The evil giants would organize themselves in loose clans of barbarian structure and culture and would mostly inhabit mountainous regions anywhere. Their good counterparts were known to make loyal friends of dwarves in strange mutually-beneficial friendships and alliances, but otherwise, just like the dwarves, would prefer to keep to themselves.

In the middle of the organizational spectrum lay the three major independents - azracs, lizardmen, and undead. Each will be discussed separately in their particular entries. Suffice it to say that azracs are a humanoid race of great ferocity, intelligence, and cunning, which occupies primarily their own desert peninsula of Vij-Azi at the south-eastern end of the northern continent.

The lizardmen had a tribal structure united in a vast empire in the Sssla marshes. A single king - the Great Wyrm Sss'Ketzal- and the Council of Water Spirits (a group of powerful lizardmen shamans) watched over the empire from the throne city of Sss'Ketzal'Shakkal (seat of the great wyrm).

Finally, the undead were ever present, but without structure and in small quantities. While from time to time a power-hungry mage would achieve lich-hood and try to stir trouble, he would eventually be vanquished or suppressed by intrepid heroes. Vampire lords would also occasionally rise, only to be eventually suppressed in a similar fashion.

All this changed almost overnight with the arrival of the barbarian hordes of humans. The humans came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, consuming everything in their path in a bacchanal dance of fire, plunder, and destruction. The face of Ardania would never be the same...

The true origins of humans are virtually unknown. Legends speak of a distant homeland, called Yggd. It is depicted as an idyllic and enigmatic land of plenty, where humans were treated like children by caretaker gods. For unknown reasons, the humans were cast down from the gods' favor and were exiled to fend for themselves in another world, which happened to be Ardania. It is virtually impossible to establish anything beyond sheer speculation as to where Yggd lay, to what extent it is myth and to what reality, and if it was part of Ardania or a totally different world altogether. Only a few ageless sages know that the humans emerged in Ardania from the Great Mists of the Southern Sea of Azra.