Humans

Humans; the heirs of The Mortal Realm. When the gods and spirits created The Mortal Realm, the humans were supposed to be its ultimate rulers, the one and only sapient race to walk this world. But that all changed when the humans discovered a tool which would change the threads of fate: magic. The humans were the first to discover magic and it would forever alter how they would live their lives. The humans were also the first to master all four schools of magic as a race, since they spread like wildfire across the four corners of The Mortal Realm. South to Targus, north to The Mjaln Mountains, east to Yantsu Island and west to Jemero Keys. The humans were everywhere shortly after they were created. They discovered new places, new creatures, new magic but sadly, the human mind is easily corrupted. Promises of power from the Netherworld also made the humans the first cultists of the Netherlords, serving them with pious awe. But fortunately, by far the most have stuck to the way of the Aetherworld (some, perhaps a bit too much) which is why the human race has prospered so well and not destroyed itself through corruption and foul worship.

History
The history of the humans is vast and complex, as the humans have spread so much across the world and have differed significantly depending on where they've travelled to. The human race as a whole, though, has undergone many changes throughout their time, caught in between the otherworldly war. As stated above, the human race is known as 'the heirs of The Mortal Realm' as it is, in a sense, theirs. The gods and spirits chose them and many humans see that is their right to stomp on other races as inferior and unworthy of the gods' favor. As religion became more obvious to the humans in ancient times, some shrugged it off while others took it to the extreme. The Three Valleys became the hotspot of religion for the humans, especially Godshill in The Eastern Valley. Here, they have shaped a crusade against the forces of darkness as well as more mundane enemies. The crusaders of Godshill warred for many years against the Dark Elves, seeing them as creations of the Netherworld. Although not successfull, they made a great impact on how many Dark Elves view humans at this time.

Meanwhile, down south in Targus, the humans took another approach to religion. They revered the spirits over the gods, as they believe the spirits were the creators of the world and not the gods. They believed that the spirits walked among them, taking shape of wind, sand, trees, birds, water, and so on and so forth. The first Targussians known as 'The Ancients' became so fanatical in their reverance that they sealed off Targus from foreigners to keep their blood pure and their faith true. But their narrow-sightedness became their undoing as a cataclysmic explosion of spiritual energy rampaged across Targus and changed it forever. The Ancients, together with their magnificent technology, were lost forever and the wall around Targus fell, letting new people travel to this desert land. These pioneers became the new Targussians, who had a more open-minded view to religion.

But as the humans were told that The Mortal Realm belonged to them, their arrogance became their suffering. They waged holy wars across the entire world, each faction claiming to be the true chosen while the others were merely vermin. Thousands died in these foolish wars and many turned to other ways of reverance to simply get away from this madness. Some turned to science and began working on technology, some turned to magic and focused on thie studies and some turned to the Netherworld, seeking new gods to revere. The human race became so diverse that some claimed other factions were other races entirely. But after many years of struggle, they began to realize that they would become their own destruction if they did not make peace and focus on actual threats of The Mortal Realm, such as the Netherworld. The Mortal Realm slowly united, and all styles of life and religion became accepted... except for reverance of the Netherworld. These cultists were scorned from society, banished to restlessness, homelessness and hopelessness. Although strangely enough, even these people still persevere, even after so many years. Although some may hope otherwise, the human race will always have bad apples.

The Ankhar
For some humans, the years of the Ankhar Imperialism was the height of human history. It was at this time when humanity strove for unfettered greatness, reached for the stars, and grasped them - in an all too literal sense. The Ankhar name summons connotations of hubris, wild ambition, and madness in the minds of mortals of later years, and not without reason. The Ankharian Empire was a glorious spree of boundless conquest, but it too burned out, as the Ankhar flew too close to the sun. Humans of the Age of Rebirth see the Ankharian Empire as a lesson in humility to be learned from childhood, lest humanity makes the same mistakes as the Ankhar, and thus face extinction. Again.

Gods and Machines
The Ankhar, though their armies and political robustness was the stuff of legend as well, are perhaps best known for their outrageous technology that does not rely on coal and oil like the inventions of The Dragonlands or later Dusk Elves, nor on the raw magic that characterizes the entrepeneurial makings of The Academy of Advanced Gizmology, but instead, their machines are powered by captured gods who have been turned into living batteries, either forced to give their power away or strapped to engines that extract that power like juice from an orange. Untold wealths of power were to be gained like this, and it was the core reason that the Ankhar rose above other humans at such a rate. Enormous leaps in technology allowed the Ankhar to build godlike cities and invent devices that defied all natural laws - because, indeed, the makers of those laws were now kept in chains deep beneath their buzzing metropolises. The more gods and spirits they captured, the more energy and power they could extract, which allowed them to build even greater and more complex technology that in turn would give them the tools they needed for captured even greater gods. It was a spiral of heresy and hubris that was only spinning faster, faster, and faster.

Ammon, The Immortal Pharao
The Ankhar were not always one people, but rather three different peoples, who were not afraid of waging war on one another from time to time. One part resided in The Akombe Savannah while another resided in Aloria, and the last one in Cercia. For many years, each were simply slaves or scattered rebel factions when the dragons stilled roamed and ruled most of the world, but when the dragons fell, human ambition soared to new heights. Among the Alorians, Pharao Ammon assembled his armies and promised to all humans that he would lead them into an era of boundless glory, one where humans wrote the rules of the universe, where all tyrants were dethroned, and where all suffering would come to an end. The North unanimously declined him, called him mad and deranged, but most of the Akombeans and Cercians listened to him. Nearly all of the Cercians joined him, and those Akombeans who didn't were swiftly erased from history. Under his rule, the Ankharian Empire was born, and a new age dawned.

In the following decades, all Ankhar priests and thaumatologists began making their plans for rebellion against the gods themselves, but age was taking its toll on the Pharao. Intent on seeing this age of liberation dawn over his empire, the Pharao drew in his most trusted scholars, who discovered a cure when he was on his deathbed: lichdom. Naturally, the Pharao did not hesitate to accept this dark gift, and immediately let himself transform into a creature of undeath, so that he could witness the greatness that his empire was becoming. And he did.

Piece by piece, the pharaos scholars discovered ways to capture small spirits and harness their energies. Once the first one was captured, the Ankhar had set themselves down a path that they could never return from. The following decades lead to even greater spirits being captured, and with them, newfound wealths of power emerged. Technologies were developed to best harness this power, simple at first but rapidly growing in complexity. Within just fifty years, the Ankhar had risen above all other civilizations at the time in terms of technological advancement... and they would not stop there.

Ammon's empire was growing, but in order to keep his subjects pleased, he created a council of tribal chieftains that influence his decisions, giving him advise and letting the people feel as if they were being represented in the empire's government. It was a council of six chieftains that in pairs represented the two strongest tribes from each of the Ankharian Empire's three regions: Akombe, Aloria, and Cercia. Never once from the day the Pharao created the council to the day the Ankharian Empire fell did new tribes join the council or old ones leave it - in truth, the council simply created another hierarchy, which allowed these six tribes to rule supreme over the rest.

The Maka
The Maka was an Akombe tribe that served first and foremost as the front line of the Ankharian Empire's expansion to the north. The Maka were renowed for their undaunted warriors and flawless discipline, which made them excellent combatants and commanders. The Maka were deeply traditional people who retained their ancient ways even when their homelands became terraformed into something barely even recognizable. They did not care much for the technological advancements, but would nonetheless happily receive the armor and weapons that came from them. The Maka never expressed any doubt in the Pharao's decrees, and would follow him to hell and back.

The Tokksa
Another tribe from the Akombe Savannah, the Tokksa also never gave up on their traditions and their ancient philosophies, but the Tokksa did not train warriors like the Maka did. Instead, the Tokksa were philosophers and scholars who stood by the Pharao's side as advisors and researchers. That said, they were not afraid of a fight, and would oftentimes join their Maka brethren on the battlefield as terrifying warmages. The Tokksa also had great love for the pharao, but unlike the Maka, they did not just blindly obey him or believe all his words to be words of wisdom. The Tokksa were sceptics that would interpret the rules as they saw them "best applied". The Tokksa believed more in the philosophy of liberation than in any cult of personality.

The Bashal
Hailing from Cercia, the Bashal were the pragmatists of the Ankharian Empire, the ones who would rather see everything go as smoothly as possible than blunder into unnecessary conflict. During the Ankharian expansion northward, the Bashal were always sent forward as diplomats and delegates who would try and negotiate with the foreign nations and tribes, in hopes of winning the war without lifting a single sword. The origins of the Bashal are not entirely clear, and though they still had some traditions that lingered after the Akharian Empire was established, they largely stepped away from their old ways and considered themselves Ankhar rather than Cercians. The Bashal were often the ones to gain the most influence with the Pharao, and therefore it was often the Bashal who set the agenda for how the empire was to be driven.

The Qeballah
While the Qeballah were largely known for their artistic contribution to the Ankharian Empire through poems, epics, and music, the truth was much darker than that. The Qeballah served the Pharao through their propaganda, which they had refined to such a degree that it was barely distinguishable from hypnosis. Everything that was displayed on screens or in newspapers was often the work of the Qeballah. They knew how to speak to the public, how to make a lie seem like the clearest truth, and how to keep the people content. 'Bread and circus' could not even begin to describe the methods the Qeballah were using in order to keep the public from thinking any dissentful thoughts. But this also meant that the Qeballah had a rather strained relationship with the Pharao, who knew that those who controlled the media controlled how the world saw him. A liberator? A tyrant? That was all in the hands of the Qeballah.

The Basteti
Clandestine, unknowable, and all-knowing, the Basteti were perhaps the most enigmatic of all tribes represented in the Pharao's council. They were a tribe of Alorians who specialized in the covert operations that kept the empire going without making too many ripples in the water. This tribe was full of spies that went far into enemy territory or rooted out rebel factions within the empire, or assassins that knew how to cut the head off of the snake and paralyze an organization with just a few clean kills. But the Basteti made a bad name for themselves, for many of the other tribes suspected a few 'inconvenient' deaths of their own to not be pure accident. The Basteti were long thought to be pulling strings here and there, pushing and pulling the circumstances to their own favor. It could just never be proven.

The Mosi
Many of the first pioneers who discovered methods of capturing gods were part of the Alorian Mosi tribe, and through that, they gained a permanent seat at the Pharao's council. The Mosi were scientists and engineers, inventors of wonders both grand and gruesome. They made war engines for the northward expansion, but they also invented nearly all of the infrastructure that allowed the Ankhar citizens to prosper. Furthermore, the Mosi established the training grounds for the renowed god-hunters - those Ankhar who took to the stars to find and capture gods. Thus, the Mosi was perhaps the most respected tribe of them all, but also the most ambitious. Nothing was enough for the Mosi.