There are numerous humanoid species (and many more have gone extinct). Besides generally humanoid appearance they have two things in common. The first one is that none of them have round ears like humans do. Hence they are collectively called "elves". However it would sound weird if I changed words like "humane" to something like "elfane", so I just use regular words. Also they aren't stereotypical elves who live for hundreds of years and are in harmony with nature, no, they are very much like humans.

The second thing these all elves have in common that they have small organ called "nilam" in upper nape. This allows them to do magic. Nilam connects to bloodvessels and just like blood gets oxygen from lungs, blood gets mana from nilam. When someone does magic mana is spent, but it can be regained over time. Because mana is so connected with blood, excessive magic use feels like bloodloss. Despite numerous claims there is no credible evidence that this can be lethal. However there is some evidence that excessive magic use can deteriorate the body, but most people don't use magic enough to have ill effects. Also just like some people are more skilled in certain physical activities some elves are more skilled with magic.

Since all species of elves are related they can have children together (nyxians are an exception. They don't reproduce like others). For unknown reasons mixed-species children usually take more after their mother. This is theorized to be because mother's mana flows to the child and transforms them.

Natural species

Lumenfos

Lumenfos are

Cilfos

Cilfos are closely related to lumenfos and outwardly they can only be distinguished by their eyes and sometimes by shape of their ears. Cilfos eyes have colored sclera and white (or very light colored) iris. As for the ears some cilfos have more crescent shaped ears like their ancestors did. Cilfos can also have slightly weirder haircolors like firetruck red or bluish black, but they are still somewhat realistic. So no bright green hair, for example.

Goljim

If average lumenfos is 175 cm then average goljim is 190 cm and they look even taller because they grow horns. Most horns are rather simple shaped and don't usually hinder daily life, but some people intentionally try to get their horns to grow into wilder shapes. Another peculiar things about goljim is that they can have any eyecolor cats have. And just like most kittens most goljim are born with blue eyes that change as they mature.

Crafalca

Crafalca have gray skin and antlers and they are generally speaking shorter than other elves. Otherwise they haave similar coloration to humans, except somewhat brighter. Some crafalca also have slight gradient in their hair color. Originally crafalca evolved near large cave systems in central and northen parts of Airal and they spent a lot of time underground. There are even stories of ancient crafalca cities hidden deep within mountains.

Lucavo

Lucavo are very easy to spot, for starters their hair and eyes can be any color. Lucavos eyes also react to light the same way cats eyes do and most lucavo have sharp canines. But perhaps the most animalistic part of their physiology is their ears: they are covered in fur, some even have lynx-like tufts, and they move around just like animal ears do. That's why it's easy to see how lucavo is feeling and as a people they value honesty highly.

Usmevir

Whereas the other species are from Airal usmevir are from Haltjame archipelago that is located on the other side of the globe. Usmevir look almost like lumenfos, some have even pretended to be one, but there are differences. Usmevir tend to be taller and look rather androgynous. On top of human-like eyecolors their eyes can be any warm color (from yellow to orange to red to fuchsia). Of course usmevir have also invented contact lenses and surgeries that can alter they appearance so it's not even weird to see usmevir with eyes that change color. Some usmevir think that because they are technologically more advanced than other elves that they are smarter, but that's not true.

Created species

Nyxian

Nyxians are perhaps the most alien of Airal's species. They are pitch-black shapeshifters and the only real bone in their body is crystal-like skull. The first nyxians were elves who wanted to become like gods so their nilam was filled to the brim with mana. This proved to be extremely unhealthy. Their blood crystallized, all bones in their skull fused together (including teeth), until eventually the head simply fell off. And the scary thing is that the body continued living (these became dagtis, more of them later). Eventually black ichor formed around the skull and a nyxian would be born without any memories of their previous life. Soon this transformation started to be used as a punishment for criminals.

Most nyxians name themselves. It's tradition to have a name somehow related to night, darkness, color black or other related topics.

Dagtis

Whereas

Vititi

Driniani

Aniker

Materialized form of toformi's most important value or trait, a bit like a cutie marks in MLP. Aniker's are usually simple shaped objects, the most complex on that appears in the story is shaped like clubs (tha playing card suite). Aniker's color determies toformi's eyecolor and color of their flesh. Anikers are inside toformis chest. If toformi become completely disillusioned they can rip the aniker out of their chest. This causes toformi to transform to Heatless.

Dägger Intergalactic

Massive corporation that controls much of the world. It's main product? Fast food. Both to keep up with the demand and to find new tasting products to sell Dägger has built an armada of research vessels that explore the galaxy to find more htings to process.

Why "Dägger", not "Dagger"? Because Finnish. When people who don't speak much English (or just think it's funny to pronounce English words in Finnish way) say "dagger" it sounds more like "däggeri". And "däggeri" sounds similar to "mäkkäri", which is what Finnish people call McDonalds. And since Dägger Intergalactic focuses so much on fast food I think that's amusing. Also "ä" is underappreciated letter.

Nilam

Internal organ located in upper nape that allows people to do magic. All species who can do magic have either a nilam or some other equivalent, like aniker in toformi. Unfortunately nilam is extremely fragile organ and it can easily malfunction, especially if it's used a lot. That's why frequent magic use slowly deteriorates body. And even if person doesn't do any magic nilam can still malfunction causing many kinds of illnesses.

Many species have different believes about nilam. People from Airal think person's soul resides in nilam so worst criminals are punished by removing their nilam, while zafrosians think that nilam separates them from animals. (They are wrong, some animals also have nilam). Most species can live without their nilam and these days some people who don't want to practice magic voluntairily have their nikam removed so it won't cause them trouble in the future.

Heartless

If toformi is completely disillusioned they can rip their aniker out. This causes toformi to transform to a Heartless. Most anikers aren't literally heart-shaped, but the first toformi who did this had heart-shaped aniker hence the name. Being Heartless changes toformi physically: they become taller and gain more magical powers (which causes their pupils to turn white). Their eyes also gain another color in them. Sometimes the sclera, sometimes the iris, that seems to be random. However the another color is alway the opposite of the previous one. For example previously yellow eyed Einkolasu now has yellow-blue eyes.

However toformi still needs to keep the aniker close-by, since if the aniker is destroyed it'll kill the toformi too. Also aniker is source of their new powers so if it's far from them they'll revert to looking similar to their previous form. Not completely the same, but closer to that nonetheless.

Over the years there, of course, has been more nations all over Airal. But these are the nations that exist in year 6000.

Modima

Did it work?

Airalians consider changing of millenia to be extremely important event, like change of eras. Because of this some rulers have ruled that the millenia changed the moment they gained power, even though true new millenia would still be hundreds of years away. Of course it's completely different matter if that ruling is widely adapted, but sometimes that has worked. As the results even Airalian historians are confused of when events took place, especially because there have been numerous books about fake history to "fill" missing centuries.

Still this timeline has been organized by "millenia", just note that they aren't really 1000 years.

0

Airalians consider year 0 to be the moment when Palette gods made their first brushstrokes to create the world. This moment was determined from ancient religious texts by complex math. Mathematics behind it are constantly criticized, but the year has been too normalized to change now.

Actually the world is millions of years old and formed pretty similarily than our world.

1000

Everyone knows that the Palette gods prophesized that thousand years from world's creation someone will unite Airalians again. Upstart ruler Freidis Falka tried to legitimize her rule by claiming that 1000 years have passed and that she's the great unifier. She may not have conquered the world, but eventually most people accepted her chronology.

This time period was pretty analogous to bronze age. At least in Airal. In Haltjamen technology was already way more advanced to the point where they wondered if they were really that different from their gods. Like what really is the the power difference between god and mighty mage? It couldn't be that much. Some people in haltjamen began to experiment on becoming even more powerful by using their scientific knowledge. These experiments proved to be extremely dangerous, some islands were even destroyed completely. They didn't want to endanger their archipelago any further so tests were stopped and their dreams of reaching level of gods were buried. Until Haltjamens discovered Airal.

At first Haltjamens didn't realize there were already people living in Airal, but when they did they decided to keep their distance from the locals.

WIP

"And there was light" takes place during this time period.