Living and Breathing

One of the big things that makes any world is it's creatures. Some fantasy worlds are only populated by humans, some include existing mythological creatures like Minotaurs and hydras, and many contain creatures like Elves and Dwarves in the manner popularized by Tolkien.

Humans, of course, should build the cornerstone of the races in your world, because you're expecting the player to relate to them. Society works similarly, people stand on two legs and speak English (well, in the north-American localization anyways), and so on. You could build a world where singing spiders were the dominant race, and the whom the player interacts with, but people wouldn't understand it as well - although you'd be able to get away with a lot more things that would pass as odd in a world the players think they understand.

In Ronar, there are four dominant races, known collectively as 'the intelligent races'. There are Humans, the most abundant; Shadowkin an etherial race borrowing some traits of birds; Torin, the naturalistic catfolk; and Unofotine the stout underground race resembling moles. They each fit a mold a player expects, they each fill a role in the world, they each have their own societies that are based on aspects of human society, and they each are distinct from what the player might be expecting. And they're each associated with a different god - although I'll get into gods another day

Humans, of course, fill all the same positions they do in the real world. They farm, they teach, they rule, and they live in cities all about the world. They excel in anything they choose - although typically only one thing per person, and unlike in many fantasy worlds - they live about as long as any other intelligent race in the world.

The other three races I'll cover later.