Occasionally, humanoid individuals would distinguish themselves sharply from the masses, becoming many more times more able in physical and/or mental domains, such as becoming wizards or fighters of great power. The superhuman abilities of the few were traditionally honored as "heroic blood", and considered a normal, biological event; however, there were practical roots in magic explaining their extraordinary abilities. This is called the Hero Phenomenon.

Some "heroes", commonly spellcasters of great power, did not demonstrate Heroism, but rather had simply gotten extremely good at their powerful trade. Many others, including virtually all legendary warriors, did.

Mechanics

At various points in history, immortal beings of great power, or other magic-endowed entities, gifted heroic abilities to mortal races. These individuals gained incredible resilience, or agility, or superhuman strength, and often mixtures of abilities. Some of these heroes had children, although most did not feature their parents' abilities.

The unique part of the heroic enchantment was that it could reappear generations down the line, empowering certain individuals. This could be linked with the genetic makeup of an organism Connecting them to the surviving magical structure of a long-gone hero. It was also theorized that certain efforts mimicking a Heroic structure were able to Connect an individual where before, they were unaffected.

Despite this, very few humanoids - 1 in 1'000 for most races - featured notable Heroic traits, and far fewer attained the true level of superhuman hero. One or two heroes were often the core of battles, able to swing the morale and sometimes physical superiority of one side over the other. Most likely, the vast majority of humanoids affected by Heroism never lived to see their full potential, as the Connection to their structure required much practice to be strengthened and lived in to be even noticed in the first place.

Still, Heroism - to the extent the phenomenon was known by cultures - remained a very faint, academic explanation of the hero phenomenon. Most common folk didn't even bother with the matter, or elsewise saw heroic abilities derived more from an individual's thoughts and actions than from some arcane predetermination.