Shadow World - Races

Races

(See also List of Shadow World races)

Shadow World broadly categorizes races into the mortal (or "mannish," though this category includes species such as dwarves and centaurs), immortal (or "Elven") species, and "Half-elven" species. The "half-elven" are not necessarily the direct offspring of a human and an elven parent, but rather long-lived the intermixed hybrid population resulting from widespread interbreeding of human and elven populations until speciation occurs, for example the Sulini or Ky'tari Compared to mortals, either sort of half-elf has a long life, though for species it is measured in centuries while for individuals such as Elor Once Dark or T'vaar Dekdarion it is measurable in millennia.

Human subspecies are categorizable as roughly descended from extinct species such as the Jinteni, a few varieties of "High Men" borrowing heavily from Tolkien's Dunadaen (e.g. Zori or Laan) and many categories of "common men" (such as Jameri or Haid). Shadow World's "High Men" differ from the Dunadaen both in higher racial diversity among the former (e.g. the Kinsai are dark-skinned), and there is no suggestion in the source material that High Men or their antecedents owe their longer lives to a very distant elven ancestor.

There are also so-called "evil" or monstrous races such as the Murlogi (goblins) and Lugroki (Orcs), with speculated origins as the results of alien origin or sorcerous manipulation.