Introduction to the species of Nephele

Dwarves
seven dwarvish nations - come from THE SEA originally but really got going from Top Continent (Kirminai)

Elves
Elves originate from the continent of Petheryga, where they evolved alongside dinosaurs (including birds) and reptiles. They are humanoids with a strongly avian cast, including characteristically large and feathery ears, head-plumage where humans or orcs would have hair, and talons on their hands and feet. Internally, they have hollow bones and a flow-through respiratory system like birds and theropod dinosaurs. They can see into the ultraviolet spectrum and have chemical senses (smell and taste) that are closer to avian than mammalian. Female elves are on average larger than male elves, while male elves are on average more colorful than females, but there are otherwise few distinguishing differences between the sexes.

Elves are the longest-lived of Nephele's species, with no known individuals having died of old age. They are oviparous but are very slow to reproduce, with a breeding pair producing a viable egg once every few decades if they are very fortunate. Elf eggs gestate for years at a time and infant elves are precocial, able to walk and speak at a toddler level within hours of hatching.

Elven cultures are primarily matriarchal and matrilineal, though both sexes generally have equal participation in all activities of life albeit in different roles.

Historically, elves were very involved in the affairs of the "mortal" races, seeing it as their role to protect the innocent and promote justice by helping those in dire need whenever asked. Resulting attrition due to war put tremendous pressure on their slow-growing population as they realized the possibility of their own extinction. Subsequently, elven society fractured along philosophical lines, with four major groups (each comprising pieces of many elven cultures) arising.

Elven polities include the Shroudwood, populated primarily by shrikes prior to being sacked by the Prince of Locusts, and the Isle of Joy, where the high elves reside. The world-renowned university Asphodel Hall was founded by a deep elf on her line's ancestral estate just outside the human kingdom of Clarent; she remains regent to this day. Significant elven populations live among the Ukonvasara and other Iron Steppes communities (iron elves and shrikes) and in Mitri (ice elves), while wood elves may be found in every nation that permits them entry.

Deep elves
[ageless, beautiful, rare, tragic]

High elves
[high elves just kinda suck]

All high elves reside primarily on the Isle of Joy, though they periodically journey for pleasure (or much more rarely, business). Prior to the sack of Shroudwood, high elves who were also shrikes would make decadal pilgrimages back home to receive the Prince of Preservation's stabilizing blessing. Shrikes refer to high elves as "swans".

Ice elves
"Ice elves" is a colloquial name for an elven population that settled in Mitri several hundred years after the city-state's founding. While they predate the philosophical split in elven cultures that gave rise to the other elven groups, they are philosophically most aligned with the wood elves, desiring only to be left alone. Some younger ice elves have seasonal plumage reminiscent of ptarmigans, molting to white during Kirminai's long winter and developing feathers on their feet.

Iron elves
Iron elves are distinguished by their focus on war and warfare. Unlike other elven groups, they remain deeply involved in the affairs of mortals, but have adapted their methods of waging war to reduce elven casualties and more effectively help those who call on them for assistance. Their culture might be described as "reluctantly militaristic"; they do not celebrate war or conquering the same way orcs do, but treat war as a necessary evil to be conducted with utmost solemnity and professionalism. While iron elf groups could be found spread throughout the cultures of Petheryga's Iron Steppes, their cultural center and primary city was the Starwood, an extensive old-growth forest they scrupulously maintained against the ecological changes that created the steppes.

The ritual that created the shrikes also plunged the Starwood into a perpetual starless twilight filled with pillar-corrupted beasts. It was subsequently renamed the Shroudwood.

By the time of the Prince of Locusts, there are a very small number of iron elves remaining. Those of them that did not become shrikes still live among the Ukonvasara and Iron Steppes cultures, often as priests, shamans, and war-leaders of mixed-species tribes. Their immortality and long memories are highly valued as a reliable method of cultural transmission, while the Ukonvasara welcome their talents as mages.

Shrikes
Shrikes are a distinct, pillar-touched elven subspecies arising from iron elven culture. In addition to having radically altered appearances, shrikes are much shorter-lived and vastly more fertile than standard elves. Shrikes exist in a fourth dimension of space. They can see "inside" purely three-dimensional objects and maneuver freely in an additional spatial direction, appearing able to walk through walls or manipulate items in closed containers without damaging the containers, among other feats. Shrikes are known to assume monstrous forms under great duress or when raised as undead.

The majority of shrikes lived in the Shroudwood and were in the Court of the Prince of Preservation, though significant populations existed on the Isle of Joy and among the Ukonvasara. Following the Sack of Shroudwood and the death of the Prince of Preservation, and the subsequent shrike civil war sparked by the Princes of Sacrifices and Biding, a number of shrikes live among other nations, especially the orcish colonies. Efforts to restore the Shroudwood with orcish help are underway.

Wood elves
Wood elves of all cultures and nations are united by one overriding desire: They want to be left alone to prepare for the inevitable apocalypse. They have subsequently withdrawn themselves to the wild hills and woodlands of the world, where they live in extended family groups and practice self-sufficiency as farmers and woodsmen. Many wood elves live well below the poverty line, and are looked down on for their provincial manners and backwoods ways when they do have contact with other peoples. This is compounded by their historical refusal to help the human nations during a killing famine several hundred years ago, an event that not only damaged their reputation but also led to them being driven from many of their ancestral territories, with their wealth and lands confiscated. Rightly or wrongly, wood elves are generally regarded as shiftless and hostile to outsiders, though the desperate may still seek them out now and again for help, which they may grudgingly render.

Wood elves may be found in any nation that permits them to live in its borders, and even some that don't. While they have some seasonal contact with towns and cities, and some wood elves may even maintain permanent residence in urban areas, they live primarily in undeveloped hills and forestland, leading to their common name of "hillfolk". Shrikes refer to them as "sparrows," for the humility of their circumstances and retiring ways.

Orcs
Domitian/the Domitianic Empire (Petheryga), Orcia (Nabea) - come from Left Continent (Nabea) originally

Humans
Clarent (Nabea), the Skilled/Ukonvasara (Petheryga), Dragon Isles (Archipelago) - come from the Serpentine Archipelago originally

The Sea People
Nephele's oldest sapient race, the Sea People [stuff goes here]