Humans

The humans of Estaerith are one of the last two surviving descendants of the ancient race of elves, along with merfolk, the aquatic branch of the elven family. Humans are both extremely magically and technologically proficient as a whole. For the most part, human civilisation is egalatarian, although anarcania presents many ethical issues in society. Their capital city on Estaerith is Almas, which serves as both a beacon for humans and a meeting place.

Human Society
To the outside world, human society may appear to be almost utopic, with a very low death rate from illness and an all-around state of equality within society. Despite this, to those who actually are human it can at times be a completely different scenario, some aspects of society even described by some individuals as dystopic. Humans are led by a government for the most part, a set of supposedly appointed individuals that convey their policies through a monarch, although now they are merely a figurehead in society as opposed to holding any power. Even so, they are still widely respected and often treated as leaders by the population despite their simple role of spokesperson.

Being as humans are so technologically advanced and in their eyes culturally also, they have learnt to put aside any racial differences between one another regardless of which continent from which they hail. Furthermore, class discrimination is also unheard of within society, aside from those higher up having a slightly better standard of living and in their minds keeping much better company. Within human society both basic healthcare and education are available to everybody, inclusive of higher education which is also tax funded. Those with mild anarcania can also be treated by the various human doctors, often by the use of medicines infused with the ground down shells of fairies.

Even when all seems well to the outside, what with free healthcare and education, as well as cures for what seems to be a horrific condition in anarcania, humans still have huge flaws that are much better hidden within society.

Neural seals are also implanted in each newborn, which fulfil many functions and can potentially allow for reanimation and the government's ownership of a person's body. Upon death, most corpses are harvested for organs and tissues immediately which are donated to both the medical profession and necromancers alike. The government also maintains the right to pull any human from their life at any time to be conscripted into the army, with only basic training recieved before being put onto the front lines. Within society, discrepancies towards those with anarcania also take place, often in the form of extreme patronisation and the boycotting of their opinions. On top of this, overpopulation is rampant, leading to shortages of food, housing and jobs as well as the flooding of public facilities.

Anatomy & Appearance
Humans are bipedal mammals that have two arms protruding from their upper torsos and a head not far above them. Worth noting however is that the variety of humans on Estaerith is very diverse, with those of different cultures and race all coming together in the city of Almas. The humans of Estaerith also undergo puberty at about the age of nine or ten if male, seven or so if female. Due to the advances in healthcare via technology and magic, the average life expectancy is between ninety and one hundred years, assuming they are not killed by external factors. Some humans can also be seen to have slight ridges on their upper backs or necks, protrusions caused by the neural seal that becomes more prominent with age.

Neural Seals
All humans upon birth are implanted with neural seals, located between the hindbrain and the upper spinal cord. As such, this seal eventually becomes part of the person's nervous system and is incredibly hard to remove. The removal of the seal is also prohibited by law, as the government sees it as 'in your best interest' to keep hold of it; besides, doing so can result in total paralysis and even death. Home birth as a result is prohibited by the law, as the governement deems it necessary to implant each child with one. However, if the child is born at home and brought to hospital for the installation of the device as soon as possible there is no penalty. The original functionality of this seal was to allow law enforcement to solve murders by accessing the final memories of the victims, effectively identifying those involved in the crime. This feature was soon overcome by many murderers by simply dislodging the head and upper spinal cord, taking it with them to be disposed of. Since the original purpose of the device was overcome it has developed a wide range of other features, allowing it to still be particularly of interest of the government to implant each newborn with one. These include the identification of bodies, a way of storing personal records and even a slight enhancement in the bearer's magical abilities. As the seals also include extensions into the bloodstream, they can also be used by doctors to monitor health and can be quickly scanned to retrieve such information, setting aside the need for extensive check-ups.

There are those in society who see a darker side to such neural seals however, perhaps due to their currently optional feature that allows for reanimation. This feature allows the souls of those recently deceased to be effectively trapped within the device, giving their bodies the chance to rise again and hence perform the jobs they had in life. Once reanimated, the deceased is still fully conscious, with full control and feeling in their body regardless of who or what killed them. Currently, the reanimation procedure does not always take place, usually only to those who have served in either the milita, law enforcement or cardinal roles such as paramedics. Those reanimated by this feature then not only have to suffer with the ailment or wound that killed them, but also the fact that the government lawfully owns their body. Recently, people have began to spread rumours as to whether this reanimation feature will become mandatory or not for all professions, with the nobles being exempt from it as befits their supposed status in society. Upon hearing this, and even in response to the minor reanimations that occur presently, groups have been setup to oppose such reanimation, labelling it as both inhumane and immoral. Their claims for the right to oppose such reanimations are only reinforced by another horrific act of the government - stripping those who have been reanimated of any unneccesary organs for survival, often painful in the short and long term.

Neural seals are also somewhat symbolic for many humans, who choose to keep them following the passing of a family member as a keepsake. For nobles, these are often stored in a dedicated memorial room, displayed in cases to convey both family history and refresh memories of those dearest. Families may also opt to display them in a public gallery, whose function is that similar to a graveyard, alternatively they may keep these at home. It is not uncommon for harpies to take these from the bodies of slain humans either, choosing to keep them as trophies around which to tell tales of the 'human menace'.

Magic and Anarcania
For humans, magic is a fundamental part of society which nigh on 100% of the population have access to, even those who suffer from mild anarcania. Magic works its way into a human's life from a very young age, with general magical concepts and practicals being taught in schools. Further along down a person's path of education the teaching becomes much more specialised, often with the person choosing which field they wish to focus on more specifically. The majority of the humans in society refer to themselves as sorcerers, those who are born naturally able to harness the power of magic and as a result are generally more proficient in it than so called 'wizards', those with treated mild anarcania. Humans are for the most part able to learn magic from each of the schools, although 'sorcerers' often stray from the dark arts due to their simplicity, with those who undertake training in such areas described sarcastically as 'potential well spent'. Inveresely, the dark arts are a common area of magic for 'wizards' to practice due to its accessibility to them, for it gives high payoff for very little skill. Those 'wizards' who attempt magic in the other fields can be just as successful as others without anarcania, although often they are required to train for much longer periods of time.

Anarcania in society is seen as possibly the worst illness that one can have, as it limits the effectiveness of healing spells on the sufferer and as a result can make them more vulnerable to death from disease and injury. Furthermore, those with absolute anarcania will often struggle to find a job as the majority of them involve magic and as such their role in society is very limited. For the common folk, when a newborn is screened and absolute anarcania is detected, the infant is 'put down', reported as stillborn to the parents. With nobles it is quite the different story, with their totally anarcanic children being left alive but often as the secret of the family. Occasionally an absolute anarcanic baby when screened can slip under the radar, as both nobles or common folk. When this happens they live their lives normally although the neural seal is unable to function at all within them. If a member of law enforcement happens upon one with anarcania they are often rounded up and put in facilites somewhat similar to care homes, where they are treated like they have an incapacitating disability and quarantined from the rest of society, often with much patronisation. The scrutiny involved with anarcanics and what can only be described as discrimination often leads them to try and prove themselves to others, leading to extensive study and as a result the majority of the anarcanic population having a greater intelligence than those without the ailment, to the point where many of the greatest innovators of human history were sufferers of anarcania. This knowledge is not commonplace however, with most folk putting it down to a side effect of the disease rather than a misguided attempt at acceptance by anarcania sufferers. Anarcanics are also forced to suffer the injustice of being sterilised as soon as they come of age, an attempt by the governement to limit the spread of it to new generations. This mandatory sterilisation is inflicted upon both absolute and mild anarcanics.

Crime & Punishment
Whilst humans may consider themselves the most socially and technologically advanced race on Estaerith, their rates of crime don't necessarily reflect this. Of course, even with their generally patronising attitude there are still punishments in place for offenders, some which may even shock a fairy. The most basic of crimes are usually met with warnings, followed by short periods of detention in underground prisons should such offences be repeated. These prisons are often fairly sanitary and well kept, although any food recieved is often utterly tasteless, albeit having great nutritional value. Also worth noting is that within prison, magic is completely ineffective, save for guards whose neural seals are modified to maintain their magical abilities in spite of the magical 'blockage' applied to prisons. These abilities are often used for more than just enforcing the law though, for some enjoy taunting prisoners with their newfound superiority. Life is more often that not described as extremely dull, with only books available for the most well behaved of inmates. More serious crimes, or those repeated even after too many a trip to prison are looked at with quite a different attitude however. In this instance criminals are given a choice, they can either spend the rest of their natural lives in a prison, although in permanent solitary confinement. Failing this, they can choose to give up the rights to their own bodies to the government, in short becoming a slave to society. Thirdly, they can choose to have their entire personalities re-written by mind-mages, whereby they keep all of their memories and consciousness, but are in no way the same person any more, in most cases unable to even picture the thought of committing another crime. For humans, the worst punishments arguably arise from abusing magic, where offenders are given two choices. In the first instance, they may have their minds rewritten as with any other serious crime, which by anybody's standards is rather distasteful. The second option is considered by most humans as the worst possible punishment possible, the criminal in question is handed over to a small fairy colony, where the soldiers proceed to swarm and painfully drain them of all magic for the next few months. This process is repeated whenever the offender's magical abilites seem to be returning, although a large percentage of people fail to even survive the first instance of anarcania, the aggressive swarm tearing them to pieces. Magical crimes involving the mystic field are always punished in this manner however, as in most cases these crimes are absolutely horrific.

Diet
Humans are very lucky in that they are both omnivorous and have the ability to gather food from the same sources as almost every other race. Some things that humans struggle to consume however are fungi - whereas creatures such as fairies are immune to most toxins, humans can fall ill very easily. Human pride also holds them back from eating one another and other races, although those more 'refined' in society are not above eating black market fairies, harpy meat and blastocine jelly. Humans may also pay extremely high prices for exceedingly rare arboreum sap obtained from fairies, although this is often the less refined form and over time brings more defects than the short term benefits.

Technology & Architecture
Humans are an extremely advanced race when it comes to technology, outclassing most of the other races in numerous ways. All is not as it seems however, with much of their technology practically stolen from other races via reverse-engineering and then being improved by them. The range of technology available to humans even extends to airships, giving them the ability to efficiently move across Estaerith and sometimes even between continents, allowing for the fast scouting and setting up of new civilisations. Another prime example of human ingenuity is that of the neural seals, although even the first design of these was developed by blastocines in an attempt to induce telepathy between anarcanics.

In the human vein of showing off, their arcitecture is often based around beauty and design, rather than protection and practicality. This is particularly the case with the capital city of Almas, which resting upon a rock surrounded by rivers has almost no requirement for static defences. Rather it has focused more on the idea of creating a beacon for humans across the continent, creating a beautiful city where all are happy to meet and trade. With the city resting on what appears to be a floating rock, there are naturally only a few ways in which a person can enter and leave, those being airships and another example of human technology, elevator mechanisms that ascend the waterfalls flowing from each end of the city. Also within their city are sections habitable by other races, such as underwater towns connecting to the surrounding rivers and ocean for the aquatic races, and huge, lush botanical gardens in which small fairy colonies and outcast harpies may reside.

Naming Conventions
Human names usually originate from where a person's family comes from, their surnames being passed down through the generations. This comes as a result of the wide range of human cultures that have settled on Estaerith and more particularly in Almas, ranging from desert people to those who once inhabited rich plains and forests.