Race (fantasy)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Many fantasy stories and worlds refer to their main sentient humanoid species as "races" rather than species. In most such worlds, these races are related and capable of producing viable offspring together, typically having derived from one root species - most often either elves or humans - by magical or divine influence, or by intelligent design. The usage of the term in this context was popularized by J. R. R. TolkienTemplate:Fact and was further adapted and spread by the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many fantasy settings use the terms "race" and "species" interchangeably.
In role-playing games, "race" typically refers to any species that can be used as a player character. In older editions of Dungeons & Dragons, the primary non-human player races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, and half-elf) were called "demi-humans". Later games such as Shadowrun use the term "metahuman", and define these humanoid races as subdivisions of Homo sapiens.
