Human
Humans are one of the most widespread and varied sentient species in the known world. Found across both the Wildlands and the Shadowed Lands (Noctavia), they are distinguished not by physical adaptations to specific climates, but by their remarkable cultural diversity, political ambition, and capacity for transformation. They are short-lived compared to elves and dwarves, but this brevity fuels an intense drive to build, explore, conquer, and innovate.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Physical Traits
- Average Lifespan: 70–100 years (though some live longer with magic or alchemy)
- Height/Build: Wide variety; humans range from lean to broad, tall to short, depending on lineage and region.
- Skin, Hair, and Eye Color: Vast spectrum; diversity is more cultural and ancestral than magical or geographic.
- Notable Traits: Humans do not possess innate magical talent in the way some species do, but they are unusually quick to learn, trainable, and often capable of wielding multiple schools of magic with discipline and study.
Biological Traits
Strengths
- Adaptability: Humans can survive in almost any environment—from the tundras of Iceshard Glacier to the volcanic wastes of Emberfall.
- Innovation: Human inventors, engineers, and mages are often the first to blend technology with magic.
- Diplomacy & Expansion: Many human rulers excel in forming (and manipulating) alliances, absorbing or dominating other cultures.
Weaknesses
- Short Lifespan: They must learn and act quickly, or die forgotten.
- Divisiveness: Human societies often fracture under their own ambition or greed.
- Magic Reliance: While powerful with training, humans lack innate magical instincts and require schooling or pacts to access arcane forces.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Humans are culturally diverse. There is no single "human culture"—rather, humans are defined by their capacity to adapt, forming kingdoms, empires, nomadic tribes, hermitages, and mercantile guilds in almost every known biome.
- Languages: Humans speak countless tongues, but they often act as linguistic bridges between species.
- Governance: Humans are capable of anything from tyranny to democracy, divine theocracies to merchant republics, often simultaneously across regions.
- Religion: Humans worship a wide array of deities, sometimes integrating elven or dwarven pantheons, or creating new ones entirely.
Human culture is preserved through:
- Libraries, temples, and bardic traditions.
- Warlords and heroes turned myth.
- Ruined cities full of secrets.
- Empires that rise and fall in just a few generations.
Humans may not shape the world with their bodies or bloodlines—but they do so with their words, will, and dreams.
History
In History
Humans have risen to dominate or influence every major continent. Their deeds are carved into the bones of the world:
- Builders of Stoneheart Hold and Blackthorn Keep.
- Founders of the Noctavian Empire, the most sprawling political force in history.
- Breakers and makers of gods through ancient blood rites, lost arcanum, and forbidden forges.
They are both heroes and villains in the songs of other races.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
- Elves: Respected and resented for their longevity and elegance; humans both admire and envy them.
- Dwarves: Often close allies in trade and war. Humans share the dwarves’ industrious spirit, if not their patience.
- Orcs, Goblins, Minotaurs: Relationships range from tense hostility to complex trade, depending on region and era.
- Undead and Monstrous Races: Humans are frequently both the targets and creators of such beings, through necromancy or cursed ambition.
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