Humans
Humans are the predominant sentient species on the continent of Zang-Thara. Their technology is medieval and their magical abilities are fairly low. Only few humans have actually seen magic with their own eyes.
Basic Information
Anatomy
In general humans are the same as real-life humans with a few exceptions. There are some humans who have angel-like wings, which give them the ability to fly for a few minutes, depending on their personal fitness. This phenotype is passed down from parents to their children, if both parents have wings. Linked to having wings is also having blue hair. Children of one blue haired parent and someone with a different hair colour can have children with a mixture of both haircolours, for example purple, teal or even silvery/white. Humans with these unusual hair colours have a higher chance of having children with wings if paired with a winged human. Contrary to common belief, the winged phenotype does not come with other enhanced abilities, only a few minutes of flight, depending of the humans fitness.
There are two main phenotypes of humans, the tharaian and the zangian humans. While the tharaian humans, who populate most of the habitable Thara, look like real life Europeans, the zangian humans, residing in the north-east of Zang, look more like real life eastern asian people.
Civilization and Culture
Average Technological Level
Due to a relatively low level of magical abilities, humans heavily rely on their technological superiority and managed to invent and use various machines. Lots of their craftsmanship is dedicated to defend against The Hunt or to build up armies like masonry and smithing.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Humans are not very religious. A lot don't care if a deity exists or not and some even heavily deny the existence of a God. Only a minority is still actively believing and regularily going to the traditional church. A lot more are going to church out of traditional obligations on certain holidays. The church is still pretty organized but since it used to have more members a long time a go, it had to cut down the efforts and even abandon some of the church buildings, which now either fall apart or are used differently. Generally faith is not much talked about.
History
In the Split War winged humans would have a very important role carrying the banner and holding it up while flying in dire situations. This naturally gave them the power of decision making.
They even kept this after The Big Split, now functioning as generals in the quest to eradicate all Alter and also when unifying the humans, who at this point, just like all the other species, were scattered across the continents and looking for shelter from The Swarm.
Both, Tharaian and Zangian humans were led by winged humans. When the kingdoms formed it was the norm to have winged humans do the decision making, not because of any better characteristics inherently witht their wings, only because of the symbolic nature. Exceptions are Volkstädt and Kahlrock Kingdom successively. The exiled humans who founded Guldentown were exiled by the leading winged humans of Keltingen. Since then the people of Guldentown are not very please with any winged human, stereotypes were formed. The exiled humans were actually the first revolutionists. When their first attempt of overthrowing the government failed, they were exiled. As a result, the rest of the population was not pleased either and began to shift their view. When the leaders of Keltingen began to oppress the people even more, their resentment with them grew even more.
This ended in 801 AS, when not only Kahlrock Kingdom revolted against their local government - which put in charge by their current "protectors", Keltingen - in 801, but instead the whole of Keltingen, who was more and more resentful towards their government because of mistreatment and suppression of anyone who dared to speak up. So in 801 the people of High Castle stormed the castle, while the army mostly stood and watched, because they were angry with them as well. Some fought with, some against the revolotionists, it was chaos. With only the closest people still loyal to the king and the royal family, they stood no chance and were defeated. The city sank into chaos and people on the streets killed anyone with wings or blue hair. It was a bloodbath and would be known in history as the Night of the Red Streets. What remains of the royal families fled to Sildenfil, where they were taken in as refugees. The high general, a non-winged, took the crown and crowned himself King over Keltingen with the support of the people, as a first non-winged king on High Castle's throne ever. Just a few weeks later Sildenfil took the opportunity and launched an attack against severely weakened Keltingen. Then Volkstädt marched as well and the Devouring happened, leading to the proposal of the idea of a High King.
Sildenfil is still led by winged humans, while not being too oppressive. This leads to a better relationship between winged and non-winged humans in Sildenfil. The island just a few kilometers to the east of Thara, Sanctuary Bay, belonging to Sildenfil Kingdom, is mostly inhabited by winged humans and contains a huge library. Scholars try to keep record of all historical events here. In the serenity some can even manage to harness magical powers.
Political tensions ensure in Tharian High-King council, because the leading families of Sildenfil are winged and all the other kingdoms have a very bad view on them. But they have to manage, due to the pressing problems of rebuilding and maintaining peace.
In Hisashi on the other hand the first emperor, called Hisashi, is a winged human with great wisdom and strategy. The ground on which the Hisashi Empire is founded upon is a relatively fair constitution with a constitutional monarchy, where the Emperor has not too much power and winged, as well as non-winged humans have to be present at all times in the council. Of course, over the years the government style changes slightly, and intrigues and backstabbing is part of Hisashi culture, but it feels fair for the people and they don't fully change the system until present day.
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