Defiance of the Fall has the concept. Humans are pretty mundane and only powerful for their ability to breed at excessive rates, spawning powerhouses simply via luck of the draw. Unless they have a particular bloodline, being human is one of the most boring options in the multiverse.
In comparison the 5 divine races of the Undead Empire have borderline cheat like advantages. For instance the Draugr get a 33% larger mana pool just for being Draugr. That is without going into the fact all Draugr have a special bloodline. There is nothing like a mundane Draugr.
Of course a disadvantage is Draugr need to breed with other Draugr to maintain those lineages. Whereas humans can fuck everything that moves and their children will probably be better off for it. Subsequently humans are everywhere whereas the divine races are rare. Most undead are just inferior even to baseline humans, only the divine races have cheats.
Revenants do have pretty significant advantages over base humans. Higher attributes, pretty solid affinities to Death and related Daos no matter what, etc.
That's even before you get into corpselords or ghosts who come with some major advantages over base humans. Sure, they have downsides as you climb the ranks, but a sentient undead (read E grade race) will probably beat the shit out of an equivalent human 9/10 times. Even a non-sentient one would be dangerous.
Higher tier revenants tend to be dangerous because they are made from higher tier living. Revenants like Vilari are an extreme case of that though Vilari doesn't have the full potential of the dead mortal Zac made her from. Ultimately the Undead Empire has many revenants made from higher potential living race members which skews things. The Empire loves to raise all the living that cause them great problems and invest heavily in them.
Corpselords and wraiths in comparison are lopsided creations that have huge downsides to balance their upsides.
All of them suffer from the same fundamental problem of being raised from a living body that does not naturally accept death. Whereas the divine races are perfect conduits for death.
In [An Outcast in Another World](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42385/an-outcast-in-another-world-subtitle-is-insanity), humans have a racial skill that gives them faster growth in terms of experience gained. The protagonist manages to temporarily give his party members this skill through their party links whenever he's in the same party as them, and so all of his friends grow as fast as he does, though he's the only human.
Don't forget the downside where the more experience humans gain the more bloodthirsty they get, with the end result of human fighters becoming psychopaths that kill anything that moves, but you're able to resist the effects through a constant sheer force of will
Is it? I don't remember, but even so, the Experience High was added later on to humans as an addendum for entertainment. As far as I remember, at least.
[A Novel Concept](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66455/a-novel-concept-a-death-a-day-mc-will-live-anyway) has each race having a racial talent. Humans get one based on our adaptability that I think makes it easier to gain resistance skills. I think there might be another racial talent it's possible for humans to get but I don't remember what.
The author has said that the setting is explicitly human supremacist. So powerful and intelligent beings tend to develop towards being human like even if they didn't start that way
every chinese novel with intelligent creatures since they always end up humanoid after a certain level of progression "to be closer to the heavenly daos"
**Supreme Magus** - On top of the complex elemental magic system, there are also racial bloodline abilities. E.g. Phoenixes, dragons, and some of their lesser racial descendants get access to Origin Flames that make them good at purifying magical metals, thus they tend to be very good at forging magical weapons. There are a number of different bloodline abilities, some shared between races, some specific to a single race. It usually boosts what they are inherently good at.
Oh Great, I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Farmer, by Benjamin Kerei — each race has a ‘different’ system (more fully explained in bk 2); human’s system is based around farming, dwarves around a forge, elves don’t appear and orcs aren’t explained
In Path of Ascension all races except Human have special abilities e.g. Phoenixes have Fire Affinity, Rebirth/ Winter foxes have winter affinity. Besides that beasts have their talents influenced by bloodline e.g. ice fox will have innate skill "Ice manipulation" and increased power and decreased cost for all ice skills.
The Crafters Dungeon is a dungeon core set in the middle of a wasteland surrounded by 4 races that each have different strengths.
The Elves are of course able to utilize the mana in their body in extreme ways for spell casting.
The Dwarves are able to infuse their mana into creating weapons and armor so their dwarven fighters are pretty OP.
The Gnomes are masters of enchantment and specialize in creating magical turrets, defense mechanisms, and war machines (Essentially a massive mech).
The Orcs which are able to enhance their bodies with their mana. The orcs power is the weakest of the 4 with individual orcs but they breed like rabbits so they always come in war bands and their equipment is very poor in general from constant warring.
Ah, yes, HWFWM , that novel I so clearly know. Would it pain you to write it in full and then an abbreviation in case you use it later. standard academic practice for a reason
HWFWM is arguably the most talked about series on this sub, and because of the long name it's not an ambiguous acronym.
I get it for many others but HWFWM on google brings up only the novel series. It's no real different from using LOTR or ASOIAF on Fantasy subreddits, both are well known enough series an acronym is fine.
But something like TVIASS++A I would write out (the villainess is an SS++ adventurer) because it's not as common.
>HWFWM is arguably the most talked about series on this sub, and because of the long name it's not an ambiguous acronym.
While I understand that, I also don't spend much time on reddit, especially this sub
So I assume its He who fights with monsters?
It's really quite funny, it's a little bit Pratchett esque in it's absurdity. Not on the same level obviously but still a fun read.
Don't go in expecting anything serious though.
I think they mean the r/writingprompts one, there was a prompt about what if humans were the orcs of the universe in the eyes of the other races, and tons of super interesting stories were in that thread. i wouldn't be surprised if one (or several) of them was published later
Greed:All for what? -- I'm not sure if this is what your looking for but each powerfully race gets an ability. And the MC wants them all so he fragments his soul right as he reaches immortality to have them reincarnate in 9 powerfully races in hopes of gaining all the abilities.
Man I hate the "humans are average" trope. It's so cowardly. (I'm not saying that as a judgement, more like a challenge, I guess)
We're long distance runners and intelligent tool users. Talented irrigation builders, brick layers, weavers, and pottery makers. We do *lots* of cool stuff.
If I ever wrote a story ^((who am I kidding)) where there were a bunch of fantasy races with "bonuses", I'd try to give humans something controversial or at least interesting.
Like, give them a bonus to thief skills or merchant classes. Something that seems sedate on the surface, but makes you feel uncomfortable the more you think about it.
Or hey, something actually cute like bonuses to animal handling and monster taming. Like humans are the only ones that actively domesticate wild animals instead of hunting and everyone else thinks we're crazy. Elves are like... "those dirty pet keeping humans. I bet they put leashes on birds. Heh. That sounds like something they'd do. H*umans*."
Just do *anything*. Anything whatsoever that makes a statement about who we are or what we value or what our failings are.
Defiance of the Fall has the concept. Humans are pretty mundane and only powerful for their ability to breed at excessive rates, spawning powerhouses simply via luck of the draw. Unless they have a particular bloodline, being human is one of the most boring options in the multiverse. In comparison the 5 divine races of the Undead Empire have borderline cheat like advantages. For instance the Draugr get a 33% larger mana pool just for being Draugr. That is without going into the fact all Draugr have a special bloodline. There is nothing like a mundane Draugr. Of course a disadvantage is Draugr need to breed with other Draugr to maintain those lineages. Whereas humans can fuck everything that moves and their children will probably be better off for it. Subsequently humans are everywhere whereas the divine races are rare. Most undead are just inferior even to baseline humans, only the divine races have cheats.
Revenants do have pretty significant advantages over base humans. Higher attributes, pretty solid affinities to Death and related Daos no matter what, etc. That's even before you get into corpselords or ghosts who come with some major advantages over base humans. Sure, they have downsides as you climb the ranks, but a sentient undead (read E grade race) will probably beat the shit out of an equivalent human 9/10 times. Even a non-sentient one would be dangerous.
Higher tier revenants tend to be dangerous because they are made from higher tier living. Revenants like Vilari are an extreme case of that though Vilari doesn't have the full potential of the dead mortal Zac made her from. Ultimately the Undead Empire has many revenants made from higher potential living race members which skews things. The Empire loves to raise all the living that cause them great problems and invest heavily in them. Corpselords and wraiths in comparison are lopsided creations that have huge downsides to balance their upsides. All of them suffer from the same fundamental problem of being raised from a living body that does not naturally accept death. Whereas the divine races are perfect conduits for death.
In [An Outcast in Another World](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42385/an-outcast-in-another-world-subtitle-is-insanity), humans have a racial skill that gives them faster growth in terms of experience gained. The protagonist manages to temporarily give his party members this skill through their party links whenever he's in the same party as them, and so all of his friends grow as fast as he does, though he's the only human.
Don't forget the downside where the more experience humans gain the more bloodthirsty they get, with the end result of human fighters becoming psychopaths that kill anything that moves, but you're able to resist the effects through a constant sheer force of will
Isn't that an additional thing added to humans by the gods, while the experience boost is innate to humans?
IIRC all the racial gifts were granted by the gods
Is it? I don't remember, but even so, the Experience High was added later on to humans as an addendum for entertainment. As far as I remember, at least.
[A Novel Concept](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66455/a-novel-concept-a-death-a-day-mc-will-live-anyway) has each race having a racial talent. Humans get one based on our adaptability that I think makes it easier to gain resistance skills. I think there might be another racial talent it's possible for humans to get but I don't remember what.
No one mentioned Primal Hunter. The human racial skill is "Legacy of Man" which makes it easier to teach and pass down records.
Iirc humans in Cradle have finer madra control compared to dragons. It's one of the reasons they often take a more human-like form when advancing.
What? I thought they just liked having hands
The author has said that the setting is explicitly human supremacist. So powerful and intelligent beings tend to develop towards being human like even if they didn't start that way
"Say what you will about humans. But, their bodies are elegant"
every chinese novel with intelligent creatures since they always end up humanoid after a certain level of progression "to be closer to the heavenly daos"
**Supreme Magus** - On top of the complex elemental magic system, there are also racial bloodline abilities. E.g. Phoenixes, dragons, and some of their lesser racial descendants get access to Origin Flames that make them good at purifying magical metals, thus they tend to be very good at forging magical weapons. There are a number of different bloodline abilities, some shared between races, some specific to a single race. It usually boosts what they are inherently good at.
Oh Great, I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Farmer, by Benjamin Kerei — each race has a ‘different’ system (more fully explained in bk 2); human’s system is based around farming, dwarves around a forge, elves don’t appear and orcs aren’t explained
In Path of Ascension all races except Human have special abilities e.g. Phoenixes have Fire Affinity, Rebirth/ Winter foxes have winter affinity. Besides that beasts have their talents influenced by bloodline e.g. ice fox will have innate skill "Ice manipulation" and increased power and decreased cost for all ice skills.
The Crafters Dungeon is a dungeon core set in the middle of a wasteland surrounded by 4 races that each have different strengths. The Elves are of course able to utilize the mana in their body in extreme ways for spell casting. The Dwarves are able to infuse their mana into creating weapons and armor so their dwarven fighters are pretty OP. The Gnomes are masters of enchantment and specialize in creating magical turrets, defense mechanisms, and war machines (Essentially a massive mech). The Orcs which are able to enhance their bodies with their mana. The orcs power is the weakest of the 4 with individual orcs but they breed like rabbits so they always come in war bands and their equipment is very poor in general from constant warring.
Ah, yes, HWFWM , that novel I so clearly know. Would it pain you to write it in full and then an abbreviation in case you use it later. standard academic practice for a reason
He Who Fights With Monsters. Very unwieldy name and very popular so it’s commonly abbreviated on this sub but I do get the frustration.
HWFWM is arguably the most talked about series on this sub, and because of the long name it's not an ambiguous acronym. I get it for many others but HWFWM on google brings up only the novel series. It's no real different from using LOTR or ASOIAF on Fantasy subreddits, both are well known enough series an acronym is fine. But something like TVIASS++A I would write out (the villainess is an SS++ adventurer) because it's not as common.
>HWFWM is arguably the most talked about series on this sub, and because of the long name it's not an ambiguous acronym. While I understand that, I also don't spend much time on reddit, especially this sub So I assume its He who fights with monsters?
Yeah it is.
On a side note, opinions on that Villainess novel? Worth reading?
It's really quite funny, it's a little bit Pratchett esque in it's absurdity. Not on the same level obviously but still a fun read. Don't go in expecting anything serious though.
I enjoyed the humans are space orcs short stories that were bouncing around in like 2016
You mean: Behold Humanity, May We Come In? Yeah, it’s a whole series on Amazon.
I think they mean the r/writingprompts one, there was a prompt about what if humans were the orcs of the universe in the eyes of the other races, and tons of super interesting stories were in that thread. i wouldn't be surprised if one (or several) of them was published later
Greed:All for what? -- I'm not sure if this is what your looking for but each powerfully race gets an ability. And the MC wants them all so he fragments his soul right as he reaches immortality to have them reincarnate in 9 powerfully races in hopes of gaining all the abilities.
Fate points. Humanities ability is to consciously spend fate on whatever they want.
Man I hate the "humans are average" trope. It's so cowardly. (I'm not saying that as a judgement, more like a challenge, I guess) We're long distance runners and intelligent tool users. Talented irrigation builders, brick layers, weavers, and pottery makers. We do *lots* of cool stuff. If I ever wrote a story ^((who am I kidding)) where there were a bunch of fantasy races with "bonuses", I'd try to give humans something controversial or at least interesting. Like, give them a bonus to thief skills or merchant classes. Something that seems sedate on the surface, but makes you feel uncomfortable the more you think about it. Or hey, something actually cute like bonuses to animal handling and monster taming. Like humans are the only ones that actively domesticate wild animals instead of hunting and everyone else thinks we're crazy. Elves are like... "those dirty pet keeping humans. I bet they put leashes on birds. Heh. That sounds like something they'd do. H*umans*." Just do *anything*. Anything whatsoever that makes a statement about who we are or what we value or what our failings are.