Mythological Men

Dwarves
Over thousands of years ago in Europe, the Pleistocene takes over the Earth. Neanderthals roam across the continent for thousands of years before another species shows up. Humans start to rapidly spread from Africa across the entire whole of Europe. Humans compete with and in many cases, absorb once successful populations of bruiting Neanderthals. Eventually almost all Neanderthals have died out or been genetically polluted by human beings. However, a small population of Neanderthals migrated north, there they settled on a large chain of mountains. Eventually these people started to change in appearance, they developed shorter bodies due to a lack of food and water, they grew harrier to combat the cold weather and their feet grew larger to walk more gracefully on mountainous terrain.

Eventually, these Neanderthals started to evolve into a new creature known as a dwarf. Dwarves eventually built a great civilization within the mountains, they started to create a great culture and language (known as dwarven). Dwarves were rich with knowledge of mining, archeloegy and astronomy long before their human counterparts. In the culture of the dwarves, mean will usually grow out large beards and admire strength, honor and intelligence in both sexes. Dwarven society is set into extremely loose caste; the highest caste of royal and noble descent. The second caste are the archeologists and astronomers, the third are the blacksmiths and crafters. The fourth being hunters and commoners and the lowest are humans and outsiders.

Dwarven as a language compared to English or Japanese is a rather simplistic language. Another language that appears latter in history called Thalasian, is a combination of dwarven, Latin and Norwegian. Thalasian is primarily spoken by the dwarves of the forest, while dwarven is mostly spoken by the other dwarves that are slightly more isolated from humans. Cuisine consists of bread, meat and cheese, the favored meat is lamb and venison. Dwarves breed a type of domestic sheep most likely bred from wild sheep in the mountains. The average diet of a dwarf consists of primarily meat, something similar to their ancestors the Neanderthals. Dwarfs also put a lot of value in alcohol, dwarves taught much of what humans, orcs and gnomes know about beer, ales and wines.

Eventually the holiday of Christmas reached the dwarven people, Christmas is celebrated differently than humans usually do. Dwarves celebrate Christmas for the reason of being with family and thanking nature for supporting the dwarves and other races through the toughest times. In this sense, Christmas is a mix between Christian tradition and old dwarven shamanistic traditions. Dwarves live in tightknit clans that consist of an extended family, clan name are usually from great achievements or memorable characteristics of a family member (like Graybeard or Mountainbreaker).

Forest Dwarves
These dwarves were made up of a group of dwarves that migrated back to the forests near the mountains, these dwarves are largely made of the hunting caste and unlike other dwarves, use long range weapons like crossbows and primitive guns. These dwarves value the companionship of dogs and domesticated bears. These dwarves usually set up multiple wooden cabins near each other.

Arctic Dwarves
A group of dwarves that migrated farther North to the arctic, these dwarves live a more nomadic lifestyle similar to those of Mongols. They have domesticated special horses, that move well on harder and more icy terrain. These dwarves usually wear extremely large beards that are braided and dress in large heavy clothing. These dwarves prefer the open grasslands of the arctic, than the wild forests or the dark mines.

Mountain Dwarves
The most common group of dwarves and the leading group, they arm mostly made up of miners and crafters and prefer the always stay building something. These dwarves are the largest breed and are most experienced in archeology and metal crafting. These dwarves are masters of mining and will often compete nonviolently for the best mining operations available.

Gnomes
However, these weren’t the only Neanderthals to evolve, another group migrate west near Italy and settled on islands. One group of these Neanderthals practiced the idea of living underground, this would shape their evolutionary history. These people also started to get smaller, with larger and keen eyes to adapt to the depths of the Earth. These Neanderthals would become the gnomes and eventually the goblins.

Gnomes stood shorter than dwarves, but were similarly respected as craftsman and miners as well. Unlike the dwarves, who chose to stay out of the way of humans, gnomes developed a slightly closer relationship to them. Gnomish culture is based off intelligence and hard work, they enjoy the simple things in life. Gnomes tend not to value physical strength unlike the dwarves, but do appreciate when people try. Gnomes diverged into three major cultures, the Above-ground gnomes that lived a very shamanistic life. The Underground gnomes that live underground mining and building their machines and lastly the Sand gnomes, a group of nomadic gnomes that travel through the deserts.

Unlike the dwarves, gnomes don't have a wide selection of food. Most of their meat comes from descendants of captive ibexes taken down into the tunnels by the first Neanderthals or rabbits and squirrels that followed them in their tunnels. As trade with dwarves and humans increased, they had access to a wider variety of livestock, like chickens, sheep and pigs. Gnomes usually get their surnames from an accomplishment, gnomes are given a birth name and a last name, which will change based on the who the gnomes marry or a notable characteristic.

Gnomes generally speak gnomish, dwarven or English. Gnomish is a more complex language than dwarven, likely due to the gnomes characteristic to always categorize information. Gnomes celebrate a holiday that celebrates all the achievements that their ancestors and themselves have done. Many gnomes believe that they are descendants of ancient beings that were created from rock and stone.

Sand Gnomes
Sand gnomes are the largest ethnic group in terms of size, being around 2 and a half to 1 meter tall. Underground Gnomes eventually encountered the dwarves and both races developed a close alliance as both had strong technologic and physiological believes. They are however, the most elusive and rare, due to the habitat that they live in. They primarily live in burrows during the day to avoid sandstorms and enemy tribes.

Underground Gnomes
The most common and intelligent race of gnome, the gnomes are the smallest variety of gnome in existence. They have very pale skin and relatively strong senses compared to other gnomes. These gnomes are extremely technologically advanced, at least always one hundred years ahead of the human race as they had gun powder when humans had swords and bows. Almost every race pays homage to this gnomes, including the self-entitled high elves.

Above-Ground Gnomes
The second largest ethnic group and prized four their ability to weave cotton and silk into fine clothing. These gnomes have a unique kinship with animals, traditionally a young gnome would venture out to claim a unique forest animal to represent themselves. These animals were commonly rabbits, squirrels and deer, but could really be any animal.

Goblin
Another group of primitive gnomes diverged rather early from the Neanderthals, rafting to the islands of Africa. These gnomes eventually evolved into the first goblins, they developed larger ears to combat the heat. A mutation in the goblins melanin radically changed the skin of mammals, turning the humanoid’s skin a color which humans would associate with the color green. This green pigment spread throughout the goblin population rapidly.

Island Goblin
The most common race of goblin, they posses dark green skin and are natural builders. These goblins are very curious creatures and will use anything to their advantage if they can. These goblins are usually stereotyped as greedy and have set up operations usually as traders and merchants. Some of these goblins have made it to Europe and even to ancient Rome to find trade.

Goblins generally live off of a mix of fruits and seafood, they have domesticated crabs for consumption. Goblins don't really keep livestock, one person in each town keeps the animals and shares the meat equally. Pets are something of a status symbol in goblin society, animals like dogs are hard to come by and show the extent of wealth. Wealth is a very important thing to goblins as it can determine ties to other people. Male goblins are generally extremely proficient in cooking food, pastries and baked fowl are meals of high wealth.

Goblins breed rapidly compared to humans, therefore goblins will venture off their islands to expand. Goblins usually give birth to one child, children are usually taken care of by the mothers, who primarily live unmarried, though this has changed a bit as human culture enters their lives more and more. Goblins are one good terms with humans, who frequently trade. Trade is usually dominated by one person, who controls who and what to trade with or where. Trade-Princes will occasionally wage war among one another.

Goblins have been known to convert to Christianity or Islam for the sake of furthering trade with humans. Goblins have been kept as slaves by African Kings and have been known to be hunted and eaten like animals, though this is a generally taboo practice. Goblins usually experience the most discrimination from other races, though they are on good terms with dwarves. Goblins frequently compete with gnomes, due to both raced advance knowledge on technology.

Cave Goblin
The smallest race of goblins, they live in caves and rely on the wilds to support their needs. These are much more savage than the island goblins and have pale-gray skin. These goblins have no religion and little culture, they are viewed as savages by both island goblins and hobgoblins. These goblins however are shown to be able to speak human languages.

Hobgoblins
Hobgoblins are the largest goblins, they have light brown skin and are the most muscular of all goblins. These goblins tend to stay close to their siblings, the island goblins. These goblins are primarily similar in stature to smaller humans and are used as muscle and guards. Hobgoblins tend not to be as greedy as island goblins, but not as savage as cave goblins.

Elves
However, Neanderthals weren’t the only creatures to develop into multiple humanoid races, a branch of Homo heidelbergensis started to go a very strange change. In this timeline, they never went extinct and competed with early Homo sapiens. They started to migrate far away from the Humans that pushed them off their terriotory and eventually started to change. They became more adapted to the forests developing a slimmer build and more sensitive ears to detect prey or foe in the forests. Their metabolisms slowed down, causing them to age slower than most other humanoids. They became the first elves, they soon settled on the European islands of the North. Developing an extremely advanced society thousands of years before even gnomes and humans.

High Elves
The first elf race was the High elf, an ethnic group comprised of descendants of royalty. High elves resemble humans the most in that they have more human-like skin and have much of their culture influenced by human culture and vice versa. High elves as a species prefer strength and beauty among all other things. High elves are very skilled in combat and prefer to keep cats and songbirds as pets.

A civil war had mad the royalty and aristocratic classes to banish the other castes away from their kingdoms. The blacksmiths and lower stone masons rafted to North Africa, where they developed a high civilization of gigantic underground networks. High elf men are considered the head of the household and women are considered the breadwinners to the men. Though besides from that, most things in high even society is unisexual.

Dark Elves
These elves became the dark elves, which eventually the drow (a group of dark elves that became nocturnal) diverged from the dark elves. Dark elves tend to be the most violent of all elf races and tend to live nomadically. They frequently cross paths with both humans and orcs, but prefer to primarily stick to themselves. They are named dark elves, because of their dark skin.

Drow
Drow are a group of dark elves that slowly became reconnected with nature, these elves became nocturnal as a reason to avoid contact from other elves. These elves are taller than their dark elven cousins and possess a ability to see better in the dark than other elves ad humans can. Drow tend to be more female dominated than most of the other elf cultures, which men are usually dominant.

Light Elves
Light elves were elves that migrated far to the arctic and started to live. Their ears became smaller and their skin became much lighter than those of high, dark elves and drow. Light elves built to great civilization that ranged far across the islands of Alaska and Russia. Light elves are pictured by humans as beautiful and intelligent and are frequently lusted over by human men.

Wood Elves
Wood elves are the most primitive race of elves, they have evolved a unique system of coexisting with nature. These elves are usually shorter than other elves and tend to be more aggressive to outsiders and especially humans. These elves live in what will be known as Germany. Rangers were developed in elf society to fix easily solved problems like violence within the kingdoms and troublesome outsiders.

Orcs
A group of Homo erectus also developed a green genetic disorder, though this was most likely due to temporary hybridization with goblins. This species settled near the rivers of Africa, they hunted large game like antelope and buffalo as a food source. This caused them to become stronger and more resilient to damage compared to humans.

These became the first orcs, a brute race of hunter-gatherers that spread across Africa, Arabia and parts of Western Europe. They quickly waged war on humans and the two species started to battle for dominance of land. However, culture and abandoned land of humans spread to the orcs, this caused them to develop a stronger culture and they soon ended the war with humans. Orcs live in a very tribal culture, an orc is loyal to his clan and to his family. The greatest achievement of a warrior is to die in victory on the battlefield. Originally orcs were very unisexual, as both men and women were viewed as equals, but ideals of humans have caused them to feel more responsibilities to their female mates.

Orcs primarily feed on either raw or burnt meat, are hunter-gatherers, and generally do not keep livestock. Chickens and pigs are the only real exceptions, though pigs are kept more scarcely than chickens. Both are usually kept free-range, another animal kept are wolves. Wolves were captured from Eurasia and sent down to Africa by orc travelers. Wolves were bred for size and intelligence, some people refer to these wolves as "worgs". Orcs also eat simple breads that are made from landrace wheat that was also imported from Europe.

Orc clans usually consist of multiple families led by one family line. Each family member has equal say in what happens, but the patriarch is the most respected and represented. A shaman usually leads in second to the clan bloodline, shamans play a major role in most orc clans as they predict the weather and help decide where the clan may travel to. Some clans are nomadic, while others develop a large lot of land.

Yeti/Sasquatch/Hibagon
A line of apes, eventually passed over from Africa to Eurasia during the Pliocene. These apes eventually adapted to the warm climate of Europe, before the glacial periods started to hit Earth. Then during the start of the Pleistocene, climate became colder and much of Europe’s forest became colder. The descendants of these European Apes became the Yeti, a large primate that stood bipedal, originally as a means to keep their hands from getting cold. The yeti developed a thick layer of hair all over its body, this hair became lighter as a means for camouflage and to stay reflect cold air.

Eventually the Yeti over its millions of years on Earth encountered humans, who drove it off of much of its range in Eurasia. Most of the yeti, who were smarter than the other non-humanoid apes due to the evolutionary pressure of arctic conditions, retreated to the mountains of the Himalayas. Two other branched diverged from these yetis, one migrated across the Bering Strait to become the Sasquatch and one line that migrated to Japan, to be known as the Hibagon.

Hibagons developed a mutation in their hair, which turned their hair red in the way similar to Europeans. This gene most likely spread due to sexual selection, as a different color hair is defiantly an attractive characteristic. Hibagons are smaller compared to their cousins, but also seek to avoid most human contact. They live in small villages at the top of mountains and respectfully view the humans from a safe distance.

Sasquatch developed brown and black hair as opposed to blonde and red, this supposedly helps them camouflage better within the boreal forest of North America. They are most widespread in the west and have been know to domesticate or form a loose symbiosis with coyotes. Sasquatch generally behave in a way similar to gorillas, while they communicate by making markings on trees. Sasquatch appear to be less aggressive than yeti, but far more territorial than the hibagon.

Hobbits/Halflings
Homo floresiensis was a species of homo that were known for their small stature, they form the basal line for what will be called “halflings”, “hobs” and “hobbits”. Homo floresiensis eventually came into contact with the first civilized humans of Europe, who forcefully taught them the way of their culture. The hobbits developed an agricultural culture, raising livestock, like cattle, sheep and chickens. They eventually lost most ties with human beings, who abandoned them for lack of fertile land and just interest.

Hobbits eventually expanded their culture and range, a few hundred managed to board ships, where they sailed back to Europe and departed, creating their own communities and culture. Much of the later hobbit culture is a based off aspects of both European culture and old tribal cultures. Hobbits tend to favor cats as companions, as dogs mostly seem intimidating to the average Halfling.

Oni
A branch of proto-orc also apparently migrated throughout East Asia and eventually settled in Japan. These orcs evolved a slightly shorter, but stouter body, along with longer legs. These humanoids, referred to as an oni, are native and were once widespread throughout Japan, but war with humans has caused their population to radically decrease. Unlike the orcs, they had a great empire, where they treated humans as a slave class. Oni now live as servants, advisors or generals to the Japanese Warlords.

Oni culture is much more complex than orc culture, they have endeared the discrimination of hundreds of years and are frequently referenced to as demons or monsters. Though most onis are not necessarily aggressive, but similar to orcs strength and battle are the highest virtues, unlike orcs however, oni construct complicated guerilla tactics and rules of warfare. For many Oni, the tiger is considered a sacred animal as it conveys both strength and courage in the face of mortal danger. Some tribes have domesticated or selectively bred tigers, as many feel dogs to be too obedient and forgiving.