Gift of Zys

According to legend, the patron of human-kind, the Goddess of Death, Zys herself, cut the lifespans of her children in half in a cruel 'gift' when they swore allegiance to her. The exact reasoning for this act varies in the telling, with the elves depicting it as a punishment for hubris, whilst the humans themselves commonly invoke, with pride, that the Gift of Zys empowered the human ambition, zeal and lust for life that drove them to build the Glorium Hominium in the first place...