The Genus Iniuriam is a curse afflicting Eyom's human population. The curse is isolated to humans, with human-related species being unaffected. The curse was inflicted through the use of ritual spellcraft by a cult of Wood Elves in time immemorial. The curse ensures that one cannot tell the reproductive sex of a human by their general appearance by decoupling masculine and feminine traits from the male and female sexes.
During the first five hundred years of history, before humanity established itself a home in central Eyom, humanity frequently ran into conflict with the Wood Elves during their first expansionist phase. Due to the bloody nature of this period in history little is known about the specifics of the Genus Iniuriam curse other than it was inflicted upon humanity out of spite.
What is known is a Wood Elven slaver party raided a small village belonging to the tribe of Ovis. The tribe demanded the return of their villages and compensation for the raid, as per the terms of an existing Ovian-Wood Elven treaty. The Wood Elves responded to the demand for the return of the captured villagers and compensation as per the treaty with the local saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.", and the tribe took exception to that.
Queen Olga of Ovis went to the local Kami and entered into their innermost sanctum via the means of a key in the shape of a boot. She demanded the Kami force the Wood Elves into compliance with the strict letter of the treaty, as it was signed. The Kami refused. Queen Olga, according to mythology and in local terms, "flipped the Kami the double bird" (Scholar's note: The meaning of this phrase is unknown, as the gesture is considered too rude to show to outsiders even for documentation purposes.) and went to the goddess Theckle with her complaint instead. Theckle offered some support, but directed Olga to the Goddess Illia for additional support in formulating a quote "Properly Engineered revenge" end quote.
Shortly thereafter, Tribe Ovis became one of the greatest warrior cultures in history, and a mere 5 years later Tribe Ovis burnt down a Wood Elven plantation in Irusthrone. Using a specially engineered copy the treaty that burst into black flames of a magical nature specificly tuned to burn homes to the ground.
In retaliation, the Plantation's master made use of the bulk of his slaves to extend the reach of a flesh warping spell across all of Eyom. The Wood Elf knew that humans were on shaky grounds culturally due to the other curse placed upon them. They also knew enough about humans to be aware of how important gender roles are to human civilization and society, and how closely humans tend to hold the concepts of sex and gender.
The Wood Elf's spell toppled that last pillar of Old Humanity. The spell couldn't affect the living but did affect all humans to be born after it was cast, and thereafter all humans descended from Eyomic parents would have a random mix of male and female traits, physically and mentally. The effects of this spell were contained by the God Wall, leaving Imperial humans unaffected. Additionally the Kami worked wards into reality itself to prevent such spell-range boosting from occurring ever again. To this day, no one has been known to breach these wards.
The effects of the curse in the modern era are simple. Imperial humans have sexual dimorphism. Our females and males look different, and you can tell which is which simply by knowing what traits belong to which individuals. This is not true of Eyom's humans.
An Eyomic human may appear to be male due to being burly, tall, broad-shouldered, flat-chested, and bearded. This is not necessarily true. They have a significant chance of being reproductively female. The opposite is also true, a short, slender, voluptuous person fair of face and melodic of voice may be reproductively male.
The curse did more than shuffle humanity's reproductive organs for a select number of individuals. Many women in Eyom have musculature that puts many Imperial men to shame, while many of Eyom's human males have slender curved forms, which are the envy of women everywhere. What the curse did, in no uncertain terms, is uncouple the dimorphic nature of sexual characteristics from Eyom’s humans such that any individual can have any set of traits.
Simpler changes are also quite common. There are many men within Eyom who simply can't grow a beard, and have soft skin. Meanwhile many women might need to shave their face, and have rougher skin. The changes the curse inflicts effect nearly everyone to some small degree, and effect many to larger more dramatic degrees.
In some individuals, the curse has even merged the sexes, permitting some of Eyom's humans to perform either reproductive role (Scholar's Note: There is ongoing debate as to whether or not this makes these specific individuals Elvenoid rather than Humanoid. The debate is purely for the sake of science and would not affect Imperial Law.). Fortunately for Eyom's humans, the curse didn't affect the ratio of males and females, reproductively speaking. There are enough people with enough of each gamete for Eyom's humans to be reproductively stable, even if a babe must be carried to term by their father, then nursed by their mother.
Eyom's humans tend to identify as men or women based on their general appearance and inner sense of self rather than whatever reproductive organs they possess (Traveler’s Note: Be aware that if one is particularly androgynous or more aligned to the opposite sex in appearance that Eyom’s humans will misgender you, but mean no disrespect. They will never make the same mistake twice.). The transition to this point of social development was rough and caused great social unrest, but it did not topple the human kingdoms as the Wood Elf hoped. Instead, it created a much more solidly integrated humanity, as men and women usually have enough in common to truly understand what one another experiences in life, leading to a shocking degree of gender equality in human cultures.
As with the other curse afflicting humanity, it is so far integrated into Eyom’s humans that removing or breaking it would do more harm than good. Amusingly, the most prominent effect of the curse is the local Tradition of openly asking what reproductive equipment a prospective courtship partner has before engaging in a formal relationship to ensure the couple can bear children should all go well. (Traveler’s Note: Should you be asked your sex by one of Eyom’s citizens, they mean no disrespect nor depravity. Rather, it is likely they find you most fetching and are simply engaging in their local courtship process.).