Painted Men

Painted Men (塗男性, Nura Dansei) are a race of human entities native to an unknown land mass south of Ishgar that evolved separately from the human race. As such, they adapted to their unique environment in a way unlike any other by developing many extraordinary abilities unlike their biological cousins in Ishgar and similar land masses.

Overview
As mentioned before, the "Painted Men" as they call themselves, are the biological cousins of modern-day humans that are scientifically known as "Homo ardor". Painted Men originate from an unknown western continent where they are the dominant species, a location which is the apparent origin of all human-kind; while modern humans left the continent in search of new lands, the evolutionary ancestors of the Painted Men were left to advance by themselves without any outside interference. For a prolonged period of time the Painted Men evolved side-by-side normal humans with periodical evolutionary differences somewhere along the line; these abilities are known to be "superhuman" by the average man, despite the Painted Men not technically being human.

Physiology
Due to their extremely close biological ties to humans, Painted Men are almost exactly the same as their evolutionary cousins in terms of appearance; however, this does not mean that there are not biological differences. Painted Men possess many minor organs that humans simply do not, most notable of which is their nicitating membranes which are present in their eyes; these membranes —which are sometimes known as "third eyelids"— are present in Painted Men because they never stopped needing them as humans had, because the vast entirety of their homeland being an expansive desert that commonly whips up sandstorms; it should be noted that Painted Men possess the unique ability to control whether or not they blink with this eyelid. Another feature, again focused on the eye, is their extremely enhanced eye structure that allows them to sense heat signatures and see vastly far distances, while a final trait would be their drastically different lung structure that allows them to stop breathing for a total of 2 minutes and pace themselves for extremely long periods of time that are seen as impossible by ordinary human standards.

Other than the few exceptions, Painted Men vary in almost every way just as humans do. Skin, eye, and hair colors are extremely vast but are known to be commonly dark as an expected result from the heat and sun activity in their homeland; while many "overweight" Painted Men do exist, their unique metabolism makes it rather difficult to gain fat rather than muscle, especially when paired with their extremely active ways of life.
 * Heat Resistance: A trait that is synonymous with Painted Men would be their natural heat resistance. Unlike their human cousins, temperatures that reach up to 170 degrees farenheit only cause mild discomfort to Painted Men, while it would cause humans severe damage to their skin; this unique attribute can be traced back to a unique oil that is produced by Painted Men that is known as biocalor. Biocalor is extremely effective at absorbing the majority of any heat energy that it makes contact with, effectively nullifying it before it could do any damage to the surface of a Painted Man's body; biocalor is so potent in fact that artificial versions of it are often used in heat-resistant tools and appliances in modern civilizations. However, these artificial versions do not amount to their natural counterparts, as Painted Men produce it naturally and in higher —more formidable— quantities.


 * Enhanced Strength: While ordinary humans have various physical limits, Painted Men do not appear to have very many and as such can be seen as superior in the way of physical activity. Painted Men are known especially for their strength, which they can use to lift and throw objects over 8 times their bodily weight —something which dwarfs the average human weight of 6 times their body mass—. This strength does not simply consist of carrying however, as forces emitted by Painted Men —such as punching and kicking— are known to be absolutely devastating to their target whether it be living or non-living. The sheer force of these actions alone often exceed 820 pounds, known to be enough to break straight through a concrete block and everything below it in terms of hardness; this being the lower portion of Painted Men techniques. Most if not all of this strength is attributed to the muscles of the Painted Men, something of which is noted to be an extremely complex system that is made up of hyper-active nerves and fiberous tissue that is vastly durable and not likely at all to be ripped. These muscles are enhanced by the Painted Men's daily lifestyle of laborious work that just isn't seen in modern-human culture with the exception of body builders and the likes.
 * Immense Speed: One of the Painted Men's more apparent traits, they seem to be extremely proficient runners. Capable of running distances exceeding 200 meters in only 16 seconds, the Painted Men are the second fastest land mammals to inhabit Earth Land while humans are the third; this extraordinary trait can be attributed to the muscle system of the Painted Men as can the majority of their other physical traits. Signs of exhaustion do not become apparent for Painted Men until much later than humans for unknown reasons, although it can partially be imputed to their enhanced internal cooling systems that allow their body temperatures to continue lowering even after they begin perspiring.

Trivia

 * Images used to portray the Painted Men are taken from Avatar the Last Airbender, specifically the Sun Tribe
 * Yes, even the women of the race are known as Painted Men
 * Why? I said so, that's why!