Human (Humans)
With lifespans that flash by in the blink of an elven eye, humans must make the most of their lives in the limited number of years given to them. Their energy and passion allows them to accomplish great things, yet their relative lack of historical perspective ensures that many of their greatest accomplishments will fall to dust, worn down by the sands of time.
Below are the seven major human ethnic groups of northern and central Faerûn, whose cultural, linguistic, physical, and religious traits predominate in that region of Toril. Five of the major groups are descended from ancient tribes, including the Calishites, Chondathans, Illuskans, Mulan, and Rashemi. Two more groups, the Damarans and Tethyrians, have arisen in recent centuries from melting pot cultures. A number of other human ethnic groups are touched on briefly as well, giving a flavor of humanity’s incredible diversity. Some have vanished or all but vanished from the face of Abeir-Toril and are mentioned only to give a historical context for modern societies, while others are numerous but rarely seen in the heartlands of Faerûn.
Overview
Humanity is numbered as one of the five Creator Races, albeit the last and most primitive. However, like many other sentient races, not all humans originated on Abeir-Toril; many humans alive in Faerûn today are descended, at least in part, from immigrants from other worlds. Although they are the most recent race to achieve dominance here, humanity is found all across the surface lands of Faerûn, from the arctic wastes of the Great Glacier to the steaming jungles of Chult. Unlike the other humanoid races, humans are not segregated into easily identifiable subraces with distinct racial traits. However, humans do vary greatly in appearance and are divided into innumerable competing nations, states, sects, religions, bandit kingdoms, and tribes. The root of humanity’s many divisions lies in the race’s fragmented history. Whereas elves and dwarves are interloper races who arrived in a few major migrations with unifying cultural traits, humans coalesced into tribes and developed local cultures across Abeir-Toril wholly independent of one another. The earliest human cultures arose in the shadow of other, more powerful races, including the other Creator Races, the elves, and the dwarves. The dominance of these other races kept the various human cultures largely ignorant of one another and barred communications until relatively recently in Faerûn’s history. As humanity can be segregated along historical, cultural, linguistic, and religious lines, there are many ways to subdivide the humans of Faerûn. Any distinctions are inevitably muddled, as centuries of settlement and conquest have ensured that no division is absolute. In fact, in some regions of Faerûn, melting pot cultures founded by two or more distinct ethnic groups, none of them dominant, are establishing distinct cultural and linguistic identities that mark the emergence of newly distinct ethnic identities different from their forebears.Major Ethnicities
The following human ethnic groups make up the majority of humans in Faerun.- Calashite
- Chondathan
- Chultan
- Damaran
- Illuskan
- Maztican
- Mulan
- Rashemi
- Shou
- Tethyrian
- Tuigan
- Zakharan
Minor Ethnicities
The following ethnic groups are either confined to a specific area or region, or offshoots of one of the major ethnic groups.- Arkutan
- Bedine
- Durpari
- Ffolk
- Gur
- Halruaan
- Imaskari
- Lantanna
- Nar
- Netherese
- Raumviran
- Shaaran
- Sossrim
- Talfir
- Talshalan
- Turami
- Ulutiun
- Vaasan
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