Races

Dwarves:
» Magic: strongest with Earth and Fire
» Life expectancy: 500
An average dwarf is between 120 and 140 cm tall. There are few visible distinctions between the genders, as all dwarfs have beards and heights and sizes are distributed evenly, plus dwarf women are as a rule quite flat in the chest department. They are of heavy build, much more stout and muscular than any normal human could be.
» Dwarfs under the hills: Think a stereotypical person from the Near/Middle East and adopt the above alterations.
» Dwarfs under the mountains: Think a stereotypical person(light blond/red hair and very fair skin) from Northern Europe and adopt the above alterations.


Elves:
» Magic: strongest with Air and Fire
» Life expectancy: unlimited
As a rule, they are very tall, between 180 and 200 cm, the females usually slightly shorter than the males, though there are a high number of elves who are some kind of intersex so all information on males/females needs to be taken with a grain of salt here. They have the typical elven ears and are very light, both in build and weight - an elf will under normal circumstances neither develop visible muscle nor visible curves. Otherwise, men and women differ from each other much like it is with humans.
» Think of a stereotypical person from Black Africa and adopt the above alterations.


Keirill:
» Magic: strongest with Water
» Life expectancy: Males: 200; Females: 400 but can grow significantly older.
Of all the races, Keirill differ the most form the others, because they were created for another habitat (underwater) and because they were created by another god (Mut) than the other races. They do look like the others at first glance, mostly because Mut was still going off the original sketches, so to say, but they have gills - on the sides of their torsos and on their necks drawing up until behind their ears, and their internal organs are adjusted to the underwater situation as well. They can live above water, so they have a huge advantage over the other races here, but need magic or technology for it. Their feet are very large and wide for their bodies and their legs are the strongest body parts. They are usually between 140~160 tall. Keirill are all born male. Dominant Keirill change to female. Or at least that is how it used to be, and how it still is with the Keirill in the ocean. But those on the other side of the mountains have experienced a number of births of females over the last centuries, even though those all came to very rich and politically powerful families. Since Keirill are the largest in numbers among the races in these worlds, they also have the most variations, and since the mountains and the land divide the two areas that Keirill mostly live in, those two populations have developed very differently.
» Keirill from behind the mountains: Roughly East Asians with the above alterations.
» Keirill from the ocean: Roughly North American natives with the above alterations.


Humans:
» Magic: Can negate all magic; also empaths.
» Life expectancy: 70
Humans: Typically standing between 160 and 180, with females often significantly shorter than males, this race has the sharpest divide between the genders when it comes to looks also in all other areas. As the second most populous race in this world, there is also a lot of variation in these people, but there is no sharp divide like with the Keirill, it's more of a gradual thing.
» People from the Indian subcontinent with the above alterations.

History Pt. 1 (needs revisions)

But the world was empty, and so the elves were created. They were a test-run, in the truest of the senses: While all three gods agreed that the world should not stay devoid of living beings, they had no true idea of how that would work as they themselves, even in corporal form, had no need to be actually physically functioning beings.

After a few failed attempts they started to get the hang of it, and while Mut after a while kind of defected from the two others because xe felt more comfortable with the waters and had no interest in creatures that were supposed to be restricted to the land (still in the testing stage, all three had agreed that whatever they would create should be bound to air), El and Ashera went on and finally came up with a humanoid shape that functioned.

The test-run had a few defects. They easily learned language and the basics of civilization and developed quickly from there; magic was in their blood and thus not a problem; and they managed to form societies soon. But one thing the siblings had not taken into account: Pride and the quest for power. Soon, they stopped listening to the "gods" and abandoned all cult, and worse, all respect for the creation around them and for the rules that had been laid out to them at their creation. They rebelled, called upon their kin and united it in a quest to free their world and become independent from those that created them.

El and Ashera, in their panic, called upon Mut to help them in their peril. Xe suggested to use the weakness to water that had been built into the race as a safety mechanism, and El and Ashera agreed - they opened the skies on one side of the world, and the waters from outside the atmosphere flooded in. But halfway, the younger siblings realized that they had been tricked, for Mut had been working on a race of xir own under the ocean. They sealed the skies, and half the world remained unscathed by the waters, the great mountain range in the middle of the world protecting the other half.

Instead of destroying those elves that lived on the lands still through water, they had to find another way, and wiser through their first creation, they created a second race to fight and eliminate their first: The dwarfs. To teach them humility against themselves, they gave them mortality and the need for rest, even though their lives still were long. To keep them from the unity that proved so destructive before, they created them into two separate races, one belonging to El and the other to Ashera. The dwarfs under the mountains, belonging to Ashera, were fairer and set to guard the the mountains, while the dwarfs under the hills where darker and meant to guard the coast. Together, they were sent to eliminate the elves, and for that task a magic equal to that of the elves was given to them, as were a great strength, speed and durability much higher than what their bodies would suggest at first glance.

War was set between the two races, and it continued for a good while... until Mut entered the picture again. His race, the Keirill, had grown to great numbers and with time he had given them ways to survive on land, and send them against his siblings' races.

But as the dwarfs defended the land, they had no time anymore to hunt the elves much, and they recovered, and finally, an uneasy peace between the races was struck to protect the world from ruin and the gods' creations from harm. To mediate between them, the race of humans was created: Weaker than the other races in body and their years much shorter, but equipped with the ability to negate all magic and read emotions (and originally also thoughts, though Ashera managed to take that ability from them through smiting the strongest telepaths and supporting the weakest until the ability had basically died out).

This went about as well as one can imagine (sometimes gods are about as shit at thinking about consequences as everyone else).

The end of the story is that today, there are two dominant races in that world: Keirill, who reign over the lands at the other side of the mountains and over the ocean, and humans, who reign over the lands between the both. The mountains are more or less dangerous yet neutral territory, and elves and dwarfs have both gone into hiding, the hatred planted between them by the gods not forgotten yet buried in the face of the much greater danger that humans and Keirill pose to both. Those of them that live among the dominant races are usually slaves or travellers that disguise themselves as members of the other races.

[This is where the story of Jahhel-at-Kåålev and Naaluiven, the mothers of Karan, takes off.]

In this situation, a multiracial group discovered that dark powers were at work among men and keirill. It was made up of:
-A young woman raised as a male Keirill under the name of Matthew. She was truly a dwarf, and much later they found out that she was one of the last survivors of the royal line of both the dwarves under the hills and under the mountains. Her name was Jahhel-at-Kåålashrait, which is Jahhav the daughter of Kååleshra, which translates to "The lord of the air is eternal" and "The lady of the earth sees". (Dwarves tend to have names with theophorus elements, which means that there aren't all that many... which in turn means that they are often known by their nicknames instead. Jahhel has multiple ones, most prominently: Shaalerein, elven for "She whose axe is exchanged for a sword", referring to her being married to the elven queen, and Es-Fimasait, dwarven for "leader of rebuilding").
-A young woman of elven descent by the name Famareile-si-Naaluiven, which is Naaluiven child of Famareile, which translates to "Turner of tides" and "the forest weeps". (Elven names are usually well-wishes for the child, and Naaluiven's mother's name was one as well, as rain upon the forest was at that time a protection against raids.)
- Jahhel's adopted older brother, a Keirill by the name of Ryan. He had been adopted by dwarves as a child and managed to survive a raid on Jahhel's clan by virtue of being a Keirill, and managed to save the then-baby by claiming her to be his little brother and both of them having been kidnapped by dwarves only recently.
- Two other Keirill, John and Dorothy, a head of a merchant group and her primary partner.
- A keirill, Brune, who did not join them because she has other duties but was their link to the "upper quarters" of the keirill beyond the mountains.
- A human by the name of Quenas, a carpenter from the capital.
- An elderly human female by the name of Maranena, heiress of extensive farmland that was devastated by human-keirill fighting, who was staying with family in the capital.
- Jahan, Maranena's grandson.

They managed to rally everyone together to fight those that had been overtaken by the dark from beyond the world, freeing their world of it. It was a long process to rally everyone together, and an even longer fight, but in the end it was won. Yet at great cost: Many were killed, families and people torn apart and much destruction was wrought. To seal the dark power, Jahhel and Naaluiven ascended to what can most closely be described as semi-godhood, guarding for all times the boundaries of their world. They left behind a daughter, Erhel-at-Jahhalait-ra-Naaluivait or Naaluiven-be-Jahhel-si-Arhainen, that is "the lord of the air has granted" or "twofold strength". But she is better known as Karan among the dwarves, which is "two-blooded".


[A note about naming: Elves take their names after their mothers, dwarves after their fathers, unless there are good reasons against it. While Naaluiven was intersex, her gender leaned strongly towards female yet she could "father" a child with Jahhel due to a favour of Mut they could have a child born to them (considering that Mut is usually considered the enemy of life to the land-dwelling races, that doesn't really help Karan's standing). Since thus two mothers are in the picture here, and due to political reasons neither should be ignored, Karan has the unusual (though not unheard of) situation of having both parents in her name.]

History Pt. 2 [Karan's personal history] (needs revisions)

Karan grew up after the story ended and everyone lived happily after. A disastrous war full of losses had been waged by the free races of her world against the dark races, and it had been won in the end. Everyone was at peace, and life in the world was harmonic and peaceful...

Yeah, not really. Because now that the common enemy which had held together the alliance of elves, dwarves, humans and keirill that had waged it was quickly coming apart. The keirill and humans, of closest kin with the forces which had aided the dark, sank into cleansing campaigns and infighting, and elves and dwarves remembered their roots, stories of long ago yet still alive, and centuries of alliance were lost to fear and bitter cultural memories.

In this climate, a crown princess of the dwarves and a queen of the elves, both of whom had been fighting and ultimately died for the freedom of their people, left behind a baby child. It had been born just before they both sacrificed themselves, a symbol of unity... an unity that did not last. The new crown prince of the dwarves (a people who did not take kings or queens, leaving that post to their goddess Ashera) after long deliberations accepted to support the baby according to her inherited status as a princess - yet she was to stay out of the line of succession, even should all others of her blood die. And there wasn't much love for her among the dwarves, nor among the elves. Both people remembered well why they had been at odds before the rising of the humans: The hubris of the elves that led to their rebellion against the gods, and the creation of the dwarves to bring down that rebellion.

Growing up, Karan was well fed and cared for, and granted the best education, but it was plain that this happened out of respect towards her mother and considerations for the fragile political situation. When she was 38, in a stage of development that most closely resembles an early preteen age (both dwarves and elves reach this one faster than humans, but after linger longer: A dwarf comes of age around a 100 years, an elf comes of age when the situation permits it, or calls for it, their ageing is very fluent and can even go backwards), political decision transferred her to live with the elves for a while. Her experiences with them differed little from those that she had when living with the dwarves, and when she was sent back twenty years later, her hopes that at least her other people would accept her had been thoroughly crushed. She resumed her life with the dwarves and when coming of dwarven age, after not being admitted into the kingdom's guard (out of concern about her loyalties, should a war with the elves break out) joined the merchants' guard instead, a much lower ranking entity that still would bring her out of the borders of the dwarven kingdoms.

Currently, she is travelling with small groups of dwarven merchants as part of their guard (typically a group will have two guards whose tasks are more scouting, doing security tasks in the background and finding places to stay etc, so the merchants don't have to take care of those things as well - all dwarves can fight, so that's not their main task), still not physically of age.

She is of dwarven height, though tall for one, and has their eyes (they glow yellow in the dark, not blue) and the beard, but her skin is much closer to the elves and she has their ears as well as some of their facial shape. Her build is somewhere in the middle, though closer to that of a dwarf.