The humans resemble the giants and giantkin in appearance, but are much smaller (average height of 5 to 6 feet) with fair skin that has darkened in the hotter lands of the north, and they rarely live for more than a century. They have spread across the surface of Arda, though they rarely live underground like the dwarves and the land-dragons.
Humans are the dominant race in almost all kingdoms of Arda: they are merely uncommon in Malatra, Minj and the eastern half of Mungoda. Even Glendal, where the elves of the south-east fled to avoid humans, still has trading ports where humans are suffered to live. The great empires (Kaikuhuru, Selentium and Khitai) have all been human empires, and the True Faith was founded by humans.
Humans can interbreed with the elves and the giantkin, and the offspring of such unions are fertile.