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Races / Human
Alignment : good, neutral, evil History:The oldest settlement known on Aabahran was the city of Anduin. Anduin was a human city in the central part of the southern half of Aabahran. Not much is known of this ancient period of history, but only humans lived during that time. Those early humans soon settled the city of Caranduin and began working their way west, their farthest outpost being Thalos. It was a time of peace and prosperity for humanity. As the barriers between the planes weakened, it was followed by a time of death and destruction called the Bloodletting. When the Bloodletting subsided, human civilization was in tatters. There was not a single city remaining and the surviving humans scattered into the wilderness in despair. It is not certain when humans first arrived in the forest that was to become the western capital, but it is known that they came from far to the west, across the Dune Sea, and were not descendants of the Anduins. They named the town Seringale at that time. These new humans, unable or unwilling to return home, cleared a patch of land on the Eridani River and raised the first palisade there that was to become a great palace many years later. Almost at the same time, a completely different group of humans arrived from far to the east and settled their landing cay, naming it after their leader, a great magician named Miruvhor. In the beginning, both of these fledgling arrivals thought themselves alone. Over time, the humans rose in number and began to make their first forays into the wilderness around them. The Seringales pushed east and rebuilt the abandoned human city in the south-east, Thalos. It was during this time that the humans from Seringale met the remnants of the Anduins and learned of the recent devastation. Soon centaurs and lamias took to the forests and Thalos was cut off from Seringale and eventually abandoned once again. Monsters and supernatural races were arriving in Aabahran in droves. On the other end of the world, Miruvhor was prospering. Miruvhorians had claimed all the land from S'handor Fortress in Mt. Rainer in the north to the Shadow Grove in the south. Their great wealth allowed them to wield great power and enjoy happy lives. Miruvhorians built the Dragon Teeth Road and the Great Wall of Aabahran, founded the holy temple of Sreyb, and cultivated the rich Emerald Forest and the Ford. This sudden change in the balance of power attracted the attention of the dark gods once again, and the Nameless was the first to play its hand to the Miruvhorians. The Nameless corrupted the leadership and army, causing a sharp division in their ranks. A great religious civil war took place, in which the humans of the Light aligned with the elves and nymphs and the humans of the Darkness aligned with the undead, drow, demons, orcs, and fire giants. In the chaos, resistance against the dominance of magic in Miruvhor also surfaced in the form of the Savant-Warmaster conflict. Being split across races and ideologies, the war was the first massive multiracial conflict and the worst war that the world had seen since the Bloodletting. The humans were in the center of it all. The orcs and elves warred over the human outpost of Greginsham, with the outpost falling and the orcs still inhabiting the mountains today. The farmers of the Ford were quickly overrun by the fire giants and darker forces arriving from the desolate tundra to the south. The survivors from these two areas dug into the mountain itself and sealed themselves in, calling the place Kaer Banor. The entire northern and southern Miruvhorian irrigation works were consumed by demonic energies, creating the Forsaken Lands and the Witch Wood respectively. In the end, both sides were exhausted and the war fizzled out. The Darkness claimed Miruvhor proper, whereas Emerald Forest, S'handor Fortress, and the temple of Sreyb were human bastions of the Light. Human rebels, now experienced wilderness experts, continued the fight against Miruvhor for many years. They built and used their great underground fortress, Myran Dammel, as a base and raided the city-state. The Miruvhorian retribution was terrible. The Miruvhorian army demolished the southern outskirts, rounding up or killing all living there. Those that lived were sent to an eastern island, thereafter named Exile. Those that died rose from their graves and the area became the Haunted Grove. Those that escaped founded a new hidden village, named Kashangal. Myran Dammel itself was discovered and sacked. All those that had lived there were turned into undead abominations. Miruvhor had now entered into a new age. With war raging and death reigning in the east, Seringale was still expanding rapidly in the west, blessed by the favor of the deities of Light, namely Palison. Food was cultivated in the rich pastures of the south in a place called Ofcol, and carried to Seringale by caravans through Drkshtyre Wood. This route was historically dangerous until the Kaddar fae were pushed out of the forest and into the Escimir E'gal. Humans also plundered their own shipments. Pirates based near Drkshtyre Wood still today loot the Eridani and raid caravans. At their height, their influence extended all the way onto the Dragon Teeth road. Another access to the sea, free from pirates, was found to the north via the Ishtar River. Falen Dara was the city that flourished around it. It was the headquarters of the small anti-piracy organization that quickly matured into the Justice cabal. With the founding of Ofcol and Falen Dara, along with the stabilization of the east under a new Miruvhorian command, the human world was split down the middle between the Light and the Dark. When the Miruvhorian Dragon Teeth Road finally hit Seringale territory, conflict was inevitable. Yet, the war was to be delayed. A man named Cormac found a diplomatic solution and was subsequently catapulted to great fame, eventually being crowned the human king of all Aabahran. Cormac set his administration up in Seringale, renaming his capital Val Miran. The world entered into a brief golden age. His reign was not to be forever, however, and when he was assassinated by agents of the Conclave, a brief scare of a second Bloodletting ensured. Although the second Bloodletting was avoided by Raght and Alexander by removing morality from the law, the humans and their allies found themselves factioning. Ofcol, Falen Dara, and Gasteride's war-time fortress declared independence, while the halflings sheltered within Val Miran's crumbling walls left to found their own hamlet. The bulk of Cormac's army left the city and camped in the recently formed Great Chasm, aligning with the garrison there and taking up the name the Knights of the Crown in their quest to reestablish the golden age of Cormac. In the east, S'handor and other Miruvhorian vassal states were lost and sacked by forces of Darkness led by Virigoth. The last remaining Miruvhorian resistance village, Kashangal, was wholly corrupted by demons, but left standing. It was during this time that the first age of the cabals arose. The fighting was terrible, but most of it took place outside of the human city-states. The exception was the Justice cabal, which was devoted to the protection of the human cities of Val Miran, Falen Dara, and Miruvhor. When Justice betrayed the city-states and worked with the criminal organization the Conclave to release the shades, chaos gripped the world again as Val Miran struggled to remove its darker population. During this time, Falen Dara was abandoned by Justice, completely sacked, and in time was reclaimed by the slith. While the invasion of the shades raged on, Miruvhor saw fully half of its remaining population emigrate to the other side of the Great Wall, where they founded Maelbrim and were soon joined by a considerable number of Val Miran refugees. From the union of these two peoples Maelbrim rose. Finally, a multiracial band of heroes put an end to the invasion of the shades and humanity, along with the rest of the world, was at peace once more. Maelbrim soon declared full neutrality and became a major trading power, responsible for the reconnection of the world. After some time, Val Miran, with its defenses still broken, was raided and sacked multiple times by the new extremist group called the Watchers, who had been steadily gaining popularity and strength after the horrors of the Bloodletting and the shades. Eventually, Val Miran allied with the storm giants and drove the Watchers from the city, declaring peace once more. The humans rebuilt and recovered over time. The status quo remained for an age, until new problems arose in the east. It started with the Syndicate takeover of Miruvhor and the subsequent expulsion of the lower class into the Forsaken Lands. Unwittingly, the feral were created from these refugees. Soon after, the Tribunal was formed, a federated union of the three human city-states under a single banner: The Empire. The new empire quickly purged Miruvhor of Syndicate control and continues to spend most of time concentrated in the west, still fighting the Watchers. Recently, Mt. Rainer erupted, destroying the old, cursed fortress of S'handor. That evil was replaced by a greater evil, and the Volcano still serves as a ink to the Limbo today. Not to be outdone, a group of Miruvhorians worshipping Dischord built a pentagram near the Volcano to balance the forces of Death with Chaos. With such dark powers aligned once more, another invasion was due. This time it was not shades, but torments. These torments were terrible, but they did not compare to the shades and eventually they were beaten back. It is under the new Tribunal Empire that most humans live today. Humans have had more than their fair share of victories and defeats and have usually managed to make themselves the center stage for Aabahranian events. What is to become of them is still uncertain. If the past is any indication, the human future is filled with both endless growth and conflict. These are the two marks that humanity has made on history. Usual Height:Humans are perfectly average in size. Humans are used as the base for size comparisons between the various races inhabiting Aabahran today. Males are slightly larger and leaner than females. Hometown:Maelbrim, Val Miran, Miruvhor Religion:Humanity has no patron deity. Due to their ever increasing numbers, they have become the focus of many, varied deities. Humans have been known to participate in all of the major religions of Aabahran. Most humans are religious, but not deeply so, and they have had the most agnostics and atheists, by population. [Hit Return to continue]The chosen deity for each human depends on that human's personality, place of birth, and circumstance. Val Mirans favor the forces of Light in general, Maelbrimese favor Neutrality, and Miruvhorians favor Darkness. Maelbrim is the most populous city in the world, and so most humans follow a fairly neutral path in life. The most interesting aspect of humanity in terms of religion is that humans serve as superior vessels for religious and magical transformation. As such, nearly all powerful forms of the undead and demons are drawn from human subjects. Furthermore, all feral and werebeasts can directly trace their lineage back to human sources. Because of this strange unnatural affinity, humans can achieve far greater potency than other races from supernatural potions, wands, and the like. Physical Features:Humans are long-limbed, bipedal creatures that are muscled most heavily in the mid to lower areas of their bodies. They tend to favor their right hands. They are usually covered and crowned with light hair, with the hair being thickest on the scalp. The notable exception lies in some males who have reversed this trend, having little to no hair on the scalp and thick hair on the mid to lower regions of the body. Although males also typically grow facial hair, it is much lighter than what a dwarf can grow. The color of human skin, eyes, and hair ranges from a dark brown, nearly black, to a very light pale blue. Many humans are born with blue eyes that quickly darken into their final colors. Hair, on the other hand, may start light, grow dark, and finally turn grey or white in a human's senior years. A typical Aabahran human diet contains much meat, usually duck, especially near Val Miran and Maelbrim. Western humans also cultivate and eat a great deal of grain. They drink milk in addition to their staple of water. In the east, food is scarcer, with the meat and grain being replaced by fish and aquatic vegetables. Most humans enjoy drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage, usually for recreation or ceremony. In addition, some humans enjoy the use of herbs, perhaps due to greater magical effect that humans feel. Most humans, being social creatures, place a great importance on physical appearance. Both genders will adapt their appearance to fit what they think will achieve their social goals. Wealthy humans love to collect polished stones and metals, especially gems, and often display these prominently. Likewise, warriors seek to cultivate and display battle scars and muscles, young women stylize their hair and show the latest fashions, and so on. Society:Nearly all humans are very social creatures and typically live in a small group called a family. Groups of families often cooperate with each other to form clans or communities. Clans or communities then order themselves into class hierarchies to form city-states. A number of city-states collectively make kingdoms and kingdoms merge into empires. Humans love to politically organize things and are very active in forming political groupings at all scales. Politically, they are extremely aggressive, expansionistic, and territorial creatures, so they have staked themselves out as the major society in Aabahran today. However, this society is hardly harmonious as humans have a tendency to cling more to individual goals and ideals rather than do what is best for the species. As such, they are constantly at war and competing with each other. Perhaps the only thing more interesting to humans than drawing up political structures is the acquisition of wealth. Humans make incredible merchants due to their varied personalities. Where one human may be rejected, another human can get her foot in the door. Their economic practices are almost as expansionistic as their political ones and are far more cunning. It is because of human merchants that the world is linked together, the commodities flowing into Maelbrim to be rerouted to their end destinations across the land. Relationships with Other Races:Because of their economic forays, humanity has established some kind of contact with all of the other major races. Since humans and other races have widely varied outlooks on each other, it is simplest to describe it in terms of location. Maelbrimese enjoy a great relationship with the neighboring gnomes, a good relationship with the dwarves and elves, and are amiable to the avians, storm giants, stone giants, and minotaurs. Val Mirans get along best with halflings and storm giants, and they are comfortable with the slith and dwarves. Miruvhorians get along best with the undead and fire giants, and have some positive contact with the drow, illithid, and demons. The main two enemies of humanity are the werebeasts in the west and the feral in the east. Relations are neutral to poor with the duergar, ogres, and fae whose home settlements are too remote from the human city-states to facilitate much interaction. The other races often use humans as a neutral medium in which to communicate with each other. They do so because humans are centrally located, have established contact with all the races, and are so populous that anyone hardly notices a missing human or three should things go wrong. |