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What alternatives to "human" are there?

Hominoid may sound too sciencey. Hairless apes too derogatory. 2-legs is used in fiction, but only there that I know of, and only in books where other creatures have four.

I agree with [MENTION=6688783]The Mormegil[/MENTION] that other word using creatures will have their own names for humans, and that will probably be to distinguish them from themselves. So orcs and goblins are practically semi-human and might go with Tolkien's Men to distinguish themselves. But ixitxachitl and ropers may call them bounders or talldogs or something.

Humans do definitely have preferred climates and sustainable environments (space has been a hard one to expand into). D&D uses Any meaning Any Earth Surface environment actually and I think that's appropriate. I believe they are typically tribal in forest and jungle, but are really a threat in large numbers when in plains or grasslands. They quit being pure climbers long ago and began running after the herd animals. They also largely migrated out of tree lairs to caves and burrows and most recently build their own caves upon the land (with grass, tree, and even stone). So Cave Builder may be a decent name.
 

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"Baselines".
Actually, pretty much the only aspect of humans that's not average according to RAW is height: so humans could be "Tall Ones" (or "Longshanks", to borrow from Sam Gamgee).
 


I just realise what it annoys me from, the hippy but not trippy Ffolk (note two Fs, very new age) from the Forgotten Realms :cool:

Doggone it. Ffolk is from Forgotten Realms? That's not copyrighted, is it?

Anyway, Maynard's angels call humans "silly monkeys." Corban Dallas calls them "meat popsicles." You could just make something up, like "humorphs." Um..."brute-elves."
 

A look at the Thesaurus showed nothing promising. I think you're stuck. The closest I found was anthropoid, but that definitely has an SF flavor. My best suggestion is to say that humans originated from one geographical region, then name them after that. That's after taking into account that you don't like "Man" or "Mankind" which are IMO superior terms.

This is hard because you want something that says "human being" but not the more generic "person" (in D&D there are people that are not human beings.) Since all people in real life are human beings, our language just doesn't have such terms. I suppose you could just use "person" and "people" but that implies that nonhuman intelligent beings aren't people, which can bring along a lot of baggage.
 
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Liked how they in the "Farscape" TV series made humans, in the shape of the "Peacekeeper" race, the bad guys of its setting. Turned things quite nicely on its head. Unfortunately they chickened out and made the Peacekeepers first not quite human, and then not quite the baddest guys...
 





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