Modern Humans
Vostir Modernus
Overview
Most Humans Living in Tor'Saarn beyond the mid first age fall under the Tiorathan categorisation 'Vostir Modernus', typically reffered to as 'Modern Humans' or 'Mainline Humans' when distinguishing them from their relatives, though they are most often just reffered to only as Humans. They make up the bulk of all Humans in Tor'Saarn and will likely integrate the other Human Subsets over time until they are the only form of human, barring some form of disaster or a successful resurgence of the Tiorathan empire, both posibilities that are becoming less likely as time passes and Modern Humans spread further and gain a foothold in more and more regions. Due to their near constant presence and greater eagerness to interact with foreigners on even, or at least amicable terms Mainline Humans have slowly filled the role of defaults, typically being what other races first think of when they hear Mankind mentiones and the baseline other Humans are measured against. This may in some ways be a curse, as completely seperate populations may be judged negatively due to bad experiences with a totally seperate society, however to date other races views of humans have drastically improved since the end of the first age. As negative or even hostile as interactions between the major human powers and the rest of the world can be at times they have yet to descend into the constant open hostility of the age of Tiorathan supremacy.Physical Description
Modern Humans typically stand between 162Cm and 180Cm, but there are even greater variations in their height. They have frames that stand more tall than wide as one would expect from a bipedal Sentient, but to which extent varies greatly between the many strains of mankind. Their eyes, skin and hair can vary greatly in color between the major populations, from the fair men of Hyeros to the dark skinned yet bright eyed Seofarean people. Most Humans, even if recognizably one strain or another, have physiological identifiers that tie them to multiple ethnicities within the greater human population, both amongst other Modern Humans and the wider Vostir genus. These ties are primarily due to interbreeding within these populations during the first age when all of humanity in Tor'saarn was under the dominion of the former Tiorathan empire.Society and Population
Geographic Distribution
Modern Humans have sustainable populations throughout the continent of Tor'Saarn, and have a considerable presence in every major nation outside of the Wilderuns, bar Felsaed and The Stranded Easts. They are by far the most common in the Sethiri nations, a grouping of western powers that once made up the Sethiri superstate under the Tiorathan Empire. The presence of mainline humans tapers of slowly as you journey eastward from their western homes where they are the dominant race, to the Stranded Easts where you may find the occasional human traveller or sailer. However during the first age they were restricted to the Sethiri Superstate, and most never stayed far from their birthplace. The only occasion on which they were allowed to leave their nation of birth was when their Tiorathan overlords gave them explicit permission to do so, most often for the purposes of waging war on Tioraths behalf. It wasn't until the collapse of the Tiorathan Empire that modern mainline humans were free to journey to foreign lands, and for another 70 years the majority of them would find it difficult to do so due to the chaotic nature of the region during the Sethiri Conflicts.History
Origin
Humans as a whole have a messy ancestral history compared to other sentient species, not having been directly created by any god. Instead Humans would emerge due to interbreeding between the Astrals and mortals, however the Astrals who were made mortal and settled in the Tiorathan isles are also considered to be Human, further complicating attempts to definitively define them as a single species other than having a shared Astral heritage. Modern Humans are no less geneologically obscure than their relatives, in fact as the most recent Human offshoot, and due to them being the result of interbreeding between multiple other Human strains, they are considered the most difficult to accurately classify. The first Modern Humans emerged in a recognisable form roughly a century or so after early Tiorathans conquered the west, during a period when the Wildmen and Tiorathans had intermingled frequently for decades, and the resultant population of what the Tiorathans called 'bastard humans' had stabilised into three recogniseable ethnicities. These individuals were larger than the Wildmen on average, but still shorter than the modern Tiorathan.Exploitation
Like most sentient species modern humans have suffered some degree of persecution, particularly at the hands of their Tiorathan Sires. However they have also given rise to persecuters, and although the suffering they have inflicted generally pales in comparison to the great empires of the first age their are often lingering trust issues between the more modern human powers and their neighbours. Seofare in particular has faced many accusations of varying levels of seriousness in regards to respecting their neighbours borders, however the republic of Hyeros has made great strides in ending exploitation both by and of their kin. During the first age a large quantity of Modern Humans were conscripted to serve as soldiers serving the Tiorathan Empire. These humans were treated barely any better than slaves of the time, and although Tiorathan society deemed it distasteful to own human slaves it was only illegal to own Tiorathan humans. Both modern humans and wildmen were allowed to be owned as slaves under Tiorathan law until the signing of the Gateway Pact at the end of the Sethiri Conflicts. Now slavery is illegal throughout much of Tor'Saarn, however humans still find themselves enslaved in Kessofare, Angral and East Felsaed where slavery is still legal. They may also be enslaved by pirates, however this is rare due to the near erradication of pirates on the west coast at the hands of Tiorath and Sethir.Diversion
Modern Humans have been distinct physiologically from one another for as long as they have been from their Tiorathan and Ked progenitors, living to see and even serve during the vast majority of the great clash of the empires, many of their species fighting and dying as a part of Tiorath's 'Steel Tide'. However despite this abuse it would take centuries for the majority of modern humans to diverge from their overlords and found their own kingdoms. For much of their history few considered them anything other than the oppressive fist of Tiorath, and those who did usually saw them as unfortunate victims drafted into a war they couldn't comprehend by a power they could never escape. Their fortunes would ultimately change during The Sundering of Tiorath, when the Tiorathan empire collapsed after the otherworldly incursion. Their forces were scattered or dead, and their spirit seemed broken. Seeing an opportunity Hyeros broke into rebellion only a few years into the second age, and soon the Oroni and once loyalist Seofareans would begin rebellions of their own. The war, a brutal and slow slog of more than six decades would forge the identities of these new nations, helping define the spirit of the new face of Humanity. Although the term Human still invoked some fear and loathing in from their neighbours they wer free to define their own destiny.Ethnicities
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