Humankind

The latecomers — settlers, sellswords, and ledger-clerks drawn to the Vale by the dead Imperium's silver, plus the hard river-folk of the Northern Reach. Rootless, adaptable, and quietly lucky.

Humans hold no ancient claim to the Vale and ring with no native echo, and in a land that punishes the marked, that emptiness is their strength. Some came up the trade-roads chasing the Imperium's leavings; more came down the Karth from the Northern Reach and the high fords, hardy boat-folk and herders who forgot House Vandahl's banners somewhere upriver. They take any trade, any faith, any road, and pass for harmless until they aren't. Settled Vale folk call them green and overlook them — which suits a people whose best talent is being underestimated. Humankind is the default stock of Valenfeld: where a face has no other story, it is human.