Humans in Arilyan

## HUMANS

Before you read any information about humans, please review the timeline, as this page references things that occurred between the animals of Arilyan and humans.

The history between humans and the creatures of Arilyan has been a tremulous one. Maia didn’t create them, and in fact she’s not exactly sure where they came from. They seem to exist outside her realm of magic, and for the most part, are unaffected by the Veil and the gods of Arilyan.

But that doesn’t mean they’re peaceful. While some humans can coexist with the magical world around them, others are driven by greed to obtain the power Maia bestowed upon her creation.

There are a relatively new group of humans that Maia herself has befriended and chosen to be her speakers. You can read more about them here.

## ALLOWED INTERACTIONS WITH HUMANS

### Humans can….

* Attempt to keep an Arilyan creature as a pet.
* Capture an animal and try to breed it with new traits.
* Work magic obtained through ritual sacrifice of an Arilyan creature.
* Work with a willing creature that doesn’t mind their presence.

### Humans cannot….

* Succeed in keeping an animal as a pet, because they’ll eventually wind up attacking their human owner.
* Teach an animal to enjoy to be ridden. Think of most of these animals as a lion or a tiger, not a horse or “mount animal”. CAN you ride a tiger? Probably. SHOULD you ride a tiger? No. You’re going to risk getting eaten.
* Speak to animals. A human can read their expressions, similar to how we read animals in our world, but they can’t carry on a conversation. Even if a child is taken from birth (something only a thrax would do, and even then it’s uncommon), they wouldn’t be able to understand one another in the same way that other animals can understand each other.

A human and an animal from Arilyan are not naturally friends. While they range from tolerating one another, to working together, to outright hostile interactions, a human isn’t likely to trust any Arilyan creature that approaches them and an animal isn’t likely to trust any human that tries to be their friend. They have a long, violent history, where humans have captured and forcefully bred intelligent animals, killed them for food and clothing, and ripped them away from their packs, and the animals in Arilyan have responded by killing entire villages, eating children out of revenge, and attacking random humans. Please keep this in mind when incorporating humans into your character’s history.

## LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT

There are four cultures of humans that currently exist in Arilyan.

### The Traveling Ones

These humans have the best relationship with the creatures of Arilyan, not because they have some spiritual connection, but because they know it’s smarter to get along with them than threaten their wrath. As the youngest culture, they’re a bit of a mix of ethnicities and skin tones, and it’s said that their founders created their wandering tribe as a rebellion against the other, older cultures out there that caused the gods to vanish behind the veil. There are three tribes, ones that wander the plains, another that stay in the jungles and another that sticks to the swamps.

Culturally, they’re similar to that of American Plain and Australian Indegenous People. They’re hunter gatherers, by choice, believing more that materialism and industrialism is what caused the rift between humans and animals that made the gods close the veil off for so long.

### The Ocean Dwellers

These humans are the second youngest in Arilyan, and in fact didn’t originate on the continent but came from a cluster of islands, home to some of the largest thraxes in the world. Terrified of the growing population of these old intelligent creatures, they ran and found themselves on the mainland of Arilyan. When they arrived they set up roots and stayed put, vowing to never return home, and instead spend their days raiding nearby islands for whatever they can get their hands on. They don’t exactly know much about the rivalry between humans and animals on Arilyan, and tend to be the ones who hunt Maia’s children for food, meat, and even trying to tame them as work animals. They’re the ones who bred the cimmathrax into existence, finding thraxes much more manageable here on the mainland, and wanting to have creatures of their own to do their more hard labor.

This culture is similar to that of Scandinavian vikings and ocean travelers. They build villages along the northern and northwestern coasts, and generally stick to themselves, only really interacting with the people of the mountains as means to trade. They mostly have pale skin, and light eyes, but it’s not uncommon for them to have olive skin tones if they have heritage going back to the People of the Mountain.

### People of the Desert

There are three different groups that live in the desert, one that lives long the southern coasts, another that lives along the northern deserts and the central that stays in the middle of the Arilyan desert at all times. The first two are fairly nomadic, traveling from one end of the sands to the other, sharing knowledge and often befriending Keruals. The central group, however, is the second oldest in Arilyan and have spent generations building temples and shrines to their gods, breeding whatever creatures they can to make the most beautiful markings, and often worship Maia’s creatures (not Maia herself). All three groups are the most ambitious and the one that Maia keeps the closest eye on. They have the highest ability to work magic, and she’s scared of a similar situation happening to where they begin to drain her children of their magic.

This is a group is actually a set of three different cultures that exist on different ends of the desert. The central desert people are inspired by Egyptians, the southern humans are inspired by the Mongols, and the northern desert tribe is inspired by the Bedouin. They have mostly olive to dark skin tones and dark hair, and are the most technologically advanced of all the societies. Even the nomadic people in this region have a better understanding of mathematics, science, and how the world works than the People of the Ocean have.

### People of the Mountains

There’s not much known about these northern dwellers, other than the fact that they’re the oldest humans in existence. These humans live in the harshest environments, and are a dying race. They hunt the creatures of Arilyan occasionally, but prefer just to leave them alone, so long as they’re left alone. Living only in the mountains, they actually have a good relationship with the Hoarfrost coalition, in that they make a point to avoid them and encourage the Ocean Dwellers to do the same (which isn’t always the case). What’s been forgotten to time, however, was that this group of humans were the ones who tried to hunt Maia’s creatures to obtain their magic. They’ve long forgotten what their ancestors have done, but this is why they have such a strong aversion to interacting with the more intelligent animals of Arilyan.

This group is similar to that of Inuits and the Nenets people, living mostly in deserted areas of the north. While they have a range of skin tones, the most common is olive. They live off the ocean and have a strong sense of family. It’s also said that they have some magic in their blood, left over from when their ancestors stole magic from some of the gods. It’s not unheard of for a human from this culture to feel a strange connection with Arilyan animals, and as much as they want to avoid them they are connected to one another.