Humans are one of the native species from Eina, alongside the elves, dwarves, beastfolk and greenskins. They evolved alongside the elves and dwarves from a shared simian ancestor named the Antari, around 2 million years ago. Since then, they have spread across the whole world and now represent the dominant species in both of its major continents. Renowned first and foremost for their adaptability, they have proven to be a major but fickle force on Eina, driving most of its modern history with their wars and discoveries.
History
Most of ancient human history revolves around primitive tribes living in both Kaladia and Serika, trying to survive while other races dominated the planet. Unlike their elven and dwarven cousins, the humans did not benefit from the uplifting of the dragons and as such remained in the stone age while the Elder Races flourished. Even after the First Demonic Incursion, which they miraculously survived, and the subsequent takeover of the planet by the elves and dwarves, humans struggled to make a place for themselves, never growing beyond their tribal state. Even worse, some of the elven realms even began to target them for slavery, capturing them by the thousands to serve as cheap labor in their giant cities. Overshadowed by its more advanced cousins, at best ignored and at worst exploited by them, humanity seemed doomed to remain stunted.
This destiny, however, took a sharp turn, and it is in those same Elder Races that had suppressed humanity that they would find their greatest allies. Over the course of a millennium, from roughly 3 500 B.A to 2 5000 B.A, the elven and dwarven races suffered multiple crises culminating in the massive orc invasion of Kaladia by Grimmor Black Sun. While the dwarves could easily retreat into their mountains to weather the storm, the Elves were forced to look for allies each time disaster struck. First in Eridia, with the War of the Five Crowns and subsequent establishment of the Myrin Kingdom, then in the eastern continent of Serika with the Elven Plague and extremely violent slave revolts that followed, and finally the alliance of the Caelduin Elves and the newly formed Kingdom of Arnur.
From there, the growth of the humans directly mirrored the weakening of the Elder Realms, with humans taking up more and more territory and rapidly catching up with the dwarves and elves while the latter struggled to recover from the recent conflicts and chose to retreat deeper in their territories. The Realms of Arnur and Serika quickly fractured into multiple smaller realms who immediately began to wage war, another sign for the Elder Races to keep to themselves, while the Myrin Kingdom continued into the footsteps of their late elven masters, expanding south and continuing many of their practices such as slavery. The next few centuries can be resumed to a series of local wars between feuding kingdoms in both Kaladia and Serika, which led to the Second Demonic Incursion and in its wake the corruption of the land on Eina. With most of their territory ravaged by the Incursion and the already hostile land rendered far deadlier by the unstable forces it left behind, what is left of humanity converges into fortified city-states across the continents.
In Serika, most of the territory is abandoned and the humans converge into the one city of Luanxi, under the rule of the Imperial Directorate, from which it will slowly develop outward and into the sea for the following millenniums. Whereas in Kaladia humans split into a number of smaller scattered cities, with only a select few able to stand the trials of time, living in relative autarky until the rise of the city of Ortus and the advent of the Kaladian Empire, around 1 500 years later.
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