Fantasy races thread

What would be some good design tips for races in universes that are not the result of divine or magical shit? that evolved like humans (probably closely related?) but feel free to discuss other fantasy race related stuff.

Not divine or magical, so… scientific?

That'd depend a lot on the world you had in mind. Though if they're natural, they're probably going to follow the same basic body plan of similar species (As an example: If most races have four limbs, they'll have four limbs).

You'll probably want to have them fill a niche that none of the other evolved / created races fill, and leaving them an obligate carnivore or herbivore will limit their population growth since they'll have to compete with everything else that eats such.

Depending on how advanced you intend them to be you might want them to be at least semi-aquatic or marine in nature. It's going to have some soft limits on technological advancement, especially if they aren't amphibious, but it'll limit competition over space and resources for a long while too.

what about races that follow similar niches (but slightly different) but different geographical areas.

This can work, but if everything evolved to fill the same niche it'll start straining suspension of disbelief if you have more than 2-3 cropping up naturally. Especially if they're in relatively close proximity (a lot of species, sapient or otherwise, are prone to wandering due to various environmental or selective pressures).

And as said before: There's going to be some limitations if any of the species are obligate carnivores / herbivores. Herbivores slightly less so since often times they'll adapt to eat specific things that other species don't, but only just.

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>that evolved like humans (probably closely related?)

It's very easy to say that as apes left the trees and started banging sticks together, wild dogs sought higher tactics and society for their packs or birds began inscribing symbols for their calls into bark. Give each species you want to see sapient the same 'spark' or 'genetic mutation'. Natural disasters or abrupt climate shifts make good catalysts for such; survival either who can adapt the fastest, or think for their own survival.

I had been considering having sapient wolves that lack opposable thumbs, but are still about equal in intelligence to a human.

The nice thing about evolution is you can practically justify anything if you craft the setting well, since in effect evolution is directed by surroundings.

As for ideas, I'd you don't mind ripping off the real world cephalopodes pretty damn smart, and have fairly good manipulator apendages. Think octopus people might be kind of neat.

I think octopus-people would actually have quite big advantage when it comes to warfare and technology due to having multiple manipulators, unless they're limited to ocean.