HUMAN

Human tribes were discovered by iaret explorers in the unending western steppes before the Great Khet seared those lands to desert. Endlessly adaptable, they have since spread to every corner of Geb and may now be the most populous race on the known earth. As the fortunes of the iaret fell, their own star rose and they now drive the engines of civilization, building nations, trading, warring, and exploring. In the present they seek new ways to govern themselves, new understandings of magic, and new lands to tame. Much like the iaret, they can be found practicing every profession and trade, albeit with the enthusiasm of those still experimenting and finding their boundaries.

Humans are very similar to iaret in form and height but have more extremes in variety. Tall, short, thick, thin, the permutations seem endless. They lack the scales of iaret, and the copious fur of beastkin, but their skin colors range from pallid pink to dark brown, with ruddy, tan and bronze shades in between. Many of these features can be traced to tribal ancestries, but in the modern era, such old ties are being subsumed by national identities.

Gathering a dozen humans together will probably generate two dozen opinions. If the apkallu gifted answers to the iaret, the humans met them with a bounty of questions. Humans are rarely content to do things the way they have always been done. Indeed, they may not even be content nibbling at the margins with refined ideas and instead throw out millennia of established practice in favor of entirely novel schemes. They display a drive worthy of the iaret of old, but in service of curiosity that would make an apkallu proud. Some would charge, however, that those impulses are not tempered with the same wisdom.

Though seeming fractious at heart, humans have always formed ever-increasing social structures. Their individuality doesn’t preclude them placing their loyalty in larger groups or grand ideals, even in disregard of traditional racial boundaries. Families became tribes, then kingdoms, then empires. Within those nations, even more layers can be found like a nest of onions. Temples, congregations, trading companies, schools, groups abound in a stew of activity and ideas. It is no surprise that the more novel philosophies in the modern era, such as Khalqist thought, sprang from human struggles.

The same energy humans bring to other endeavors sometimes propels individuals off the beaten track of the civilized world. Pioneering homesteaders, explorers of new vistas or ancient homelands forge into the unknown. Rebels, inventors and free-thinkers within cities can find the strictures of law and tradition too stifling. As with most things human, there is another side to this coin: some take it upon themselves to avenge wrongs that hidebound authorities cannot, or seek to impose order where chaos festers.

Ability score increase. An ability score of your choice is increased by 2.
Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
Alignment. Humans tend toward no particular alignment. The best and worst are found among them.
Size. Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.
Language. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice.
Versatility. Choose one skill to gain proficiency in.
National background. Humans subdivide themselves endlessly and national culture is one of the ways they differentiate themselves. Human characters select a national background to describe their origins and affiliation.

Adoptee
While most cities and nations are cosmopolitan to a greater or lesser degree, many humans find themselves living among an overwhelming majority of another race. It might be amongst an isolated beastkin tribe, a deep-jungle city of the iaret, or perhaps even an apkallu monastery beneath the Mor Dyfn. Wherever it might be, the innate cleverness and adaptability of humans usually finds a way to make a home among their very different neighbors. Those living in such arrangements tend to keep a sharp eye out, always seeking to understand their surroundings.
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in the Insight or Perception skill.

Bracken
The sad fate of the nation of Bracken is proof that in many ways the known earth will never be the same after the Gate War. In distant ages, Bracken was fertile river delta and bayou, where the rivers that flowed down from the western steppes gathered and fed into the Sea of Riches. It retained some of that bounty after the Great Khet, as the mountain streams still ran even if the steppes were burned to desert. Year after year, however, the sand encroached on their borders, and riverbeds turned to mud, then cracked and dry earth. For a time the desert was held back by a grand working of magic known as the Folly, which interposed a shield to keep out the rolling dunes, but relentless and savage battles during the Gate War saw the shield unravel. The tatters of the spell may still be seen in twilight, shimmering and keeping small ribbons of land moist and green. The Khalq watch the slow advance of “Amir Sands” hungrily, as it might one day provide a route for their mobile cities within striking distance of Keltokel. Other than humans, an equal number of iaret still stubbornly cling to old cities in the dying marshland.
You are Resilient in the ability of your choice: that ability score increases by 1 and you have proficiency in saving throws made with that ability.

Dovenhead
Abandoned during the Suzerainty’s slow retreat into decadence, the fertile and rolling hills of Dovenhead was once a Baltine possession before it was lost during the last of the mercantile conflicts before the Gate War. It is ruled by light-handed gentry, and in general enjoys a sleepy bucolic existence, mostly untroubled by the cares of the rest of the known earth. What problems it does face are occasional waves of refugees from Polto, smugglers looking to avoid tariffs, piracy, and muruch raids. The folk of Dovenhead are an easy-going lot, mostly well-fed and peace-loving. Aside from forest-dwelling beastkin, nonhumans are a curiosity in the countryside and apt to cause a good-intentioned stir.
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in Artisan Tools of your choice or the Animal Handling skill.

Free States of Balt
Encompassing grasslands, foothills, mountains and badlands, the Free States of Balt are an expansive nation far to the south. Iaret rule was light here, leading to an independent bent in the human tribes and settlers in this land. Once a variety of smaller nations, it slowly coalesced into a single federation a generation before the Gate War, though this union has been fractious at times. Blessed with relative stability and rich natural resources, the Baltine states are industrious and innovative, driving many advancements in magical technology. By the time the Gate War and Spasm ravaged the known earth, many Baltine cities had been linked by rail caravan lines and the citizenry was more mobile than most other nations. While much of the rest of the known world is recovering, the Baltine nation is uneasy, plagued by lawlessness on its borders, the enmity and subversion of the neighboring Khalq, and the now undirected population of freed yanta. Humans comprise a strong majority in the States, but Baltine culture is a melange of all the races that make up its polity.
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Choice one of the following: Proficiency in the Arcana skill, or the Artisan Tools of your choice.

The Jewel Cities
Dotting the shores of the Sea of Riches like a glittering diadem are the Jewel Cities. Bustling with trade and travel, they are the gateway into the riches of Akhet and the rest of the known earth. Never as hidebound as the Suzerainty itself, they are centers of learning and experimentation, of free traffic in ideas. Muruch and apkallu are a common sight on the streets, along with ptak who’ve taken up the sailor’s life. In each city there is a core of ancient stone, monuments and temples glorifying long-gone iaret founders, but these are swamped by a maze of newer buildings in every style of architecture. Every one of the Jewel Cities has a slightly different atmosphere, but all are bursting at the seams with the flow of commerce. Humans dwelling here tend to be fast-talking, always on the lookout for a new opportunity, be it commercial or in a new field of study or exploration.
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Choose one: proficiency in the Persuasion or Arcana skill.

The Keizai Princes
Visible at night from the plains below, the Keizai mountains are dotted with lights, each one a fort or castle ruled by a petty princeling. Established by ancient treaty, the Princedoms nominally guard the passes between Balt and the Khalq. In reality, most look to their own affairs, feud with neighbors, or engage in thieving and banditry. Despite their hardscrabble and provincial state, the Keizai are a proud lot and full of swagger, refusing to bow to any foreign power. Humans comprise a significant minority of the population, sharing the mountains with ozrut, ptak, and the occasional runaway yanta.
Your Strength score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in the Intimidation or Athletics skill.

Keltokel
The City of Cities, old beyond measure, sits at the crux of the known earth, protected by stone and water. There, ptak rub shoulders with iaret as they walk on paving stones older than the Suzerainty itself, and beneath those stones are the bones of cities even more ancient. There has always been a city on this spot, and there probably will always be one. A free city now, it has traditionally resisted conquest since the retreat of the Suzerainty, save for a brutal occupation by the soldati during the Gate War. To be a human in Keltokel is to live free at the center of a world where your kind is coming into their own. What happens beyond the stone and water will probably find its way to you soon enough; anything momentous comes to Keltokel eventually.
Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in the skill or tools of your choice.

Polto
Once called “the Customs House of Balt,” Polto sat astride the overland trade routes between Keltokel and the Free States. Equally blessed by ample farmland, it managed to thrive even during unsettled times. That changed during the Gate War, when Polto found itself on the front lines of the Soldati advance toward the manufacturing centers of Balt. Still reeling after the end of the war and the Spasm, Polto now endures the lingering poisons in its soil and a succession of plagues. Majority human, the inhabitants of Polto that remain are a wary, worried bunch, practicing their trades while praying for the return of the merchant caravans that once made the nation prosperous.
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: proficiency in the Artisan Tools of your choice or the Medicine Skill.

The Suzerainty of Akhet
Decadent and cosmopolitan cities of stone and gold thrust out of the jungle canopy. Raucous birds chatter from lintels and eaves, vying with the sonorous tone of prayer bells. Everywhere there are iaret, dressed in their finery and waited upon by beastkin servants. But scratch the surface of this nation and you will find humans in all walks of life. Never truly subjugated like the beastkin, nor insular like the ozrut, but not beloved like the apkallu, humans find something approaching respect from the iaret. Those dwelling among the firstborn children of Geb have what comforts they can afford, sometimes taking on the arrogant and languid demeanor of their neighbors. The Suzerainty is steeped in its long past and the watchful eyes of the gods peer down on every street from monumental carvings.
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Choose one: proficiency in the Religion or History skill.

Tide Kingdoms
Clinging to cliffsides and seamount faces along the Baltine Mor Dyfn coastline, the Tide Kingdoms are an ever-fractious lot of expanding and contracting city-states, each backed by the small personal fleet of the strongest captain able to lay claim to the port. Piracy abounds in defiance of Baltine attempts to ensure safe shipping to Dovenhead and the Jewel Cities. Humans compose a plurality of the inhabitants of these petty kingdoms, and nearly all have tried their hand at sailing one time or another. Tidescum, as they jokingly call themselves, are wild and canny, used to shifting alliances and treachery.
Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in Gaming Tools, Navigator’s Tools, or the Acrobatics skill.

The Traveling Islands
The oldest tales of the iaret speak of a continent in the Mor Dyfn, before the falling star smashed it to pieces and sunk it to the pit of Apsu’s stomach. What remains now in the deep and trackless ocean are islands large and small, broken remains of that ancient, mysterious land. The seafaring tribes that inhabit these lands are endlessly adaptable, living on floating mats of seaweed, giant seashells, enormous dragon-turtles, volcano slopes, and, of course, the strangely unmoored solid ground of rocky, jungled, or desert islands. The Islands are home to many races, but perhaps half the population, including the largest tribes, are human. To flourish in this constantly shifting landscape requires a strong back, a weather eye, and a knack for living off the land, no matter what the land might be.
Your Strength score increases by 1.
Choose one: proficiency in Navigator’s Tools or the Survival skill.

The United Assemblage of Khalq
Solidarity backed with a bottomless wellspring of bitterness is the national character of the desert-dwelling Khalq. Once verdant steppes, the land was burned to ash and desert in a terrible conflagration in the distant past. Isolated by mountain ranges and repelled by the expanding Suzerainty, the human tribes that once roamed those lands starved, fought, and then finally dragged themselves out of certain extinction and despair. The desert wastes burned these tribes until there was nothing left but the will to live and the unbreakable bonds of hardship. The Khalq is both the land and the masses, and all are equal there. Still nomadic, they have traded their beasts of burden for crawling machine cities. Humans are a dominating majority in the Khalq, but they welcome all who will believe in the will of the masses. Life is sparse and hard among the Khalq, and they fuel their bodies with stories of how they were left to starve and ruthlessly enforce asceticism and equality amongst themselves.
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in the History or Investigation skill.

The Utter Ice
Far to the south, almost beyond where iaret ever trod, lies a land of perpetual ice where even the Mor Dyfn freezes. Yet even here life can be found, in a loose coalition of tribes of beastkin, apkallu, and humans. Those inhabiting the Utter Ice have tales of being driven there in the distant past, crowded out of sunlit lands by war, migration and disaster. Only the hardy survive in this hungry country, subsisting on hunting during the few warmer months of the year.
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in Scrimshaw tools, the Survival or Stealth skill.

Wanderer
Many humans give no allegiance to any nation, and eschew the trappings and culture of wherever they might have lived before they gave in to the call of travel. Perhaps it was Apsu that beckoned them to sea, or war, famine and plague that left them rootless, or they are fleeing the choices offered by the Man at the Crossroads, but now they call no place home. They make their way wherever they find themselves, trusting their wits and bloody-minded will to see them through to the next day.
The ability score of your choice increases by 1. This choice may not be an ability score that has already been increased.
Choose one of the following: Proficiency in the Survival or Nature skill.

Pigeons and Holes
Ever since their discovery by the iaret, humans have presented an interesting challenge in taxonomy. In physical appearance, they most resemble beastkin, but lack that people’s animalistic capability, servile nature, and are not capable of interbreeding with them. In spirit, they are most like the iaret, ambitious and inquisitive, but with an independent and troublemaking streak that has often spoiled peaceful rule. Remarkably, they can interbreed with muruch, which raises fascinating questions about the origins of either race. Aside from blunt teeth and the lack of vestigial scales, humans greatly resemble land-walking muruch. The Gate War has presented a new mystery: though there is no apparent relationship, unveiled tylwyth are said to have very refined human features.

Ancient History
Recorded history places the origins of humanity in the now-fire-blasted western steppes, where they were first discovered by iaret explorers. There is ample evidence that humans had already filtered into the south through the Keizai range by this time, and perhaps even into the Wandering Isles. More radical theory holds that humans of the Isles have less relation to the nomadic steppe tribes, and both sprang from a more ancient and undiscovered source. Indeed, while the iaret met them as tribes, certain human oral histories hinted at broken nations somewhere beyond the western steppes.

Old Time Religion
The iaret bequeathed their gods upon all their colonies, co-opting what worship they found and bending it to their mythology. In the south and west it was no different, but the humans there have taken that worship in vastly different directions. The khalq are staunchly antitheistic, as the gods did not save them from great firestorms that destroyed the steppes, nor the bitter starvation and barbarism that followed. On the other side of the Keizai mountains, a new kind of religion is rising, one of community worship and participation in the divine. Traditional iaret worship is the sole province of priests, who offer prayers and minister to the people. Temples glorify the gods, but are not public spaces. Human propensity for social grouping, on the other hand, has priests leading communal worship, preaching the tales and teachings of the gods directly to congregations rather than offering prayers on their behalf. Depictions of the gods in human communities have also taken a specifically humanistic bent but this is far less remarkable than the rise of mass worship.