Humans

Societies

Humans tend to view themselves as the main representatives of civilization, and it is true that most (though by no means all) countries in the world seem to be ultimately run by humans; monarchies, democracies, tyrannies and republics alike are more often than not primarily human-run... which is really only natural given that humans are usually the majority. And so, human societies are almost as many and varied as the humans themselves, though most of them are at least somewhat colored by their high birth rate and mortality rate; they change quicker and go through more "improvements" than any.

Famlilies, breeding and children

Relationships and marriages in human societies are varied, though the biggest countries in the magic lands, Agardyn, the Trinity and Cergan, practice monogamy fairly strictly -- while in other countries, such as Lyndellin and Vesia, polyamory is more common. Arranged marriages sometimes happen, but usually only among royalty or nobility where marriage often is more about politics than love -- the ideal in most human societies is to marry for love.

Children are almost always brought up by their parents, and humans are unique among the Five Known People in that growing up with a sibling or two is very common; where the other People most often only have one child at a time and don't get new children until long after one child is grown up, humans with their higher birth rate might raise several children at the same time. As one bewildered dwarf once said to his human friends: "You're having another child? This is your third one, and it's only five years since last time! Is that all you guys do?!"

Humans tend to reach their Hotblood stage around their teens, and in most societies are considered adults at the age of 20 -- though in some societies (Kruga, Ledun and Makenia) they are considered of age at 18.

Names

There aren't very many universal human naming customs, though most humans have two or more names -- one given name, one family name and possibly one or more middle names. Traditionally they are named by their parents.

Family names might change; if a human gets married he or she might take the spouse's family name -- most often it's the wife taking on the husband's name, but it's not uncommon for a husband to take on a wife's name, or for both of them to keep their own family names. Children will then inherit both family names, though common sense usually prevents someone from giving their children more than two family names; it would get really awkward if someone was named, say, "Laliya Hoeg-Bredenberg Wind Jeppsen Nieburg Ranum Birch Birch Birch."

Relationships with the other People

As a People, humans get along best with the dwarfs; historically there's always been a close cooperation between the two -- dwarfish societies have always been close to human ones and it's a rare human who doesn't have at least an acquaintance or two that's a dwarf.

Humans' relationships with wights has traditionally been more rocky; back when the wights first made the scene the majority of conflicts and skirmishes were between humans and wights. As the dwarfs started befriending the wights, however, human attitudes to wights softened somewhat, and today the two People mostly get along.

When it comes to elves and dragons alike, humans have little to do with either; elves are these mysterious magical folks who stay in their forest and only seldom come out, but they are rather pretty with their pointy ears and slender, elegant looks... and dragons are usually just seen flying high above you. Most humans have seen many dragons, but few have actually talked to one -- or, to be more precise, knowingly talked to one.