Arvalon

Arvalon is the setting of the events of the World of Dreams & Nightmares series. Primarily, the titles in the series are set on the fictional continent of Mytalia, which is split into seven major regions (Jorland, Castalia, Yan Song, H'Radda, The Green, Drakkis Isles, & The Orange Archipelago). Mytalia is also connected to a much larger, snow-covered continent called The Uncharted and it is separated from all other landmasses by both the Lower Sea and the famous and massive Great Sea.

Mytalia was once the home of humans, Elves, and Dwarves, ala J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle-Earth, but the latter two were wiped out, which caused new races to rise up in their place. All of Mytalia is under the rule of the King of Kings Malael Drakkis, who conquered it hundreds of years ago and is responsible for the genocide of the Dwarves and Elves.

Mankind
The only surviving race from during the Pre-War era. "Mankind" and "Men" are the term used to refer to humans in the Dreams & Nightmares world and, unlike most other fantasy stories, they are rare compared to other races. There are only around 1,000 known humans across the entire continent of Mytalia and they mainly live in small villages, though they are sometimes also seen in large cities but in small numbers. In the Arvalon world, Mankind are the direct descendants of the mysterious Vants, who hailed from a far-off land and have since gone missing.

Golems
Stone humanoids built by the Dwarves before they were killed. After The Final War, they took over their creator's cities and have developed sapience over the years. They all have grey rock skin and have gemstones growing out of their bodies. Their gemstones will always be one of the five cardinal gems (diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, amethyst) and the gemstone growing out of them determines their expected role in society. Diamond means the Golem is expected to be a leader, emerald an advisor, amethyst a general, ruby a soldier, and sapphire a wizard, although there are several exceptions to this. Golems are also genderless and generally have level-headed and rational to a fault personalities, though some Golems are considered "gendered", which involves them carving their own bodies to resemble a male or female and taking on more emotional personalities.

Makaka
Makaka are a race of monkey and ape-like creatures descended from actual monkeys and apes. During the events of The Final War, a magical fountain's guardian was killed and some local simians drank from it, gaining human-like intelligence and the ability to speak in the process. Over the years, they have become more and more humanoid in their appearance, able to walk up-right and growing much taller. The fountain they drank from has since become a major part of their culture and is located in the middle of the Three Golden Cities, which are located in Yan Song and by Makaka. They are infamously xenophobic, unwilling to trust non-Makaka and treating outsiders with suspicion and hostility. They are heavily inspired by Chinese culture, a reference to Sun Wukong, and the plural of Makaka is Makaka.

Insectkin
Insect-like humanoids. They were once split across the land, sometimes in small tribes, but during The Final War they were gathered up and formed their own society. The two most common Insectkin cities seen are The Colony (made up of ants and ruled by a king), The Hive (made up of bees, wasps, and hornets and ruled by a queen), and The Underground (made up of bugs of all kinds and ruled by a "God-King"), the last of which the previous two spun off from. The species are split between Soft-Skins and Hard-Skins (bugs with and without exoskeletons), with Hard-Skins looking down on Soft-Skins. Hard-Skins are also commonly accompanied by chittering noises.

Were-Beasts
Creatures that are able to transform between human and animal forms (though it seems the animal in question must possess paws as oppose to hooves). They are also referred to as Man-Beasts or just Beasts. They are the descendants of more traditional Were-Beasts that would lose control in their beast forms, but during the events of The Final War these Were-Beasts were trained to be able to control their transformation. Most were-beasts prefer to stay in their "beast" forms and will only transform into their man forms to blend in with other humanoids. Many look down upon them due to a combination of their ancestor's history as mindless murderers and the fact that many of their kind are carnivorous and eat non-Beasts. Due to this, they traditionally live in tribes of other Beasts, separate from most society, though some use their human forms to live among Men.

Genesai
The descendants of Elves who were artificially created in a similar way as Golems and would take over their creator's settlements like them too. Unlike Golems though, the Genesai are biological and were experimented on in an attempt to infuse magical energy into them. They were, essentially, slave warriors that fought in wars and did almost nothing else. However, when it became clear the Elves were going extinct during The Final War, the Genesai decided to abandon their creators in order to save themselves. A common point on conflict for characters in-universe is whether this was an act of cowardice, abandoning the Elves to die, or an act of rebellion, saving themselves over the slave owners. All Genesai have innate magical power coming from the experiments performed on their ancestors, which also turned their skin dark grey and their hair and eyes piercing white. Many of them have also inherited their ancestor's arrogance.

Faelings
A race who are the result of a Fae breeding with a Man. Faelings are analogous to Hobbits from Tolkien's Middle-Earth, as they are tiny humanoids with pointed ears. Most of them live in small villages on the Orange Archipelago and they are known as a generally peaceful people that primarily focus on the trading of goods and services. Their noncompetitive nature and their size causes others to often assume them to be weak, though this is far from the truth. In their older years, they begin developing Fae-like wings that become full-body length and usable when they are elderly.

Immortal Races
The Immortal Races (also called Eternal Races/People) is the name given to the three races on the mortal plane that are immortal. They are the Giants, Dragons, and Fae. The Fae are the most commonly seen out of the three and are the Arvalon version of fairies, though they are much more alien in appearance and are human-sized. Fae are magically gifted and are split into two major tribes, known as the Vovolo and the Olaevo, which are headed by the sisters Lilenae and Floria, the latter of which is the queen of Mytalia and wife of Malael Drakkis. The Vovolo tribe hold a personal grudge against the Drakkis family due to them having taken the Ash Isles (now Drakkis Isles) from them.

The Dragons are the second most seen of the immortal races and are the most powerful of them all. They are massive reptilian beasts with leather wings that are able to breath fire so hot it will leave irreversible damage to anything it touches. All Dragons have three different stages of life. Wyverns are the youngest and smallest Dragons and cannot breath fire, with them growing up into Drakes which are traditional Dragons, and then after many years they will turn into Wyrms, which resemble the Dragons of Asian myth. If a Dragon spends enough time in a certain environment, their body will mutate to adapt to it, such as becoming akin to a sea serpent if they spend enough time underwater.

The least seen of the immortal races are the Giants, though their presence is felt as it is claimed they had a hand in building some of the oldest structures in Mytalia. They are massive humanoids, with their shortest members being 20-feet tall. Little information exists about them due to how little they appear, though what is known is that they are all incredibly wise and seem to be above morality. While not amoral, it is hard to call any of their members fully good.

Lost Races
"Lost Races" is a term used to describe the races that no longer exist, most commonly used to refer to the Elves and Dwarves collectively. Little information exists about them currently due to how long they have been gone, but objects and locations they built still exist. It is claimed that both the Elves and Dwarves were incredibly arrogant and held a life-long grudge against both each other and Mankind. The Elves were magically gifted, both in spells and potions, and were in-tune with nature while the Dwarves focused more on the sciences, becoming builders and inventors. Old Dwarven inventions and old Elven magic are common MacGuffins in the universe. The term "Lost Race" is also used to describe the long lost Vants, the ancestors of Mankind. However, they have been gone for even longer than the Elves and Dwarves and thus the only things proving they existed are old ruins of theirs.