Human

Humans are the oldest of all the sentient races and the progenitor of all the other ones. They evolved around 2 million years earlier from apes on the African continent from where they spread all across the planet. It didn't take long for them to become the dominant species on earth and create gradually more powerful and useful tools. First they created their own tools. Then their own lairs, a.k.a. houses. Then they went further and created essentially their own biomes in the form of cities. Their inventions continued to increase in effectiveness and power, but around the Day of Fate it reached the point where they became humanitys downfall. A group of scientists in what was the US had made a connection with the elemental plane of magic, a parallell dimension with its own forces and laws of nature. It didn't take long for them to harness the magic as an immensely powerful energy source, and for about a year the world prospered like never before. But eventually someone in the US military had managed to weaponize the magic in the form of nuclear bombs, and since large quantities of raw magic has similar properties to radiation it was incredibly lethal. The first batch of missiles were launched on July 13th the year 2054 of the old calendar or the year 0 in the new one. The affected regions answered in kind and World War 4 had begun. But it did not last long. The magic radiation spread quickly from the several bomb sites and soon the earth was covered in radioactive magic. Humanity had no choice but to evacuate into underground cave systems, where they have remained since. The surface was lost, and humanity was entirely to blame.

Nowadays there are less than 2 million people left alive, about 600.000 of them humans. This makes humans the most numerous race despite being almost 3900 times lesser in number compared to before the Day of Fate. Over the millennia humanity has changed a lot. The base human is generally shorter, stouter and paler compared to before they moved underground due to less sunlight and different diets. But due to irradiated genes and therefore mutations humanity as a whole has diverged wildly. They live among their own descendants. Other races born from humans include elves, gnomes, dwarves, tieflings, orcs, dragonborn, halflings and many others, along with half-human hybrids of several above races. But as mentioned humans are still the most numerous race, and one of the most creative and organized. For better or for worse.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Humans are the inspiration behind the phrase humanoid. A human is bipedal with an upright stance and has two long arms. Their hands have 5 dexterous fingers which helped them become so dominant 2 million years earlier. The head is oval-shaped with hair of varying lengths on top. Males and females differ a bit in appearance. Females have breasts, males have more body hair. Females are shorter and generally leaner, males are a bit taller and stockier. They also have separate reproductive organs. Unlike for example the wildly varying tiefling, humans in different areas still tend to look very similar with only small differences like average height and skin colour.

Genetics and Reproduction

A male and a female human must get intimate to make a child. The female carries the child in her stomach for 9 months until it's fully formed and ready to be born. The resulting offspring possesses traits from both parents. It could have similar eyes as its father and similar adult height as its mother for example. A human can have a child with several other races like elves, orcs, tieflings and even create hybrids with the former two. They only seem to be compatible with creatures of similar shape and biology though; there has never been born a child from a human and a gnome, dragonborn, halfling or tortle for example.

Growth Rate & Stages

When humans are born they are very small and helpless, needing their parents to do everything for them. They grow quickly for the first 7 years of their life and while they do still need their parents for most things they gradually learn how to do things by themselves. Around 12-13 years of age they enter puberty, and for the next 4-5 years of their life they undergo several changes as they mature into adulthood. A human is usually fully physically mature at 16-19 years old, although their brains aren't fully mature until around 25 years old.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Humans have the biggest facial differences between genders out of all current races that populate the earth. Males generally have more square faces with a lot of hair on their chin in the form of beards and mustaches, while females generally have softer faces without any hair on them. This differs from other races who generally don't have as much facial diversity between genders (f. e. dwarves of both genders grow beards while elves of both genders have sharp hairless faces).

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Humans live in several cities on every continent, and if a city has more than one race humans are almost always one of them. How many there are depends on the city and continent but in most cases they make up the biggest part of the populace.

Average Intelligence

Humans was by far the most intelligent species around before the day of fate, but since all other races are subspecies of them they all share the spot. However, humans tend to be the most innovative and creative race wherever they live. If a city has developed a new helpful invention 7 times out of 10 it was made by a human.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Most humans retain the naming traditions of old; the child retains one of their parents's last names and is given a first name by them. Many names are retained from ages ago, but a bunch of new ones have popped up in places. These can mean a lot of different things depending on where they come from. Human names in Aetherwatch allude to animal names or emotions, like the name Vormas after the Purple Worm or the name Spoja meaning "calm" for example.

Beauty Ideals

Humans set the standards of each city's beauty ideals. Many people who are attracted to someone agree that the bigger someone is the better. This can include height, females breasts, both genders muscularity and rear end and their hair. Of course this all varies from person to person and most relations are formed due to both parties personalities, but these are the most common views regarding the physical appearance.

Average Technological Level

Humanity lost most of its technology when they fled underground. This means that they are comparatively less advanced than their precursor, and some inventions are rediscoveries of old technology lost to time. Some of these rediscovered acomplishments include electric lighting in various areas, elevators in Ouverton, flamethrowers in Akadence, humanoid robots in the now dead city of Motanuw and submarines in Aetherwatch. There have been several new discoveries though that wasn't around earlier, like hovercars, plasma weapons, arm cannons and solid light constructs.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Human language was extremely varied before the Day of Fate with thousands of variations. Due to the population drastically decreasing after the magic fallout and underground escape only a few of them survived. These later mixed and evolved to the around 20 languages around today. These include Common (from English), Elvish (from Swedish), Dwarvish (from Finnish), Gnomish (from French), Draconic (from Welsh with a bit of Irish) and more. These languages aren't limited to humans but rather the cities, and come in different variations depending on the city. The Elvish in Underköping varies a bit from the Elvish in Vaaston for example.

Historical Figures

Since humans have been along for ages, many of them have taken their own place in the historical archives. These include:

• Amalie Lichtenfelts, Founder of Akadence. Amalie was a part of the german parliament around the Day of Fate and among the survivors of the contaminated Stuttgart who fled underground. She was the one with the most experience in leading a city there, so she spearheaded the efforts to survive and rebuild. In the year 10 PDF. the city of Neau Leben was founded and steadily grew into what we know today as Akadence. She passed away at the relatively early age of 67 due to untreated infections, and is still read about in schools to this day as the founder of the most successful city in Europe and maybe even earth.
• Johan Morrow, Marshall of the Ontrielle Rebellion. Johan Morrow was the leader of the pro-human terrorist group known as the Sapiens Liberators in Ontrielle, former Canada. He orchestrated a devastating coup against the minister to take control of the city, and he did after a lot of bloodshed. Now in charge, he banished all the non-humans to the surface and had protestors killed. Now, 1500 years after his reign, Ontrielle is still a fully human populated city who teaches about Morrow in schools as a hero who drove out the "monsters".
• Esmeralda Mavera, Discoverer of the Mana Formula. Esmeralda Mavera is a scientist from the city of Arcshire, former Spain. She has dedicated her adult life to discovering a cure for magic poisoning to one day brave the entire earth and make it safe to go out anywhere. And recently she succeeded. Her Mana Formula makes the person who injects it immune to moderate amounts of magic radiation at the cost of not being able to manipulate it (e.g. cast spells). This means that Arcshire has made themselves immune to several magic effects that make the surface creatures so dangerous. Dr. Mavera is thus responsible for putting Arcshire front and center in the reclaiming of the world.
• Gabriel, Diplomat of the Nocturnals. Gabriel is a skilled member of the thieves guild known as the Nocturnals who got the attention of the Akadence militia when they were putting together a crew of people to brave the surface. Thus he was put on the team that successfully went from Akadence to Ouverton and established a connection. His skills as a tactitian and a thief are remarkable, and despite his shady background has become an instant legend along with his team for marking the beginning of the new era.

Common Myths and Legends

The most prominent legend - and shame - of humans is the Day of Fate itself. The ones who brought magic into the world and used it to not only destroy the surface world, but also force everyone underground for several millennia, were the humans of old. This is a secret closely guarded by several human historians in a few cities; only about 20 cities worldwide has any knowledge of the event archived. Very few non-humans know about the Day of Fate, and those who do are either trusted by human accomplices or under strict watch. There was one city in south Asia where the truth got out, and that resulted in The Human Purge. The city's entire human population was struck down by the other livid races over the course of a city wide war that lasted about a month, and nowadays humans as a whole are remembered as destructive doom bringers there.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Views on humans toward other races and vice versa vary between cities. For the most part they don't think anything special about each other and coexist peacefully, but in some cities it's not so good. Cities like the Canadian Ontrielle consists of humans that view anything that isn't like them as abominations that need to be destroyed, while the Nepalese city Rakaska is the opposite; humans are remembered as destructive doom bringers and nothing else. And in every city there is the occasional racism in certain individuals. But as a whole humans and the other races live together without issue. And interspecies romantic/sexual relationships aren't uncommon either. These relationships are the reason why hybrids such as half-elves and half-orcs are as common as they are.

Aetherwatch Human

Genetic Descendants

• Dragonborn
• Gnome
• Tiefling

Scientific Name

Homo Sapiens Subterra

Origin/Ancestry

Africa

Lifespan

60-70 years

Average Height

1.6 meters (Females)
1.7 meters (Males)

Average Weight

60-80 kg

Average Physique

Varies between cities, but generally short and lean.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Humans are not as vividly coloured as tieflings or dragonborn, but still come in several skin tones. This ranges between dark brown, light peach-like, pale white and everything inbetween. In general they are paler and more lightly coloured than before the Day of Fate, but the variation is still appearent.

Related Myths

• The Day of Fate