The following excerpts are taken from On the Nature of Humanity, and Its Various Features & Foibles, considered the authoritative introductory text regarding the sentient lifeforms of Third Earth. While there are many and varied resources that are highly valued for their deep and comprehensive considerations, they can prove just as exhausting to read as they are exhaustive in their coverage. To date, no single volume rivals On the Nature of Humanity in terms of pragmatic concision.
Non-Humans
While not human, these other sapient cultures live side-by-side with humanity, and all have mutually influenced each other.
Dragons
Though not native to Third Earth, the dragons have lived here for tens of thousands of years and shaped human nations and culture to such a degree that any discussion of humanity would be incomplete without them.
As a result of their defeat in the Third Godswar, the dragons were exiled to the Rept Isles, on the far side of the world. From there, they would often terrorize human settlements, harrying the edge of human expansion. Eventually, the Graylock elves rose to prominence as renowned dragonslayers, and took the fight to the dragons on their home turf. Near the brink of extinction, with only a few hundred dragons left in the world, the survivors agreed to stay on the Rept Isles and never return to human lands. Individual dragons sometimes violate the treaty to this day, but some do so in order to live peacefully with humans. In response, a human ambassadorship was established in the Rept Isles, leading to the invention of speaking stones.
Because only a scant few dragons survived to the point of establishing regular cultural contact with humanity, they have a few competing views of their origins, each with its own similarly-sized group of adherents. Some claim that they are the creations of a dragon god; others that they themselves are gods; and still others that they were born of their homeworld itself, it being one enormous living organism. Dragons are hermaphroditic, able to reproduce both alone and in pairs or groups. When reproducing in large groups, the resulting hatchlings are born tiny, no larger than the largest newborn dog. But the egg of a dragon who reproduces alone will hatch at a size proportional to that of the parent.
The end of the Graylock line marked an increase in nefarious dragon activity in human lands, which grew until the Har’tei Dominion reestablished humanity’s dominance over them. Now they keep mostly to the Rept Isles once more, where their society has been observed by generations upon generations of human ambassadors. Dragon society is a complex web of alliances and conspiracies, with varying codes of honor throughout their highly stratified caste system. Dragons spend most of their time jockeying for dominance over each other, with a reigning monarch who has clawed their way to the top to enjoy special privileges while also being subject to constant challenges.
Dragons have a robust gender spectrum that has been mapped loosely onto ours, but with a wildly different set of gender roles from that of most human groups. “Males” mostly live independently, wishing to reign uncontested over their own island(s) except for when they battle for rank with each other. “Females” prefer to band together in insular communal groups and share both resources and territorial defense, though they still compete for status among the males on occasion. “Bigender” dragons live among and between the others, attempting to keep the peace between them while basing their own status on heroic deeds and the songs & stories about them. “Agender” dragons want nothing to do with the whole business and simply wish to live in peace. There are, of course, dragons of many genders who exhibit gender-nonconformity - dragons of all genders have been known to live peacefully alongside humans, even defending us from their kin.
Goblins
Goblins are impressively tenacious creatures who live a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They prefer not to move, if they don’t have to - but they often have to. There are human cities where goblins live peacefully, often as engineers, menders, or students of the Magic Guild. However, most places treat goblins as pests - a not undeserved reputation, as many human settlements deal with goblin thefts and raids on a regular basis. Goblins are an enthusiastic species: short of stature and not of particularly hardy constitution, they reproduce quickly and in litters. While old goblins are not unheard of, especially in the human cities, it is far more common for goblins to die a violent death at a young age, whether by battle, predation, or environmental hazard.
Mirus the trickster god gifted the goblins with bright spirits and curious minds to compensate for this rather depressing fate when she created them. This was done as a prank when the human gods boasted that their creations would cover all the lands of Third Earth, long after the war for which humanity was made. Now they make their way in the world mostly at the fringes of human society as thieves, raiders, rangers, and soldiers.
Individual goblins can be dangerous, as can any living thing in the proper situation; but outside city walls, they are much more likely to be encountered in groups of several dozen and villages of several hundred. Knowing full well that the only goblins who survive to old age are either total badasses or boring scaredy-cats, goblins nevertheless overwhelmingly decide to try being total badasses, in the knowledge that they will almost certainly die in the attempt. When one party fails to accomplish its goals, they will definitely send several more before considering giving up. Several hundred years ago, the ethologist John Badnone lived among the goblins for years. He once saw a goblin party preparing to swim from the Southeastern forests of Autumnspring to Noob Isle, and documented their leader as saying, “Most of us will die! But some of you might live! Those who do will find great adventure along the way! So now we go! For the glory of... whatever’s over there!” They were never heard from again, and did in fact know that goblins had already successfully traveled to Noob Isle. It is said that the floor of the Pyrrhis Sea is so littered with the speaking stones of dead goblins, that on very calm nights in shallow waters one may hear their din from below.
Noobs
Little indeed was known of the great orange bears of Noob Isle, save that they fiercely guarded their land, until a few years ago when humans wishing to live apart from the Har’tei Dominion forcibly colonized it. Before that, it was not even known that they spoke Zyxish at all, apart from a few spells. They are the children of Ignis, god of fire, charged with keeping the supervolcano below the Pyrrhis Sea dormant. Their oral tradition holds that Ignis uplifted them from the grizzly bears of Autumnspring many thousands of years in the past.
Today, noobs still occupy most of the island except for the fortress city of Leetsburg, the nearby Noob Town, and a scattered handful of fortresses in the island wilderness. Citizens of Noob Town hunt them for their meat, leather, and claws, while those of Leetsburg trade the goods produced in Noob Town with the rest of the world. The excrement of noobs is a particularly lucrative export, having a variety of agricultural and alchemical uses. Noobs live in matriarchal clans organized into loose coalitions in the central Noob Valley, as well as in the surrounding forests and the mountains rimming the island. Their menders serve as healers and spiritual advisors, but their traditions are regarded as savage and unsophisticated by most scholarly authorities.
Noobs are not known to live in any other part of the world.
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