The Second Children (Peoples of Areth)
Aliases: The Scattered Peoples
The Second Children were the collective name for all peoples other than the Giants seeded by the One across the world. Smaller and different from the Giants, each group was shaped by the Firstborn's lingering influence in the places where they came to dwell. According to A History of Rislandia, "the One had seeded the world with other peoples, smaller, different, each shaped by the Firstborn's lingering influence."
While the Giants built their great wonders in Zenwey, the Second Children survived and thrived in their own regions across the vast world, emerging in diverse lands and climates and developing their own cultures in relative independence.
Overview
The Second Children encompassed a broad range of peoples, including Humans, the Fae, Dragons, Goblins, and others not individually enumerated in the surviving record. Each group emerged shaped by the environment and the residual influence of the Firstborn in their particular region, resulting in a wide diversity of societies, beliefs, and customs across the world.
The term "Scattered Peoples" reflected the dispersed nature of their origins: unlike the Giants, who were concentrated in Zenwey, the Second Children arose across multiple continents and island chains, often in isolation from one another.
Peoples
Humans
Aliases: The Adaptable Ones
According to A History of Rislandia, "Humans emerged in multiple regions, shaped by the environments they inhabited." They appeared primarily on the southern continent of Areth and on various islands, far from the Giants' Zenwey homeland, though they also emerged in Zenwey in smaller numbers. Humans spread across what the sourcebook estimates as perhaps forty percent of the world's landmass.
Human societies developed distinct languages, religions, and customs according to their region. Some worshipped the Firstborn under different names. Trade routes connected certain cultures, while others remained isolated. Wars erupted between neighboring peoples, and small kingdoms and tribal confederations rose and fell across the centuries before the establishment of larger polities such as the Orethan Dominion and, eventually, Rislandia.
The Fae
The Fae were counted among the Second Children. Beyond their inclusion in this broader category, details of their origins as Second Children are not elaborated upon in the sourcebook drawn from A History of Rislandia. For further information, see The Fae.
Dragons
Dragons were counted among the Second Children, shaped by the Firstborn's lingering influence in the regions where they arose. For further information, see Dragons of the Dragonmist Isles.
Goblins
Goblins were counted among the Second Children. For further information, see Goblins of Zarma.
Others
A History of Rislandia notes that the Second Children included Humans, Fae, Dragons, Goblins, "and others," indicating that the above list is not exhaustive. The identities and histories of these additional peoples are not specified in the surviving record.
History
The Second Children emerged across the world during the same broad era in which the Giants rose to prominence in Zenwey. While the Giants constructed their great works, the Second Children developed independently in their own territories. According to A History of Rislandia, they "survived and thrived in their own regions while Giants built wonders in Zenwey."
Among the Second Children, Humans proved particularly widespread, eventually establishing the civilizations that gave rise to the Orethan Dominion, the Malaky Dynasty, and the kingdom of Rislandia. The exodus led by Jory Malaky and the subsequent history of Rislandia under the Kings of Rislandia represent the most extensively documented chapter of Human history in the surviving record.
Legacy
The concept of the Second Children formed a foundational element of the creation mythology recorded in A History of Rislandia and reflected in the beliefs of the Church of the Great One. The diversity of the Second Children — in form, culture, language, and faith — was understood as a direct consequence of the Firstborn's varied influence across different lands, rather than any inherent difference in origin or divine favor relative to the Giants.