Humans

Humans
Race
Pronunciation	Hue-man
Population	328 Million
Naming Customs	Any Irl Customs
Traits
Magic Potential	Yes
Min/Max Age	110
Min/Max Height	5ft - 6'7
Average Weight	168
Eye Colors	Black, Blue, Green, Orange
Hair Colors	Black, Blonde, Brown, Ginger,
Skin Tones	Any IRL Colours
Half-Breed	Dwarves, All Elves, Ferox.
Artist Credit	none

Unlike the Elves who are renowned for mastering the arcane or the orcs who lead the technological field, humans are instead known for their abundance and adaptability in the known World. Believed by many to have first established themselves on the continent of Ortim, Humans have gradually, over thousands of years, colonized lone landmasses untouched by the pre-existing races and have established themselves as a powerhouse in their own right by sheer numbers alone. Humans that were native to Ortim, were historically often forced to become indentured servants to the long-established Dwarven Kingdoms, but have since evolved and grown into controlling their own, the likes of which even rival the ancient Elven ruling families and Orcish Chieftains. Due to aggressive expansion and exploration, Humans have adapted to form distinct cultures and governments -- all differing in worldview, class structure and goals and for that reason, it's not too surprising that the Humans that inhabit the Kingdom of Galudon range from all sorts of sizes and skin color, creed and beliefs.

Rivalled only by Elves in terms of their numbers, Humans are considered to be some of the most resilient peoples in the world, championing technology Pannotia-wide.

Physical Appearance

Humans have been categorized by other significant races such as the Elves and Orcs as being simple ‘inferior’ versions of themselves. This is due to the fact that when you place an Elf and a human side by side, the only true distinctions that can be made for a human in contrast to an elf are the lack of pointed ears, a shorter stature and that humans can be far more muscular than their traditionally lean elven cohorts. In truth, Humans are the most versatile in terms of phenotype as they can be a wide array of different body types, hair lengths, heights, weights, and skin colors. They are bipedal, standing on two legs and possessing two arms. They are able to reach heights of up to 6 foot 7 inches, though this is rare for the vast majority of the Human race but there are some offshoot peoples who have an innate ability for such, such as the women of the Istis Clans. Humans can be incredibly strong, but always dwarf in comparison to the Orcs that inhabit the workhouses, factories, and engineering companies. Humans are not born with tapped magical abilities, so mutations are uncommon, but rather the capacity to use magic is deeply occluded and requires decades of training to fully tap into a person’s Potentia; though never quite rivalling the innate talent of the Elven race.

Mentality and Creed

Due to the sheer number of humans and their prolific versatility to integrate themselves among other races and adapt to their environment, Humans have a vast array of different cultural offshoots, a great number of which are still waiting to be discovered. That said, Humans are attuned enough to hierarchy that it's practically become a subconscious need for them to integrate into one, or create one from nothing. This stems naturally from thousands of years of tribal mentality, where one or two people are recognized as the de facto head or heads of a group whose word is law and must be followed until challenged and leadership passes to another. This is however not to say that Humans do not have the mind for individuality, in fact, quite the opposite. Challenge to leadership, even within a stable status quo hierarchy, is a constant with people wishing to press their own rule of law and moral code. This is where Humans excel. Fundamentally, their want for societal advancement will always dictate a need to question authority where necessary and this helps to further promote their own mental individuality and pursuits. Humans are loyal to those whom they believe warrant their loyalty, making their hierarchies very prone to turbulence.

Humans as a consequence are very opinionated. Whether it be political, moral or quandaries surrounding personal dogma, each and every human is never truly a hundred percent the same. This is because Humans, despite the hierarchical structures in place, operate more to appease one's own self and dogma than to blindly follow any particular leader or central figure save for the rare occasions that their dogma and moral values line up in a manner deemed satisfactory to them. Even then, Human nature will eventually take over, reflection and evaluation setting in to probe the viability of the hierarchy established and whether change ought to be pressed. This is the inevitable by-product of the metaphorical safety net that hierarchy provides and the need for self evaluation and personal dogma spawns, so naturally, Human society can often be described as turbulent by scholars from other races when contrasting them to their own. Human governments rise and fall, Kingdoms are built from nothing but are just as easily reduced to rubble but it's this freedom and the lack of a true figurehead or central ideal that really sets the Human race apart from others.

When compared to other races, humans can be classed as extremely mundane. As a result, most if not all Human societies have taken to steam-powered technology to give them the much needed edge to match the might and intimidating strengths of the other known Races. A reliance on steam-powered machinery is deemed necessary by humans to establish themselves as a global power in Pannotia and, as a result of being one of the most mundane of Pannotia’s races, critical for the functioning of their society as Humans lack the innate ability to utilize magic in the same way as the Elves, the immense strength of the Orcs or the sheer wealth of the Dwarven race. In a sense, their technology and social advancement, complete with the decadence and opulence that comes with it, make Humans a distinct and less feeble, more difficult-to-conquer species, so much so that they have managed to over time garner the respect and friendship with the equally as technologically focused Orcish race.

With the primary focus on advancement and progress, Humans award themselves ample room for freedom of expression, sexuality, marry who they want, to conglomerate, and so on, provided none of these freedoms are exercised in a manner that obstructs the overall productivity of the Human population. This as a result has created a huge melting pot in the capital of Galudon with different races calling it home and working in unison. Family dynamics are mixed and its not uncommon in the slightest to see same-sex partnerships or marriages between the different races of Pannotia expressing themselves however they please. Parliament, the legislative body of the Humans in Galudon, and government bodies elsewhere across the known world are naturally cautious about hindering these freedoms, for fear of inciting rebellious intent, especially among the working class that enjoys these freedoms, though there is an extensive lawbook in each of these nations regulating certain behaviors that infringe upon others personal freedoms, such as assault, murder, theft and the like; though these often only apply to certain areas of Human settlements while others are left free for groups to run on their own; more often the less industrialized, run-down areas. Here, the Human law enforcement steer clear, never truly wishing to impose their enforcement at the behest of the Human governments, never wanting to overstep boundaries that have been established for decades. Despite this, the system works. Most of the people are happy, even if questioning their governing bodies intent, all thanks to the copious amount of liberties awarded to Human settlements.

History

The origins of the Human race is a widely debated mystery. While the Humans themselves believe that they were the first race to ever exist in Pannotia, having descended from a deity unknown to them, the Elves of Ellewren have a more logical basis for Human inception. The Elves have legends of sects of their kind abandoning magic usage and splitting away from Ellawren thousands of years ago. They believe that these sects, generation over generation, bred out their inherent potentia abilities, their ears and other physical traits mutating and changing until they became distinct from their own kind. They firmly believe that Humans are the descendants of these ‘traitors’. Still, the exact origins of the Human race, to this day remains unknown.

What is known is that despite how the Humans came to be, they made the Island North of Aesox; Ortim, their native home. Relics found on the Island corroborate this evidence, and ruins of primitive structures dated over two thousand years ago, unearthed from the West of the region indicate that these clans or tribes of Humans fought intense and bloody battles between one another. This would be a trend that all of Pannotia would observe even to this present day, albeit far larger and more brutal. The native Humans appear to have operated on a primitive form of feudalism with a single elected leader, a co-leader and some form of inheritance system. These would vary group to group and naturally was often the cause of many skirmishes and wars. Naturally, with so many tribes and constant struggles over power and land, the quickly expanding number of Humans sought elsewhere to populate, and where better than the vast landscape to their immediate South; Aesox.

The earliest known reliable records stem from this era. Notably, parchments recovered from the Geldar Treasure Horde in South Ortim, a large collection of early currency, gemstones and artifacts, show that mass migration of Humans began as early as 50AE, primarily to Aesox, but also to places like the Seigniory of Za'had, and even to Ellawren. The Elves of the latter, despite finding Humans beneath them, permitted Human immigrants to settle amongst them with the caveat of taking up modest, humble occupations such as farming. Some Humans were not so lucky. Those that found their ships encroached upon by Dwarven warships were often captured and returned to the Dwarven Empire as slaves, never to return to their families again.

For those who managed to make these new, uninhabited lands their own, prosperity and social advancement followed their arrival. The following three to four hundred years passed largely peacefully, save for minor petty land disputes and insignificant occupation of lesser known towns and hamlets. It wasn't until 824AE that the Human race faced its first major threat; raids from the Dwarven Empire. By this time, the Dwarves had accurately recognised that their rivalry with the Elves required more technological feats for any sort of victory over Ellawren, and for technological advancement, they would need an amble and adaptable workforce of slaves and who better than the “proto-elves” that were allegedly ostracized from their own homeland. The attacks began from the West of Aesox (Galudon was left as it was assumed the Island remained uninhabited) targeting the Port Town of Keldwike. The Dwarves swept through the town with simple ease, killing defenders wielding pikes and longswords with their more advanced Dwarven steel, which was more often than not enchanted for magic wielding. Months of daily raids netted the Dwarves a considerable number of Human slaves and, once Keldwike was evacuated, they pushed in toward the then Petty Kingdom of Holzweald (named aptly from the expansive forest it had been founded upon) to reap more reward.

It's important to note at this point that Aesox was split into many, many territories each with its own ruler or “Petty King'', with the term petty only being prescribed as many of these Petty Kingdoms would, overtime, either be absorbed by other Kingdoms into fully recognised Kingdoms by its surrounding nations or simply fall apart. This was not the case for Holzweald which still stands to this day. Months turned to years and the Dwarves would continue to raid along the Western Coastline. At this point the Humans knew something had to be done and thus the Petty King Walter Durchdenwald convinced the Petty Kings North, West and South of him to reinforce his army with tens of thousands of soldiers in order to ambush the Dwarven raiders when they made shore near Keldwike once more. Using guerrilla tactics, the Human soldiers ambushed the Dwarves near the edge of the Holzweald forest, muddying the ground with blood and pushing the Dwarves back out to sea. It's not entirely known why the Dwarves did not retaliate in force, but academics believe that the venture was neither worth the risk any longer as the Humans had, at least in the eyes of the Dwarves, banded completely together as one, formidable army and also because they may have found a more suitable body of slaves elsewhere (Likely the Orcs as their homeland was considerably much closer than Aesox).

The victory over the Dwarves was seen across the Human led nations as a massive triumph and turning point for their people, but it was not without its tribulations. It was clear now more than ever that they were vastly outmatched against the Dwarves when it came to technology and general organization, and although this should have been a giant warning sign, the Petty Kingdoms returned to their own internal squabbles. There were a handful of Human nations that acknowledged this misfeasance and began organizing themselves into proper, recognised Kingdoms with better leadership hierarchies, governments and structures; though many of these were vastly differing. For example, after the Dwarven Raids, Keldwike established itself as a full Republic, complete with a Senatorial Government, while Holzweald garnered the support of its neighbouring Kingdoms into recognising it as a fully fledged, respected Kingdom. This trend of hierarchical attention would continue for the next two hundred years, all the while a brand new Kingdom was establishing itself quickly off Aesox’s West Coast; Galudon.

As the Kingdoms of Aesox busied themselves with territorial expansion, migrants to Galudon established a base in the country's South. At this point in time, whatever Human population that was already on the Island were absorbed either into the Ironhurst Petty Kingdom to the regions South or by one of the three other Petty Kingdoms that had formed; Acrafort, Vorith and Kithage. Coastline defenses soon became the norm for the Human race, still fearing another assault by Dwarven revengers, but also to ensure that Ellawren, homeland of the Elves and directly to the South of the Dwarven Empire also recognised that the Human race was one quickly evolving into a force to be reckoned with. Decades and centuries pass and despite trebuchets, scorpion turrets and all manner of sea and coast bastions being constructed, the Human race saw no sign of the Dwarves yet to return, at least as a war party. By the 1500’s, most of the Human Kingdoms had opened themselves up for tourism, travel and trade. Droves of Elves, Ferox, freed or escaped Orcs and all manner of other races travelled freely (save for some taxes of course) over the Human lands. Much to the surprise of many foreign races, the Human race was no longer uniform in a multitude of different ways. Centuries of border wars, territorial isolation, hierarchical differences and secular belief systems had caused the once primitive Human species to split into innumerable cultures; each distinct from the rest.

The mid-1500’s however saw a huge increase in war and hostility. The Royal House of Caelock had by this point unified the Kingdom of Galudon and had busied itself with aggravating the Dwarves by openly supporting the Orcs in open rebellion against their Dwarven captors. It should be noted that Galudon had luxury in the form of isolation, being a coastal landmass off the West of Aesox, which allowed them ample time, without much interference, to invest resources and money into technological feats, some of which were centuries ahead of the other Kingdoms, which meant they could not only provide the Orcs fleeing the Dwarven Empire with Naval protection, but they could also provide state-of-the-art weaponry to the rebels themselves. In 1579AE, the Kingdom of Holzweald in Aesox had declared war against the Northern Kingdom of Solgardsborg over lands encroached upon and annexed by them directly to their South. Thousands perished in the ongoing skirmishes and attacks, until peace was finally achieved after agents of Solgardsborg captured the Crown Princess of Holzweald. The Kingdom of Fernmourne, a neutral party and the Easternmost Kingdom acted as neutral ground for both parties, drawing up agreements and terms for Holzweald and Solgardsborg. The Crown Princess would return unharmed and lands were seceded in favor of Solgardsborg in what would become as the Treaty of Saltzpyre-upon-Barrow, named after the major trade city of Fernmourne, as signed. Despite agreement between the parties, a brutal rivalry between Solgardsborg and Holzweald remains to this day.

In present times, the Human race rests upon a rickety peace. The Human Kingdoms battle amongst themselves over land, each with their own reasons for war be it faith, cultural differences or self-proclaimed land ownership, but very few wars have lasted more than a few months before peace is once again reinstated through diplomacy. Holzweald stands as the largest and most populous of the Human kingdoms, but certainly is not the most powerful. That accolade is awarded and recognised as the Kingdom of Galudons, whose technological achievements see them as the masters of air and sea, with their mechanical, steampowered airships and war vessels holding superiority over all other Human nations. The aggressive ambitiousness remains still, but with tensions reigniting with the Elves over the persecution of magic users in Human lands and the desecration of natural landscapes, and the Dwarves who seek recompense for Galudon’s involvement in their Empire Wide rebellion at the hands of the Orcs, most Humans now eagerly await, no matter which nation they are apart of, retaliation in some manner or form in a Pannotia that stands on the edge of the brink.

Religion

One might think that with centuries of progress, something that the Human race places at the forefront of their pursuits, Religion to some deity or theological ideology would have been naturally established, similar to that of the Elves, however, this is not the case. Instead, Humans will establish their own ‘micro faiths’ almost cult-like in worship to follow. For example, in the Kingdom of Galudon, the vast majority of the population, including other races, worship “The Philosophy of Bartleby”, a contemporary text with a large following that champions the technological advancement of Humankind by implementing it into all facets of Human life, be it work, relationships, the family unit. Shrines to the tome are often found inside of factories and workplaces but are not an uncommon sight to see makeshift in alleyways and poorer areas in the Kingdom. That said, the number of faiths and cults Humans follow are enumerable and just as many makeshift areas of worship crop up in worship to other ideologies and religious ideals as those to the Philosophy of Bartleby. This is widely accepted within Human society, as Humanity believes strongly in freedom of personal will, with scorn only coming to those faiths that appear to seek obstruction to their race’s technological and social advancement.

Culture

Human culture is largely influenced by the race’s mentality and creed. As such, hierarchical structures and the idea of personal freedoms coupled with technological progress remains stalwartly at the vanguard of most Human society’s cultural standards. Naturally, given the incalculable number of Human Kingdoms, settlements, hamlets and villages, the more niche cultural norms tend to differ, but most of the key Human traits remain constant throughout.

Fashion

Human fashion is as varied as the rest of the population. However, certain trends and accepted societal norms persist across class structures.

For grown men; trousers that reach the ground are the most accepted covering on the bottom. The working class may tuck a corduroy, leather, or thick broadcloth trouser into a pair of low working boots. They might usually pair it with a button down shirt, vest, and jacket. Upper class gentlemen tend to wear a well-tailored and fine-cloth trouser to the leather shoe, and their shirts, vests, and jackets are often equally fine. For theatre performances, or gatherings after dark, elegant, tight trousers of full length with polished shoes in a rich black are accepted. Top hats are accepted for men during the evenings, but working class men may wear a sunhat or other profession appropriate gear. Evening wear for men include very form fitting black trousers in rich fabrics, a black coat with tails, white vest and shirt, and colorful cravat. A hat is appropriate to wear outside, as are gloves.

Women generally speaking wear dresses, although the style can vary greatly depending on class and profession. Working class women’s skirts are worn a few inches above their ankle in order to navigate urban streets or countryside soil without dirtying their hems. For the wealthier ladies, hems above the ankle are only worn during the day, with full hems during the evening hours. Corsets are often worn, and necklines generally lower as the day progresses. Hats are worn during the day by women of leisure, although during the evening hours the hair is trimmed with jewels, flowers, and ribbons. Evening wear for women include ballgowns that always reveal the neck and shoulders as well as have hems sweeping the ground, often including a train. These are made from rich fabrics and are trimmed with ribbons, flowers, jewels, and lace. For both women and men, the more colors, layers, and rich fabrics you can add to an ensemble the better. While the wealthy generally do this through expensive trim, jewels, and other insignia of their political affiliations or other prestigious companies, the working classes will often add contrasting colors in the way of vibrant hats, sashes, gloves, and stockings/shoes. Leather harnesses worn to carry weapons, various gadgets or tools of the trade are seen on men and women of every social caste. You may also see mechanized accessories, eyeglasses, or other helpful gadgets worn freely about that person. Those able to afford these things usually flaunt them as a symbol of their status.

Cuisine

Galudon, as a large urban centre, thrives from trade from all over the known world. With this influx of new peoples and ideas comes spices and the recipes to showcase them. Humans, especially, are an inquisitive bunch, and are always looking for rare spices and unknown delicacies which they can use to show off their wealth and commitment to progress. Early mornings at cafes are where the most news is learned, and being seen from the street in the most fashionable cafes give many social clout with a certain group. Coffee is considered a mainstay of every level of society. You can also see taverns delivering food to the working class in factories or warehouses. Street food is everywhere, with humans embracing fish, meat, and vegetables in their meals. Fish and chips is extremely popular, as are chophouses as gathering spots for late night suppers.

Trivia

• Humans are one of the most conflict centric races on Pannotia due to their immensely diverse cultures and ambitious tendencies. As such, Humans are often found at the center of most conflicts, though equally they are well versatile in the areas of diplomacy, forming alliances between different Human nations and even other races.
• Humans possess a profound inclination towards superstition, readily embracing beliefs in omens, bad luck, and prophecies. In Pannotia, many prophecies originate from the utterances of aspiring human soothsayers and clerics. Despite humanity's strides in technological advancement and faith in science, there persists a conviction among some that certain occurrences defy rational explanation, transcending the boundaries of mortal comprehension.
• Humans have established more cities and townlands than any other race in the world and have established innumerable amounts of different cultures.

Races Humans | Eiruks | Dwarf | Infernals | Venyra | Thalzar | Nephi | Nymphs | Giruk | Anomalies | Ferox | Tzchaari

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Accreditation
Writers BillyTheScroffy Artists Rizky Processors BattleBrawn, Jonificus	Last Editor BillyTheScruffy on 08/17/2025.

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