As far as physical form goes, possibly, just possibly, the rune of "Man" has more to do with the form of Grandfather Mortal. Prior to him, though in that time the concept 'prior' had no basis, so maybe instead...without him, the bipedal form of man would not be. As far as talking, air-breathing, these are not hard and fast for either those creatures most closely associated with the form of the man rune or those least associated. Not all humanoids speak or even have mouths once you get to more mythic regions and not all those who speak have human form. Similarly, are not the merfolk water breathers?
I think it is difficult to escape the association that Grandfather Mortal has with being the first to die and then in very short order the how this directly led to the Great Compromise. Perhaps I running to much together here. Are there not a whole host of tales at least among the hsunchun and the nomads of Prax regarding choices made/forced in the God Time in response to the fate of Grandfather? Though a Godlearner would say that big G Mortal is merely a place keeper for some kind of Promethean explanation for a races existence in the first place that is hardly the belief of most Gloranthans.
Perhaps it would take a mystic from the Luner Empire or somewhere in the East, or a Dragon to project that the man rune has more to do with the implications of the fate of GM and the coming of time. Mortals had to make a choice about how to adapt to this state of affairs. Not all mortals are humanoid. Those that chose GM's form happen to be the most likely to be self aware (aware of their mortality and all the behavioral and cultural ramifications that follow) Those that did not follow GMs example closely are not as aware, at least within their inner world existences. They behave as if immortal but they do exist within the matrix of the Great Spider. Just like the gods they are bound by the great compromise. For the gods this means no change, for mortals, human or not, this means constant change. The nature of those with the man rune is to at least be potentially aware of this. To the extent that they are aware, whether they are an old catfish or a hsuchun I submit that this is when an animal partakes of the man rune. And maybe because GM had a humanoid form this tends to endow human form but not in every instance.
Dragonnewts seem humanoid but do not partake in the man rune because like their dragon sires they exist outside this system of belief and see things in terms of the perception and illusion of the dream. They surely know that form as well as time have nothing to do with it. Choice? intent? well, that is something else.
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