Humans

Humans, a family of intelligent bipedal species, are by far the most common people in the world, with several tens of millions in the Abar-Neridic Peninsula alone. They are more or less evenly spread throughout every corner of habitable land you can find, and some even live in harder-to-survive-in places, including the Planes of Nath and the Urduzek Taïga.

## Evolution

All species of human (and most broadly humanoid species) evolved from a common ancestor which they share with chimpanzees. They are characterised by their tendency to walk on their two hind legs (although this cannot be said of some species or individuals), and decreased sexual dimorphism compared to other families of primate.

## History

Humans first arrived the Abar-Neridic peninsula after a great migration westwards. The people of Nerod are for the most part the direct descendants of these people. Another portion of ancient humans migrated East towards a continent situated to the West of Abar, and arrived in Abar as the Karodic people around 1000 years later.

## Habitat and Population

Because humans need water to live, they prefer to live near sources of fresh water such as lakes or rivers. They build shelters out of wood, mud, stone or sandrock and live in large groups of 50 to 1000 people. Areas with a large concentration of humans and their shelters are known as settlements.

Most humans are concentrated on the West coast of Abar, as the abundance of rivers, the presence of an ocean for trade and sustenance, nearby towns and city-states and a favourable climate promote life and farming. However, humans live everywhere in the peninsula and in most areas throughout the world.

## Biology

The human body consists of a head, a torso, two arms and two legs. Humans obtain energy mainly through aerobic respiration, which works by turning food into energy with the help of oxygen found in the air.

Humans reproduce via sexual reproduction, in which the male and female (or two females in some species) mix their life-codes to create an entirely new life-code. This is usually achieved by the insertion of the male’s penis into the female’s vagina, which luckily is something a majority of humans spend the better part of their lives trying to do (because it makes them fell good).

## Cultures

Human cultures are widely varied and each culture is split into several sub-cultures. Even though there is a similarity between most cultures in Abar and between most cultures in Nerod (due to the mountainous barrier of Iísgaròth, the humans on either side rarely mix ), some surprising connections can be made between the customs of religions of two completely different places. For example, both the peoples of the Northwestern island of Crauyod and the Planes of Nath in the far South-East worship a god called Drauareg, however in very different ways. In Crauwadhian mythology, Drauareg is the hungry god of the ocean, whose bloodlust is insatiable and who drowns sailors to fill his ever-deep belly. In the mythology of the Natha-Kongatori, however, Drauareg is the Bringer of Rain and Life, and a Cloud Lord. The Drauareg of the Natha-Congatori is very different to the Drauareg of Crauyod, even though both peoples share the same distant heritage.

## Species of Human

There are at least two species in the Abar-Neridic peninsula that are classified as humans, one of them being *Homo Sapiens Sapiens* and the other being the Khyagete. It is believed the species split apart from an older, now extinct species of hominid when a people became isolated in the Mountains of Iìsgaròth. The khyagete and *Homo Sapiens Sapiens* are two very similar species anatomically and can interbreed (although the offspring is usually infertile), but they have some differentiating features. For example, Khyagete are often shorter and more muscular, and have deeper voices.