Humanity

The human race, also known collectively as humankind or humanity, is the dominant species on Earth, the core world of Veltheria.

Humans are highly diverse in terms of culture, race, gender identity and sexuality, and for the past few score millennia have coalesced into five lineages: terrans, elves, dwarves, titans and gnomes.

Core traits
Humans share a common physiology, and in spite of the high diversity of appearance between lineages, are all of the same species: anyone of a given lineage could breed with someone of another lineage just as successfully as with a member of their own.

Humans tend to live to just over 100 years. Their childhood lasts from birth to somewhere between 11 and 15, at which point they enter an adolescent period ending just before they reach the age of 20. Cultural beliefs about elderhood vary across Veltheria, but generally a human is considered elderly at some point during their 60s.

What separates humans from most mammals is their high empathy and ability to form strong social groups, and like most primates they possess highly articulate, strong limbs, and are defined in part by their ability to manipulate their surroundings. Their ability to speak with complex language separates humans further from other primates, as it allows them to communicate about distant and abstract topics.

Lineages
The lineages were once thought to have separated out from an ancient precursor race, but observation from past voidship missions into Veltheria's past has revealed that quite the opposite was true. Over a hundred thousand years ago, up until close to fifty thousand years ago, the species was highly diverse, even moreso than in the present day. Tribal social structures and competition for space led to communities forming and the coalescence of the modern-day lineages. It is believed that the then unseen presence of the Keystone Maua enabled the harmonious co-habitation of the scores of proto-lineages.

Terrans
By far the most populous lineage are the terrans, primarily due to early expansion during the neolithic period. All humans are intelligent (it being a defining trait of the species) but terrans are considered particularly incisive and adaptable.

Adult terrans tend to be between 150cm and 185cm in height. Their hair is naturally on a scale from very pale blond, through reds and browns, to jet black, with eyes that are generally brown, with pigmentation dropping off to produce hazel and blue in fewer cases. Skin tones range from very dark brown to almost whiteish pale, moving through shades of brown and pink.

Elves
The elven and terran lineages are the two most closely related, and they do not differ much in terms of height and build, though they statistically tend a little taller (between 160cm and 195cm) and more gracile. Elves are what remains of the 'sylvan' lineages, historically preferring to settle in heavily wooded areas. They also have a natural affinity for interacting with animals, and are thought to be descended from the first humans to have tamed and domesticated beasts.

Along with the morphological 'options' available to terrans, elves can demonstrate skin in violet, cyan and even pale golden hues, and their eyes can show very vivid blues, greens and violets; their slightly larger eyes and irises make this even more obvious.

Dwarves
Dwarves hail from the ancient saxan ('stone') lineages, and even now are quite comfortable in mountainous or underground settlements. With their unique sense for the flow of energy, dwarves have ever been associated with smelting and alchemy, but they are also known as philosophers, and some of the finest works on morality and politics have been authored within their halls.

Dwarves are shorter and broader than terrans and elves, tending to range between 125 and 160cm in height, but still being as physically mighty as any other lineage. Dwarves show the same ranges of skin, hair and eye colouring as terrans, except that dwarves tend not to be as pale as some terrans.

Gnomes
Gnomes were for centuries the technical geniuses of humankind, and any nation with a decent proportion of gnomes in its population will historically have been well ahead of its neighbours technologically. Their knack for comprehending intricate things and putting together complex systems applies in many fields: technical, economic and societal.

They tend to be easygoing, or at least able to build natural rapport with others, and they are emotionally thick-skinned, as in less enlightened times their brightly-coloured and exotic-hued hair and diminished frames (between 90 and 120cm in height, with the same proportions as a terran child) caused a deal of ridicule to be thrown their way.

Titans
It was only a few centuries ago - after the discovery of the first Keystone - that explorers from Europa discovered, far to the south, the remnants of the ancient calidan lineages. These titans, so named for their exceptional height, were the unquestionable masters of their dense rainforest homes, and indeed their prowess seemed to stem from their close proximity to the second Keystone to be discovered: Cáwi.

The shortest adult among them will still reach around two metres, with the tallest of them reaching perhaps 275cm. They are long-limbed, and muscularity comes easy to them; in spite of a sometimes gangly appearance, it is rare to ever meet a clumsy titan. They are a diverse population whose hair is always somewhere between jet-black and cloud-white on a grey scale, and whose skin could be almost as black as ebony or as light and bright as pure copper. Their pupils are very large, giving them the appearance of entirely black eyes; connectedly, their eyesight is excellent at long distances.

Modern Day
See also: Veltherian Society

The lineages have tended to come together very smoothly, perhaps thanks to the influence of the Keystones. Even so, there are climates that some may prefer for cultural reasons. Human society in the modern era is highly diverse, with only rare communities representing fewer than three lineages.

Relation to the Keystones
World-renowned Keystone expert Dr Favrian Margolis is a prominent defender of a centuries-old view that the ancient protolineages coalesced not merely under the influence of Maua, but according to the providence of each individual Keystone.

Under this theory, the correspondence between the lineages and the Paradigms is given as follows: The view is not accepted by all, and many believe that the evidence is at best coincidental (particularly since even Dr Margolis has been unable to justify any lineage being joined to Jádu, the Keystone of Wyrd). Also, only two of the Keystones were found on earth, with a third on the moon; the others were in unimagined planes of reality.
 * Terran insightfulness and social instinct is attributed to their connection with Mind;
 * Elven closeness with the natural world is attributed to their connection with Life;
 * Dwarven instinct for the manipulation of substance is attributed to their connection with Bond;
 * Gnomes' ability to easily comprehend the details of complex systems is attributed to a connection with Harmony;
 * Titans are experts in navigating awkward spaces and their senses seem to defy the limits imposed by distance, which is attributed to a connection with Continuum.
 * Margolis hypothesises that Jádu did not influence the world in this way, being long possessed by the beings inhabiting Arcadia.