Half-Human

Humans are the most wide-spread and diverse race in Aserra, inhabiting every continent, except Athok, and with a curiosity that can often lead to intimate relationships with other races. Despite the fact that they are at odds with nearly every other race in Aserra, humans are involved in the majority if interracial mixes and some of the Idayn sub-races are saturated with human ancestry.

Some of the most common pairings with humans are Danaij in the Forsaken Land, Shaolaon in northwestern Thiskel, Ery’Idayn in the Great Desert of Thiskel, Fayl’Idayn in eastern Kalesten, and Ochae’nafod and Dra’nafod all over the world. Humans are also a common choice of partner in the rarer cases of other interracial unions.

Physical Appearance

With a wide variety of shapes and sizes, the outcome of interracial offspring is hard to define solely on behalf of a human. The one physical trait that sets humans apart from other races is their small, rounded ears which are only shared with their cousins; the kiar and iengi. When reproducing with a member of an elemental race, the long, tapered ears indicative of those races are halved in length in their offspring. In successive generations of human breeding, the ears halve in length again for a quarter-blood, leaving the third generation child with pointed and possibly only slightly elongated ears, while the fourth or fifth generation is unmistakable for pure-blooded human.

Magical Abilities

Humans have no inherent magic, though some individuals may have unique psychic abilities or a higher capacity for spiritual power that can be passed on to their offspring. If a human fathers a child with a mother of an elemental race, the child will inherit the mother’s magic, but if born to a human mother and elemental father, the child will not inherit elementalism. Those with elementalism may be slightly less capable of the magic than their pure-blooded peers due to their human traits.

Lifespan

Humans have one of the shorter lifespans of Aserrans. They have the potential to live for about 100 years, though it is rare for them to live that long, usually living into their seventies or eighties in ideal conditions. In the case of reproducing with a longer-lived race, the offspring generally lives half the potential lifespan of their longer-lived parent. When reproducing with the shorter-lived races, the issue has the doubled potential lifespan of their shorter-lived parent.

The elemental races have a similar aging rate as humans, but all apparent aging ceases around age twenty-five and does not resume until the final century of life, at which point they begin deteriorating at the same rate as a human's normal lifespan. For an individual who is half-elemental race and half-human, they mature at the same rate, suspend aging, and then continue near the end of life, only with a shorter lifespan than their elemental parent.

Alternately, a human-kiar or human-kuzo hybrid has a faster aging process than a human. Kiar and kuzo both age 30% faster than humans, but with human blood, that rate is reduced to 15%, meaning that they will age slower than their kiar or kuzo parent, but faster than their human parent. Iengi, on the other hand, age 30% slower than humans, so their hybrid offspring will age 15% slower than than their human parent, but faster than their iengi parent.