Guide to the Arcane Realm

Hominins

Hominins (also called natural humanoids) are sapient beings that developed a humanoid body plan via natural selection and descent with modification. All are great apes that trace their ancestry from the halflings who arrived on Kaf sometime in antiquity via random portals across time and space.

Like most in the Animal Kingdom, hominins are carbon based life forms composed of organic compounds (organisms). And as heterotrophs, all have to breathe oxygen, eat, drink and excrete in order to keep living. As suggested in their creature type name, all species in this class have a humanoid body plan.

The overall body plan of these races comsists of one head, a hominid primate torso, two arms at the top, and two legs used to support the body and consistently run/walk bipedally as the main form of movement. Appearance-wise hominins possess thin and lightly pigmented body hair which gives off a mostly hairless appearance except for thicker hair on the top of the head, underarms, and pubic area.

They also have slight physical differences between the sexes, usually regarding height, muscle mass, fat distribution and vocal range with females having permanently swelled mammary glands in their chests after puberty. Male hominins are called men while female hominins are called women.

Hominins like other living things can produce magic power within themselves but less quickly than preternatural beings. To compensate, natural creatures like them mostly replenish their reserves by absorbing the magic power which is emitted passively by surrounding life and inanimate objects in the environment.

Like other lifeforms they can concentrate and fire magic energy (usually from their hands) but an ability unique to them is giving it a physical form as an amorphous substance called manaplasm. Manaplasm can be conjured by a hominin who can shape it into virtually anything and dispel it or absorb it back as magic power.

Hominin Species

Homin

Homins are a hominin species that like the others share traits like intelligence and walking upright. What makes homins unique among hominins are their distinctive long, prehensile tails and hand-like feet capable of well-articulated movements, and their lifestyle making them more at home in the trees then they are on the ground. They are also usually the shortest hominins in height, even by adulthood.

Even with humble beginnings in the high leafy canopies of tropical forests, their drive, curiosity, and fighting spirit allowed them to settle in various forests the world and even grow new woodlands to improve their livelihood.

Hauflin

Hauflins are a species of diminutive hominins whose physiology is adapted to high altitudes like mountains and their native settlements are heights above 2,500 meters (8,200 ft) to 6,500 meters (21,300 ft). Despite this, they have also spread out to settle in the lowlands as well, typically plains, valleys, and islands.

Once they began to find lost artifacts from a bygone era, hauflin society tried to achieve their vision of those times by replicating their technology and civilizations. However their initial successes often had negative influence to the environment, which brought them opposition from nature attuned species. Luckily by forming relationships with the other races, hauflins have been able to use their creativity and handiwork to improve the world as opposed to exploit it.

Amazoness

Amazoness are a species of hominins where females develop to be strong and the tallest of the hominin family while the males have reduced sizes and strength. In Amazoness societies, women are their society's political and religious leaders, as well as the warriors and hunters; queens are elected and any woman can aspire to and achieve full expression. They are known for keeping their men at home as house-husbands while the women are off hunting and fighting. As such, the females have developed into a warrior race that highly values personal fitness and combat ability.

Most Amazoness settlements tend to be smaller bands or tribes within a land. The males born in this race are called sometimes called Gargareans, and their social status is typically below those of their female counterparts. There are certain territories that a single Amazoness clan has claimed for themselves but there are also ones where multiple tribes thrive.

A/N: The hominins, which as you can probably tell are this world's counterparts to humans. The homins were the first that I developed and for a long while in development, the only ones until recently. Eventually I decided that
I wanted there to be more than one species of humans like in real world prehistory to see what that dynamic could be like. Then it became my interest to see how these humans would fit with the other non-human races that I've introduced into the world.