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Human — Races — Characters — Adanak Lithor Campaign Notes — Home last changed 5 October 2006 |
More than any other race, humans are social creatures. From birth, they have a hunger for interaction with each other and other intelligent species. Their impatience and relatively short lifespan gives them a perspective that is often at odds with those of other races.
Humans are generally between five and six feet in height and weigh between 100 and 200 lbs. The coloration of human skin, eyes, and hair is related to ancient tribal lineages. The humans of the Fahlschindern Empire and the southeastern regions of Dathenest generally have olive skin, dark eyes, and black or brown hair. Those who hail from Vhœrn, Myth Cedherid, and other isolated northern settlements of Dathenest often have relatively pale skin, blue or green eyes, and hair ranging from chestnut to white-blond.
In the eyes of other races, humans are flighty, short-tempered, dirty, weak, fecund, loud, and obnoxious. They are also intelligent, cosmopolitan, bold, and dangerous. Humanity is, essentially, marginally ordered chaos.
Humans, particularly those of the Fahlschindern Empire, believe themselves to be the pinnacle of sophistication, honor, strength, beauty, and nobility. In their eyes, all other races are deserving of scorn. The cowardly hartig hide in their mountain caverns to conceal their weaknesses. The irda could become useful beasts of burden, but all attempts to domesticate them have met with failure. The annoying tassach prattle constantly about their earth goddess. And the m'agieale and liorespiyr rely on arcane magic; weak but just intelligent enough to be dangerous.
Humans are creatures of paradox. They claim to appreciate beauty, but they heedlessly abuse the most beautiful things— nature, magic, and life itself. They are proud of their diversity, but they bicker and feud endlessly amongst themselves.
Most reasonable individuals of other races avoid human civilization whenever possible. Myth Cedherid and Vhœrn are commonly recognized as the only large concentrations of humans worth visiting. The younger, more easily distracted eihramal are sometimes captivated by humans' sensationalized immersion in life. And humans are favorite targets of liorespiyr pranks... but every other race is a favored target of the fun-loving liorespiyr as well.
The exception to the general rule of noninterference is the formians. Humans and formians have a mutual antipathy for one another, born of centuries of bloody warfare, and will generally attack one another on sight.
In general, human philosophies run the gamut of Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic with no particular preference for Good or Evil.
Humans of the Empire tend to be Neutral-Good, Lawful-Good, Lawful-Neutral, or Neutral, but Evil alignments are not unknown. Chaotic alignments are rare in the Empire.
On Dathenest, the tendencies toward Lawful and Chaotic alignments are stronger and Neutral alignments are uncommon. Of course, humans who demonstrate a lack of respect for the stringent laws of the imperial colony are eventually exiled.
Fahlschindern Empire: 23% LN, 18% N, 17% LG, 14% NG, 10% LE, 8% NE, 4% CN, 4% CG, 2% CE.
Dathenest Colony: 22% LN, 18% CN, 16% LE, 12% CE, 10% N, 7% NE, 7% LG, 5% CG, 3% NG.
Humans dominate the continent of Fahlschindern, where other races are rare.
There is also a significant human population in the southeastern parts of Dathenest. Vhœrn is an independent city-state on the southern slopes of the Krungdhellor, inhabited primarily by humans.
Small human settlements are also found throughout civilized regions on every other continent.
Humans do not have an exclusive pantheon of powers. Adventuring classes tend to venerate particular deities, but for most commoners the choice of which power to pray to is a matter of career and timing— farmers pray to the gods who watch over agriculture, merchants honor the gods of coins, safety, and deceit.
Mnassekh is a concise, ordered language. There is a specific word for each discrete concept, and grammar is simple but effective. It is unique among the tongues spoken on Dathenest, in that it is equally alien to all nonhumans who hear it. Mnassekh borrows nothing from any other tongue.
In stark contrast, Archanten is an argot constructed entirely of borrowed and modified terminology. It is modeled loosely on Mnassekh, with much Eiathuir and Talehn vocabulary thrown in.
In general, human adventurers are citizens or exiles of the imperial colony on Dathenest. The reasons for exile are many and sometimes arbitrary, and the player has a lot of latitude in deciding what her (real or imagined) infraction was. If the character still has ties to the Empire, they can provide the DM with a treasure trove of adventure hooks.