Humans

Humans are one of the oldest and most diverse races in the Material Plane. In their earliest days, they arose (as many sentient races have) from the island of Inismona. These ancient ancestral humans soon arrived on Gerrim after seeking new lands, and founded an advanced civilization that stood for thousands of years before being fractured by the invention of soulforging. Following the collapse of this ancient civilization, the human race would split and diverge over thousands of years into many distinct lineages spread across much of the Material Plane. Listed below are the human lineages that are currently known.

The Fjordssons

Main Page: Fjordsson Humans
The Fjordssons are the largest and most influential lineage of the known human groups present on the Material Plane. Before they grew numerous and became an entire lineage in their own right, the Fjordsson clan was responsible for the reclaiming of the Northland from a flight of white dragons, and the eventual founding of Haven. They are relatively strong and durable compared to humans of other lineages, largely due to the fact that the Fjordsson bloodline contains frost giant ancestry. If an adventurer is anywhere near Haven, most humans they encounter are likely to be of Fjordsson heritage.

The Winterwheat Islanders

The Winterwheat Islanders are one of the oldest known human lineages, though they are also one of the least numerous. They are the ancestors that the Fjordssons split off from, and for centuries they have been resented by their descendants for their old misdeeds. Due to their betrayal, they were cursed for all time by the Fjordssons to have their weakness stained into their faces and to be forever bound to the Winterwheat Isles. As a result, these humans are almost never seen anywhere outside of these isles, and this tiny amount of territory has constrained their population.

The Cruzadores

The Cruzadores share much of their ancient history with the Fjordssons and the Winterwheat Islanders, but their story diverges after the arrival of white dragons in the Northland. The human settlers that had arrived from the Winterwheat Isles fled from the dragons both to the east out to sea, as well as to the south into the forest. The contingent that fled to the sea eventually gave rise to the modern Winterwheat Islanders and Fjordssons, but the contingent that fled south would end up permanently settling the southernmost region of the Northland, a land which they named Cruzado. Despite its relative proximity to Haven, Cruzado has not had particularly close ties with the city until recently, as Cruzadores merchants were among the groups involved in the founding of Norvesh, a city which has since been assimilated into Haven and exists as a special semi-autonomous district. A fair number of Cruzadores live within Haven's walls, though most of them are clustered in or near Norvesh.

The Bilraqighani

Bilraqighani humans are the least known and least understood human lineage. Their homeland is the arid, desert island of Bilraqighan, located in the middle of the southern part of the Gerrim Sea. Bilraqighan was one of the first populated foreign lands to be encountered by exploratory vessels from Haven. Initial contact between the Havenic fleet and the Bilraqighani people went extremely poorly, with violence soon breaking out between the two sides. While the Bilraqighani were at first no match for the martial skill of the Havenic soldiers, they soon retaliated with forms of magic that had never been seen by Havenic eyes and which they could not possibly hope to fight against. A truce was formed, and no violence has occurred between the two sides since. Some trading and cultural exchanges have been attempted by the humans of Haven over the years, but these have been met with very limited success as the Bilraqighani are an enigmatic people who live by a strict set of rituals that is incomprehensible to outsiders. The only recorded instance of any significant number of Bilraqighani leaving their island home took place following the Leviathan Impact, when small bands of craftspeople migrated to Norvesh, where many of them integrated with the Norveshi.

The Crobashi

The Crobashi are the humans native to the land of Crobash, a small territory on the coasts of Ukrat's inland Croba Sea. Though the amount of land they control is small, the Crobashi are a highly populous people and their cities are packed to a population density close to that of Haven. They are an ancient lineage of humans with a rich history stretching back thousands of years, but their expansion has been limited due to the fact that they are surrounded on all sides by fearsome rival states with which they have been locked in interminable territorial skirmishes. This has started to change since the arrival of Havenic explorers, however. With the aid of Havenic forces, as well as strikes carried out by the Iron Helix Syndicate, the Crobashi have begun to expand their territory. Unlike with many of Haven's initial encounters with foreign nations, Crobash and Haven quickly became extremely close allies, with Crobash effectively operating as a distant western territory of Haven. While rare, Crobashi humans may also be found wandering the streets of Haven; many Crobashi dream of visiting Haven, but the teleportation services are expensive and passage to and across the Ukrat Sea is exceedingly dangerous.

The Fjallans

Were it not for the fact that the Fjallans themselves identify as human, no anthropologist or explorer would ever have called them such. Fjallans are massive beings, closer in size and build to giants than to other humans, possessing muscles strong enough to swing hammers nearly as large as themselves and skin with a toughness like that of stone. Their home is the rim of the enormous active volcano called Fjallokull, located on the island of Surmusra to the southeast of Gerrim in the Dawn Sea. They do not have a written history of their own, and so it is unknown how long they have lived on this volcano or why they identify as human; they are somehow certain of their humanity, and the volcano is the only home they can remember. Part of this is due to their attachment to Fjallokull, but it is partly because they had been confined to this area for thousands of years by the inhabitants of the lower part of the volcano and its foothills, the Stelites. In recent times, the Iron Helix Syndicate brokered a peace agreement between the Fjallans and Stelites so that the Fjallans would aid in a war against another faction native to Surmusra known as the Xuuluu. Since then, the Fjallans mostly returned to their simple way of life at the top of their volcano, though a rare few took on lives as adventurers and can be found traveling through Haven and the wider world.

The Stelites

The Stelites are a lineage of humans living on the sides and at the base of the volcano Fjallokull on the island of Surmusra. They are similar in appearance to the Fjallans that inhabit the Volcano's rim, but they are much closer in strength and proportion to other humans. For as long as their people can remember, they had been trapped in their territory by their Fjallan neighbors farther up the volcano and their Xuuluu neighbors inhabiting the vast jungles covering the rest of the island. Though they were strong warriors with many mages among their ranks, they could not match the raw power of the Fjallans or the sheer numbers of the Xuuluu. When the Iron Helix Syndicate made contact with them while leading a Havenic exploratory force, they were able to make a deal in exchange for access to their vast mineral resources: the Iron Helix and Havenic forces would help them deal with the Fjallans and Xuuluu, and in return Havenic companies could mine as much as they wanted. The Stelites ended up agreeing to a peace with the Fjallans and aiding in a successful war against the Xuuluu. Today, the Stelites have assimilated into Havenic society and rule Surmusra as a Havenic territory. It is not uncommon to see them in Haven, as many have set out to travel the world due to their newfound wealth gained through their mining agreement.

The Xuuluu

The Xuuluu are the least numerous of all known human lineages, though this was not always the case. They were once a thriving people, and were the dominant force on the island of Surmusra. In ancient times, they shared the island with two other tribes- the ancestors of the groups that would become the Stelites and the Fjallans. Due to conflicts whose details are now long lost to history, the Xuuluu claimed all of the rich, fertile land on the island for themselves, and forced the Stelites and the Fjallans up the sides of the great volcano Fjallokull. For countless generations, the Xuuluu lived in relative peace, with the exception of skirmishes with the Stelites who would frequently attempt to claim pieces of bountiful jungle land for themselves. This all changed when both the Stelites and Fjallans aligned themselves with foreign invaders from Haven and started a brutal campaign of extermination against the Xuuluu. Nearly every Xuuluu was wiped out in a single day, due in large part to the particularly vicious work of the Iron Helix Syndicate. Only the Xuuluu families living on small minor islands off the western coast of Surmusra survived this genocide, and they quickly fled to the sea to escape any further violence. Arriving on Gerrim, the Xuuluu encountered Rej, who aided the surviving Xuuluu families in purchasing and developing a small piece of land on the southeast coast to found the small village of Bandari.

The Norveshi

Main Page: Norveshi 
The Norveshi are the newest distinct group of humans, although there is ongoing argument that they should be recognized as such. This argument stems from the fact that they, as a people, came into existence barely 50 years before the present day, leading scholars and politicians to argue that they cannot possibly be considered a separate branch of humanity. Their history and identity are tied to the special Haven district of Norvesh which was founded (originally as "New Haven") in late 50 HE after the events of the Leviathan Impact. Their lineage is the product of the mixing of Fjordsson, Cruzadore, Xuuluu, and Bilraqighani bloodlines and cultures that occurred among the initial settlers of Norvesh. Due to the recency of this exchange, all of the humans with true Norveshi blood are still very young, with the oldest among them in their thirties and fourties; most of them are young adults. However, the parents of these individuals, while ethnically Fjordsson, Cruzadore, Xuuluu, or Bilraqighani themselves, generally choose to identify culturally as Norveshi, making them the largest human minority group in Haven. The driving force behind their sense of being a separate people is likely their technological superiority to all other Haven factions; it is unclear to the Haven government how it is possible, but Norvesh has far surpassed the rest of the city in terms of their arms, armor, architecture, and everyday tools and equipment.
Some Havenites see Norvesh as a shining beacon that will guide Haven into a new age, while others are contemptuous of them and are wary of their seemingly impossible rate of progress; surely such advancements must have a secret terrible cost, they say. Some are afraid that their rise will upset the delicate balance of power that has kept Haven united even in the face of catastrophes like the Leviathan Impact, and fear that this faction poses an existential threat to Havenic society. Ultimately, the Norveshi are still a young people, and the way in which they will change the world remains to be seen.