Knowing

The Knowing (also referred to simply as Knowing) is a collective term that refers to the plethora of races that make up the moralistic lands of Halûme. It can be used interchangably with words such as "people" or "folk" but bears a greater, and sometimes even political implication than these more common words.

Criteria

In short, a race is considered a part of the Knowing collective if it fulfills two philisophically recognized criteria:

1. The race is capable of complex thought
2. The race is typically born with a soul

The importance of this distinction, and the etymology of the term, can be traced back to the Shrouded Empire of antiquity. It was the sanguine elves who first believed there to be reason to draw lines between the species in such a way, as there was common thought that while humans were born with souls, during the Ashcurse they had lost their ability to perform truly complex thought.
It is worth noting that while the second criteria may have existed in some informal assumption for the duration of entire aevum, it was not untill the creation of the Riven that the need for clearer distinction was necessary among the powers of the Shrouded Empire. Thus, the second criteria was officiated, supported by documents that have been preserved since the collapse of the Shrouded Empire.

Races Considered Knowing

By no means an exhaustive list, these are some of the races that are referred to as the Knowing:

• Aaracokra
• Angels
• Beastfolk
• Bitki
• Caecilia
• Dragonborn
• Dwarves
• Elves
• Firbolg
• Githyanki
• Gnomes
• Halflings
• Humans
• Kenku
• Lycan
• Kryn
• Tiefling
• Vaeltaja