Humans

The Humans are a comparatively short-lived race of intelligent, mortal creatures, whose basic body plan have given rise to the term "humanoid". They were created on Ahren, sometime in the Primordial Myth epoch. They were created by The Enemy, whose proper demesne is Hell, who took a since-lost race of great apes from across the Eastern Sea to the south of Wisteria (the region now known as the Shimmering Shore, and "breathed awareness" into them, to serve as a slave race for the Enemy and his various Infernal forces. While this dominion over mankind has long since been broken, and short human lifespans ensure that it is a history enshrined in mythology, long out of mortal memory.

Humanity no longer exists in one homogenous polity, but there are, in fact, many human cultures, such as the Kingdom of Bastonia and the city-states of the Shimmering Shore. Despite their short lives, humans have propagated thoroughly across the continent they have been transplanted to, giving them outsize influence on culture and history.

Origin

Humans share with Elves the distinction of not being native to the continent of Wisteria, but by all accounts, they are at least native to Ahren. The animal species from which they were created is a product of the current Vergence. A primordial diety, known as the Enemy, collected these proto-humans in great numbers and "cursed them with gnosis", forcing them to become "creatures of understanding". These earliest humans lived as slaves under a heirarchy of what were properly the denizens of Hell, in the territories now known as the Shimmering Shore, Atarlie Frontier, and The Blight. Reasons for the Enemy doing this are obscured in pseudo-historical myth - most accounts give this empire a lifespan of about a hundred years.

However, the primacy of the forces of hell over humankind was ultimately broken, though accounts for this differ. In Bastonia, it is an article of faith that the Almighty empowered a collection of early saints - most significantly San Lukas and San Heather, who lead a holy rebellion against the forces of Hell and permanently broke their influence at the Battle of the First Wall. In the lands of the south, the teaching is instead that the Awakened One - an awakened diety born as a human - revealed to humanity the ultimate powerlessness of their overlords, which lead to the eventual loss of infernal influence.

Culture

Human culture is profoundly adaptable. Human living memory is rarely much longer than a century, meaning they can accomplish what for the Elves would be a generational shift in just a few decades. Humans are Ahren's ultimate generalist species of humanoids - as the Atarlie put it, the humans have their cultures shaped as much by their location as they shape the world around them. It is therefore not appropriate to discuss a single human culture. By the time of the Age of the Summer of Mortals, the most significant human cultures on Wisteria are the Kingdom of Bastonia, in the northwest of the continent, that of the "Men of Baghar", in the primordial city of the same name, and that of Petrenea, chief among the city-states of the Shimmering Shore.

Physical Attributes

Lifespan

Humans are subject to "aging", a process by which their bodies become increasingly compromised as they reach older and older ages, until they ultimately are unable to live any longer, at least without (extremely rare) magical assistance. In general, this means humans rarely live past the age of 70 (this does not account for deaths at younger ages for other causes, such as disease, famine, war, or misadventure). Humans grow to adulthood in roughly 20 years. The average human pregnancy lasts roughly 9 months, and they give birth to live young in single births (though twins, and extremely rarely, triplets, are not unheard of).

Spiritual and Mental Attributes

Hellbound Heart

The origins of soulful action and comprehension in humans is the intervention of the Enemy, and as a result, the souls of humans who die are bound for Hell. However, to a degree not seen in other creatures, humans are not guaranteed such an ultimate fate. Those who keep the faith of the Almighty find themselves drafted into her Heavenly Host to await the Battle of the Last Wall, and presumably the end of history. Additionally, those who keep the faith with the Awakened One or other dieties of the Petrenean Pantheon more often than not wind up in a cycle of reincarnation passing through the Bardo, not dissimilar to the fates of Dwarves. The precise mechanism for this discrepency is unclear, but appears to be due to how little faith humans in general place in the Enemy.