Regigalian Humans
Regigalian Humans are a subspecies of Human, native to the home continent of Regigalis. Regigalian Humans are descended from The Most-Favoured, a primordial species created by The Vida Quda, the Beacon of Life. These beings were once exalted, gifted with boundless vitality and creativity, but cursed by their inherent instability. They were brilliant and violent, divine in potential but monstrous in behavior, emotionally unmoored and psychopathic in disposition.
Eventually, the gods confined the Most-Favoured to the bleak continent of Kthombru, where they were left to either evolve or perish. Over thousands of years, the intense magical saturation of Kthombru, the social necessity of surviving its madness, and perhaps the lingering whisper of the Lady of Twine and Vine's favor caused a transformation. The Most-Favoured became more communal, more stable; still intense and ambitious, but now recognizably Human. When the Most-Favoured regained the Vida Quda's favour and she lifted the banishment, the newly forged Humans set sail from Kthombru and landed upon Regigalis; the ancestral realm of the Elves. These were the Regigalian Humans, explorers, survivors, and inheritors of a long-forgotten divine burden. Regigalian Humans are scarred by origin but not defined by it. They are survivors, creators, and the new force on an old land. Elves remember them as monsters; Humans seek to prove them wrong, or right, on their own terms: "Where Elves remember, Humans imagine. Where Elves preserve, Humans build. And where Elves fear change, Humans are change."
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Regigalian Humans are defined by their duality; an innate drive toward excellence, curiosity, and power and the ever-present memory of their chaotic origins. This fuels a culture that values discipline, achievement, and adaptation. Where the Elves saw them as brutes or lesser beings, the Humans adapted, not by mimicking the Elves, but by carving out unique spaces of human ingenuity. Regigalian society celebrates both the practical and the arcane, blending gritty survivalism with unorthodox scholarship. They are builders, inventors, and hybridists, unafraid to mix technology and magic, science and tradition.
Regigalian Humans have a mixed reputation amongst the other races. The High Elves scorned the Human invaders as barbaric usurpers. Humans responded with diplomacy, trade, and eventually, innovation that even High Elves grudgingly respect. Meanwhile, the Wood Elves mocked their artificial settlements and metal tools, while Humans adapted sustainable practices, building “living cities” on the edge of the wilds, and the Drow treated them as prey or pawns. Humans became paranoid and fortified, developing deep defense networks and counter-magic to survive The Underdark's influence.
Unlike Elves who treat magic with spiritual or academic reverence, Humans use it practically; runestones for lighting, charmed tools, memory mirrors for recording oral history. Everyone is expected to understand at least basic enchantment.
Shared customary codes and values
Regigalian Humans are a people forged from survival, adaptation, and reinvention. Their cultural values are shaped by their exile-born heritage, their need to thrive in a land where they were not welcomed, and their ambition to stand as equals, even superiors, to the ancient Elven powers. Amongst Regigalian Humans, hardship is not hidden but honored. Regigalians tell stories of personal failure alongside heroism, as to fall and rise is to be human.
Average technological level
Regigalian Humans are famous for their magic-mechanical engineering. The University of Torterrus, for example, is known for producing battle-scholars, siege mages, and diplomatic alchemists. Their magical theory blends classical elven studies with primal human innovation.
Art & Architecture
Most households contain a mixture of hand-crafted items, Magical Trinkets, and patchworked innovations. Regigalians are known for pragmatic creativity; if something works, even if it’s ugly or unconventional, it is respected. Though descended from the Most-Favoured, Humans also absorbed fragments of Elven culture, Merfolk beliefs, and even Underdark folklore. Many festivals are hybrid, blending Elven seasonal rites with practical harvest or maritime customs.
In Torterrus and its satellite towns, families often live in multi-tiered stone dwellings, with the lower levels for storage and the upper for sleeping and study. Communal spaces are common, and shared for meals, debates, and education. In smaller towns like Green Hook or inland villages, the emphasis is on symbiosis with the land. Humans developed novel techniques to work with elven-contaminated soil, such as “singing gardens” where resonance helps crops grow.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Regigalian society is meritocratic, and titles and leadership are earned, not inherited; this is a reaction to the rigid castes of Elven courts. While guilds and noble families exist, they must continually prove their worth through deeds or innovations to retain power.
Historical figures
There are several notable historical Regigilian Human, such as:
- Lady Arven Drelt. Lady Arven is most famous for founding The Conclave of the Axebeak, an organisation that leads Torterrus. She was a former war hero turned philosopher-general with a vision of peaceful coexistence, even if at the end of a sword.
- Seren Valek. A prodigy from the University of Torterrus who theorized the “Mind Mirror,” a magical device said to reflect a person’s truest self, and that the mirror, and Seren, disappeared after using it on a Drow ambassador, sparking an international mystery.
- Retha Nual. While she was not of Wood Elven origin, Retha helped to expand the city of Io Serin into its renaissance, fostering a powerful alliance between the Regigalian Humans and Wood Elves.
Parent ethnicities
Diverged ethnicities
Encompassed species
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