Each of the races has a core talent, and humans are no different.  What humans can do is a magic that most will take for granted:  we are better at food than any of the other races.  We can utilize fire and water to make meat and vegetables more delicious, more nutritious, and longer preserved.

None of the other races can do that.  Some of the other races put up with (and even cohabitate with) humanity specifically for our cooking.  We’re also better at crafting beer and wine and other such intoxicants.

Being human has several distinct advantages:

• ability to cook / preserve food (salt, smoke, spices)
• Sterilize water by boiling
• advanced skill allows herbalism/alchemy (balms and potions), and healing with medicine

Humans are also the most common race on the continent, primarily because they are driven to organize, expand, and dominate the world around them.  Thus, most of the civilized realms are human-controlled and human populated.  Other races are less common, and thus more likely to attract notice and be remembered when seen in towns and cities.

The Diggers are industrious but not political.  They seem content to carve out their underground cities, occasionally trading with humans for food, art, and alcohol. Humans and Diggers often form mutually beneficial arrangements, and it’s not uncommon for particularly good taverns, breweries, and restaurants to lure Digger artisans to set up shop nearby, offering their talents with stone, metal, and jewelry to the local economy.

The Fe are driven more by aesthetics and comfort, but are similarly drawn to human settlements by the promise of fresh roasts and marinated steaks.  Their talents with wood and plants make them extraordinarily good at making fine furniture, and their contributions can utterly transform architectural endeavors.  They tend to be drawn more towards cultural centers where their skills are more valued, and where the food and entertainment are more refined.

It’s also not uncommon for Fe and Digger settlements to seek talented human chefs, promising them more than fair compensation to compensate for the unusual living quarters.

The Hob, being social, gregarious, and adorably small, will also seek out human settlements, although they’re generally just as happy living among the Fe and the Diggers, and their talents for cleaning things and strengthening materials help them earn their keep.  They do occasionally earn their reputation for being light-fingered little bandits, though.

The other Sylvan races don’t tend to interact with humanity much, and would rather just live in harmony and balance with their environments.  The giant Ur are solitary and independent, and the Worg tend to stay with their tight-knit, wide-ranging packs.  There are stories of occasional exceptions, of course.

Humans see the Onk as violent, ugly barbarians that eat garbage and carrion, with no agriculture, no architecture, no discernible art.   They’re also seen as competition, because the Onk are also prone to expanding their territories.  Humanity has superior technology for weapons (better swords, armor, crossbows) so the Onk cannot hold territory that human governments are willing to spend lives on, but the Onk are capable of living in places that humanity cannot cultivate.

The Skrit are seen as evil and treacherous, cannibalistic death-cultists and slavers that fortunately live very far away in places considered uninhabitable by humanity: deserts, jungles, and arctic wastelands.

The Gob are seen as slimy, thieving monsters that live among the Onk and the Skrit like parasites, or on their own in small raiding bands that hide out in swamps and bogs.