Humans in the Celestial Realm

Human beings who inhabit the Celestial Realm are known in High Vannic as either Dothians (those humans who were originally invited into the Celestial Realm by the Graces) or Yanari (a Vannic word for vagabond, meaning that they have arrived in the realm without in invitation). The Dothians exist in several key civilisations that we will explore in this section of the Arclands World Anvil, the Solustine Kingdoms, the Rathic Principalities and the Iron Baronacy. The first humans who crossed over from the Mortal Realm were marked on each cheekbone by the Graces with powerful sigils that bound them to their hosts. Successive generations tattooed these marks to their sons and daughters as they came of age, conferring to them a faint echo of the power of the Graces.
The Yanari are miners, colonists, adventurers and wanderers across the coldest regions of the realm, and spies, mercenaries and marauders in the established fiefdoms where it is still relatively warm. Their only means of travel from the Frost Margins to the rest of the Realm is by Storm Raptor, so those that have spent their lives in the Celestial Realm are natural raptor flyers and have an established and powerful affinity with the great birds, regardless of what character class they play.
There is always some degree of tension between Dothian humans and Yanari humans, as in every mortal society across the Celestial Realm, Dothians have come to believe they have a special status, and are the ancestors of the rightful inhabitants of the realm. Most Yanari look at Y’Luran’s war against the Solustine Kingdom two and a half centuries ago and question how welcome Dothians (or any human) actually are in the Celestial Realm.

Human Fiefdoms

The first Dothian Humans came to the Celestial Realm during the time of Vannic Emperor Hordale, who spent much of his life as a guest of the Phalanx. He had little knowledge of the long history of feuds and betrayals that had occurred, and simply imagined he and his retinue were the exalted guests of the Keeper himself. In reality, the Graces who were loyal to the Keeper believed that by nurturing relations with mortals, who they had little more than passing contempt for, they could better control the Mortal Realm and prevent the influence of the renegade Graces from growing. Their greatest fear was that renegade Graces would make the Mortal Realm their home and shape to their own ends. The Graces eventually demanded that Hordale return to the Mortal Realm to manage affairs in Aestis on their behalf, but he died of despair and loss when he eventually had to leave. He left behind his greatest knight Andyrae Solust, who ruled in Hordale’s stead. When Solust died, she was recognised as an Aruhvian Saint and a powerful fiefdom was established in her name, led by the Knights of St Solust. There is only a passing reference to Andyraes Solust in the Psalter of Divine Acts, the book of the Aruhviad dedicated to the chronicles of the Saints. However, her influence and impact go further than virtually any other canonised individual. As the centuries passed, the Graces came to resent the presence of mortals in the Celestial Realm and after the Sundering, some took the opportunity to wage a brief and brutal war against humanity, that the Solustines and the rest of humanity in the Realm has yet to fully recover from. The Solustine Order ruled most humans across the Celestial Realm for most of the past three millennia, but gradually the well run order splintered into a series of rival dynasties, and three main branches on the Solustines occupy the remaining fiefdoms today.