Humans are the dominant race on Maia. They're everywhere and they look like the humans on Earth. They also come in a variety of colors, just like the colors on Earth.

Other than humans, there are a variety of magical, usually quite ancient, races that don't actually mix with humans but sometimes come into contact with them. These include the usual suspects: Trolls, Goblins, Faeries (or Sprites), Dragons, Drakes, Griffons (very rare), Dwarves, etc.

Dwarves used to be more populous and open about their existence, now it's questionable whether they even still exist at all - though they left behind plenty of artifacts and underground ruins to prove they used to exist, even if they don't anymore. Unfortunately, nothing that they left behind was magical in nature, just very pretty and extremely valuable.

Faeries (Sprites) very rarely show themselves. They live in the forests, actually inside the trees and only come out if called by sympathetic, magical spirits (like Tali's, for instance.) This is another race whose existence is relegated to legend, except among the more advance magic users.

Trolls and Goblins only come out at night and spend most of their time underground. They usually leave humans alone, but if someone wanders onto their turf and starts mucking about, they come out to drive off the interloper. Usually all this takes is a display of scariness. However, when the Troll abode is the ruins of a wizard's tower, and the interloper is a determined sorceress looking for a new talisman, they have to use force to protect their home and treasure. On the plus side, such activity sometimes lands them a nice, tasty human, which the Trolls consider a delicacy.

As for Dragons, Drakes and Griffons, if they really exist (and magic users know they do), they keep to themselves unless, as with Trolls and Goblins, some idiot wanders into their sanctum sanctorum and starts mucking about.

It's also said that there was once a race of non-humans, who inhabited Maia eons ago. Who they really were and what their civilization was like is up for speculation, though it appears it was quite sophisticated. Artifacts and ruins from this ancient civilization sometimes materialize when the ground is disturbed for, say, new construction or wells. The people in the images that are found (frescos, pottery, etc.) have pointy ears, angular faces and seem to be taller and lankier than the average human. They're also very beautiful. Whether that was just how they chose to portray themselves, or how they really looked, nobody knows. Very few of their writings have been found, but it some of the characters resemble those used in magical texts (the most scholarly of works in Maia.) Modern Maians call these people the Elders, since the people's real name has never been found and because their civilization is thought to have existed at least five to ten thousand years before the Empire. What happened to the Elders is a complete mystery. To all appearances, they just up and disappeared without a trace. Relics of Elder civilization fetch a very high price if they can be verified as authentic. Magical items of Elder make are the rarest and most dangerous relics of all. Tali claims to own such an item but refuses to tell anyone which of her talismans it is. The most notorious of all Elder artifacts is called the Elder Star and is at the heart of our little story.