Humans

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Lysisday, Liliyogh 23, 1134 LE

O, the Cardinal direction of Change and Dispersion for ye. Woe to the ever-flowing fountain of multitudes, the isolating pride that must sustain it, which narrows its flow and severs its kin. But joy to the writhing and spreading, for it is them who began the great work.

The youngest Cardinal Race of Keppel, the conquerors and inheritors of the world, the source of nearly all other races, the ever-shifting fountain of variety and the inventors of magic as a discipline. Humans have a unique position as the recognizable face of Keppel's people, forming a tentative majority population as well as being the source of most of the world's minorities. They are known for being crafty, prideful, and as tenacious as the toughest household vermin, springing up civilization regardless of how well they are suited to the environment.

One of the most populus races, humans are often hegemons on the same scale as dragons, making up majority populations in most of the cities where they are present. Millennia of ancient politics have posited humans as a universal presence, uniquely able to mingle with any other group and suited to constructing the culture of the world. They are known as the great inventors, the great tinkerers with the forces of Creation itself, and the proponents of division and stratification, establishers of hierarchy.

When it comes to magecraft, humans have something of an overrepresentation. They have, due to their lack of innate magical capability compared to most other races, something of a complex around it that can only be solved through hard work and dedication to learning, often done to the point of obsession. As the historical inventors of magic as a study, art form, discipline and science, one might think it fitting for most dedicated mages to be human. However, a lot of human mages only study their chosen field as a pastime or secondary discipline, using magic to make up for a perceived shortcoming against their peers instead of dedicating their whole heart to cultivating it.

Origin

Humans, like Canids, evolved naturally from Keppel's biosphere, so much as "natural" extends beyond the influence of the emerald dragons who molded the planet to be more suitably edible to them. Their population was likely extremely limited before their uplifting at the hands of Virulan and their haven constructed in the now-destroyed Valley of the Gods.

After their initial millennium-long population boom and their first scattering from the Valley of the Gods, humans have been spreading at a rapid rate, their population increasing to fill the areas they inhabit almost like a self-producing fluid filling channels.

Physiology

Humans are rather vulnerable and pliable compared to many other races, at least physically. They have great stamina and a very high ceiling for improving their bodies' strength and durability, but their baseline and average is significantly below that of the Canids, their fellow Keppelborn Cardinal Race.

What great advantage humans have historically had is their natural resistance to many common poisons and their dexterity with tools. Their usage of mundane technology to construct homes and tame natural forces like fire and materials like the sunstuffs is what led them to be discovered as more than mere animals in the first place.

Humans tend live for under a century, taking nearly a quarter of their lives to fully mature and spending the last quarter of it in a slow state of decline. Compared to the other Cardinal Races, they have the shortest lifespan, but their creation of many other races has made this more of the average. Human time, eras of roughly eighty to a hundred years, are something of a soft measure of time for the longer-lived races. Indeed, the saying that "dragons live three lives" is partially in reference to how human lifespans stack up against their own.

Spectrology

The spectrology of humans is rather grim for their own prospects as a species. To start, their soul component is by far the lowest of the Cardinal Races, and lower than any other race not derived from themselves at a mere 7%. They have almost no ability to shape their body, nor can they access more than that fraction of their own soul for use of Sunstep or Starstep.

Furthermore, the sorcery humans are imbued with is antithetical to the concept of a species. Their very ability is to cease being human, by one of two methods. Whatever they end up becoming is as incapable of evolution and adaptation as the dragons are, and unless the whole process is reproduced in a group, these individuals have nobody else they can viably reproduce with.

Idyllization

The first and arguably less common process of human adaptation is Idyllization, which produces Idyllfolk races. This process is a micro-dosage of their own sorcery, technically an application of phtheromancy on themselves. While much safer and more stable than phtheromancy, the process is extremely slow to take and requires decades of dedicated practice.

The process involves a refinement of odhir and related ritual, then channeled into one's own body slowly over the course of their life. The human body understands and molds itself to the energy, the concept, the color of it. Conceptualized as a refinement of "human adaptability", using it up to drift along esoteric evolutionary lines, Idyllization is passed down between generations—though one day it might not need to be.

Idyllization has been increasingly easy and decreasingly potent throughout human history. The Annhi Dhriaf, some of the oldest Idyllfolk races, took a full three thousand years of Idyllization to be completed, whereas the Aerashani, the most recent, completed Idylling after only one hundred and fifty. The "well of human adaptability" seems to have been getting shallower as time goes on.

Because of the intense, generationally-inherited rituals needed to successfully Idyll, Idyllfolk races tend to have very different cultures to humans once they emerge. Only in the Luminous Era have Idyllfolk races been indistinguishable from local humans in their values and practices.

Eclipses

The second, more reliable, faster, and more intense way to relinquish one's humanity and adapt is Eclipsing. Named so for the complete domination and subsuming of whatever the human in question eclipses, this process is comparatively instant next to Idyllization, and is the source of many Farfolk races.

An eclipse typically results in a form eminent of a humanoid version of whatever was eclipsed, be it flames or lightning or a wolf or lizard. Traits and abilities from what was eclipsed are mixed and matched with the human traits, seemingly at random per species or type of matter. All humans who eclipse a Sundew Lizard will become Dyrrhan, for example, but Dyrrhan do not have the same type of common "lizard traits" as the other Lazbacchic races. Mammal qualities such as internal temperature regulation and the titular mammaries are believed to be random per species in the case of eclipsing non-mammal animals.

Farfolk resultant from a human eclipse have the same psychology as humans in almost all cases. Traits inherited from the species that affect cognition and emotional processing are as of yet the only known exception, and even these cases are prohibitively rare. Former humans retain all of their memory and identity post-eclipse, making it a potential cheap path to power or a more ideal form for one's own. However, ailments of the body can in some cases be reversed or cured through an eclipse. Terminally ill humans have been recorded several times throughout history living long and healthy lives after eclipsing.

Any individual matter, object or creature can be eclipsed, given that it meets the requirements. The human in question must be physically touching what they wish to eclipse. Only one object can be eclipsed, even if they touch multiple. The object or being to be eclipsed must be unable to physically overpower the human eclipsing it. Inanimate matter is always fulfilled in this requirement, but living beings must be defeated, killed, or subdued. Once these are fulfilled, the human must pour every last bit of their odhir into their body, unrefined and unrestrained, while focusing on the object of their eclipse. This process becomes instinctual as the eclipse goes on, and must not be halted halfway through. There is no going back, and attempts to cancel it result in fatality every time.

Eclipses can also be unwillingly activated, a strong survival instinct in lethal circumstances leading to the human in question eclipsing the very thing that may have killed them. Ascendant Tanmar are sometimes made when a human is caught in a firestorm and this survival response kicks in. Eclipses of water when drowning or natural lightning when struck have also been documented. In most cases, this is in response to an inanimate force of nature.

Eclipsing a Legendary Beast makes the former human the Ennean of that Legendary Beast, a coveted title that can in most cases only be held by one individual. Eclipsing an Ennean is also possible, though the "generational dilution" of it is something to fear, and eclipsing sapient beings is a crime and sin in every court and church in the world. Notably, the full Beast need not be present for an eclipse to take effect. The great Striepaurheei Törrhyatz managed to become the Ennean of the Strioboros with only a large jar of the Strioboros' celestial blood.

Sociality

Humans are builders of civilization, and as one of the most widespread races in the world, have become something of a standard that many are compared to. Of the Cardinal Races, they are the most involved with advancement and collaborative construction, far removed from the contented nature of Canid societies and the rather individualist history of draconic settlements. Their culture resonates with most Farfolk races; humans are their ancestors after all. Yet even removed from this, humans have some shared social and behavioral quirks that set them apart.

Pride

Humans are often stereotyped as being xenophobic, and while many human-dominated settlements tend to be somewhat, this is a misunderstanding of a core aspect of humanity. Humans are generally very proud to be human specifically, touting immaterial properties of their race and their historical accomplishments as reasons for them to be special. They are not uniquely prideful as a species; dragons take on something similar in their personal vanity. But much of this human exceptionalism actually comes from survivorship bias and selection.

Humans have, by their spectrological nature, easy options to cease being human. These paths to personal power often come with heightened soul component and thus easier access to Luminary Magics, a new set of sorceries, unique bodily properties, and an easy way for one to make themselves anew. Eclipses, or even Idyllization, are tempting options for many humans. Monster hunters can gain fame or infamy simply by becoming an Ennean. Anyone without a strong connection to their humanity may, through the harshness of life, decide to relinquish it for something else. What humans remain in each generation progressively get more and more proud to be human as they age.

Innovation

Humans and their descendant races are directly responsible for the manifestation of the technological dragons, which occurred because of the sheer development of machines and city structures that happened during Keppel's last golden age at the end of the Neomythic. Humans began this lengthy process and carried it for most of their civilization's history. As elementally durable as they are, humans are physically fragile and spiritually challenged. When placed amongst their peers, potential realized through personal power in most of them, the sense of inferiority often presents itself as a constant stressor in a human's life.

Humans sublimate this through invention, tinkering, study and discipline, mastering a craft. Be it technologies such as smithing and forging, textile manufacturing, and weaving, or magic development and research, their unparalleled drive to work for their success is known worldwide. But where one thing is developed by humans seeking to stand on even footing with more inherently gifted races, all people become able to utilize it. And thus the cycle continues, and humanity turns the wheel of progress ever forward.