Human
The inexplicable nature of humans has led them to spread out far and wide across the realm of Jordaheim. Building kingdoms and empires in every corner of the world, only to inevitably succumb to war and strife, almost setting them back to the beginning. Yet, unlike all other races of the world, humans press on to newer heights despite their failures. As if there is a burning desire to forge their very own destiny from themself. This resulted in humans being so similar yet far too different from one another at the same time, which has, to no end, confounded all other races. Including the humans themselves.
Human Biology
- ( 1) ✦ Ability Score Bonus: +1 to an ability score of your choice.
- (-1) Fragile. -1 to your Constitution score.
- ( 5) Well Rounded: Requirement: Human Legacy: +1 to all ability scores rather than one ability score.
- Size. Medium.
- Speed. 30 feet.
- ( ~) Halfkin: Requirement: Legacy of a different race: You can pick a racial feature from the Biological section of the race that you have the legacy for. The Ancestry Point cost will increase by 1 more, however.
Human Ethnology
- (-1) Attribute Decrease: Choose an ability score and decrease the chosen ability by 1 (to a minimum of 8).
- ( 2) ✦ Versatile. You gain another 1st-level Feat of your choice in addition to the 1st-level feat your Background provides.
- ( 1) ✦ Skillful. You gain Proficiency in one Skills of your choice.
- (-1) Frail. Your hit point maximum reduces by 1 for every hit die used to determine your health.
- (-1) Craven: You have disadvantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened Condition on yourself.
- ( 2) Socially astute. Whenever you make a skill check related to polite conversing, understanding a creature's motives, manoeuvring high society, or any other skill checks related to social engagement, you add your proficiency bonus to the roll. The bonus stacks with any already existing bonuses.
- (-2) Magic-Ignorance. Whenever you make a skill check related to determining magic, studying the arcane, understanding magical creatures, magical abilities, or any other skill check related to magic, you subtract your proficiency bonus from the roll.
- ( 1) Nomadic Resilience. You are used to travelling, hardship, and shifting environments. While travelling, you have advantage on the first saving throws per day against extreme environmental effects such as exhaustion from heat, cold, or high winds.
Human Legacy
Unlike other races, there are so many humans pinning down specific lineages that it becomes an utterly futile task. And since the vast majority of the civilised world is inhabited and governed by man, their cultures are just as diverse as it is numerous.- ( 1) ✦ Determination. You gain Inspiration whenever you finish a Long Rest.
- ( 2) Skill Expertise: You gain Expertise in one Skill that you are already proficient in.
- ( 1) Tundra Born: Requirement: Born into a cold climate: You are naturally adapted to cold climates. Granting you advantage on any saving throws against extreme cold and other cooling environmental effects. You also roll with advantage on the first saving throw against cold damage after a long rest.
- ( 1) Desert Born: Requirement: Born into a warm climate: You are naturally adapted to warm climates. Granting you advantage on any saving throws against extreme heat and other warm environmental effects. You also roll with advantage on the first saving throw against cold damage after a long rest.
- ( 3) Human Resolve: Increase your number of death saves by 1.
- (-3) Magic vulnerability. You have disadvantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Basic Information
Behaviour
The few social traits that scholars of the other races can be pinned down are the following:
- Magic Supersticion. Unlike all other races, Humans have no historical records that tie them to a magical origin. They simply appeared one day. It's speculated that his absence is the source of their wariness of the magical, from drummed-up fascination to outright hostility.
- Determination. Even though humans are lacking in physical endurance compared to races like the dwarves, orks, bugbears, and another hardy kinds, their spiritual perseverance is more than capable of compensation for their physical shortcomings.
- Adaptive. One cause for the worldwide spread of humanity is their capacity to either adjust the environment to their liking, or be adjusted to the environment. If given enough generations, humans will thrive in places where other races may have difficulty.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Humans cover approximately 70% of the known world. With either a tribe or a kingdom that has been established in a region for 200 years or more. With settlements built on top of ruins made by their ancestors, of wich their ruins were built on top of ruins even older than that. Most of the older ruins weren't made by humans.
Civilization and Culture
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Humans are as varied as they are numerous, which makes it hard to pin down a general custom or tradition to encompass all of humanity. It is more reasonable to apply customs and traditions for humans depending on the sovereignty and the location with they congregate. Kingdom by kingdom and tribe by tribe.
Class Preferance
From top to bottom, this displays the prevalence and conception of the different classes in human society. Some societies may vary from one to another, but this is the general view and prevalence of professions among most humans.Warriors
As long as there is a lord who needs soldiers to maintain their authority, there are able-bodied men who would be more than willing to become a man-at-arms to fight for their homeland. If anything else, there are plenty of mercenary companies, merchants, and town guards willing to bolster their numbers. As long as there are men that has something pointy enough and are willing to charge into battle, there will be no lack of warriors.
Fighters: Peasants and Serfs returning home after their military service tend to be awarded the status of freemen, granting them autonomy and funds to go wherever they want. With their veteranacy in warfare, becoming a fighter is the most practical option.
Barbarians: Able-bodied men that have tapped into a more primal source of strength. They serve as the shock troops of more veteran retinues. But amongst the tribal humans, those who prefer the more savage life rather than social conformity, are the primary fighting force.
Rangers: Some men find themselves on the long, winding, and uncharted trails of the wilds. Either for wanderlust or to keep their lord's land safe in a more subtle way. These men ply their trade as guards and guides for travelers, and are greatly sought after and respected as such.
Faithfull
With suspicion of the supernatural comes a strong, and at times blind, fixation with appealing to higher powers to ward off harmful entities. And with humans being so lacking in magical ability and knowledge, this fact becomes far more evident. Even though the days that man huddled around campfires fearing the dark of night and what hides in it, the desire to hope for brighter days has not diminished.
Cleric: Priests and nuns are highly respected in human societies. For they are treading a path of enlightenment to help guide the rest to better days. As such, the little divine magic that can be called upon is met with reverence. Their temples often served as houses of healing and sanctuary, with their clerics training and studying to keep them as such.
Paladin:The knight in shining armour is an often romanticized image, which many men desire to embody, but few can endure the sacrifice and discipline that would be required to walk it. Given how many humans there are, the likelihood of one being deemed worthy is exceptionally high compared to other races. They tend not to linger in the safety behind walls, venturing out to fulfill their divine given oath. Fighting the monsters before they can make their way into human land.
Specialits
Even though humans have a broad sense of skill and land adaptability, they do have difficulty in mastering one field or specialty. Those few humans who do are highly sought after by all manner of clients. Good and bad.
Rouge: Humans who tend not to have hangups around morality for how they go about applying their skills. Many human societies don't hold a favourable view of rogues, seeing them as bandits, thieves, and good-for-nothing thugs. Despite it all, for as long as there is something to be stolen, planted, or a person made to disappear, there is rarely a lack of rouges willing to work.
Bard: Besides working as road-wandering minstrels, bards tend to serve as the messengers between villages. Making rhymes and songs based on recent events to spread news, while earning coin in the process. With this world knowledge gathering, it isn't a wonder that some of them became rather adept with magic. Which is quite useful to have when they are running out of a village due to a misunderstanding or two.
Monk: Much like clerics, monks are primarily humans who seek to achieve enlightenment. They do so not by appeasing higher entities to be shown the way, but by finding it themselves. This allows them to be a bit more flexible in how they ply their trade for the rest of human society, some more helpful than others. But they primarily serve as guardians of towns in the east. A dedicated martial artist who provides for a village physically and spiritually.
Magic Gifted
Humans usually tend to value faith highly, being short-lived and suspicious of all kinds of non-divine magical power. Which is why human societies tend to have a lot of clerics for study and aid, and paladins for guarding and protection. But there is still a place for the other magic casters, for however few of them there are. As long as they don't give the rest a reason not to keep them around.
Sorcerer: The vast majority of Sorcerers are human due to the sheer number of humans. The probability of being born with magick is slim at best, hence why human has the most by numbers alone. If a Sorcerer were to be found in a province, the local lord would often take the opportunity to have the magically innate join his service. Usually, by promising the Sorcerer protection as well as other amenities. Even going so far as to completely forgo the taxation of the Sorcerers' family, should they be serfs in his domain. As long as the Sorcerer serves the lord.
Druid: A rare sight amongst civilised land. Since their magic is drawn from the very ley lines of the world, the civilised cities erected recklessly across the land disrupt these primal emissions. Therefore, druids are often seen by humans, at the best of times, as nuisances or crazy people who disrupt their daily lives by trying to return humans to the "old ways". Among the more tribal human gatherings, they are revered as wise shamans who both protect, provide, and teach the tribe how to best navigate the wilderness without disturbing it.
Artificer: Sometimes, a guild worker would get their hands on a magic tome, using it to try and improve their business. This often ends in catastrophic disasters due to how unskilled they are in the arcane craft. Usual claiming their life in the process. But should they successfully get a grasp of the trepidatious craft, they will be both sought after by high society and avoided by the peasantry, if they are lucky.
Wizard: Some humans dedicate their lives to the study of magic, however, they tend to become aged and frail when they achieve their magical sentith, while other races are granted more time. It hasn't stopped them from excelling in their respective fields, which is why human wizards and sorcerers are regarded with respect and fear.
Warlock: Should a person be discovered to have made a pact with an otherworldly entity, they'll be lucky to only be put on trial. With what is required to make a pact with a fiend, an old one, or a fey, most humans don't want to take the risk of letting one live amongst them. For there are plenty of horror stories about people making contact with otherworldly creatures, with endings that bring about devastation and misery for all who were involved. Should it be confirmed that you made a pact with a devil, the pyre awaits you.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Recollections become rumours, rumours become stories, stories become grand tales, and grand tales become myths.
With how prevalent and constant human culture is in the world, a lot of the non-human races have opted to either live close to or even integrate with the 'civilised' world. While it allows humans to live rather well with other races, with them adopting human norms and values, it is usually at the cost of their prior culture.
While this allows humans to have a simple understanding of the other races, this perception can be coloured by their biases or ignorance. While this won't result in stigma in of itself, should there be repeated negative interactions between humans and another race, then it may spark a downward spiral that ends in full persecution by humans.