all the physical benefits thereof (longevity). This probably means that the status of "Cath Bruig" is a bestowed, perhaps magical, one. Therefore, the Cath Bruig could have been endowed with some magical gift that made them a true race, and they retained the ability to pass that gift to others they deemed fit to be Cath Bruig.
**pant** k, I'm done.
