Hero

In the mortal world, there are, well, mortals. These mortals can do more or less equal to what they look like their bodies would allow. But there are individuals with powers far beyond what one of their race could do.. or even, far beyond what might be natural for any mortal. These individuals are in Ardalore known as Heroes, and there are mostly twelve per region (though the northern ones aren't as rich in them). Places other than Ardalore might have different names for them, but rest assured; they're all the same type of semi-almost-demigodly beings.

Also, note that Hero is spelled with a capital 'H' to separate them from generally heroic people (who are just mortals). Where the capital letter is forgotten, it's mostly possible to see from the context.

How Heroes come to be
Each Hero has their own story about their Hero-ification, but it is always a Creator who gives the individual those Hero-powers. So the short anser would be: It's granted by the higher powers.

How Heroes come to not-be
Generally, a Hero may relinquish his or her powers at any time, thus becoming a mortal of standard capabilities. However, those instances, while they might have taken place, are not recorded in any archives.

Heroes of the regions
The way the Heroes are organized differs greatly from region to region, but most regions have twelve of them.
 * Heroes of Dinacia