Old versus the New

The division between what are commonly termed as the “Old races” and the “New races” stems from Chimyrr’s pre-history. Prior to the modern age, there was only a single racial power - the beings commonly referred to as the Progenitors (or less commonly, “The Ones Who Came Before”). After the cataclysm which removed them and their civilisation from Chimyrr, the Old and New races arose to fill the void left.

The Old races are commonly thought of those thought to exist during the era of the Progenitors: the dwarves, the elves, the gnomes and the halflings. All four are considered to have some relation to the Ones Who Came Before, depending on whose histories and whose research one pays credence to. The dwarves, elves and gnomes as races each claim to be the direct descendents of the Progenitors themselves, while the halflings are considered to be the banal, non-fey offshoots of the original gnomes.

The New races, on the other hand, are those who have risen to civilisation and prominence long after the fall of the Progenitors. Humans are the prime example of the new races, who were considered to still be living in proto-sentient forest and savannah groupings around the time of the Progenitors and their cataclysmic removal - but they are not the only ones. While humanity may be the most obvious example of the New races, the New races include the tabaxi, the trolls and their greenskin offspring, the reek, the tengu, and more.

Finally, there are those rare few who do not fit easily into the Old versus New dichotomy. The most obvious of these are the aquatic races which populate Chimyrr’s oceans and deep water lakes - such as the abyssal aboleths, the locathah, and the sahaugin. These examples are usually cited as exceptions to the current taxonomy, categorised into their own clades, or ignored entirely.