Lands of fake Humans

Between the Lands of the Hobbits, Gnomes and Ogres exist the **Lands of the Fake Humans**. It's a shunning ground where unusually small ogres and unusually tall Hobbits and Gnomes used to live at, eventually somehow intermixing to create beings which vaguely resemble humans, but are very different, as they have the apetite and fat build of ogres, the large feet and lazy attitude of hobbits, and are as keen to invent and experiment as gnomes. Their uncanny resemblance to humans though seems to make true humans sick and disgusted upon seeing one, who sometimes violently erupt puking upon doing so.

## The land of Histeriah

Between the lands of the Hedge and the Glass Mountains there lies a small strip of land. Its name being **Histeriah**, there is little of note in there, just a continuation of the Great Hedge, with rolling gentle hills and greenery all around. Other than an unusual amount of rabbits, there is nothing that would really differentiate this spot of land from most of the Hedge. However, the land of Histeriah is well known by the human populations nearby, all of them describing the region as “wrong” or “twisted”. When other species hear the arguments of the humans after having visited the land, they universally react with confusion, puzzled by such a reaction to a region so seemingly devoid of anything interest or of note. If they insist long enough, they will open up about the inhabitants of Histeriah. The peoples that live in the land of Histeriah are well known to cause extreme reactions in humans. Dizziness, paranoia, disgust, and even violence in the most extreme of cases. This reaction has only being reported in humans, as none of the other races in the world have any problems with the histerians.

## The Histerians

The **Histerians**, also called “**Fake Humans**”, are a strange species of fey. At first glance, they look nearly identical to humans, with many species not being able to differentiate one from the other the first time they meet them. However, the longer one observes a histerian, the more you start to recognize some differences. Anatomy-wise, fake humans have slightly bigger eyes on their slightly bigger heads. These eyes cannot move to the sides, only looking straight ahead. If a histerian wants to look at something else, he has to move his head. Their pupils also never change, neither contracting nor expanding, seemingly undaunted by changes of lighting. In fact, fake humans never blink, they can’t. They have eyelids, but they only use them when there’s a risk of foreign bodies entering their eyes, such as dust or sand. Even when sleeping, a histerian will not close his eyes. When they talk to someone, they will keep their eyes fixed on whoever they are with, looking firmly at their eyes. Their face features are also different from humans. While in theory a histerian face is nearly identical to a human face from the outside, their facial musculature is very different. As such, histerians have a fixed facial expression, keeping throughout their lifetimes an amicable grin, never able to show a different expression. Their hands are also slightly elongated, with longer fingers and palms. Their size and stature is all equal, unlike humans. All sentient species have a wide range of heights, but histerians have a singular size for all their individuals. All histerians measure the same, and have the same width as well, as if artificially manufactured.

Their anatomy is not the only thing that causes violent reactions in humans. While humans have a very difficult time standing still, and in fact keep moving subconsciously most of the time. Fake humans, however, do not need to move unless they want to. They can stand still to such a degree that can look that they are not breathing. Combining this with their lack of need for blinking, and they can cause the impression of being living statues. When they move, their motions are slow and calculated, similar to those of humans, but with an efficiency that cuts down to the essentials to accomplish whatever function they set out to do. They have a singular tone of voice as well. While the histerians are able to feel and express emotions, they cannot convey them using their voice, since they cannot talk without using a monotone, slightly chipper tone of voice.

The combination of these elements cause the humans that see them to identify them as something that should be human, but definitively is not, and this feeling is exponentially increased when in presence of multiple histerians. This makes relationships with humans difficult at best and hostile at worst, and considering how prolific humans are, this makes the histerians’ situation a very difficult one. This is why they are always near the protection of the faerie lords, just in case humans decide to act on their feelings.

## History and Origin

The "Fake Humans", as they are called, don't have any written history about their holdings, which means that all we know about this land comes from various records and mentions from before their appearance.

Histeriah, full of prairies, low hills and fertile grasslands, used to contain various towns that consisted of tribes of gnomes, hobbits (referred to as "halflings" by humans) and manskin ogres, usually holding their allegiance towards their neighboring kinsfolk. Due to the relative seclusion of the races that live beyond the hedge, and the Glass Mountains that act as a barrier between this land and Waldemaria, Histeriah rarely saw any outside visitors except for a few that belonged to the races living there, so it's impossible to determine the exact date or chronology that the "Fake Humans" started to appear, although it's believed that it started to happen shortly before the exile of the Vzdoruye from Zapalovah.

Throughout the past century, the hobbits, gnomes and manogres that used to live there either moved or died out, and were subsequently by Fake Humans, who most believe are their descendants.

There are some scholars who dispute this claim, as Hobbits and Gnomes are known to be able to produce fertile offspring between each other, and not with ogres, and that even if they could, they wouldn't match the appearance of the fake humans. These scholars believe that the Fake Humans are the product of magical (and not natural) interbreeding, and place the blame on either the nefarious Bog Witch, who is in control of other similar-looking creatures, or the dreaded sorcerers of Mossovoy, the Vzdoruye, who are known to dwell in the art of flesh sculpting, with the creation of many hybrids attributed to them. They either believe that these creatures were brought to life in order to mock humans, or were failed experiments, whose use had expired.

The last theory comes from the lands beyond the hedge, who credit the Smiling Watchers, distortions of fey gods that the Fake Humans pray to, as their creators. Little is known about those beings, apart from the fact that the Fake Humans treat them as beings that bring good harvests and fertility to the soil.

## Government and Demographics

Like the Lands Beyond the Hedge, the Fake Humans don't form a singular government, but instead consist of several independent communities, with self-elected rulers and councils governing them, although, as it seems, even the lowliest of peasants are relatively autonomous, with them oweing their allegiance to their family first, and then to whatever "state" they exist under.

Histeriah is almost entirely populated by these fake humans, even though sparsely, and the few "purebred" manogres, gnomes and hobbits that can be found there not being permament residents, but rather usually running merchant caravans in and out of the realm.

## Society and Culture

The histerians have a lot of influence from their fey neighbors, but unlike them, the histerians have adopted farming as their main occupation. Many humans believe that the histerians are omnivore, even if they themselves affirm that they are only vegetarian. Histerians do not keep cattle on their lands, only the few animals needed to plow the fields, like horses or ox. Yet there have been cases when visitors swore they saw fake humans buying and selling meat, but they have vehemently denied this, and since they do not have livestock bred for meat purposes, they wouldn’t be able to get animal meat anyway. Histerians also stop working when they are in the presence of non-histerians. When an outsider reaches their lands, they will stop what they are doing and politely greet them in the traditional histerian way, by looking at them in their eyes while holding their breath in complete silence. They will not go back to work until the visitor is far away, which gives the humans the impression histerians are just standing on the fields for no reason at all.

When not working the fields, the histerians spend a lot of time in their homes. Their social lives are considerably less developed than that of most species, not needing that much social interaction from outside their familiar circles. The fake humans live in small rural towns, with houses built on brick and wood, similar to most human villages. Histerians tend to dedicate a lot of time to the care of their homes, always seemingly fixing one thing or another, even if they seem to be in pristine condition. When not doing so, they spend a lot of time with their families inside of their house. It is frequently seeing them enjoying the landscape by looking silently through the window. Markets and other public spaces will only be occupied for a couple of hours a day, and the histerians are very direct with their business, not bothering with small talk at all. They will do the deed they require, and then leave. This preference towards private life makes studying their behavior somewhat difficult, adding to the humans’ mistrust on them.

Histerians do have certain public celebration events, like the arrival of spring and the summer harvest. They will dress in ceremonial garments and dance around humanoid wicker statues made of hay. Their naturally slow and methodical moves generate a surreal scene while dancing around the wicker men. Particularly so because the histerians do these dances in complete silence.

## Religion

The histerians prey to the deities known as “**The Smiling Watchers”.** These beings are believed to be a distortion of the fey gods, and the histerians have many rituals reminiscent of fey culture. They are figures related to nature and the fertility of the crops, always watching the histerians, never ceasing their watchful gaze on them. They are treated as beings that bring good winds to their fields, waters to the land and richness to the soil. The histerians make small stone icons, which will put on regular intervals on the fields, to try to invoke their protection to the worked land.

## Foreign Relations

Due to the strange nature of the histerians, it’s not that surprising to see that the human kingdoms want nothing to do with the people from the land of Histeria. At best, they decide to ignore them as some sort of unnatural creatures, spawned from the fowl mixture of races that resulted in something abominable and twisted. Some of the humans with more violent reactions towards the histerians argue for full on extermination, though these voices are usually calmed down by their peers, seeing as this act would put them into direct conflict with the benefactors of the histerians, the fey from Elfwood. Histerians have great relations with pretty much all nearby fey races, since the violent reaction towards histerians only affects humans. Histerians do sell a lot of vegetal products and crafts to the fey, and they in return they help with stuff to take care of the fields, such as give them natural fertilizer and honey bees to pollinize the crops. The histerians’ religious believes are also thought to come from the fey, though if they have, they have diverged a lot over time.

The histerians also have decent relations with the manogres to the north. While the borders with them are constantly changing due to the irregular movements of the Glass Mountains, they are generally good neighbors to each other. The fully vegetarian histerians do not really clash with the mostly carnivorous manogres, and thus they have no problems with the land. There are occasional tensions between them, though, mostly centered around young manogres entering the lands of the fake humans to attack the histerian towns to eat their few farm animals (or in some cases, the histerians themselves). Histerians have had to fight ogres attacking their towns, which can be a bloody affair for both sides. The unused to fightinghisterians can see a lot of destruction and dead townsfolk after a fight, and the young ogre will be chased off by the histerians, who will pursue the manogre to enact the ultimate punishment of starvation. Histerian riders will chase the manogre from afar, killing the manogre’s growing cattle, never allowing them to acquire their own herd. They will kill the animals during the night and burn the carcass so that the manogres get few nutrition from their corpse. They will scare away the wild herds, making the manogre have to travel to other areas in search for wild cattle. Slowly, but surely, the pressure of the histerian will drive the manogres mad, unable to lower their guard or even sleep out of fear of losing their growing cattle. Eventually, the manogre will become so weakened that he will not be able to even hunt, and will be victim to the region’s predators, or even the histerians if they feel particularly brave. It is a very prolonged and cruel punishment, something unusual from the generally peaceful histerians.