Humans

Humans:

Beliefs: varies, includes: god-worship, ancestral worship, spirit-worship.

Humans have a wide variety of beliefs, thought by the other races to be a result of their exceedingly short generational memories. In general, however, their understanding of the world can be divided into two groups:

The most common of these is the belief that the mortal realm was once created as a sort of proving ground, a battlefield of ideas and fundamental forces, for the gods, who each resided with their kin in separate realms of their own design, which lay outside the mortal realm, touching it wherever that god exerted their influence. At some time beyond living memory a great disaster rocked the many planes of existence, making them uninhabitable, and the gods were forced to wander for a time. Because the mortal realm was made resilient by its position at the center of the multiverse, and by its constant harsh use by the hands of higher beings, it was spared the worst of this cosmic disaster. Yet Ko, being made for mortal creatures, and not the immortal gods and their servants, was forbidden to them, and so they were forced to birth themselves into the realm, in the manner of mortals. In the doing, the gods lost their immortality and memory, but preserved their essences.

Devout humans therefore seek to restore the memories of the gods. Some seek to understand their aspects and essences through worship and emulation, or else by dredging the annals of history for records of ancient deities. The highest goal of such worshippers is to eventually commune with their god, granting a sort of revelation unto the god-child, and so they often study closely the behaviors of the gods, hoping to establish lines of communication in the manner of tamers and beasts. Others believe that the gods imbued themselves with certain animalistic reflexes upon their birthing, primal instincts that would drive them to complete specific tasks within the mortal realm, tasks that, upon completion, would restore them to their former grandeur. These latter usually seek to help further the goals of their god. Because emulation of a god grants one power, both types of worshippers are reassured of the righteousness of their ideals, believing their god or gods have granted them boons to aid them in completion of their tasks.

Those who follow such a doctrine believe that their souls are taken in by the god they worship upon death, sometimes being granted some sort of boon or protection upon death. More often than not, they instead believe that their souls are transported to the empty realms once inhabited by their gods, to wander the blasted and forsaken realm until such a time as their god can reclaim it. Such a belief only adds to the fervor with which they express their faith. After all, if those realms were abandoned by the gods themselves, what hope that the souls of mortals might find peace within them?

A sub-set of humans, taking issue slight issue with the cosmological model, believe that the mortal realm is not, in fact, particularly unique among the multiverse, excepting the fact that it, and perhaps only it, survived whatever ancient catastrophe drove the gods to mass exodus. The realm must therefore have its own god within it, still immortal, still powerful, just as the hideously mortal gods once dwelt in realms of their own. Such humans are usually pantheistic, worshipping the forces of nature, the elemental spirits, even the land itself, anything that can be said to be immortal, and therefore divine in a way that the cosmic interlopers others worship are not. The god of the realm is one of harmony and balance, the perfect cycling of the seasons, of life and death. The distortions of reality surrounding the gods, and the strange magics they grant to their followers are violations of these principles.

Biology: same as earth.

Values: Varies from tribe to tribe. Humans are usually communally-motivated, relying on numbers for strength rather than any specialized magical, technological, or biological feature.

Mating and family: Sex and birth as on earth, family structures vary.

Language: varies, low literacy rates makes oral histories and imagery important.

Customs/games: varies

Government and law: varies

Technology/magic: mostly stone-age tools, usually must trade for metals, but have some craftsmen capable of maintaining or altering them. High aptitude for visual and performing arts makes for formidable welders of god-magic.

Art/clothing: varies. Influenced primarily by the technology and materials available to the tribe.