Peoples of High Fantasy
Apparently, the realm of Fantasy is divided into sub-categories. That which is called High Fantasy is, I believe, the original form of Fantasy tales, stemming from the ancient legends of heroes, Faeries, and Daemons. Every other category uses only a few elements typically found in High Fantasy. And one of those elements is a number of separate humanoid races, each one filling a specialized mold and filling some important role in the grand epics of High Fantasy.
I’m compiling a list here of the various races one will doubtless encounter in High Fantasy epics such as the Lord of the Rings or the grand epics of Mithgar, a world created by one Dennis L. McKiernan. I honestly have not encountered many High Fantasy epics, so forgive me for generalizing from a few sources.
First of all, there is the race of Men. They are typically the tallest of the races aligned with Good, averaging six feet or so. Because they are human, they tend to have the largest and most readily apparent kingdoms, and there’s often a High King that everyone bows too. They are military leaders and well-rounded in terms of weaponry, and usually the best horsemen in any Alliance. If no other race produces the individual that the epic centers on, he or she will be of the race of Men.
Then there are the Elves, High Elves to be precise. Pointed of ear and fair of skin, they are nearly as tall as Men but tend to be a tad shorter. Elves are usually the most in tune with nature and have origins in fairer lands than where the action takes place, such as the Undying Lands of Middle Earth or the plane of Adonar in the realm of Mithgar. In battle, Elves evidence skill in both the bow and in swordsmanship. Weapons created by Elves tend to have magical properties designed to detect and destroy Evil.
Dwarves are next in line, and next shortest, ranging from one-half to three-quarters the height of a Man. For whatever reason, perhaps because of Gimli from the LotR films, a common misconception is that Dwarves have Scottish accents as a racial feature. Great beards, tempers, and mighty axe skills they have, but no accents. Dwarves are cave dwellers, at home in the mountains where they mine out all manner of metals and jewelry. This mining makes the Dwarves the most likely candidates for accidentally releasing some sealed monster from ages pass, such as a Baelrog. Anything made by a dwarf is especially strong, especially since they alone have access to the rarer, tougher metals such as mithril.
Then, you have the Halflings, Hobbits, Warrows, or whatever you call those short, plump fellows that act as a better everyman than the Men themselves. Actually, Tolkien’s Hobbits and McKiernan’s Warrows are distinctly different; the first are homely types not given to adventure, excepting the Baggins clan, and not well suited to fight anything much bigger than themselves. Warrows, or Waerlings as they are also called, seem to be more battle-ready than hobbits. Their skills with the bow surpass any other race in Mithgar, and they can use long knives as effective swords in a pinch. I know not what two races could produce the Hobbits, although I suspect Men and Dwarf, but I do know for a fact that Warrows are a mesh of every other Good race in Mithgar; they have Elven ears and eye shape, shortness borne from Dwarves and enhanced somehow, Men for the basic build, and the eyes themselves come from a race of subterranean giants called the Utrani, who can see through solid rock by viewing a different area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Warrow eyes, also by seeing a slightly different light, can pierce further through unnatural darkness than any other race, although the Elves have them beat in natural sunlight.
On the side of Evil, you have the Goblins, Orcs, and Trolls. Goblins and Orcs alternate as the chief unit of any Horde, although the former seems to have more archery ability than the latter. Trolls are big, strong, tough, and stupid. Like living tanks, they can plow through armies of Men and Elves, clobbering with their clubs until something big hits them or they get an arrow in the eye. The Trolls of Mithgar are tougher than those of Middle Earth, being covered in a natural scaled armor that only a ballista shot or an Elven blade can penetrate. And as to stupidity, it seems that the bigger a creature of the Horde is, the smaller the brain, ghoul-like generals excepting.
The undead make good taskmasters and strike forces. If I had to match them up, I’d say Sauron’s Nazgul could take an equal number of Modru’s Ghola, but the Dark One of Mithgar employs possibly limitless numbers of his undead generals while there are only nine Nazgul in Sauron’s control. Figuring that the Nazgul are wraiths and thus nearly invincible and decapitation, wood through the heart, and fire easily down the corporeal Ghola… I’d give it to the Nazgul until the Ghola ranks grow large.
And now we’re down to Sauron and Modru themselves, the great Daemon leaders, and each actually only a servant of a greater evil. McKiernan used Tolkien’s work as inspiration, so the histories of the two are very similar. Both challenged the races of the middle plane of their world and were cast down into a long exile. Later, both regained some power and launched another war, Modru’s being a bit bigger and more sudden than Sauron’s. And, in the end, both were taken down by a Halfling and destroyed for all time. Evil, in general, always seems to put too many eggs in one basket, be it a ring, a crazy sunlight-eating stone, or some great Orb of Power or whatever.