Alkaendra is very different from Earth in a very important aspect: the number of sentient species.
                           The Age of Births began with the appearance of   Khalyva, or the Longed Ones , the first sentient species that breathed Alkaendra's air. They emerged across the continent, but mainly settled in the lands of what is now Llaeredh, in the Great Forest of Sagareda and in some islands of the Syndalla. They were large beings, intelligent and sensitive, lovers of nature, life and truth.
Later appeared the Kuannachta and the Ugara , settling the first under the mountains because they loved the warmth of the rock, and the latter over these because they loved the wind and sun. Relations were strained, but Khalyva and, not long before, Kuannachta ally against the savage Ugara, whose worldview was very different.
Three centuries later appeared the Dun Hannar , the Rau'Mena'Kai and the Nidanyira , which settled in forests and swamps. Then follow the Ylmarys , the Hryeth and the Humans, who, with their short lives and their high fertility rate, become a threat for the rest of sentient species.
Gradually all Gahaedha surface began to be populated, and the great migrations that enrich the folklore of the cultures that would emerge over time, began a series of events that conditioned the rest of the history.
This era ended with the enigmatic and unexpected onset of the Xyarjar under the mountains of world.
More than two thousand years have passed since the first Khalyva had begun to dream under the skies of Alkaendra.
The Age of Blood is named after the great clashes and battles that occurred while peoples migrated and sought places to settle.
                           The ancient freshwater lake that situated where the current Syndalla does, was transformed by a catastrophic flooding of seawater that would give its current appearance, affecting cultures therein and ending with the most unfortunate. Humans began to spread trough all lands, expelling the remaining species towards disadvantaged areas for development.
 The Kuannachta began to lose some of their subterranean realms against Xyarjar and Hryeth, darking forever the heart stones that  were the spiritual center of their settlements.
The Nidanyira become pests, and began to migrate to the cities of other species such as the great opportunists who have always been.
But the saddest fact of all was the division between Khalyva: some of them were filled with hatred and became the most powerful and feared creatures that Alkaendra has ever seen: the Zadarites .
It was a time of disease, war, death and decay; many empires rose and died, as the Lords of Trees, and the nations of today began the long road to the history and power.

Humans

Humans are the most widespread sentient species in Gahedha, occupying most of the territories on the surface of the continent. Its adaptability to all types of environments and its tenacity to overcome most of the drawbacks, has led them to occupy and inhabit territories that other species do not wish, or snatch them by the force of numbers, because, with the exception of Nidanyira, Humans are the most prolific of all Gahaedha sentient beings.
There are many different varieties in the large group                                         encompassing humanity, not only ethnically and morphologicallly but also in cultural, moral or religious views. There are many types of skin color, of eye's color and shape, hair and traits, and throughout history the crossbreeding has occurred to such a level, that there are many intermediate terms.
 In Gahaedha white complexion predominates in the east, except Panlho and Âra where the population is largely black skinned. In Klandama and Phaukahára have dark skin tone, and dark hair and eyes. In Yizaràde, Navaetharu and Tyethsinnúma men abound tall men of pale complexion, and light colored hair and almond eyes. In Taechkka has ocurred a continuous fusion that spread varied ethnicities. On the shores of the Syndalla predominates slightly tanned Human with epicanthic eyes, but it is difficult to find traces of the ancient Lords of Trees, which were short, strong, muscular and had delicate facial features. Generally, the male human measured from about 1.50 to 1.80 meters tall and weigh between 60-100 kilos, while the Human females ranged from 1.40 to 1.70 meters tall and between 45-70 kilos.
 Human societies ranged from the most primitive and wild cultures surviving in recessed mountainous and desertic places, to the eastern great civilizations-heirs of the Khalyva achievements- and the most complex and warrior-like of the West, as Urankko or Lhur.
The human species is combative by nature, faster in action than in spite, which leads them to great achievements and resounding failures. However they have also been able to develop a beautiful and rich art, perhaps because his life is relatively short and often lived with intensity.
Their religions, either inherited or original, are the most varied of all Gahaedha, focusing in many natural or human mind aspects. No a general trend, but there are multitude of thought systems, which in many cases are antagonistic and ends in armed conflicts.
Is the species with the most developed and strengthened mentalism, as being the most weakest of all in this respect except the Nidanyira and Taengryza. There are many schools and paths to understand the Ways of Mind.
Humans feel affinity towards the Kuannachta, but that does not imply that there were no clashes or violence between the two species. They admire and respect the Dun Hannár, tolerate the Taengryza-although they are not as magnanimous with Ylmarys-and are annoyed by Nidanyira. Humans and Xyarjar felt mutual hate despite they occupy different habitats.

Kuannachta

The Kuannachta, the Sons of Kuann, Lord of the Earth, appear to be following the fate of their Khalyva former allies, as their numbers decrease continuously. The ongoing wars in the Lightless World against Xyarjar and Hryeth have decimated and depleted its population to the point that they practically disappeared from West Gahaedha, where were once numerous and feared. Now only the bastions and fortresses of the East resist, and no one knows how longer their voices will be heard, or if the beautiful crafts they make will be lost in oblivion. The Rock laments their loss.
Members of the species are thin but strong, graceful of movements and short of stature. They inhabit subterranean dwellings under mountains, where their connection with the Primal Rock, the  place that gave them life in their mythology , is stronger. They can see both in the dark as in sunlight. They are capable of know which direction are they facing in any place, as they feel the presence of Alkaendra's magnetic field lines known as tha Beats of Earth.
Females are higher than males and never exceed the meter and half tall. The males height ranges between 1.20 to 1.35 meters. Their skin is usually very white, not pink as that of humans, especially those who don't leave the Lightless World. The adventurous who confront the sun acquire a very dark, wrinkled skin. In this state are the Kuannachta seen by most of the surface species. When young, hair color is usually similar in range and texture to that of humans, but as they aged their manes acquire more exotic shades and metal shiny due to the continued intake of mineral-rich liquids during their sacred rituals. The males made holes in their teeth and fill them with minerals, which indicate their status and achievements, while females made similar under the skin of the upper left breast. Although females usually give birth between two to four pups per litter, a lot of them do not support the uprooting of the Primal Rock and die in the Birthing Stones. The relationships between Kuannachta siblings are much stronger than in any other species, because they share the intense pain of birth and remoteness from the Creator's Essence.
Their culture is advanced, being especially important its knowledge of metallurgy: the quality of their weapons and armor is known throughout the continent, and is due to the handling capacity of rock and minerals given by its kind innate powers. The Kuannachta peoples maintain acceptable relations with some human and the Dun Hannár cultures. Their dealings with the Taengryza tend to be more cautious. The Nidanyira are ignored and fight to the death is the only response against Hryeth and Xyarjar with whom they compete for food and shelter.

Nidanyira

The Nidanyira are a very peculiar kind of sentient being, which many hate and very few considered sentient or smart. It is believed to have originated in Gahaedha's deepest forests, and they still exist there in a state of savage primitivism. Now many groups have settled in the sewers of other species's cities, which are bountyful on moisture and the food they need. They fight against rats, but are even worse for residents of the places where they settle because they are smarter nuisances. However, in some cities have become used to them and they can live and even work on some tasks depicted as dangerous or inappropriate for many others. Their litters are large, but mortality due to his gallantry is also very high. They have been almost unnoticed in history of the world of Giants, as they call the other species of Gahaedha, and survive is their only care.
 Their small bodies hide tremendous energy. Nobody knows why but they are so reckless and brave, that the word "afraid" is unknown in their vocabularies. There is a story telling that only one Nidanyira charged against a herd of male-on-heat Ylmarys, something that a Hryeth warband or a fully equipped Human infantry detachment would not dare. Relatively strong and agile, especially males, in sufficient numbers can be lethal. They are over fifty centimeters high in any case, and barely weight more than six or seven kilos. His eyes are adapted to many environments, and their darkvision and underwater vision are great, but resent the full light of day cause it is too bright for them. Their sense of smell is legendary, and can detect food from kilometers away. They understand food as all source of vaguely organic material and rarely give away carrion or decaying meat.
 There are many varieties of them, further adapted to one or other environment. Those who live in the sewers are usually very well adapted for swimming, while those who dwells in forests are used to climb and jump from branch to branch.
 Their societies are often tribal, with strong family ties enhanced by their religious beliefs. Strongest law imperes, but there are ritualized fights to prevent unnecesary deaths to ensure survival. To be a leader is required even more courage and temerity than others, so the choosing of a new one usually happen every few weeks, being a very dynamic system. The offspring is granted maternally, and the females are in charge of the shamanistic rites and the spirituality of the tribe. They believe that the souls of those who died goes immediately to a newly born pup in the same family and they boast of the number of births each one of them has passed, although do not remember much from their previous lives.
They tan skins of rats and other small animals, and like wearing whatever they find. Their weapons are metal made, but it is very rare that it has been forged by themselves, preferring to polish and sharpen the pieces others discarded. They also use bone, wood and, in some cases, fungi and leaves.

Dun Hannar

The Dun Hannár are the less warlike and the more life-lover of the species that exists in the world of Alkaendra. Known by many as the Healers or the Life Keepers, they never kill a living creature. When this occurs by accident the Dun Hannár enters in a state of deep melancholy that bring them to death within a few days. They travel unarmed, except for whips and boleadoras used only to defend themselves from those who try to attack them. When curing, they heal everyone without distinction, regardless of their faction or species. They like conversation, and are very intelligent and cult people. They have developed a hand language to communicate with others due to the difficulty for understanding their avian tonal range, in the last generations the signal language has been adopted by merchants from many lands and has become a trade language in Gahaedha.
 Its serpentine body is covered with colored armor plates of a metallic substance similar to chitin, that confer great protection. Usually they take their healing cilia hidden into tha radial thorns protruding from their backs -that are greater in the females-, to protect them  because they are tremendously fragile. If a Dun Hannár loses all Cilia become hopelessly mad, being one of the worst tortures that can be inflicted on them. They detect infrared and the ultraviolet ranges, besides having a even better sense of smell than the Nidanyira, allowing them to determine more precisely the evil that afflicts the ones who will consult them.
 It is believed that the Dun Hannár have originated in the swampy forests that once stretched along the south coast of Syndalla, but soon adapted to an arboreal existence. They loved the Khalyva, with whom they shared the love for life and joy. When urban cultures began to develop both in the surface and inside Gahaedha, they go to the cities to continue their work as curators where they would be more necessary. Their presence have become familiar, respected and admired in almost all settlements on the continent, even in the few Xyarjar sites where they are allowed to live.
 Some of them believe that they were created by Faéfva, the Life Breath, who was known by the Longed Ones as Hada or Hadal. So, they engaged their existence to heal and protect this breath until the time has come to claim the soul of the living by Saurakóra, the God of Death. They are no enemies of death, they know that is as necessary as life. The Dun Hannár especially hate the Unliving, because its mere existence is a corruption for the Life Breath.
 They reach about three meters in length, but usually keep a height similar to those to whom they are speaking for respect. The males are slightly more corpulent than females, and both sexes are light weighted ranging from 50 to 80 kilos. They do not usually wear clothes, and when they do they tend wear light and embellished leather harnesses, or fresh fabrics open-tunics.

Ylmarys and Taengryza

The Taengryza are a special type of Ylmary. One of each hundred births results in a Ylmary whose intellectual capacity allows him or her to see beyond the food, primitive tribal relations, and avoid the change of form and behavior that affects males on heat session. There are not so attached to the customs and traditionalism, often have adventurous spirit and enjoy the company of other species, learning to understand and respect. They can be seen many cities og Gahaedha, sharing wisdom and companionship with those who wish to do so. Those are known as Taengryza.
Anatomically speaking, a Taengryza has no differences from the rest of the Ylmarys. They have six extremities, are extremely strong and large, reaching two meters high and surpassing a weight of two hundred and fifty kilograms. Females are much more graceful and calm than males, but are much more dangerous if they are raising pups. They can communicate through the skin, using changing iridescent patterns -as cuttlefish do- only they can recognize. The Taengryza have no eyes, but they have some echolocators much more efficient than Xyarjar's, allowing them "see" the sounds. This way of looking at world is what causes the strange feeling that everybody felt in the bones when are near a Ylmary o Taengryza. Their bones have inside some kind of oil, that helps regulate body temperature and allows them to live in cold environments despite their lack of hair. If one of this bones is breaked on impact, a little risk exists of spontaneous combustion and their body will be consumed in flames of fire.
The Ylmarys are much smarter than one can think looking at them. It is true that they graze as cows, but also use crude tools manufactured with natural materials. They establish strong family ties, and all care for all. The Taengryza and Ylmarys are nomads and wander endlessly throughout the lands. This will cause many problems with other species that are not willing to allow their continued encroachment, peaceful or not, and depletion of their livestock's pastures. They live in small family groups and only meet during the mating season in spring and autumn. Males undergo a bestial metamorphosis during those days, growing in size and becoming little more than animals that will kill everything that not smell or look like a Ylmary or Tanegryza female. In this mood they are extremely dangerous and very reluctant to die, fearing those who have seen them in such a situation.
The Taengryza are smarter, and many of them remain in their natal groups as leaders. Others, however, wish to discover what the world can show them, and travel ceaselessly until they find a place where they feel comfortable. Capable of control the heat state to acceptable limits, they can develop rudimentary but powerful mentalistic skills. Their religious and philosophical concerns outweigh those of the Ylmarys, and many of them become priests of many deities. The Ylmarys are animists, and some Taengryza remain within those beliefs, developing and empowering them to reach the spiritual entities surrounding the world.

Xyarjar

No other race is more xenophobic and unsympathetic in all Gahaedha, except the Hryeth. Their origins are obscure, and are many rumors about strange rituals and No other race more xenophobic and unsympathetic in all Gahaedha, except the Hryeth. Their origins are obscure, and are many rumors about strange rituals and forgotten practices already forgotten. The Xyarjar are first mentioned in the stories of the Age of Blood, appearing in the deep caverns of the Taechka Massif, and from that moment the Lightless World has had no peace. They have no mercy or compassion with their opponents, but usually are not crueller than any other species. They believe themselves as the more apt to dominate the world, an idea fueled by a religion based on the cult Xlan-nuh, a Demon Prince dwelling in one of the Worlds Beyond Creation.
 Nobody knows for sure if multiple groups or different ethnicities of this species exists, but certainly have many settlements under the mountains of Taechka, Navaetharu and Nauthalarkka, sufficiently away to induce a cultural separation. Some claim seeing hairless individuals and others with more stylized heads, or with more pronounced snouts. But the truth is that few of those who have dared to enter the of Xyarjar territories have returned to tell what they had seen and even less are believed by their congeners.
 The typical Xyarjar measured between two and two and half meters tall, weighs over 150 kilos and has almost all his body covered with short, hard hair, apart from two longer hair manes than runs down along his back. Their joints are extremely strong to withstand the movements and weight of its strange twin limbs. They are perfectly capable of seeing in the dark, and even possess echolocation, allowing them to further appreciate their surroundings. His smell sense is good, better than humans or Kuannachta, but much worse than other creatures of the Lightless World.
 It is believed that their society is divided into several closed caste-system, being mentalists and priests those with control and power. The first have white fur, a more developed skull and weaker constitution, capable of develop terrible and destructive mental power. The clergy, perform dark rites to satisfy the thirst of his master Xlan-nuh, and to summon demons and other creatures to help them in their dark purposes. Below them are the soldiers, artisans, serfs and, finally, the slaves. They maintain a strict standard known as Law of Purity for which they should kill any foreigner entering in their domains without being invited. Life in their settlements is not easy and only the smarter and able can survive.
 Some Xyarjar are considered pariahs by their peers due to deformities and are expelled from the settlements when they are born, because they believed that ending their lives is a call to bad luck. In most cases, this expulsion is a death sentence as the caves and tunnels of the Lightless World are full of dangers. But sometimes happens that these creatures are found and reared by more compassionate species, making them members of their communities, not sharing any of the traits of more extremistic and racist Xyarjar. These outcasts are called jhaj, and it's the natural election of a Player Character of this species.  

Hryeth

No deal or peace is possible with the Hryeth. Nobody has done it or will do because members of this species had been chosen by their deity to purge Alkaendra from the remaining sentient beings that inhabit it. From their Lightless World burrows - that they consider the top and not the bottom- they warred generation over generation with everything and everyone. A clear sign of its strength and effectiveness is that the Hryeth still exist and in large numbers, despite arousing open hostility from all the thinking peoples.
Since the Age of Births they have lived in Hryethaikkar, where no one dares to enter. Nobody knows how many Hryeth are there but judging by the their periodic invasions throughout the Northwest, the number must be enormous. Since the Age of Blood they have founded nests and settlements in Nauthalarkka, the Southern Jungles, Navaetharu, Taechkka, Tyethsynnúma and Tegu-ti-Ithwä. Wherever are cavernous mountains, it is for sure that some hryeth will be there. It can be said that, after humans, they are the best adapted species of all Alkaendra.
 The Hryeth are large, exceeding two meters with ease. They have no hair. Their skin is covered with dermal and bony protuberances, whose pattern is markedly different depending on where they live, which suggests to scholars that there is a relationship to environmental conditions. They have more powerful echolocators and thermal sensors than any other creature of Gahaedha but Hryeth lack eyesight and taste. They are seasonally hermaphrodites changing sex based on needs and resources of the nest. They are the only sentient species passing through metamorphosis before reaching the adult intelligent stage.
 There is no socity between them. No castes or differences. No queens or drones, or workers ... Each nest acts as a single mind due to the ingestion of a fungus that causes their brain synapses generate a telepathic bond that links their thoughts and even their sensations and feelings. Being away from the nest causes the progresive animalization of the Hryeth and if it is for too long it becomes irreversible.
 These creatures have a religion based on the belief that the fungus that makes them one, is part of the Creating Essence they know as Chtoyakka. Although this belief is shared by all nests without exception, there is no permanent alliance between them. Typically hryeth from different nests are attacked without mercy or previous advice. Mysteriously, they hate everything and everyone other than his nest "superego".

Ugara

The Ugara were one of the first species to saw and felt the sunlight on Alkaendra. And his story is that of a people who could have been great but failed to deal with the history and the world, staying in a slow but steady decline. Defeated in the early days by the Longed Ones and their Kuannachta allies, and then, massacred by Hryeth, they moved more and more away of their former territories and entered where others would not.
Although declining, their numbers are still significant in the Southern Jungles, in the Zandhari mountains and Nauthalarkka. The Ugara barely survive in other inhospitable lands, in small tribal groups which disappear after a few generations of continued inbreeding. They only thrive in the human nation of Inúe establishing a cooperative relationship with the humans. That has bringed back part of the dignity and magnificence that they once possessed.
The giantic Ugara are more than three meters high, with terrible strength and legendary endurance. There is strong sexual dimorphism because females rarely exceed two and half meters tall and weigh nearly a hundred and eighty kilograms less. But differences are even greater, since the she-Ugaras are the only ones that can use or develop mental or divine power. Their body is covered with hair except chest and belly, and this hairy coat varies in length, color and shape throughout the continent. They have an extraordinary sense of smell and incredible hearing, but are myopic. Some Ugara have the ability to stablish a symbiotic relation with algae - in their bristles- so under certain conditions they can photosynthesize, which gives them a survival degree in times of great scarcity.
Formerly they managed to create a developed civilization, but today are no more than wild and barbarous tribes governed by the law of the strongest or the most powerful. Many have been enslaved by other species or even forced to beg to survive. Although not openly hostile as hryeth, they are not usually friendly except with Ylmarys or Taengryza. They feel a virulent racial hate against the Kuannachta whose the Ugara blame for his unfortunate fate.
                                His bloody and primitive cult to Shalgaad, the Beastmaster, plunge them into declining and takes them far away from the progress they once knew.