Humans (Homo sapiens), known by off world individuals as Earthlings or Earthers for their planet of origin, are a species native to Earth and the planet's predominant life form.
Biology[]
Humans are bipedal mammals possessing four limbs, two arms and two legs, with five digits on each. Humans walk upright and use their arms and hands, which have opposable thumbs, for the creation and manipulation of tools, which was essential to their technological development and eventual predomination of the Earth. Humanity is a diverse species in terms of outward appearance, with skin hues that can range from dark brown to pale pink and hair color that can naturally range between varying hues of black, brown, red, blonde white, or gray. Human eye color can similarly vary from different hues of brown, blue, green, and gray.
As a baseline, humans are somewhat durable, with their calcium-based skeletal system capable of withstanding moderate stresses. In terms of physical strength, the human muscular system is, on average, inferior in comparison to its subspecies Homo mermanus and certain members of Homo meta and especially so to extraterrestrial species such as Martians and Kryptonians. In times of extreme distress, however, humans can tap into hidden reserves of strength through an adrenaline rush. Known as the "Fight or Flight" reflex, this allows humans to temporarily increase their strength significantly.
Physical conditioning can improve these aspects of human physiology to some extent. Many individuals, through years of rigorous training, have achieved peak physical form of the human body and thus are capable of feats superior to that of a regular human. Furthermore, through the use of specialized equipment or biological, chemical, or cybernetic augmentations, human can improve their physical capabilities to peak or even superhuman levels.
Extant subspecies[]
As a member of the primate family, humans are the last surviving species of the formally diverse genus of Homo, with many of the contemporaneous archaic human species present at the time of humanity's own emergence 300,000 years ago, such as Homo neanderthalensis - the Neanderthals, having gone extinct. Nevertheless, three subspecies of Homo sapiens have since emerged in the last 50,000 years, each possessing abilities far beyond the natural abilities of humans.
Around 48,000 BCE, the first derivative of humans emerged following the exposure of one, particular human to the radiation of a fallen meteorite, the radiation altering him on a genetic level. This human, who would come to be known as Vandal Savage, became the first Homo meta or meta-human. Through him and his descendants over the centuries, they spread the Meta-Gene throughout humanity over the millennia, enabling many notable individuals over history to develop a wide variety of powers or abilities that regular humans do not possess or are beyond the upper limits of the species' physical capabilities. These individuals have had such powers from birth, developed them in response to an event or trauma later in life, or through an augmentation of their body.
The next subspecies of humans emerged around the late-9th millennium BCE, during the height of the surface Atlantean civilization. Through mystical powers granted by a crown gifted to Arion, the king of Atlantis, by the Lords of Order, his children and their descendants gained similar such abilities naturally and thus were the first members of the Homo magi, humans with a genetic predisposition for magic.
The third and final subspecies of humans to emerge occurred shortly after the fall of Atlantis around 9,000 BCE. When the civilization was virtually destroyed in a cataclysmic event initiated by the Lord of Chaos, Klarion, a small portion of Atlantis's Homo magi and Homo meta citizens survived the disaster through the activation of their Meta-Gene, enabling them to survive underwater whereas most of the population perished as the civilization sank beneath the ocean. This new subspecies, Homo mermanus, would adapt to this new aquatic life and forge the modern undersea Atlantean civilization from the ruins of the old, all the while further adapting and evolving to life underwater.