Human

“Humans,” the dwarf said with a combination of exasperation and awe. “Their only virtue seems to be believing in impossible things.”

“Humans belong to the world in a way the other speaking peoples do not. You can sense the presence of magic—that… oily smell in the air, as I've heard it described. And the presence of deathless causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up. Or why do you think graveyards affect you so? Whatever magic is, its grip on you is light. Whatever drives the deathless, your nature rebels against it.

“No one knows why this should be. We elves have no such senses. Nor do the elementals or the kanin … the dwarves and the orcs as you say. What is it that sets humans apart? I am an historian, not a physician. I cannot say. Perhaps some of you will one day find out and teach us all the reason.”

On Humans

So, we arrive here at the end of your first semester of Human Culture. I hope to see you next year in the Caelian Empire course, and though it may be hard to believe now, I often see former students' names in our textbooks years later. Perhaps that will be some of you.

I will now answer the one question I am asked most often, and which I save answering until the last day of class: What do I think of humans?

I am a high elf, as you deem it in your tongue. A child of the solar celestials. And I have taught this class, mostly to young humans, since the Caelian emperors founded this city. I was asked to join the faculty by the first chancellor. I have seen generations of your people come through this classroom, and that alone would well qualify me to answer this question.

What do I think of humans? Well, I will tell you.

I was here, teaching this class during the fire of Enlightenment 373. The fire leveled this city. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the heat, the death, destruction that such a thing causes?

Six months after the Great Fire, your ancestors had rebuilt… everything. I have seen many miracles in my life. Witnessing that feat might be chief among them.

Liches are almost always humans. Did you know that? I think I know why. Your lives are so short—almost as soon as you're born, you're thinking about dying, and you refuse to yield.

That refusal to yield to death… to death… is what drives you, I think. Drives you to leave the world better than you found it. Causes ruined people to rebuild great city.

We studied human history in this room. Did you feel that those great ancestors of yours were perhaps made of finer stuff than you? Do not think thus. I knew them, and I know you, and your future is greater. I sometimes think each human generation greater than the last—more courageous, more generous. Quicker to forgive.

Today, Ajax's name is on everyone's tongue, but I have seen many great evils arise in the world. I was teaching in this classroom when the Pharaoh Khorsekef, desperate, his power failing, opened the Great Tet and drank of the time stored there, becoming the Ultralich. He was defeated, and now rules the Necropolitan Ruin in the Abyssal Waste.

I was alive, though not yet a professor, when Cthrion Uroniziir tried to reduce the timescape into one singular universe, wiping out reality as we know it. She was defeated, and we see her cage every day.

Each of these great evils was defeated by a coalition. The armies and heroes of many speaking peoples. And all of them—all of them—were led… by humans. That's a fact. That's history. You can look it up.

Is there some rare trait that makes you uniquely qualified to lead disparate peoples, bring them together to achieve great things? I think… there must be.

Those great humans, your ancestors, did not focus on differences. They did not weigh different people and grade them based on arbitrary traits deemed virtues and flaws. That is what Ajax does. No, those humans focused on the future. On making a better world… for all of us. A world many of them knew they would not live to see. That is a sacrifice… I can scarcely imagine.

The people who stand against Ajax and tyrants like him will be just like you—normal people. Priests and scholars and merchants and farmers. Maybe even teachers.

Stopping Ajax will require you to become something else. You must become heroes. Conduits of saints, warmasters of great armies. Censors and shadows. That may seem unlikely now, but the future has a way of surprising us.

Some of your names, I will see written in future textbooks.

But some of your names, I will see written in the stars.

(Professor Cilliarwn did not elaborate on this.)

Human Benefits

As a human character, you have the following benefits:

Detect The Supernatural

As a maneuver, you open your awareness to detect supernatural creatures and phenomena. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any supernatural object, Undead, Construct, or creature from another plane of existence within 5 squares of you, even if you don't have line of effect to them. You know if you're detecting an item or a creature, and you know if a creature is Undead, a Construct, or from another plane of existence.

Resist The Supernatural

Your connection to the natural world protects you from supernatural forces. You have Magic immunity 2 and Psionic immunity 2. Each of these immunities increases by 1 each time you level up.

Staying Power

Your human anatomy allows you to fight, run, and stay awake longer than others. Increase your number of Recoveries by 2.