Lowborn

The staple of the human civilization that spread out from Iriond to conquer the galaxy, the lowborn are those humans not fortunate enough to come from a transcended lineage, retaining the same form and traits as their Classical-era forebears. They make up the majority of humankind, comprising the proletariat, workmen, farmers, corporate wage slaves and other such bottom-rung professions, sometimes falling through the cracks and ending up in a life of crime, scavenging and other such unsavory activities.

## Physical Description

Lowborn humans are the basic racial stock of humanity, having the standard appearance and physical traits of human beings from Earth. They are extremely diverse in terms of phenotype, running the full gamut of physical variation (skin, hair and eye color, facial features, other physical characteristics) found on Earth, and often featuring a significant degree of miscigenation, owing to millennia of migrations and intermingling. That said, when reading the physical description of different human ethnicities (see "Ethnicities" below), keep in mind that those represent only the traditional look of a typical member of that ethnicity, and any given human group (and even more so in diaspora communities outside of Iriond) will have people of mixed heritage, as well as the descendants of immigrants from other peoples who have fully assimilated into the local culture.

## Abilities

Lacking the genetic modifications of transhumans, lowborn humans have only the physical and mental abilities that are typical of the common people of Earth, although they can acquire significant psychic powers and combat prowess through training, as can most beings. Compared to other sapient races of the known planets, lowborn humans are known to be highly adaptable and resourceful, being quick to pick up and eventually master practically any skill.

## Mindset

The diversity and variability of lowborn humans is reflected in their mindset; it is difficult to find two humans with identical worldviews even within the same family, and attempting to draw broad trends that apply to the entire race tends to be a fool's errand. However, some features are notable in comparison to other beings. Compared to most other sapient races, lowborn human brains tend to be highly flexible and adaptable; not only are they fast learners, but they will also quickly make themselves comfortable in any new and unfamiliar environment or situation, making them ideal explorers and settlers. Also, since the lowborn come from the lower end of the social spectrum relative to their transcended brethren, they are often filled with ambition, feeling the need to rise above their humble origins and prove their worth to the world.

### Alignment

There is no overall alignment trend across all humanity, even toward centrism; however, individual cultures may have a predominance of a given alignment, although even then there are many who stray from it. People from the Tarinnish Confederacy tend toward collectivistic alignments, those from the Pan-Muranian Union lean toward the bureaucratic, and the Allied Free Nations favor libertarianism.

## Culture

Unsurprisingly, the main defining trait of lowborn culture is precisely its diversity and dizzying local variation. In fact, one important cultural trait of humans as a whole is their fractiousness; they tend to be highly sensitive to the minute differences between the cultures of different human groups, to the point that one of the surest ways to offend a human is to confuse the traditions, names, history etc. of their various nationalities, or to assume that they are all the same. Humans are often proud of their local culture, and may even go out of their way to affirm it when around other humans from different backgrounds, or in multicultural environments such as large metropolises. A sampling of the most well-known human cultures can be found in the "Ethnicities" section below; however, those represent only a small portion of the variety found in humanity, and there are many other, lesser known human cultures found throughout their lands. Further details can be found in the Society page in this wiki.

### Language

The countless languages of humanity's past have largely been whittled down to a few official languages encouraged by the existing factions (Semkashan in the Confederacy, Abyri in the Union and Kaldurish in the Alliance), although these "high" languages are most used by the transhuman elites. Through an endless flux of trade and migration back and forth across faction borders, lowborn humans have largely settled into a trade language born out of a pidgin of all three dominant languages, generally called Common. (See "Languages" in the Society page.) However, they often learn other languages - their faction's language is an obvious choice, but they also like to learn how to communicate with alien races living in their vicinity.

### Religion

Religious belief has fallen somewhat among human cultures in recent centuries, with a greater emphasis on science and on universalist thinking, although this tendency is less pronounced among the lowborn, who often cling to the beliefs of their ancestors. The main human religions are detailed in the Religions section of the Society page; the "Ethnicities" section below also lists the most common religion for each human group.

## Society

While human society is, as with most things human, rather diverse, there are nevertheless a number of general trends that apply to most of humanity. Humans as a whole are a rather urbanized and industrialized people, and are organized into large, well-structured governments that operate in conjunction with private companies that form the basis of a modern capitalist economy, with significant variations in organizational structure and in the relative power that each of these components hold, depending on each nation's laws and political philosophy. In a broader sense, humans are roughly divided into three major political factions, with few societies standing outside of them: the Collectivistic Tarinnian Pact Confederation, the Bureaucratic Pan-Muranian Union, and the Libertarian Allied Free Nations. As for lowborns specifically, they form the basis of the social pyramid in most human societies, and therefore tend to hold little to no social, economic and even political power, despite the supposedly democratic nature of most such societies. For further details, please see the Society page in this wiki.

## Territory

Humans originated on the planet Iriond, which they have settled extensively, and where they still comprise the vast majority of the population (between lowborns and transhumans). In the Expansion Age, they took to the stars and established sizable colonies in other planets, settling large swathes of Asherah, Austolus III, Chertan V and Reshep II, where they managed to be the dominant powers, even in face of native resistance. Bhadrapada VI is a planet with a somewhat more modest but still well-established collection of human colonies, being a more recent front of human settlement. Humans are divided into a large number of different, sovereign countries, most of which belong to one of three major political factions: the Tarinnian Pact Confederacy, the Pan-Muranian Union, and the Allied Free Nations.

Most human nations and states are rather under the control of transhumans, with the lowborn having little to no say on the government, even though many of them are nominal democracies where all citizens theoretically have equal standing. Therefore, the ambitious and fast-paced nature of common humans is often not reflected by their leaders, which tend toward the conservative and old-fashioned.

Humans have spread throughout all known worlds, and the lowborn are usually at the forefront of such colonization, always looking for opportunity. Therefore, there is a considerable number of lowborn humans living amongst other races, at even greater proportions (compared to transhumans) than in human lands.

## Interspecies Relations

Humans as a whole tend to get along rather well with most races, and the lowborn are no exception. Humanity has found ways to cooperate with the native denizens of the planets they've encountered, although their colonialistic tendencies sometimes rub a few races (such as reshepans and kyrrztli) the wrong way; even then, however, such aliens are often more understanding toward the lowborn, who are victims of systemic oppression just as much as the colonized peoples.

## History

Humanity has many thousands of years of history as a civilized species, and for a large portion of that period, it was both confined to its home planet of Iriond and comprised exclusively of the common variety that became later known as the Lowborn. The species was drastically changed, however, when the psychic aristocracy of the Dark Age began to drift further apart from the common folk with each generation, eventually resulting in a number of human-descended races with innate powers, enhanced abilities, longer lifespan and sometimes even drastically different appearance, most of which appearing during the Golden Age, and which rose to power throughout human society, a position which they hold to this day. The development of hyperspace travel launched humanity into the stars in the Expansion Age, and since then, the species has never stopped reaching for new corners of the galaxy to conquer, with the lowborn always at the forefront of human settlement. Further details about the history of humanity can be found in the History page in this wiki.

## Human Ethnicities

Humanity features an enormous variety of national, ethnic and cultural groups, some of them spread over wide territories across multiple planets (especially the ones associated with imperial powers), and others mostly limited to a specific geographical region. Also, millennia of migration and admixture complicate this scenario even further, with local communities sometimes having significant cultural or ethnic influences from a number of different origins. Nevertheless, the following broad groups, each associated with the continent of Iriond from which they originate, are notable for being particularly widespread, being represented to different degrees in a large portion of the human population of the settled planets.

When reading the following entries, please do keep in mind humanity's tendencies for diversity and intermingling; when designing human characters, consider the following information simply as suggestions. Changing up some of these traits or mixing traits between ethnicities is perfectly valid, and in fact, even expected.

### Emishans

The continent of Emish has a very long and deep history, being considered by many the cradle of human civilization (as the earliest large-scale human empire, Arkech, originated there); while its nations have experienced various cycles of political independence and subjugation, this long history is somewhat reflected in Emishan culture, which places a lot of value in ancient cultural traditions, such as Unnamluar, the traditional polytheistic religion that most Emishans profess up to this day. Family is also highly valued by Emishans, who are expected to take care of their elders and other kin in need.

Emishans are found throughout the territory of the Tarinnian Pact Confederacy (most notably in the planet Asherah), as the Emishan country of Semkash and its former colonies are the main power in the Confederacy. However, many of them have migrated to other nations, especially ones in the AFN, in search of economic opportunities. Correspondingly, Emishan lowborn frequently learn the Semkashan language, either due to its political and academic importance in the TPC, or as a way to affirm their heritage.

The typical Emishan phenotype has tan skin, straight black or (rarely) red hair, dark almond-shaped eyes with epicanthic folds, and rounded features.

### Hellondans

The continent of Hellonde has generally not been the seat of empires of global importance at any moment in human history, being usually disputed and carved up by other empires in search of its natural riches. However, in recent centuries, the Hellondan-settled country of Kaldur (which is actually in northeast Murania) managed to secure a strong position as a trans-planetary economic powerhouse, and the most central power of the Allied Free Nations. Owing partly to Kaldurish trade, Hellondans are often stereotyped as being very business-savvy or even greedy, although for the most part that is no more than prejudice. Hellondans also tend to be very open to foreign culture and to novelty, often being at the forefront of new global trends. While they have traditionally been a Delemist culture, the Inyadan religion of Burdwari has seen steady growth among Hellondans, especially in their colonies in Chertan V and Bhadrapada VI; however, few of them place much value in any religion at all.

Aside from Hellonde itself, Hellondan peoples have historically occupied the northern reaches of Murania (roughly the area above Lake Taham). In the age of space exploration, though, they have enthusiastically spread to other planets with the Allied Free Nations, especially in Chertan and Bhadrapada, and are often found outside the area of the AFN as well. Hellondan lowborn frequently learn the Kaldurish language, which is important both for navigating the upper echelons of AFN society and for business deals, and those of Kaldurish ancestry specifically may do so for cultural reasons as well.

The traditional Hellondan phenotype features lightly-tanned to medium-brown skin, straight dark hair, wide dark eyes, and sharp features; however, even more so than most human ethnicities, Hellondans are very likely to be miscigenated, and not many of the ones living outside of their ancestral territories actually conform to this standard in all respects.

### Inyadans

Inyad is a continent of thin peninsulas whose communities have shied away from imperial ambitions through most of history, focusing instead on a simple life of fishing and rice farming; however, during the Golden Age, the Inyadan country of Lagash was a global leader in scientific and psychic progress, which not only earned it a central role in world politics, but also made it a pioneer in deep-space exploration. While Lagash has since fallen from its position of glory and broken up, leaving Inyad to be divided between the TPC and AFN, this tradition of scholarship and psychics is still very strong in Inyadan culture, whose schools are frequently cited as a model of discipline and research. Inquisitiveness and skepticism are cherished values in Inyadan culture. The prevailing Inyadan religion is Burdwari, and most Inyadans pay lip service to it, although most don't think much about religious matters at all other than in baptisms and funerals.

Outside of Inyad itself, Inyadans are found in much of TPC and AFN territory, especially Reshep II, whose human population is largely of Inyadan ancestry. Of course, many of them find work outside of these factions as well, often in psychic-related jobs, and have come to migrate to most human-settled lands. Their traditional Lagashic language is rarely studied nowadays outside of academic or religious contexts; most Inyadan lowborn will prefer to learn Semkashan or Kaldurish instead, depending on where they live.

The classic Inyadan phenotype is one of light skin, blond or light-brown hair (smooth, curled or wavy), light-brown, blue or green eyes, and enlongated features, although there is a lot of variation to be found even within Inyad itself.

### Muranians

Murania has a glorious past as the home of the empire of Eugeron, from the Classical and Dark Ages, whose cultural and political influence spread far beyond its geographical borders and lasted long after its downfall, and this history is reflected in the character of the Muranians. They are very proud of their culture and heritage (some would even say ethnocentric), and place a lot of value on traditional Muranian custom. Social station and authority are also highly respected in their society, which is reflected in their customs around politeness and deference. The traditional religion of Muranians is Delemism, and many Muranians take it rather seriously, in terms not only of worship but also of moral values.

When used in the context of human ethnicities, "Muranian" generally refers not to all denizens of the continent of Murania, but rather to those of the roughly two-thirds of it south of Lake Taham, as the northern portion of the continent has much more in common with neighboring Hellonde in ethnic, cultural and historical terms. Outside of this region, most people of Muranian heritage are found in the Pan-Muranian Union's colonies, especially in Austolus III (aka New Eugeron). Muranian lowborn will often learn the Abyri language of Murania's most powerful country, which is indispensable in political, business and other high-society contexts in the PMU.

The phenotype commonly associated with Muranians features dark-brown skin, dark and tightly-curled hair, dark eyes and broad features.

## Lowborn Characters

Lowborn humans are quite often thrust into a life of adventuring due to a lack of economic opportunities or means for social ascent, leading them to cruise the worlds in search of a better standard of living. Others simply want to carve a place for themselves in the universe, rising above their lowly status and earning the respect of society through sheer power or brave deeds. Many simply feel like they don't fit into the mould society has prepared for them, and set out to find a place for them somewhere "out there".

### Names

Human names vary a lot across cultures, and the lowborn tend to show even greater variety, often appropriating names from other human ethnicities or even non-human races. Below are some sample names from a few selected Iriondan cultures, as humans from other planets tend to follow the naming patterns from their Iriondan forebears (although they are likelier to mix and match across cultures and otherwise innovate in their naming).

#### Emishan Names

(male) Apannan, Ditatta, Ezzer, Halamma, Sannapar; (female) Astal, Eshkis, Lili, Nisab, Saba; (surnames) Agash, Epponar, Muktar, Shemarq, Zadabbi

#### Hellondan Names

(male) Aghar, Bjotr, Gwali, Sido, Trolfi; (female) Ingidg, Rada, Shainan, Urdun, Zdara; (surnames) Adingskali, Girimor, Kholedzir, Sobrutky, Undum

#### Inyadan Names

(male) Arbhinder, Dhana, Gopal, Jivaha, Rajaat; (female) Ajyot, Bharee, Chala, Padiya, Satri; (surnames) Chandrakar, Dharampur, Kalabha, Namirzian, Vijavish

#### Muranian Names

(male) Azeor, Doranthir, Finre, Galadan, Rewalt; (female) Adriellan, Ellanth, Findanye, Imrodel, Pliana; (surnames) Beloriand, Harpenor, Karningion, Medesith, Vallania