Great Races

In biology and ethnography, Great Races refers to the seven sentient races believed to have Nomos: Men, Elves, Zwergin, Saura, Orenji, and the now-extinct Ntefi and Ogres. According to almost all religions and mythologies these races were imbued with the Nomos of at least one Antiquity.
Humans, Elves and Zwergin are traditionally called the "Beornic Races", deriving their Nomos from literal descent from Beorn. The Saura derive their Nomos from the distribution of Bekal's Nomos by Lothracha. The Orenji derived their Nomos from Omluirriass via Oghaggun. The Ntefi derived their Nomos from Zshatlalote's actions.

Beornic Races

Humans

Men, Humans, or sometimes called Barsabbans, are a Beornic sentient race native to all three continents, and found across the world, outside of the Southern Jungle of Libica. The name "human" means "child of Máni" in Old Sauran, while "men" is simply a common vulgar form of "Máni". The term "Barsabban" derives the ancestry of humans to that of Barsabbas, the second son of Beorn.
The most common race in the world owing to their resilience to environment and capability for adaptation, humans live on all three continents, and in every place except the Orenji Jungle in southern Libica, the Deadlands in northern Libica, and the Vilewood in Eirene. Humans vary greatly in appearance, in height, weight, color, and shape. Those in Eirene are of lighter skin and middling height, often having blonde or brown hair. Those in Libica are tanner, of similar height, and usually have black hair. The Yothians are noted for their dark skin, which is so dark it is often described as purple; Yothians are also taller than the average Eirene or Libican, and have black hair. The Abrisombians have similar appearance to the Libicans, and this is also true of the Midesians. In Hinjaku the people are similar to the appearance of the Eirene though much taller, sometimes claimed as a result of admixture with the now-extinct Lowland Elves. Those in Cathay are shorter, have slightly pale skin, and almond shaped eyes; their hair is almost exclusively black.

Elves

Elves, or Amellions are a Beornic sentient race native to southern Eirene, and found now in the Kingdom of Tündet, the Amellion Mountains of Abrisom, and throughout the world in various diaspora communities.
Elves are distinguished from Men by their relatively tall stature (average male height 1.9 m; average female height 1.8 m), pointed ears, ubiquitously blue eyes (a trait unique to Amellions and those of partial Amellion ancestry), and their extraordinarily long lifespans (an average of 400 years).
According to this longer lifespan, Elvish pregnancies last up to 60 months, and an Elf is considered an adult member of the community only at 80 years old. Despite this, they will often undergo precocious puberty, reaching physical maturity well before mental.
Amellions are considered attractive by most members of the Beornic races, and the most attractive of the three. Outside of the Empire of Berytus, it is considered advantageous to have at least partial Elven ancestry; within the Empire, Elves are derided and somewhat persecuted owing to the Amellion Revolt (731–840). Because of historical diplomacy and frequent intermarriage, most humans are estimated to be at least 5% Amellion. The ruling Handrin dynasty of the Berytusian Empire is of significant Amellion ancestry: all members of the house having blue eyes (though the emperors infamously wear brown colored contact lenses to hide this fact).
For approximately 6,000 years (c. 7800 – 1800 AB) the Elvish Empire controlled Eirene and ruled over the other Beornics. Since then, their political power has waned, and the sole Elvish state left in existence is the Kingdom of Tündet, a vassal of the human Empire of Berytus. Other indigenous communities exist in the relatively isolated Amellion Mountains, disputed between the Berytusian and Midesian empires.
According to tradition and the religion of Emuna, the Elves are the descendants of Amellion, the eldest son of the Antiquity Beorn. A second common male ancestor of the Amellions is cited as Efkaris (whose name is the origin of the word “Elf”), the historical patron god of the Elves. According to tradition the Elves gained their blue eyes and height from Amellion, and their pointed ears and longevity from Efkaris.
Most Elves are Emunite, those in the Empire primarily under the Imperial See and those elsewhere under the Amellion Haugrkirk Emuna, a particular church within the wider Haugrkirk Emuna.

Old Amellions

The Old Amellions are an Amellionic subrace which is not descendant from Efkaris, and as a result, have the blue eyes and tall height characteristic to all Amellions, but lack the pointed ears and longevity of the Elves. The sole population of Old Amellions remaining today are the Gothari Amels, who reside in the Kingdom of Gothtar. They previously resided in the Kingdom of Aethelcar before the Tolimanic Apocalypses.

Zwergin

Zwergin or Gamalielians are a Beornic sentient race native to the Subetonian Mountain range in central Eirene, and now live in various places, including the Kingdom of Zwerg in north west Libica, the County of Traducia in Faraconia, and the Medio Valley in Belladocia.
The Zwergin are noted for their diminutive stature (the average male being only 1.1 m tall), and for their distinct culture. Zwergin value labor as a good in its own right: to not have a laborious job is considered lowly, and most Zwergin avoid administrative work and bureaucracy. This has resulted in a general dislike of central authorities (which are often human), and of taxes and impositions on their conduct like laws and regulations. They will most often work with their hands, considering even farm labor socially superior to rulership.
They are also noted for their skilled craftsmen: the finest of practically every form of crafted good is made by the Zwergin, and most human artists seeking to become sculptors will study under Zwergin masters. They are heavily involved in the stonemason guilds throughout the Matre Sea, and Zwergin masons have found employment even as far as Yothia, such is their renown.
Zwergin culture is also heavily invested in modesty, with female Zwergin wearing veils over their eyes with everyone except their husbands and male family members. Their culture is matriarchal, with husbands marrying into their wife’s family, and lineage reckoned matrilineally. The mother is the head of the household, and women are expected to labor as much as men, except when pregnant. The Zwergin have a very low fertility rate, and have struggled to keep their numbers consistent for centuries. Various doctors (both Zwergin and non) have suggested that the problem is female infertility caused by the excessive manual labor they partake in, though this explanation is deemed socially unacceptable in common company.
Those in Eirene primarily practice Subetonian Rite Emuna as part of the Haugrkirk Emuna, while those in Zwerg are mostly Monist.
Though there is little intermarriage with the other Beornic races on account of their relative geographic isolation, the children of a Zwergin and any other race are considered part of the Zwergin society if their mother is Zwergin.

Subraces

Alif

The Alif are a Beornic subrace created through the mixed marriages of humans and elves. Most first-generation Alif have human fathers and elven mothers. The pairing is common enough that the Alif are a distinct community, and many Alif choose to many another Alif. In Eirene, Alif are widely accepted, and usually considered more attractive than humans. It is a common trope in Eirenan gallant fiction for the heroic knight to fall in love with an Alif girl. Many Alif have found success in entertainment, and some of the most renowned actors and playwrights in history have been Alif. In the Imperion however, racism against Amellions extends to those of partial Amellion descent, and so Alif in the Empire often mask their ancestry. Only a person of half-Elf and half-human ancestry is considered an Alif traditionally, and those of partial descent will often be part of one community or the other. Since a vast majority of the Alif population lives in human realms, they most often assimilate into human cultures.

Subei

The Subei are a Beornic subrace created through the mixed marriages of humans and Zwergin. The Subei have never been numerous, but a small village of Subei exists on the border between Subetonia and Belladocia.

Sava

The smallest of the Beornic subraces are the Sava, children of elves and Zwergin.

Saura

The Saura are a Great Race endemic to the Nihlo River basin in Agape. They are bipedal and about 2 meters tall. Despite their closest relatives being the non-sentient Croco Lizard, the Saura are warm-blooded and a highly social animal. The Saura are the ruling class of the Kingdom of Agape, and have an entirely structured, hierarchical, and ritualistic society. In spite of their small numbers, their superior strength, reaction time, and intellects allow them to dominate the much larger human population of Agape. Once worshipers of Sobekal (the herald of Lothacha), they converted en masse to a syncretic form Emuna called Turatism in the late 1st Century IB. Though carnivorous, their diet is religiously restricted to fish. The Saura have poor relations with the other human realms, and significant tensions exist within Agape over interspecies relations. Their language, Sauran, is unrelated to any other known language, and is used as the liturgical language of the Saura Emuna Cathedra, a Turatist denomination which broke communion with the Haugrkirk Emuna in 799. Saura are known for their antagonism with the Human population of Agape, with race riots and racial violence quite common. One Emunite Metropolitan, Boutros II (r. 702–716/737), was of Saura origin.

Orenji

Orenji are a mammalian Great Race species of ape native to the Orenji Jungle in southern Libica. They worship the god Oghaggun, who defeated the fairly weak Antiquity Omluirrias and apotheosized. He rules to this day over the Orenji, who slowly became ensouled by means of reproduction with Oghaggun's descendants. Today the Orenji are a violent and aggressive people, though the only realm they can actually reach is Yothia, with whom they have constant wars.
The Orenji are a massive people, with an average height of about 2 meters, and the far superior bodily strength of the apes. They have orange colored hair across their entire bodies, and a lifespan of about 40 years. Orenji cannot reproduce with any other known species.

Ogres

The Ogres were a Great Race endemic to the Vilewood and Ogre Mountains. They originated with Hashmada the Effigy, who used two of the Unsouled, and imbued them with the Nomos of the Antiquity Bhath-Gualai whom he had killed. Though superficially similar to the Eldmen, Ogres were much taller (average height 3m) and stronger. Their biology was maladapted to the Nomos they received, and so they suffered from an unending hunger for superior Nomos.
Whenever they came across an Eldman, they would consume him and feel some satiation from the Nomos of Beorn. As a result of this, the Ogres once terrified the north of Eirene, and occasionally conducted raids as far south as Apannina and Rommark. They began to occupy the southern half of the Ogre Mountains around 10,000 AB, and were of small number by 5000 AB. Some of the more vile Ogres began to rule over human lands, taking human sacrifices as food and consorts. These unions produced two of the little races: the Allelnics and the Vyrkolakas. Both the Ogres and their two child-races were utterly annihilated south of the Ogre Mountains in the Allel Jihad, incited by Sigurun c. 500 AB. It is believed by some that the Ogres may still exist in the Vilewood, and possibly in the mountains, but no concrete evidence has ever been provided. All of the kingdoms bordering the Vilewood maintain standing armies specifically to counter a potential Ogre invasion.

Allelnics

The Allelnics were a little race formed from the unions of male Ogres and female humans. They were superficially identical to humans, having an average height of 2 m, and being generally stable. They formed the middle class of the Ogre Empire, and frequently interbred with humans, thereby producing the almost entire human Allel ethnicity around 700 AB.

Vyrkolakas

The Vyrkolakas were a little race formed from the unions of male humans and female Ogres. These Vyrkolakas, like ogres, could not survive without human flesh, specifically blood. Though naturally infertile, if a Vyrkolakas mixed its own blood with a human, that human would develop traits and powers similar to Vyrkolakas: a new type of creature called a Vyr. So long as the Vyrkolakas continued to drink human blood (or eat human flesh containing it) they would live effectively indefinitely. The Vyrkolakas were hated in the Ogre Empire because they were living proof a human male had mated with a female Ogre, and Ogre honor culture did not allow for such unions. They often fled the realm, settling in modern-Sylvania and establishing the Transylvanian Empire (which encompassed most of modern eastern Eirene). The Transylvanian Empire and the Vyrkolakas survived the Allel Jihad and collapse of the Ogre Empire, and continued to flourish over an empire of misery and death until being utterly defeated by the prophet Acacius and destroyed in the late 30s IB.