Upright Mammals

Designed to walk on only two legs without support from their arms, and lacking a tail, they maintain a vertical posture while moving, which can make sitting and standing a taxing effort. Their legs are somewhat muscular, but a rigid spine and balanced form reduces the need of support. The arms are slender but well-muscled, the hands very nimble and having a considerable range of movement, with opposable thumbs. The neck is able to turn the head through about 190 degrees, as well as directly up and down.

Offspring are born live and are completely helpless as they progress through their first stages of development. It takes several years (depending on the Lineage, up to several decades) for a child to reach adulthood; prior to this point, they are treated as less than full people, with particular codes of behavior meant to protect them and teach them the numerous life skills that they are not instinctively born knowing, most of which involve the manipulation of technological and magical principles which their kind have developed in the last few thousand years.   On reaching adulthood, Mammalians are able to reproduce, and enter into some social construct, usually a pairing, meant to ensure a stable family structure that will safely produce future generations. At some point, members of most Lineages become old, are less physically able, and are less able to reproduce. However, in most societies, they are still considered valuable individuals due to their knowledge and wisdom.

Despite having a relatively narrow tolerance of temperatures and atmospheres, Mammalians have adapted to live in almost any imaginable environment. They do this through a combination of specialized clothing and construction principles which allow them to live in greater comfort despite inhospitable conditions. Being warm-blooded, they can survive in cold temperatures for a considerable while without entering torpor, but need a more consistent diet to maintain a caloric balance.

Mammalians are omnivores, their preferences varying depending on a huge number of variables. There are some plants and a few animals they cannot safely eat due to specific toxins. To address this, they have domesticated many species of both plant and animal, breeding out of them any harmful traits and encouraging them to become more robust, hardy, and yielding of edible parts.

Mammalians are active throughout the year, but because most of them practice agriculture, their practices change to reflect the challenges of a the current season, as well as to prepare for future seasons. They stockpile food for winter, and hold great feasting celebrations when there is plenty.

Vision and hearing are their primary senses. The eyes face forward, creating a large blind spot behind the head, so that they must look around frequently in a dangerous area. A keen distinction of colors allows them to recognize objects and creatures with ease, especially when well lit, and is also expressed in most forms of artwork. Their night vision is not especially good. Their hearing has a broad range and, thanks to their ears, can be used to triangulate a source of noise within their vicinity. Their sense of smell is adequate to find and distinguish foods and creatures within the immediate area, but not sufficient to track with.

The earliest known progenitors of Upright Mammals were small quadrupeds known as felids, whose modern descendants include all cat species. One particular lineage of this order of creature adapted to life in trees, both as habitations and staging areas for hunting. Over time, the bounty of plant life in their vicinity encouraged them to adopt a more omnivorous diet, while the dexterity needed to traverse the trees caused their limbs to become longer and more articulated.   About a million years ago, a climate disaster resulted in large-scale deforestation within the areas now known as the Ehranian Wilds. Although the area eventually recovered, the pressure put on animals caused at least one branch of felids to return to the ground, where bipedalism proved advantageous for locomotion and allowed them to more precisely manipulate their environments. The ultimate offspring of this change were a species known as proto-Elves, who first appeared at least a hundred thousand years ago, ans possibly much longer. Possessing small vestiges of intelligence, they developed crude technologies, practiced hunting and gathering, and lived in small tribal communities. As their awareness and mental flexibility became greater, they began to explore and test the nature of their environment, and of the Raw Magic that occasionally swept across it.   Archaeology suggests the development of Upright Mammals from proto-Elves came very swiftly after the advent of funereal rites. From the idea of their own mortality came an understanding that some special essence of being dwelt within them, that was not defined by their bodily form, and might survive beyond it. With this idea came the ability to manipulate raw magic, to wield its power to a specific, intentional purpose. At the same time that the proto-Elves began to bury their dead, they also began to channel massive and wild energies, creating unpredictable results, and also greatly warping their own offspring. A fury of genetic confusion resulted, at the end of which the proto-Elves were extinct. However, from that maelstrom of mutation came the first three modern Lineages: the Elves, Goblins, and Orcs.   The conflict between these three peoples came later to be called the Everwar, and it resulted in each of the Lineages occupying a different continent. While they spread out across their various lands, they each changed and adapted. The most well-documented dissemination was that of the Elves, who built a mighty and complex empire, evolving into seven very distinct Tribes. One of them, the Nain, eventually decided that they were not Elves, but a different Lineage, the Dwarves. At around the same time, records indicate the existence of Fairies, believed to be the descendants of Elves who lost themselves in the pursuit of magical superiority.   Much later, through means not fully understood, it came to be known that the continent previously bubbling over with Goblins was home to another new Lineage, the Humans. These were probably the offspring of seafaring Dwarves, and they vied courageously with Goblins for a homeland, gradually pushing them back and establishing nations and empires where they had been. While this happened, the Orcs produced kingdoms of their own in the south.

The world's various Lineages have existed for many thousands of years, and in that time interminglings have inevitably occurred. Because people tend to be provincial and distrusting of outsiders, these hybrids or 'half-breeds' are often the subjects of great suspicion, if not outright persecution; the details vary by Lineage, but hybrids generally find it easier to get by in larger cities, and may even find a small community of their own kind within the dominant society.