Hume
design-hume.png

The most populous race in Azaleon, humes (humans) are the majority. Some could say this fact has made them rather bold and fearless, and they essentially often do whatever it is they want, and there is a grain of truth to such statements. Most settlements and cities were designed and built by humes, and it was humes that first decided to separate Azaleon into arbitrarily divided regions. Some feel humes improved Azaleon, and others feel they ruined it.

History

It is unknown when, exactly, humes first came to exist on Azaleon, but the ilim maintain that humes are not native to it, instead citing a historical event the ilim call the Exodus. According to records now only held as fact by races that are not the humes themselves, humes came across a land channel from another part of the planet. Such a channel has not been found, which likely explains why humes themselves have not decided this story is based in fact.

In any case, humes were, for a time, rather primitive. They traveled, first, together in roving groups they called tribes, following the migration of game herds and, subsequently, Azaleon's seasons. As each different group began to learn more about the foods they foraged from the wilds, and how to grow them on their own, they started to steadily settle, going from nomadic to sedentary. Some of these groups never entirely stopped being nomadic, even as villages sprung up, became cities, became metropolises, became nations. Notably, there are still several different groups of humes that remain wanderers, and cannot really be considered from a particular place.

As humes built their cities and their cities became nations, they, naturally, began to war with one another. Sometimes, one nation asked to trade one of their resources for another nation's, and the other nation either refused or extorted the price immensely high, either due to political disagreements between the two nations, or because a particular resource was in high demand, and the exporting nation saw an opportunity. Thus, most warring has been, at its root, over resources, not over perceived slights as many joke. Borders shifted, and each nation's culture, even each city's culture, developed separately from the others, and while there remains perhaps some influence from other sources, these cultures are often very different from each other. Amid conquest and resource gathering, the hume nations eventually began to enslave one another's people in forced labor, as it was and still is much cheaper than paying for voluntary work. In time, the humes began to advance technologically, as they needed easier ways of doing every day tasks, and stronger battlefield presence in war, but how much they advanced and what technologies are every-day usage, varies between locales.

Nowadays, humes are found in abundance all over Azaleon, and no two humes are exactly alike in knowledge, mannerism, or prejudices and predispositions. Some say that all humes are prejudiced in some manner, others maintain they've never met a terrible hume, but a root fact about humes is they are always looking to profit, always looking for shortcuts, and often never really have the foresight and long-term planning skills necessary to prevent collateral damage. Neither do they seem to care to bother trying to rectify any of this.

Biology

No single nation in the lands of Azaleon lean toward a specific ethnic appearance. Any hume with any ethnic appearance can be from anywhere. As likely presumed, humes are another term for humans. Nobody uses the word human in Azaleon, but humes only come in appearances and colorations typical for regular humans, albeit some odd colors, such as particularly vibrant eye colors, may occasionally occur.

Purple and red eye colors are also known to happen, normally in lineages of very high standing, as it was believed, at one time, to be a mark of nobility, and due to varying… ah, special marriage arrangements, remained within certain bloodlines. Those with purple or red eyes do tend to have trouble seeing in bright lighting, and can be blinded momentarily by flashing a bright light in close proximity of them.

Age and Development

Babies take the standard nine-ish months to be born. Children often learn to walk at around one or two, and talk within the same general time frame. Solid food is given at around six months to a year old.

Adolescent humes are considered adults at the age of 16, and for highborn humes, this is often celebrated amongst the nobility and gentry, occasionally with entertainment often reserved for adults, such as blood games, alcoholic consumption, and in some areas, orgies.

Abilities

Humes have a subset called the mage. As implied, mages are capable of using magic, and can harness raw aura and sorcery. There is no rhyme or reason to who is a mage and who is not, it is as if magic just randomly bubbles out of them. Most mages will display an ability to use it at around three years old to ten, but some have displayed magical ability at as young as one year old, and as late as into their forties.

Beyond aura arts, humes have no particular supernatural abilities that are typical for them. One could consider their adaptability and resourceful thinking somewhat of a notable ability, but it is not supernatural.

Relations with Other Races

Ilim are tolerant of humes. Some ilim may even kind of like them. Weres, given they are often born of humes and thus were hume once, are generally more accepting of them, but some eventually begin to look at them as young children, flailing around and eventually getting lucky, no matter how old they may be.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License