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{{trope}}
[[File:300px-
Sometimes, a [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop Game]] or [[Video Game]] setting just has a metric boatload of playable
'''Happens in three ways:'''
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# You've got a setting, and you decide to add some races besides the basic human. Given that you're going for a Mythic Fable-style setting, you decide to add as many as possible, since that allows each to wear a different [[Planet of Hats|Hat]].
The cutoff point for the purposes of examples for both types 1 and 2 is set somewhat arbitrarily at 8 races; the cutoff point for type 3 is set at the somewhat lower 4 NPC <ref>For the purposes of non-game settings, an NPC race is defined as a civilized race who has no characters above the level of [[Mentors|a mentor]] in importance.</ref> races.
These races will generally be further subdivided into [[Underground Monkey|every possible variation]].
▲The cutoff point for the purposes of examples for both types 1 and 2 is set somewhat arbitrarily at 8 races; the cutoff point for type 3 is set at the somewhat lower 4 NPC <ref>For the purposes of non-game settings, an NPC race is defined as a civilized race who has no characters above the level of [[Mentors|a mentor]] in importance.</ref> races.
▲These races will generally be further subdivided into [[Underground Monkey|every possible variation]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Bleach]]'' features, in addition to normal humans, the human-variant [[The Grim Reaper|Shinigami]], [[Our Ghosts Are Different|normal spirits]], [[The Heartless|Hollows]], and Quincies, in addition to the synthetic Modsouls and artificial human Nemu. Arrancar are Hollow-Shinigami hybrids, Visoreds are Shinigami-Hollow hybrids. Fulbringers are spiritually-aware humans that were 'infected' with Hollow spirit energy, but have their own abilities added to the mix. Sajin Komamura falls under [[Petting Zoo People]], although it's not clear if this counts as a race or a curse. The anime adds in the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Bounts]] and later on introduces the Tojo, prisoners of [[Hell]], for a movie tie-in.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has 4 basic races: Humans, [[Youkai]], Hellas race([[Ambiguously Brown|dark skinned]]) and [[Funny Animal|Animal]] [[Petting Zoo People|People]] from the [[Magical Land|Magic World]]. The human races are then subdivided in many different kinds ''and'' varying in all points of the [[Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?]]'' has humans, elfs, half-elfs, dwarfs (with noticeable sexual dimorphism), [[halfling|Prums]], [[Little Bit Beastly|beastfolk]] of various races, and more.
== [[Film]] ==
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* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is a good example of type 1. Every time a new ally or opponent needed to be added, JRR would come up with a new race (and possibly a thousand years of history, mythology, and linguistic development) to drive the story. Sure, the protagonists were the big five (dwarves, elves, men, wizards (Istari), and hobbits), but that didn't count the various subdivisions of elves, men, and hobbits, nor the orcs, goblins, elite orcs, undead, daemons, spiders, spider gods, scary things that used to be men, bad-ass wolves, eagles, sentient trees, giant tree-men (but no more tree-women), dragons, and whatever Tom Bombadil, Old Man Willow, and Beorn are.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' sort of falls under type 3. Besides the managerie of beings in Narnia: Dwarfs, Fauns, Dryads(tree nymphs/gods/spirits), Centaurs, Stayrs, Naiads(water nymphs/gods/spirits), Giants, Unicorns, Winged Horses, and Talking Beasts, Other various beings are mentioned in certain books: The monsters and demons in the White Witch's Army(Evil Dwarfs, Evil Giants, Werewolves, Evil trees and plants, Ghouls, Boggles, Ogres, Minotaurs, Cruels, Hags, Spectres, People of the Toadstools, Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins), The humans from Calormen, Archenland, Telmar, and the Islands, Stars, Merpeople(traditional half human-half fish hybrid), Sea People(basically aquatic humans with purple hair and go around naked), Duffers/Monopods/Dufflepuds(one-legged dwarfs), Dragons, Sea Serpents, Giant Squids, Krackens, Birds from the Sun, Marshwiggles, Gnomes(who look a little more like devils with pitchforks than whimsical, diminuitive cousins to dwarfs), and Salamanders.
* All the characters in [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]'' are human, but the humans are split into an enormous number of "kinden"
* The [[Cthulhu Mythos]] has [
* Carna, the world of the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', ''used'' to have these, until most were wiped out (some by the Alerans/humans, the main protagonist race, but probably others that we don't know about that were destroyed by other races). As of the timeline of the novels, there are only five sentient races left (Alerans, Marat, Canim, Vord, and Icemen), though ironically they ''don't'' fit into the [[Five Races]] categorization.
* ''[[The Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' has dozens of races, each with multiple named characters.
* Edgar Rice Burroughs' [
* Larry Niven's ''[[Known Space]]'' series has Humans, Kzinti, Puppeteers, Outsiders, Pierin, Kdatlyno, Trinocs, Bandersnatchi, Grogs and more. Those are only the contemporary races, the Thrint, Tnuctipun, Pak, Martians and others have gone (mostly) extinct. And then there are all the myriad humanoid subspecies on Ringworld...
* ''[[Discworld]]'' started with humans, trolls, and elves
** In the same vein as the Golems we get Gargoyles. On a stranger front, we get Demons, Things from the Dungeon Dimension, and certain Anthropomorphic Personifications (Time specifically, but maybe each one can be seen as a separate race). Also gods, genies (''[[
* In ''[[
* The likely world record for
== [[Live
* ''[[Star Trek]]''. The humans, the Vulcans ([[Our Elves Are Better|space elves]]), the Romulans (the Vulcans' nastier cousins [So... Space Drow?]), the Klingons ([[Proud Warrior Race Guy
* Where does one begin with ''[[
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has five major powers: Humans, Centauri, Narn, Minbari, and Vorlons. Then there's the League of Non-aligned Worlds, a collection of at least a dozen minor powers, including the Drazi, the Markabs, the Vree, and the Pak'ma'ra. And then the Shadows turn up and there are an assortment of species that only turn up once or twice like the Dilgar, the Streib, and the Soul Hunters.
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* [[Greek Mythology]] has more non-human races than any other mythology. There's the cyclopes, centaurs, lamias, fauns/satyrs, gorgons, harpies, nymphs, titans, and gods. Plus a lot of one of a kind monsters such as the minotaur, Cerberus, Pegasus, etc.
** Includes the old mortals, who came before humans were created, and are never adequately explained.
* The Hindu canon rivals that of the Greeks, as one would expect of the world's oldest religion that is still practiced today. The list includes the vanara, garuda, naga, rakshasa, the saptas, pitrs, the gods themselves and their avatars. And those are just the most popular ones - there are literally hundreds of different beings in the Ramayana alone.
* [[Norse Mythology]] is another one. The list includes the aesir and vanir, the norns, jotnar (fire and ice versions), ljosalfar, svaltalfar, and dokkalfar, dvergar, vaettir, troll, nisse, valkyries, einherjar, mortal men and the dead.
* [[Japanese Mythology]] has dozens of races, most of them spirits, animal people, and sentient objects.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''Twilight Imperium'' started out with six "great races" (including humans) scrambling to rebuild the long extinct Lazax Imperium they were once part of; expansions for the game's 1st edition added four more races that had risen to a similar level of power in the interim. The current 3rd edition included all ten races from the get-go, then a new expansion was published which introduced ''four'' brand-new races, for a total of fourteen; probably the largest number of playable races in a tabletop strategy game, with the possible exception of Star Fleet Battles.
* Speaking of which, ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'' features a bunch of distinct fleets, including, in the basic edition, ships for [[The Federation]], the Klingons, the Romulans
* The board game ''Small World'' started with an already-respectable 14 races in the core set, and the first three official expansions have added another 10 in total. Some of the 'races' would normally count as humans, however; for example, Amazons, Barbarians, Gypsies and Sorcerers are all separate races. In addition, there are special abilities which are independent of races, so during a game you'll actually be looking at things like Merchant Halflings or Cursed Goblins. Or Peace-Loving Orcs, for that matter. There are 20 abilities in the core game, with 12 more from expansions, meaning you're looking at 24 * 32 = '''768''' race/ability combinations just from official sources. Fans have added more, obviously.
* The board game ''Cosmic Encounter'' is all about this, with each alien race breaking the rules in a different way. The original game had 15 races, and nine(!) expansion sets bringing the total eventually up to a whopping 75(!). One of the later publishers was planning an expansion with yet another 35(!) but went out of business before the release.
** The current edition from ''Fantasy Flight'' has released two expansions so far, bring the grand total to a staggering 90 alien races.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer
** ''40K'' only has about seven main races (Humans, [[Our Elves Are Better|Space Elves]], [[Our Orcs Are Different|Space Orks]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|Killer]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Undead Cyborgs]], [[Hive Mind]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Bug Aliens]], [[The Greys]], and [[Demonic Invaders|crazy]] [[Phantasy Spelling|daemons]]) but each has a ton of sub-organizations, groups, and factions. For example, "humans" alone covers the [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]], the [[Super Soldier|Space Marines]], [[State Sec|the Inquisition]] (itself divided into Ordos Malleus, Hereticus and Xenos to deal with daemons, witches and aliens respectively), the [[Amazon Brigade|Sisters of Battle]] and the [[Face Heel Turn|Chaos Space Marines]]. The fluff also mentions a lot of other races, many of whom have been wiped out by [[Designated Hero|the good guys.]]
** ''Warhammer Fantasy'' has no less than 14 (German Humans, French/British Humans, [[Our Elves Are Better|High Elves]], [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Dwarves]], Chaos Humans, Dark Elves, chaos dwarves, wood elves, lizardmen, ratmen, ogres, mummies, vampires, goblins, [[Our Orcs Are Different|orcs]]).
** ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' has 21 different types of team, inlcuding 3 kinds of human (standard, Norse, and Amazon), 4 kinds of elf (dark, wood, wealthy high and poor high), 3 kinds of chaos (standard, dwarf, and Nurgle), and 4 kinds of undead (standard, necromancer, vampire, and mummy).
* ''[[Xevoz]]'' starts out with six races (humans, [[Big Creepy
* Some settings of ''[[Dungeons
** For sheer diversity, ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' stands out, with dozens of races and subraces scattered across the setting. Then there's ''[[Planescape]]'' and ''[[Spelljammer]]'', which by their very nature as bridges between settings allow for practically any race or subrace to be played and then some (''Planescape'' had such options as intelligent squirrels native to Yggdrasil), more to emphasize the dazzling effect, that is Type 3.
** ''[[Eberron]]'', too, has a lot of races. Plus the setting literally says that everything that has a place in ''Dungeons and Dragons'' has a place in ''Eberron'', which at least theoretically means every splatbook is valid.
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* ''[[GURPS]]: Dungeon Fantasy'' has... Cat-folk, Coleopterans, Corpse-Eaters, Dark Ones, Dwarves, ''Seven'' Kinds of Elf, Fauns, Leprechauns, Nymphs, Pixies, Gargoyles, Gnomes, Goblins, Half-Orcs, Hobgoblins, Orcs, ''Seven'' Half-Spirit Races, Halflings, Humans, Minotaurs, Ogres, Half Ogres, Dragon-Blooded, Lizard Men, Trolls and Wildmen. A total of 40 racial templates introduced in one supplement. However, none of them are fleshed out races due to the "blank slate" nature of ''GURPS'' in general.
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has 5 metatypes: Human, Orks, Trolls, Elves and Dwarves. But each race has around 6 [[Expansion Pack World|meta-variants]], who can look nothing like the base race. Then there's the Synthetic Intelligences, the Drakes, the Changelings, the Ghouls, Vampires and other infected critters... There's the Non-human sentients too like Nagas, Centaurs, wendigos....
* In ''[[
** Within just ''[[
** ''[[
** All the other "splats" have their own subdivisions into playable types: [[Mage: The Ascension
* The ''[[
* ''[[
** Just as an example, they recently came out with a book called ''D-Bees of North America'', a book specifically designed to be nothing but playable alien races. Out of the 86 races in this book, 50 of them are expanded versions of popular races from other books. Yeah, 50 races from various books are considered a random sampling for this game.
* Every role-playing game set in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe has ended up allowing players access to dozens if not hundreds (literally) of races.
* ''[[Talislanta]]'' has several dozen bizarre species to choose from, and even its "human"-analogs aren't necessarily what you'd call normal. Plus, [[Slogans|no elves]].
* ''[[
** And that's not even counting subraces. Just counting the types of goblins there are [[Too Dumb to Live|Basic Dominarian Goblins]], [[Cannon Fodder|Rathi Moggs,]] [[
** The card [http://magiccards.info/tsts/en/26.html Mistform Ultimus] is every creature type. [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/jm54 An article on magicthegathering.com] pointed out just how many creature types this was (over 250 at the time). If this were to be printed out in 10-pt font, it would take an entire page of 8.5x11 paper to list. Since then, errata have been released to significantly cull the herd of single-use creature types (Ali-From-Cairo, anyone?)
* ''[[Duel Masters]]'' too. [http://duelmasters.wikia.com/wiki/Race This] is an unquestionably long list, and still growing. A few (like Starnoid and Pegasus) are exclusive to only one creature.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Age of Wonders]]''. 15 as of the last expansion, not counting a race that was present in the first game and didn't return for the sequel.
* ''[[Star Control]]'', given that each race was allowed only one ship, had to fall into this to have more than a small number of ships.
* The ''[[
** Sister game ''[[Master of Magic]]'' (seeing a pattern?) also has lots of races, but no sequels
* ''[[
* The ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'' series. In the original version of Galactic Civilizations 2, the races were pretty similar, only differentiated by hardcoded reactions (the Drengin and the Torians hate each other, for example) and racial bonuses. However, in the newer expansions, races got Super Abilities and, in the Twilight of the Arnor expansion, unique tech trees. Yes, a game with ~14 separate races which includes unique tech trees.
* The ''[[Warlords]]'' series, and its spinoff ''Warlords Battlecry''. ''WBC1'' had nine races (Human, Dwarf, Undead, Barbarian, Minotaur, Orc, High Elf, Wood Elf, Dark Elf), arranged on a chart whose columns were "civilized", "barbaric", and "magical" and whose rows were "good", "neutral", and "evil". ''WBC2'' added three new races, which can be unofficially sorted into a new "chaotic" column: Fey, Dark Dwarves, and Daemons. ''WBC3'' almost completely abandoned the theme, splitting Humans into Empire and Knights and adding Ssrathi ([[Mayincatec]] [[Snake People]]), Swarm, and Plaguelords. By the end of the series, that's a grand total of 16 almost completely unique factions drawn from 11 races (of which there are three kinds of human, three kinds of elf, and two kinds of dwarf), with hardly a shared unit or building to be found.
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* Many MMORPGs:
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', as mentioned above. Increased the playable race count from eight on its initial release to twelve as of ''Cataclysm''.
** ''[[
** Honorable mention goes to ''[[Earth Eternal]]'', which started beta with '''22''' races, and ahalf dozen or so mentioned in the lore but not given form yet. Though it should be noted that [[Cosmetically Different Sides|the differences are cosmetic only]]; all 22 races play identically with nary a stat or ability difference.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]''. Justified, since Tamriel is an ethnically diverse empire, which means you have High Elves, the Dunmer (Dark Elves), Wood Elves, Argonians (Lizardmen), Khajiit (Catmen), Nords (Vikings), Bretons (French and British), Redguards (Arabs and Africans), Orcs, and Imperial Men (Greeks, Romans and sometimes Asians).
** And that's just the playable races. Factor in NPC races and those mentioned in the backstory, and you also have Dwemer (Mesopotamians), Imga (Intelligent Apes), Daedra (Demigods), Almderi ([[Precursors]]), Sloads (Slugmen), Nedes (Barbarians), Alpine Elves, Akaviri (Chinese and Japanese), Hist (Ancient Sentient Trees)...
** Some of the NPC races have been turned into playable races by intrepid modders.
* ''[[
* Some [[Roguelike]] games get into this:
** ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'' has 24 races at the moment, with great variation. In addition to the common humans, elves and dwarves, Crawl has a few quite exotic ones, such as [[Fair Folk|spriggans]], centaurs, mummies, merfolk, demonspawn and demigods.
** Many Angband variants, including [[Z Angband]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The newer Ivalice games (''[[
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'', when considered as a whole. Any given game has no more than five races, but consider the range, from human-like Hylians (the PC race, distinct from humans [[Depending
* ''[[Suikoden]]'' does this (usually using some kind of animal as a basis) on account of having [[108]] characters in [[Loads and Loads of Characters|EVERY game]]. To ensure [[Cast of Snowflakes|variety]], the series has Kobolds (dog people), [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Nei-Kobolds]] (cat people), Lizard people, duck people, wingers, a race of beavers, mermaids, purpoises. Some argue if the Cyndar/Sindar people are a separate race or a lost civilization. Other characters such as Jeane, Zerase etc have also been argued if they are entirely human. Every game seems to add at least one more race to the count.
* ''[[
* [[Super Mario Bros.|The Mario series]] has at least two dozen sentient races at this point, many of them originated as supposedly non-sentient mooks. [[What Measure Is a Mook?|And yes]], you'll be torching, freezing, crushing and star-powering plenty of those acknowledgedly sentient races in each new 2D outing. (No, you don't get to kill any [[Super Mario Sunshine
** Hell, even the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
* ''[[Touhou]]'' not only has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] but Loads And Loads Of Races as well, with at least one representative from any [[Youkai]] ZUN wants to add. The first Windows era game ''alone'' contains humans, vampires, fairies, a [[Witch Species]], and what is [[Wild Mass Guessing|heavily suspected to be]] a Chinese dragon. Other games introduce [[Petting Zoo People|animals-turned-youkai]], humans-turned-youkai, ghosts, demons, [[Our Angels Are Different|celestials]], [[Physical God|gods]], [[Our Elves Are Better|Lunarians]], a [[Shinigami]], kappa, tengu, [[Humanoid Abomination|whatever the hell Yukari is]], and the list goes on.
* ''[[
* ''[[Legend of Mana]]'' boasts sprites, humans, the jewel-hearted Jumi, dragoons, faeries, flowerlings, dudbears, sirens, mermaids, sproutlings, elves, succubi, chobin hoods, tomato men, sahagin, goblins, narcissos, mad mallards, the enchanted golems, several sapient animals including rabbits, cats, penguins, monkeys, as well as a sprawling assortment of bizarre anthropomorphic objects and mythic beings such as a vampire, basilisk, and a centaur.
* ''[[Star Ocean]]'' is another solid example of a Type 3 here, owing to its influence from ''[[Star Trek]]''
* ''[[Space Empires]]'' offers around a dozen (or more) races as standard options, each with their [[Planet of Hats|hat]]. It's fairly simple to create and fine-tune your own, particularly to anything prior to the fifth game.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' carries on the ''[[Star Wars]]'' tradition by featuring pretty much every notable race that appeared in the films including humans, Wookiees, Twileks, Hutts, Jawas, Rodarians, Tusken Raiders, etc. as well as introducing several new ones such as the Cathar (feline bipeds) and the Selkath (an aquatic race of bipeds with long, fish-like faces).
** Cathars actually first appeared in the [[Tales of the Jedi]] comics.
* In ''[[Lusternia]]'' there are twenty playable races, ranging from tiny, airborne [[The Fair Folk|fair folk]] to hulking, nine foot tall [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti|yeti-men]]. There are many more mortal races that are unplayable due to logistical issues, such as the centaur ([[Dummied Out]] due to the challenge of handling a six-limbed race) and gnomes (scrapped for being too similar to [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves]]).
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Last
* Although ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' started off with mainly human characters, in the recent "vacation arc" they started adding a crapload more.
* In ''[[Rice Boy]]'''s world, there tend to be well-defined civilisation-races like the frog-men of Spatch, the fish-men of Tenshells, the machine-men of the Iron Teeth, the Horned of the Stone Palm... and then there are people like Arctaur, with four closely-packed legs and a head like a cross between a broken donut and a power adapter. Many oneshot body types seem to once have been part of their own race, but estranged in space or the [[Last of His Kind]].
* ''[[Harkovast]]'' features the Darsai, the Tsung-Dao, the Nymus, the Ano-Chee, the Junlocks, the Golta and a whole host of others who have been named but have yet to appear.
* ''[[
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' - last checked, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160208172842/http://ovalkwiki.com/Sophonts the list of sophonts] on Ovalkwiki has 28 named and seen species (plus two unconfirmed possible matches), other than humans, [[Uplifted Animal|uplifts]] (all 3 variants of elephants are listed, but there are others) and Dark Matter Entities. There was at least one more after their update. And all the unnamed or unseen species.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' has plenty, based as it is on D&D, but it also has a surprisingly broad distribution among the actual characters. Even discounting random monsters, there have been at least ''three'' named characters for each of the following: human (Roy, Haley, Elan), elf/dark elf (Vaarsuvius, Lirian, Zz'dtri), dwarf (Durkon, Hilgya, Kraagor), halfling (Belkar, Serini, Hank), half-orc (Thog, Therkla, Bozzok), kobold (Yikyik, Kilkil, the Oracle), lizardfolk (Gannji, Enor, Malack), goblinoid (Redcloak, Jirix, Right-Eye)—plus the occasional sylph (Celia), gnome (Leeky), catfolk, weird frog person, ogre, etc.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[
* Most species of animal exist as humanoid beings in ''[[Nexus Gate]]''. Most cultures we have in real life are represented with fictional counterparts as well.
* Any given forum RP with fantasy aspects. Typical inclusions appear to be vampire, werewolf, shapechanger, elemental, fairy, demon, elf, along with one or more of the following: mermaid, selkie, phoenix, or any other magical creature common to preteen fantasy novels. Also typically includes the disclaimer "If you want to add another just ask."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* According to one episode of ''[[
* In ''[[Ugly Americans]]'', New York alone seems to be home to hundreds, if not thousands, of races. Many are introduced for a quick gag, only to be fleshed out with their own histories and customs later on.
* The original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' cartoon. Earth Ponies, Pegasus Ponies, Unicorn Ponies, Sea Ponies, Flutter Ponies, Bushwoolies, Grundles, Furbobs, Stonebacks, Flories, Crab Nasties, and more.
** The G4 ''[[My Little Pony:
* ''Thundercats'' , in both incarnations, has more races than you'd think would ''fit'' on one planet. Various animal-people are only the beginning.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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