Human

Humans (Homo sapiens) are a species of highly intelligent primates. They are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina and—together with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans—are part of the family Hominidae (the great apes, or hominids). Humans are terrestrial animals, characterized by their erect posture and bipedal locomotion; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to other animals; open-ended and complex language use compared to other animal communications; larger, more complex brains than other primates; and highly advanced and organized societies.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Most aspects of human physiology are closely homologous to corresponding aspects of animal physiology. The human body consists of the legs, the torso, the arms, the neck, and the head. An adult human body consists of about 100 trillion cells. The most commonly defined body systems in humans are the nervous, the cardiovascular, the circulatory, the digestive, the endocrine, the immune, the integumentary, the lymphatic, the musculoskeletal, the reproductive, the respiratory, and the urinary system.
Humans, like most of the other apes, lack external tails, have several blood type systems, have opposable thumbs, and are sexually dimorphic. The comparatively minor anatomical differences between humans and chimpanzees are largely a result of human bipedalism and larger brain size. One difference is that humans have a far faster and more accurate throw than other animals. Humans are also among the best long-distance runners in the animal kingdom, but slower over short distances. Humans' thinner body hair and more productive sweat glands help avoid heat exhaustion while running for long distances.
As a consequence of bipedalism, human females have narrower birth canals. The construction of the human pelvis differs from other primates, as do the toes. A trade-off for these advantages of the modern human pelvis is that childbirth is more difficult and dangerous than in most mammals, especially given the larger head size of human babies compared to other primates. Human babies must turn around as they pass through the birth canal while other primates do not, which makes humans the only species where females usually require help from their conspecifics (other members of their own species) to reduce the risks of birthing. As a partial evolutionary solution, human fetuses are born less developed and more vulnerable. Chimpanzee babies are cognitively more developed than human babies until the age of six months when the rapid development of human brains surpasses chimpanzees.
Apart from bipedalism, humans differ from chimpanzees mostly in smelling, hearing, digesting proteins, brain size, and the ability of language. Humans' brains are about three times bigger than in chimpanzees. More importantly, the brain to body ratio is much higher in humans than in chimpanzees, and humans have a significantly more developed cerebral cortex, with a larger number of neurons. The mental abilities of humans are remarkable compared to other apes. Humans' ability of speech is unique among primates. Humans are able to create new and complex ideas and to develop technology, which is unprecedented among other organisms on Earth.
It is estimated that the worldwide average height for an adult human male is about 171 cm (5 ft 7 in), while the worldwide average height for adult human females is about 159 cm (5 ft 3 in). Shrinkage of stature may begin in middle age in some individuals but tends to be typical in the extremely aged. Throughout history, human populations have universally become taller, probably as a consequence of better nutrition, healthcare, and living conditions. The average mass of an adult human is 59 kg (130 lb) for females and 77 kg (170 lb) for males. Like many other conditions, body weight and body type is influenced by both genetic susceptibility and environment and varies greatly among individuals.
Humans have a density of hair follicles comparable to other apes. However, human body hair is vellus hair, most of which is so short and wispy as to be practically invisible. In contrast (and unusually among species), a follicle of terminal hair on the human scalp can grow for many years before falling out. Humans have about 2 million sweat glands spread over their entire bodies, many more than chimpanzees, whose sweat glands are scarce and are mainly located on the palm of the hand and on the soles of the feet. Humans have the largest number of eccrine sweat glands among species.

Humans have proportionately shorter palates and much smaller teeth than other primates. They are the only primates to have short, relatively flush canine teeth. Humans have characteristically crowded teeth, with gaps from lost teeth usually closing up quickly in young individuals. Humans are gradually losing their third molars, with some individuals having them congenitally absent.

Biological Traits

The average human lives for about 80 years, growing to about and weighing about 62.0 KG.

Genetics and Reproduction

Humans have a basic mammalian reproduction method, with gestation periods averaging at nine months. Female humans give birth through the central birth canal, the same as all other mammals.
As with other mammals, human reproduction takes place by internal fertilization via sexual intercourse. Typically the gestation period is 38 weeks (9 months). At this point, most modern cultures recognize the baby as a person entitled to the full protection of the law, though some jurisdictions extend various levels of personhood earlier to human fetuses while they remain in the uterus. Compared with other species, human childbirth is dangerous. Painful labors lasting 24 hours or more are not uncommon and sometimes lead to the death of the mother, the child, or both. This is because of both the relatively large fetal head circumference and the mother's relatively narrow pelvis. The chances of successful labor increased significantly during the 20th century in wealthier countries with the advent of new medical technologies. In contrast, pregnancy and natural childbirth remain hazardous ordeals in developing regions of the world, with maternal death rates approximately 100 times greater than in developed countries.
Infants are typically 3–4 kg (7–9 lb) in weight and 50–60 cm (20–24 in) in height at birth. However, low birth weight is common in developing countries and contributes to the high levels of infant mortality in these regions. Both the mother and the father provide care for human offspring, in contrast to other primates, where parental care is mostly restricted to mothers. Helpless at birth, humans continue to grow for some years, typically reaching sexual maturity at 12 to 15 years of age. Females continue to develop physically until around the age of 18, whereas male development continues until around age 21.
The human life span can be split into a number of stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and old age. The lengths of these stages, however, have varied across cultures and time periods. Compared to other primates, humans experience an unusually rapid growth spurt during adolescence, where the body grows 25% in size. Chimpanzees, for example, grow only 14%, with no pronounced spurt. The presence of the growth spurt is probably necessary to keep children physically small until they are psychologically mature.
Humans are one of the few species in which females undergo menopause and become infertile decades before the end of their lives. All species of non-human apes are capable of giving birth until death. It has been proposed that menopause increases a woman's overall reproductive success by allowing her to invest more time and resources in her existing offspring and in turn their children (the grandmother hypothesis), rather than by continuing to bear children into old age.

Growth Rate & Stages

Humans' brains grow rapidly for the first ten years of their life, then letting their bodies catch up until they mature at the age of eighteen.

Ecology and Habitats

Humans have a presence in every environment on Erozorona, including the far north of Faerun.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Humans are omnivorous, capable of consuming a wide variety of plant and animal material. Human groups have adopted a range of diets from purely vegan to primarily carnivorous. In some cases, dietary restrictions in humans can lead to deficiency diseases; however, stable human groups have adapted to many dietary patterns through both genetic specialization and cultural conventions to use nutritionally balanced food sources. Until the development of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, Homo sapiens employed a hunter-gatherer method as their sole means of food collection. This involved combining stationary food sources (such as fruits, grains, tubers, and mushrooms, insect larvae, and aquatic mollusks) with wild game, which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. It has been proposed that humans have used fire to prepare and cook food since the time of Homo erectus. Around ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which substantially altered their diet. This change in diet may also have altered human biology; with the spread of dairy farming providing a new and rich source of food, leading to the evolution of the ability to digest lactose in some adults. Agriculture led to increased populations, the development of cities, and because of increased population density, the wider spread of infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared, have varied widely by time, location, and culture.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Humans have created an arbitrary power structure depending on a human's bloodline, with a specific bloodline in a certain region being the most powerful while all others are considered a lower class.

Facial characteristics

Humans have a wide range of facial characteristics, but the most common are flat faces with protruding noses and thin lips.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Early human settlements were dependent on proximity to water and—depending on the lifestyle—other natural resources used for subsistence, such as populations of animal prey for hunting and arable land for growing crops and grazing livestock. Modern humans, however, have a great capacity for altering their habitats by means of technology, irrigation, urban planning, construction, deforestation, and desertification. Human settlements continue to be vulnerable to natural disasters, especially those placed in hazardous locations and with low quality of construction. Deliberate habitat alteration is often done with the goals of increasing comfort or material wealth, increasing the amount of available food, improving aesthetics, or improving ease of access to resources or other human settlements. With the advent of large-scale trade and transport infrastructure, proximity to these resources has become unnecessary, and in many places, these factors are no longer a driving force behind the success of a population. Nonetheless, the manner in which a habitat is altered is often a major determinant in population change.

Average Intelligence

Humans are extremely intelligent, with their brains being some of the largest compared to their bodies in the Homo genus.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Humans have four main senses, visual, olfactory, tactile, and auditory.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Hillyer, Travis, Portier, Yannick, Rainier, Nasir, Detlev, Corbett, Telfour, Troyes, Westby, Reynard, Jaydon, Bradyn, Armstrong, Regina, Abbigail, Finnja, Netti, Margarete, Samantha, Blythe, Kathrina, Ferdinanda, Kendall, Yvonna, Millicente, Arsène, Susie, Stacy, Kendall

Gender Ideals

The division of humans into male and female gender roles has been marked culturally by a corresponding division of norms, practices, dress, behavior, rights, duties, privileges, status, and power. Cultural differences by gender have often been believed to have arisen naturally out of a division of reproductive labor; the biological fact that women give birth led to their further cultural responsibility for nurturing and caring for children. Gender roles have varied historically, and challenges to predominant gender norms have recurred in many societies.

Courtship Ideals

Humans usually only date with one person at a time, usually with the male proposing a relationship.

Relationship Ideals

Marriage is very common for humans, with 89% of humans over the age of 30 in Faerunbeing married at some point. Marriage is not always for life though, with 49% of marriages ending in a divorce.

Average Technological Level

Humans are averagely advanced, coming close to the creation of smoke-powder based weaponry.

Common Dress Code

Humans have many different kinds of clothes for any class of people, from poor to rich. Generally, human clothes are meant to cover the reproductive organs as a bare (pun intended) minimum.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies.
A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted as typical behavior for an individual, and duty, honor, and loyalty to the social group are counted as virtues or functional responses in the continuum of conflict. In the practice of religion, analogous attributes can be identified in a social group.

Common Taboos

Humans are accepting of almost everything, with very few taboos. Murder and cannibalism are obvious exceptions.

History

During the Days of Thunder (−35,000 DR to −30,000 DR) on the supercontinent of Merrouroboros, humans were a primitive race, similar to apes. Tribes of humans largely inhabited the land later known as the continent of Katashaka. They used simple tools, banged rocks together to make fire, and dwelled in caves. According to Bazim-Gorag, a batrachi (another of the creator races) they hid in caves in fear—he called them "Meat". Regardless of their precise origins, humans were undeniably successful. While hardly the only dominant race of Toril, humans were one of them and the most recent to obtain dominance. In spite of this strength, or perhaps because of it, humanity was an eternally fractured and divided race, broken up into over a dozen ethnic offshoots. It was believed that this was in part because humanity, unlike most other races, did not emerge as a whole but rather in several places at once, thereby resulting in its diversity.

Historical Figures

There have been countless figures of significance over history, too many to list in general.

Common Myths and Legends

Humans have created thousands, if not millions of stories and tales over the years, of which most are true to some degree.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Humans have always been described as everyone's second-best friends, being a sort of middle ground when concerning diplomacy.

Scientific Name

Homo Sapian

Lifespan

80 years

Average Height

1.6-2.1 meters depending on what heritage humans hail from.

Average Weight

55-92 KG

Average Physique

Humans have an average physique compared to other sapiens, bulkier than elves, but skinnier than orcs.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Human skin colors range from a light beige to a very dark brown. Skin pigmentation is a genetic quality, with different skin tones coming from varied parts of the world.

Geographic Distribution

• Erozorona

Related Ethnicities

• Outlander Humans