I
Humans
Fast, brilliant, impatient. Human magic took tomorrow's strength today.
World
Balance is ecological.
A system is balanced when it can sustain itself in isolation. That rule explains the forests, the cities, the Wasteland, the demons, the Bearers, and the cost of shortcut magic.
A forest survives. A city consumes.
Cities are not evil. They concentrate food, water, magic, and power. If they cannot return what they take, they become anti-balance by design.
II
Elves
Continuity keepers. Careful enough to preserve, sometimes too careful to finish.
III
Wayfarers
Unaligned witnesses who intervene only where correction remains proportional.