Demi-human

Demi-humans are a rare and diverse class of magical species that roughly demonstrate some form of humanity, usually in the form of sapience and humanlike bodies. While their exact nature is difficult to pinpoint, demi-humans are most often the result of magic affecting the body of an otherwise biologically human individual (such as with vampires and harpies), or causing a humanlike entity to manifest in a human-populated area (such as with spirits and deities).

The Masquerade critically prevents the existence of demi-humans from being common knowledge among humans. While many demi-humans choose to readily divulge the truth of their nature to humans they live and work with, the same magic that grants demi-humans their form or ethereal characteristics also limits the scope of knowledge about their true nature. While demi-human nature sometimes serves as an inspiration for folklore, it is never parsed as reality except by ungrounded, fringe analyses.

History

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Culture

There is no single demi-human culture to speak of, since demi-humans are ethnically diverse and often derive their culture from the community they are surrounded by, whether human or also demi-human. While a small subset of demi-human species are innately driven to exhibit certain behaviors, most are offered the full gamut of human emotion.

While there are some demi-human species, most notably elves and dwarves, and certain spirits, that commonly form their own isolate societies, most demi-humans either live on the outskirts of human society or hide their nature and attempt to integrate. Some demi-human species are specifically unable to live among humans, by virtue of having a completely distinct form from anything natural, and as such usually gather in magical fountain locations such as enchanted forests.

Due to the mandatory isolation from humanity prescribed by the Masquerade, demi-humans commonly exhibit a distinct camaraderie. It is common for demi-humans to wear their respective folklore or taxon as a badge of pride, and underground locations such as Rainbow in the Moon strive to facilitate socialization, along with promoting understanding and encouraging acceptance, within demi-human communities.

Taxonomy

Main article: Species taxonomy

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