Mankind

Mankind, or simply man or men, was a race of intelligent, bipedal beings that befriended dolphinkind in Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. For many years, men and dolphins lived together in peace until their home planet Earth was attacked by a violent alien race who desired to conquer Earth known as the Foe. The Foe attempted to destroy both races, but Mankind and dolphinkind created a crystalline figure known as the Guardian to protect Earth from incoming Foe ships by projecting a force field around the entire planet. However, the Foe, refusing to surrender, made repeated attempts to find the Guardian's weak spot. Years later, a small Foe ship crashed into the Guardian's weak spot, which caused the Guardian itself to shatter to pieces and the sheild it projected around Earth was disabled. Afterwards, the Foe began their descent to Earth. However, a young dolphin named Ecco, repaired the guardian, But was too late to stop the Foe from reaching Earth. A large Foe vessel then used a vortex to rob the dolphins of their five traits: Intelligence, Ambition, Compassion, Wisdom, and Humility. Noticing what the Foe were doing, Ecco quickly dived into the vortex after the traits. With the traits of dolphinkind missing, the Foe altered Earth's history into a nightmarish world where dolphins were weak and gullible and mankind itself had been extinct for unknown reasons. Ecco discovered that mankind had created a superweapon known as the "Engine of Salvation" to repel and destroy the Foe, but the machine destroyed both races and a majority of dolphins. Ecco retrieved Intelligence and Ambition after destroying the "Engine of Salvation", which made time alter again into another nightmarish world where dolphins became aggresive species that drove mankind into exile. These dolphins then organized themselves into a warlike clan while the remaining peaceful dolphins became outcasts. After Ecco retrieved Compassion and Wisdom and defeated Mutaclone, who was the supreme leader of the Clan, time altered a third time into a dark Foe world where the Foe Queen, the ruler of the Foe race, ruled Earth with an iron fist and came in possession of Humility. Ecco destroyed the Foe hatchery and destroyed the Foe Queen's heart, thus killing the Foe Queen for good. Ecco then escaped and returned to the present, taking Humility with him. With the Foe vanquished, men and dolphins were complete. As a reward for his heroic deeds, the dolphins created a silver statue of Ecco next to the restored Guardian as a sign of respect towards Ecco, who was residing in the dolphin city of atlantis.