Humans

Humans are an uncommon species of sentient creatures on Nys. Most of them live in the Arkadhian New Empire and in Cajena, while smaller communities can be found in the southern cities of the Free Lands.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

Humans are the engine upon which imperial technology runs. Innovative thinkers, human inventors and engineers are behind most non-magical imperial advancements. They claim to be the first to find out how to use gunpowder, especially to make weapons. While others contend with them the gunpowder's discovery, like the people in the Sun Desert Kingdom, it is a fact that in other regions where humans are missing, such as Doujate, guns are still uncommon.

History

Some scholars in the Empire advanced an evolution theory according to which humans would be the oldest sentient species of Nys, from which all others evolved.
The argument in favour of the theory is two-fold.
The basis lies on an ancient tablet found in arkadhian ruins, which states "In the beginning, (a couple of worn-out words) humans had faith in (several illegible lines). After the monster, they braced for the end. (the rest of the tablet was destroyed)". While the inscription is incomplete and, for the most part, not very useful, it hints at the fact that humans existed in the first era already, whilst there is no account of other species. The word for "human" has been related to the new arkadhian one, and linguists agree it does, indeed, mean "human", not just "sentient creature".
The second argument is that humans mostly live in the Empire and the neighbouring regions. According to the theory, humans "bracing for the end" would go back inside some stronghold in the core of the First Empire, corresponding to the area in the modern Arkadhe. Those remaining outside were forced to evolve and change to adapt the new environment of the Second Era.
The most common argument against the theory is the rarity of humans. Even in the Empire, the majority of the population consists of elves. When taking into consideration the whole continent, humans are just a fraction of the total population. While the difficulties in censing regions like the Sichine Nilne or the Rojgrasz make precise calculations impossible, it is estimated that humans only amount to 1-5% of the population, against the 60-90% of the elves.
Other arguments point out how some sentient species are so drastically different from humans there is no way they could evolve from them. Head examples are the avian species and the crustaceans.