Humans

Notice: The management of the Arrhynsian World Encyclopedia is reviewing the following article for offensive anti-human racial slurs.

The Race that Transformed a Continent

Humans are a people with as little wisdom as they have years of life, yet none but the elves deny the enormous impact that they have had on the history, geography, and culture of this land. In fact, their influence is so profound, that all of modern history is dated from the first step of humans upon the continent. Good or bad, and there is plenty of both, humans seem driven to make change and take on challenges.
The scope of their influence, from enlarging interracial trade, introducing Common as a trade language and advancing magic technology cannot be understated. They have mastered cooperation which allows them to achieve what would be impossible for a single individual no matter how talented and long lived, and to find pride and satisfaction in being part of a group that performs these extraordinary accomplishments. This ability, along with their relentless energy, has enabled them to accomplish more than any other race in expanding technology, advancing arcane studies and increasing the prosperity and health of their people and the other races of Arrhynsia.
It also makes them the most dangerous of races as history has proven.

History: A Mixed Bag of Good and Bad

Timeline of Humans in Arhynnsia
Little is known of the origins of humans except that they are not native to Arrhynsia, having come to our land from Eryia across the Ur Hilgarria. Humans settled on North Arrhynsia where there was plenty of land and room to expand.
Humans established a federation of city states and countries. Kingdoms rose and fell, but consistently, the study and use of magic was pursued across all the human kingdoms in spite of the lack of an innate genetic ability to perform magic. Thus, the discipline of wizardry came about, and it was this discipline that was the instrument of the human's undoing.
The humans, idiots that they are, in the event now known as the The Cataclysm decided to use magic to reform the very stone of the world and tame the wild chaos magic that is the Ur Hilgarria.

"I told him! 'Linus Dalton,' I said, 'that spell is a bad idea, nothing good will come from it,' but would he listen to me? No! It was always the same with him. So I packed up the kids and moved to Sigurd's, and a good thing too, that's what I say!"

— Mary Ellen Dalton

North Arrhynsia was destroyed, transformed into a wasteland buried below snow and ice. Hundreds of thousands died - almost ninety percent of the human population, and the land became uninhabitable. The survivors boarded ships and attempted to sail back to the mainland but found a cold shoulder from the other races when they arrived.
Eventually humans were able to settle into the Desolate Wastes south of the Draak'thor Massiff. There they established the Southern Kingdom of Eyniir, and there they live today.

Breeding Like Rabbits - The Biology and Physiology of Humans

The Human Species is a bipedal sentient mammal similar to dwarves and elves. Humans are short lived, lasting a mere eighty years and replicating generously, typically producing four to twelve offspring each over their lifetime. Humans are opportunistic omnivores, with a heavy reliance on meat to assure that the large human brain is adequately provided with critical fats.
Females are considered attractive if they display generous secondary sexual characteristics including wide hips and large mammary glands which indicate an ability to have and feed their infant offspring. Males are highly competitive for the opportunity to reproduce and engage in courting rituals that involve the giving of gifts indicating wealth or feats of physical strength indicative of the ability to protect the female. Males who exhibit secondary gender characteristics that indicate this prowess are attractive. In all genders, individuals exhibiting signs of sexual arousal and readiness to mate (red lips, enlarged eyes and organs, revealing clothing) are considered approachable for sexual relations.
Once selected for mating by a female, the male will typically exhaust himself attempting to provide for his mate whom he guards jealously from other males. Males will poach the females of other males given the opportunity. This behavior makes for interesting pageants of social interaction, and humans are obsessed with success stories that lead to reproduction as a reward for accomplishment. These tales are conveyed in a way that resonates with the intended audience as a successful mating strategy.

A Catastrophe Waiting to Happen: Social and Economic Systems

Humans are tribal and highly competitive, indicating that the land of their origin was limited in critical resources necessary to assure survival of their race. They naturally organize into biologically related groupings, which they call families, expending their effort and resources on ensuring the survival of their offspring. Humans who pursue this strategy tend to produce high functioning adults who will ensure survival and well being of their own offspring.
Family units align to form communities that provide protection from threats (typically other human tribes). These communities - villages, towns, cities, and countries, effectively acquire or protect critical resources needed to care for themselves and their young. Communities increase the opportunity for trade and facilitate the creation of certain types of resources. Humans brought currency with them from Eryia. Humans have a propensity to centralize government, which seems to flow from their short lifetimes and unfortunately quarrelsome nature which leads them into war with each other on a regular basis. While humans are not as difficult to deal with as orcs, it is of little surprise that The Lost War was initiated by humans, and that their adversaries are the orcs.

A Pantheon of Youth: Spiritual and Philosophical Leanings

Humans are inclined towards the mystical and the instinctual practice of religion, a definitive indicator of sentience. Religious observation of humans focuses on the worship of their five gods Gemar, God of Death, Melandru Goddess of Nature, Dwayna, Goddess of healing air and water, Guldari, God of War and Honor , and Isvaida, goddess of beauty and illusion. These Ascended are the most recent of the gods. It is noteworthy that not all the human gods are positive role models. Isvaida, for example, is a highly deceptive goddess, Melandru is ruthless, as is Gemar, and Guldari seems at times to be, if not indifferent to, at least ignorant of the morality of the war that he embraces.

"Mean isn't funny, Nasty isn't cute, Cruel isn't sticking up for yourself. Mean is mean, Nasty is nasty, Cruel is cruel, and a goddess who does any of it is downright ugly no matter what she looks like on the outside." - Melandru to Isvaida

Human gods interact tangibly and regularly with their worshipers who are typically religiously observant. Continued mindful religious practice demonstrably modifies human behavior in a typically significant and positive way. The human gods and their priests maintain oversight of most cultural rites including presiding over birth, coming of age, marriage, and death rites. While humans typically will follow a god based on cultural or professional relevance, is not unusual for humans to worship more than one deity. Death ites for example are almost universally conducted under the auspices of Gemar, while it is very typical for inter-human conflicts to be conducted while opposing armies both seek the blessing of Guldari and ask for victory.

Human Northern Kingdom

Arrhynsia During the Period of the Human Northern Kingdom

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Humans settled in Arrhynsia after the Shattering and spread across the North continent settling wild areas and building cities and towns wherever they went.

The Cataclysm

North Arrhynsia Before and After Humans:

by Peter J Barker

Human Female with Child

by Victorian Traditions

Note: feline individual in bottom right is a pet, not a sentient being.

Criminal Acts, Criminal Justice and Criminal Elements

Unsurprisingly, humans engage in anti-social behaviors.
Criminal acts among humans disrupt the society or the power structure that governs it. Humans have made the following acts criminally illegal at multiple different times in their history:

• aggression against other members of the species resulting in injury and death,
• negligence resulting in injury, death, or loss of property,
• misappropriating possessions or resources,
• misappropriating mates,
• misrepresentation of facts in legal matters,
• failure to provide adequate care for dependents,
• failure to pay taxes,
• failure to comply with government direction,
• questioning the veracity or being critical of the government,
• thinking or believing independently of government sanctioned thoughts.

Unlike other species, humans usually imprison or exile their criminal element rather than kill them. This was the source of multiple small waves of humans to the Arrynsian main continent until the Cataclysm.
Criminal organizations developed amongst humans when the government prohibited or overtaxed a good or service desired by the people. Humans have these organizations on both a local scale and in association with international/interracial criminal organizations, most notably the Fair Dealers.

Human "Culture"

by Master1305

For humans, stories of heroism, responsibility and fortitude in the face of opposition, tragedy or malevolence are ingrained in their culture with reproductive opportunities offered as rewards. Even the stories of their gods teach these themes. Traveling bards convey these stories across communities ensuring cultural (and genetic) continuity.
Since humans are short lived, reproduction is a underlying theme that guides many cultural conventions. Dress is a key indicator of status both in socio-economic terms and in availability. Both males and females tend to dress as expensively as they can in clothes that emphasize their best secondary sexual characteristics while they are looking for a mate. Once they have acquired a mate or passed breedable age, they dress for comfort. Deliberately wasteful customs are prevalent amongst wealthy classes as this indicates the ability to tolerate economic loss and still sustain offspring.
Secondary concerns related to biological imperatives that are not sex and reproduction also have elaborate rituals. These include such items as management of conflict and dominance (a primary concern for short tempered, argumentative humans), and acquisition of food and shelter. Interestingly, one of the major cultural themes is the promotion of innovation and cooperation which humans have learned assist with survival of the species.
Humans are endlessly creative, possibly due to an overly active and undisciplined brain. Most of their endeavors in static and performing arts deal with topics that dominate stories and etiquette. Songs written by musicians and bards, plays and dance all focus on stories on classic themes with modern twists. Master painters and sculptors capture stories in art, although there is a recent trend in human art called abstract modern art which features unrecognizable subjects, a trend that indicates that human thought patterns are breaking down into nonsense, or that the artists are losing fundamental pattern recognition skills. This is very unfortunate, as a significant percent of Arrhynsia's finest art has been created by humans.