Humans

Humans, known to the Draak-Kin as the Tailless, No-Tails, Flatfaces, and Broken Custodians, are a semi-artificial species created by the Others to colonize planet Earth. Made by using the genetic material of a certain Earth animal and heavily modifying certain aspects while weaving in artificial code, they possess a consciousness which differs massively from that of native Earth species. Though their senses are often poor compared to purely natural lifeforms, their alien architecture, both physical and mental, allows them great powers of manipulation over their environment.

One of three engineered species designed to explore Earth and exploit its resources, the others being the dwarves and the orcs, the task of humans was to become the "gardeners" of the new order of the Others. The management of the natural resources of the planet's surface was assigned to them before the Others left the planet, promising to return at some point in the future.

When the Others failed to return for reasons unknown, the human race became confused. Misremembering their original instructions, they began to alter Earth's environment in ways which the Others did not intend or expect. The human population swelled, growing out of control, and while the orcs attempted to fulfill their duty and stop the human rampage, they were defeated in a global campaign lasting millennia. With the dwarves largely gone from the surface, the humans now claimed dominion over the whole planet.

When dragons first encountered humans after emerging from their eons-long slumber, they were horrified at both human appearance and behavior. Their lack of a visible tail struck the Draak-Kin as especially unnatural (similar to a human encountering a headless being), and their ways seemed completely alien; wrapping themselves in the skins of other animals, hunting using projectiles, and large-scale agriculture were all abominations to most of the Draak. Many humans, for their part, dimly but correctly recalled that the dragons were the enemies of the Others, their beloved creators, and were usually hostile to them (and tended to eradicate large predators as a matter of course). This led to an ongoing undeclared war between the two species, though there were a few individuals on both sides who were able to rise above the hatred.

Eventually, the lost and half-mad humans were able to cause irreparable damage to the natural environment, beginning a new mass extinction, and the dragons called the third Grand Moot to discuss possible means of survival. The great elder Many-Times-Burned led a massive drive to erase humanity from the face of Earth. In most timelines, this fails, and the humans bring about the Grey Future.

While many Draak-Kin see the humans as only twisted, mutant antagonists spawned by the invaders who cruelly took their world from them, some felt pity for the human condition; made to serve an alien species as slaves, and they were now lost orphans, fanatically devoted to an unknown mission. Their powerful minds were therefore in a constant state of cognitive dissonance, and one Crystal Kin once remarked that, unlike every other form of life, the humans can never know true peace, being divorced from their artificial purpose but lacking a natural one. Humans never belonged on Earth, and deep down, they know it, which is a fate few other animals could ever comprehend, and none would want.