Humans
The image above highlights the diversity of Realmgard’s Humans. From left to right: Nolan Lyte, a Gardian hailing from a multi-ethnic family, Dunstana Darkstone, a Gardian of distant Chevaleresque ancestry; Petra of Fulminata, a Half-Troll Amazon; Quintus Marcellinus Styracosaurus, an Elf of the Imperial Era; Melisa Grevling, a Wilderling of Hrimfaxi ancestry; all considered Human.
The collective term for the peoples of Realmgard (and the world of Terrace as a whole) — corresponding to the ancient philosophers’ class of ‘featherless biped’ — the word “Human” is generally understood to refer to any sapient being and contrasted to animals and supernatural, divine beings.
While other philosophers have contend that “Human” and especially “featherless biped” (noting, for example, the existence of bird Wilderlings) are broad to the point of being meaningless, “Human” remains the common terminology in most contexts and “featherless biped” remains used in philosophical discussions.
While there are nagging insufficiencies and shortcomings with most potential definitions of “Human”, the most common definition separates Humans from animals by holding that Humans, and not animals, are capable of speech, abstract reasoning, and the creation and maintenance of a social order governed by law.
Similarly, a Human is understood to exist within the natural, physical order of the world of Terrace, rather being a supernatural or divine being. While the gods of Realmgard are understood to look like Humans, they are acknowledged to be an entirely different order of being with their origin in an entirely different plane of existence.
At the simplest, there is no one group among the peoples of Realmgard known as Humans. Instead, Human is the class to which all the peoples of Realmgard fit, be they Gardians, Elves, Dwarves, Wilderlings, Trolls, or any other people considered sapient and rational.
And, in fact, all of the peoples listed above are indeed bipedal…
The short version is that there is no race in Realmgard called “Humans.” “Human” is the word for any being that would satisfy Plato’s class of “featherless biped” — hence my borrowing of the term.
Incidentally, philosophers have been trying — and not particularly succeeding — to adequately define “Human” basically forever…
There’s a growing discomfort with the term “race” in Fantasy games — Pathfinder now uses “Ancestry” and Dungeons and Dragons started using “Species” (which actually sounds worse to me, since it makes them sound more like animals than sentient beings…) — they have may since walked that back; I don’t have any of the rulebooks they’ve releases since the announcement on hand, but both DnD Beyond and Baldur’s Gate still use “race.”
For what it’s worth, I don’t necessarily think “race” is problematic, so much as insufficient. I’ve decided to use “peoples” to try to convey that it’s a combination of genetics and culture. I’m not actually sure if that’s any less insufficient, but I can at least understand what I’m trying to say…
Similarly, in Realmgard, “Human” isn’t an entirely biological term, it’s got, like, a philosophical component reflecting that anyone considered “Human” is a sapient, rational being, rather than an animal.
So, “Human” is the term for the peoples of Realmgard as a whole.
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