Stories, myths, and legends; people build their identities upon narratives that describe their past. Is it any wonder that humans, with their vague, ambiguous, and often demonstrably false origin myths, are the most changeable race of any who stride the world? When the dwarves speak of being chiseled from the bones of the earth, and the elves sing of their leafy birth in the untamed Feywild, humans can only wonder. From what mold did humans spring? What god or primordial fashioned them, then abandoned them to the world without guidance or supervision? Or did they arise, as some learned sages claim, from the clay of the world itself, over millennia of slow variation from lesser beasts? With no true knowledge of their beginning, lacking any familiarity with a creator, and absent a defined higher purpose a parent deity might provide, humanity claimed for itself the right to determine its own purposes.

I know, I know... it doesn't say much does it. Those game designers intend to keep us guessing right up until the end. Clearly dwarf lovers have little to be concerned about, the whole bones of the earth thing sounds about the same as it has in every edition. The elves have that relationship to fey emphasized, and I am frankly curious to see how that is done... hey, ya gotta do dem fairies right, 'kay?

The new fluff for humans isn't wholly different from 3.5, where humans were the primary group in Races of Destiny (that's the splatbook with the freaky people whose heads are surrounded by floating glowie letters, for the rest of the sane world who didn't buy it). It does imply some curious things about human religion in 4e, however, in that it suggests that their new "lets combine all these unrelated deities" pantheon (yeah, I'm not a fan of this idea yet, obviously) will have somewhat less concrete origin myths. Now it's not all bad... I love a lot of Bruce Cordell's work and he was one of the few who kept me reading back in the end days of TSR. That he's working on the system gives me hope, but I know he's capable of better fluff than that, and I'm hoping to see some soon!

I know, I know, just news about humans??? There must be something else! Well, as it turns out, this was a rather slow week for 4e news, probably because of the approaching holiday. But I do have one more tidbit for you, also from Gleemax (this time from the forums): Mike Mearls posted about the use of shields - you know that piece of armor no sane fighter in 3.5 uses? Well apparently they're trying to fix the "everyone carries a big sword" syndrome. Frankly I hope they do a good job, 'cause most of my minis have shields! You can find Mike Mearl's post here.

[via Gleemax]