Human

"Humans are an invasive species."

— Nabijač, the Kar of Vlast

Humans are the most common of the sentient species in the Great Ring, with populations that outnumber the others by several orders of magnitude. There are many cultures of human beings across the islands, some of which will be listed below. Despite this, humans are not native to this world. They were drawn across the Dream by the Nakaal thousands of years ago, in an attempt to find a source of souls to fuel their magic. This led directly to the Clarati genocides that destroyed the Nakaal and their empire, and the population of human beings have since expanded to its current dominance.

Civilization and Culture

History

In the last years of the Empire of Muria, the ruling Nakaal faced a crisis of supply. Their magic, upon which they had built their civilization, depended on the consumption of souls. Prior to their conquest of nearly the entire Great Ring, they had fed this need with prisoners of war, storing their spiritual energies, and then running all of their magic off of this store for a few years. But eventually there was no more densely populated regions to conquer, and the Nakaal had to find another source.

At first, they attempted to survive on their own criminals, but quickly found that this was insufficient, and that strip-mining their own population for their souls was a recipe for constant rebellion. So they decided to seek out some creature that could serve as spiritual livestock. They needed a being with a strong enough spirit to fuel magic efficiently, but without a large population of magicians themselves. After much searching and scrying, they decided that humans would be an acceptable choice.

They used their magic to forge bonds of Association between the world of the Great Ring and the many worlds where humans could be found, and then pulled thousands of human beings from their own worlds and into this one. They appeared all over the Great Ring at once, in the locations most similar to the locations they were last. Because of the nature of Association, they found much was familiar in their new world - in some cases, they even shared a language with the people who were native to this world.

But the great Nakaal ritual did not operate as they had planned. Somehow, they also drew the Clarati to their world along with the humans. The Clarati are a strange race of powerful magicians who look like humans externally, but have vastly different powers and motivations. Each Clarati was capable of razing a city full of Nakaal sorcerers, and after a few months that is exactly what they did. The Clarati collectively massacred nearly every citizen of Muria, while leaving the humans alone. When they finally finished their destruction and chose to form their own society on Sange, the humans outnumbered the living remains of the Kikipua and Zmei that previously filled the Great Ring.

Human Cultures

When the Nakaal brought humans across the Dream, they drew them from dozens of cultures across many worlds. Here are a few of the most prominent in the world today, and you can find all of them listed in the Culture Index.

Genetic Descendants

• Aethry
• Eofor
• Selkie

Geographic Distribution

• The Islands

Related Myths

• Selkie Skin Trade

Selkies and Aethry

Human beings are the root from which the Selkie and Aethry species originated. In both cases, groups of humans were altered by their gods into new forms. You can read more about these child species here.

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