Have you ever been at the Harpyworld glacieral superlake in the springtime and said to yourself, what are these beasts that amble so carefully down sheer faces of cliffs, and what are the flightless people that burden them with such a journey?
Humans are homonid people who have adapted a novel migration pattern within the latest 1500 years. Their wintering lowland permafrost home becomes a floodplain in the summer, due to the extreme ice melt in recent centuries, so they adapted a mutualistic relationship with the wooly tapir, which has adapted goatlike toes to keep balance in extremely steep environments. Tapir are also trufflers, and assist in mushroom hunting. In return, humans protect the tapir from predators, especially large cat species. Much like boars, this tapir has a defensive habit of charging, which humans use as a jousting method of subduing oversized prey.
The human ethnicity in this region are the White Eyed People, characterized by genetically passed lines around their eyes, and white streaks in hair of all ages. This is the only human ethnicity that visits harpy territory. They are a type of cave people, in that they will use natural formations as shelter, and have designated caves along their migration route that have been used as family homes for several generations. The ones they tend to use along the lakeshore are also whale dens in the winter.
Humans are usually wearing hide clothing with thread made from tendons or tapir hair. They tend to like warm colored dyes, and are usually wearing a combination of parka+leggings+boots with a knee length tunic beneath. Summertime at the glacier maxes out at 50°f. They sustain themselves most often on wild sweet potatoes, onions, other tubers, mushrooms, rice, gourds, and fruit. Humans will also eat fish and game meat, but they compete with harpies for that resource.
The White Eyed folk do not have an alphabet or writing system, but they do have a counting system and calendar. They speak a dialect of the same language harpies speak, some are easier to understand than others.