Lumanity

The People of Lumus

The shadowlanders, or, as they call themselves, the people of Lumus. These are the people that live in the far south, the archipelago hidden in shadow. There is much mystery surrounding them, but over the years, explorers have released many papers about their appearance, customs, culture, and religious practices. While they are technically a subspecies of humanity, their appearance, physiology, and customs are so different from the rest of humanity that neither wants to be lumped in together in the same category.

Appearance

The general form is akin to that of humans, but their skin, jet black, streaked with patterns of red, is tough and covers them in thick patches like a flexible carapace, not too different from the skin of a rhino. Their eyes are a deep red and orange, sometimes with yellow mixed in. Their ears are long and pointy, and while they lack hair on the head, that growing from their faces is thick and voluminous, with colors ranging from deep gray to dark brown. Their eyebrows are long, and often braided, and their beards worn as symbols of age and wisdom. Their women, like human women, do not grow beards, instead, they place a much greater emphasis on their eyebrows. Their teeth are sharp, with their canines noticeably longer than the rest of their teeth. Their nails are thick and resemble short claws. They are generally muscular, with athletic builds, it is assumed this is a result of their lifestyle more so than their genetic structure.

Homeland

The islands are hilly and mountainous, covered in dense forest ranging from cold to temperate pine forest in the outer regions, to tropical rainforest in the inner regions, these islands are very poorly explored by humanity, and no one has ever observed the inner islands, however, they have been able to discover the increase in heat, as you approach the south pole. Their homeland is a rough place, not only due to the dense forestation and abundant wildlife, that could easily kill anyone, their lands are covered in complete darkness for an entire half year, and the sun never sets in the other half, this makes it so they don't understand the human concept of day and night, for them there is only summer and winter, although the presence of the sun only has limited impact on the climate here, as most of their heat originates from the Lumina, the Aetherium that is said to exist there.

Lumina

The natives call their land Lumus, the land of Lumina, their god. Human scholars have ascertained that they must be referring to what humanity calls Autherium, dead gods, whose energy still impacts this world greatly. The presence of an Aetherium would also explain this race's distinct differences from the rest of humanity, as well as why they aren't a frozen wasteland. Other than that there is a powerful magical force that the natives call Lumina, not much is actually known about it, and most information we do have is pure speculation.

Religion

They are some of the few who do not follow the Velen actively, they do acknowledge their presence, but their focus is more on Lumina, the one who impacts them the most, they have not been willing to share details of their worship, but it is known they make offerings of some type, and that they take their reverence very seriously, whenever the explorers asked about their gods exact activities or function, they got very upset.

Culture

They live in clan structures, being led by elders and chiefs of some kind, they have also been seen with mystical leaders, staff-wielding men and women, who spoke of the mystical and of destiny, most of this got lost in translation tho. They are known to be monogamous, something they took very seriously, and both their men and women were seen wielding spears, so it is assumed they are all taught how to fight, coincidentally, their women are about the same height as their men, and quite strong. They were often seen with piercings of bone, especially the women, these bones would be stuck through the nose, cheeks, or forehead, it is unknown if they had a function or if it was purely aestetic.

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Read more about Lumina, their most sacred being, in the article about the Aetherium

Clothing

They were never seen with much clothing, not even bothering to cover up their private parts, something the explorers quickly got used to, as neither their men nor their women are very attractive, nor do they resemble humans, they are more like bald apes, in a way.

Melting Bronze

While they themselves consider themselves a separate race, the Velen consider them human, and Soreithra allows them to melt bronze just like humans. 

Magic

They are known to have magic practitioners, they are an elite part of their society, as magic users are honored above regular people, and all their shamans were seen to be able to cast magic.