On The Origin Of (Demihuman) Species

The titans who created order out of chaos created the progenitor races. Among them were the original giants, dwarves, and elves. Others, such as the ancestral lizardfolk, were created at this time, but had little, if any, affect on the Demihuman family tree.

Giants were the first, and they radiated out into a world largely devoid of creatures which could challenge them. But the world itself challenged them, and in adapting, with the help of their young gods, to the world they lived in, they became more varied and unique. These differences invited war, further dispersal, and further change, until there were dozens of species of giant all around the world. Toward the end of this cycle humans, the smallest, most prolific, and most ambitious of the true giants, came into existence. A lot of contradictory stories about human origins have been created, but humans are members of the giant family, and readily bear fertile offspring when interbreeding with them.

Elves have been around at least as long as giants. There are three elder races: the Anar, the Isir, and the Tawar. In various lands they have various names, and all three are interfertile.

The Anar have hair that ranges from light brown to pale gold, with pale skin and blue or green eyes. They are the tallest of the elves, nearly as tall as humans, but their thinness gives them a deceptive appearance of fragility.

The Isir have thin, straight hair of silver or white, with black skin and eyes of violet or red. They are the smallest of the true elves, but they have an affinity for magic.

The Tawar are the most varied in appearance, and are the most prolific of the elves. Their hair ranges from orange to auburn to brunette to blonde, with blue and green highlights more common in the paler colors. Their skin tone ranges from pale to deep brown, and their eyes, usually the color of the highlight color of their hair, ranges across the color spectrum, with brown and hazel brown being the most common.

It is unknown when dwarves were created; their lore does not say. The giants claim to have found them while mining, and the dwarves say they encountered giants when they mined their way to the surface. Either way, the dwarves already had extensive kingdoms by that time. Five of them were discovered in ancient times and two more in more recent eras, but aside from cultural differences, dwarves are basically the same everywhere. Their hair, skin, and eye colors typically mimic the stone of their homelands. The Deep Dwarves are generally unknown to surface races. They claim that they were the ancestors of the other dwarves who mined their way to the surface, while other dwarves say the Deep Dwarves mined their way down from the kingdoms, and became largely isolated. Some dwarves left, or were driven from their ancient kingdoms and found themselves living on the surface. These so-called Hill Dwarves have created their own kingdoms on or near the surface, but are not really a distinct race.

Hybridization across the species has often been difficult, but has happened numerous times.

Orcs are the product of Hill Giants and Anar Elves. Since their origin they have included virtually every other species into their makeup, but they remain primarily giant/elf hybrids.

Ogre Magi are the product of Ogres and Isil Elves. Unlike Orcs, they do not breed well outside their own hybridized species.

Gnomes are the offspring of Tawar Elves and Dwarves. Some suspect they have interbred with Deep Dwarves, but that may be speculative.

Most learned folk assume there are elves in Halfling ancestry, but brownies and pixies intermingling with dwarves produced them.