Race

Where the real world splits humanity along minor surface differences, the races of this setting diverge far more dramatically, to the point that science would label many of them separate species. Humans remain the most widespread and the most varied, ranging from a meter or two in height up to rare giants of seven or eight meters, occasionally sprouting horns, plants, or animal features. Other peoples push a single trait to an extreme: the Longarm Tribe carries a second elbow and added reach, the Longleg Tribe stands on enormously tall legs, the Snakeneck Tribe stretches at the neck, and the Three-Eye Tribe bears an extra eye on the brow. Still others borrow from beasts, such as the gilled fish-men, the fish-tailed merfolk, and the fur-covered minks. Scale alone separates the towering giants and the palm-sized dwarves from everyone else.

Despite their wild variety, these peoples cluster together biologically, sharing four hallmarks that beasts lack: a soul granting true consciousness, a common spoken and written tongue, toolmaking skill, and the ability to crossbreed with one another. All of them are mammals that bear live young and grow hair, stand upright, and treat any extra limbs as arms. Several races boast built-in advantages, fish-men reportedly being born ten times stronger than humans, and minks counted as natural warriors. Mortality binds them all, with true immortality and rapid regeneration regarded as unnatural. Most reach maturity in roughly two decades and live about a century, the chief exception being giants, who live three times as long but also mature three times slower.

Beyond the naturally occurring peoples sit several other categories. Hybrids arise when two races interbreed, producing named results such as the giant-and-fish-man Wotan, the Longarm-and-Longleg longlimb humans, the rumored Longlimbneck blend of Longarm, Longleg, and Snakeneck, the human-and-dwarf Dosundada, and the dwarf-and-giant Zushindodo, while the Buccaneers are a near-extinct line said to carry giant blood. Artificial races were engineered through science or fruit powers, including clones, the Kuma-based Pacifistas and elite Seraphim, the soul-driven Homies, shadow-animated zombies, and Imu's contracted Demons. Other peoples descend from migrants of the moon, namely the winged Sky Island Residents split into Skypieans, Shandia, and Birkans. Centuries of friction have bred deep prejudice, especially against fish-men and merfolk, against giants, and against the hunted Lunarians, even as figures like Otohime and Charlotte Linlin chased dreams of races living side by side.