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Description
A simple look into the facial features of the people of the Gendaaret floating archipelago.

Overview

The people of Gendaaret were once humans. The first ones were transported to the lands of Gendaaret through one of the random interstellar portals. Upon arrival, magically enhanced evolution took place, resulting in the diverse forms we have today.

Though they still look human enough, through unique adaptations, they've become their own unique species. These adaptations include:

Powerful jaws and teeth

"You call them tusks, I call them fingers." - Taken from an overheard conversation between an orc and human child.
One of the ways of dealing with the difficult terrain, was to develop a way to manipulate objects with both of their hands occupied. Their jaws became their "third hands", complete with strong teeth to help with the grip. Their jaws can extend much lower than the average human's and their jaw muscles extend across their entire skulls, resulting in much more pronounced cheekbones. Their cheeks often get wrinkled, due to continuous lowering of the jaw. This wrinkling is much more pronounced with those that live a feral lifestyle.

The jaws are the most powerful among the ulgons and troglodytes, who use their jaws as another weapon. The ulgons' jaws are still exceptionally strong. Their jaw muscles extend over their entire skulls and faces, which results in a permanent scowling expression. The weakest jaws belong to the goblins, who found more creative ways to get around their problems and the gremlins, who possess wings.

Large ears and noses

"When a goblin's nose is itchy, it means somebody is hiding nearby." - Old folk wisdom
The dense forests of Gendaaret, result in very poor seeing conditions. As such the floating archipelago's inhabitants develop different ways to help their perception. The archipelago's people grew additional long sensitive cartilages onto their ears and noses, which sense the vibrations and changes of temperature in the air. This makes them much more aware of the changes in their surroundings, resulting in exceptional navigation skills, along with a better defense against attackers sneaking on them.

The ones with the largest ears and noses are the goblins and pukwudgies, who are the most vulnerable to physical combat. Ulgons and orcs[note1], have a much less significant need for such adaptations, since they rely on their strength and fighting provess to overpower their opponents. It's also worth mentioning, that the gremlins developed ways to sense ultrasound and they are the only ones whose noses bend upwards.

Adaptable eyes

Guuuhh! - A troglodyte [note2]
Though the darkness is one difficulty facing the inhabitants of Gendaaret, sunlight can be another problem. Quick changes in lightning can really strain the average person's eyes. As such, their eyes adapted to react very quickly to changes in light-levels, along with additional skin and muscles, in case excessive light requires them to hide their eyes even more. They also grew larger eyes, which helps them see better in the darkness.

Of course, ulgons orcs and troglodytes did not grow larger eyes, since they rely on their strength for self defence. On the other hand, hobgoblins grew extra large eyeballs, due to their preference of the darkness.

Excessive hair and the lack of it

"Ooh, I'd like to grow a pretty beard like yours!" - A hobgoblin we've met during our research.
Those who spent more time in the sun grew more hair, to protect themselves from harmful rays. They also have long eyebrows to further protect their eyes. The hairiest ones include gremlins, who spend a lot of time above the treelines and dunters who live on the plains.

On the other hand, some of them lost their hair, due to darker lifestyles. These include the ulgons, pukwudgies and hobgoblins, who prefer to stay deep in the forests, caves and underground settlements. The hair of pukwudgies developed into barbed porcupine-like spines.

Orcs, goblins and dunters have the most human-looking facial hair, which does help them in their interactions with humans. Although dunters' interactions usually consist of a lot of violence.

* [note1] - Orcs and beors are racially identical, but they consider each other a separate race, due to ideological differences.

* [note2] - Some of them only have limited linguistic skills. Troglodytes, dunters and ulgons are among the least talkative among the people of Gendaaret.

Description
A simple look into the facial features of the people of the Gendaaret floating archipelago.

Overview

The people of Gendaaret were once humans. The first ones were transported to the lands of Gendaaret through one of the random interstellar portals. Upon arrival, magically enhanced evolution took place, resulting in the diverse forms we have today.

Though they still look human enough, through unique adaptations, they've become their own unique species. These adaptations include:

Powerful jaws and teeth

"You call them tusks, I call them fingers." - Taken from an overheard conversation between an orc and human child.
One of the ways of dealing with the difficult terrain, was to develop a way to manipulate objects with both of their hands occupied. Their jaws became their "third hands", complete with strong teeth to help with the grip. Their jaws can extend much lower than the average human's and their jaw muscles extend across their entire skulls, resulting in much more pronounced cheekbones. Their cheeks often get wrinkled, due to continuous lowering of the jaw. This wrinkling is much more pronounced with those that live a feral lifestyle.

The jaws are the most powerful among the ulgons and troglodytes, who use their jaws as another weapon. The ulgons' jaws are still exceptionally strong. Their jaw muscles extend over their entire skulls and faces, which results in a permanent scowling expression. The weakest jaws belong to the goblins, who found more creative ways to get around their problems and the gremlins, who possess wings.

Large ears and noses

"When a goblin's nose is itchy, it means somebody is hiding nearby." - Old folk wisdom
The dense forests of Gendaaret, result in very poor seeing conditions. As such the floating archipelago's inhabitants develop different ways to help their perception. The archipelago's people grew additional long sensitive cartilages onto their ears and noses, which sense the vibrations and changes of temperature in the air. This makes them much more aware of the changes in their surroundings, resulting in exceptional navigation skills, along with a better defense against attackers sneaking on them.

The ones with the largest ears and noses are the goblins and pukwudgies, who are the most vulnerable to physical combat. Ulgons and orcs[note1], have a much less significant need for such adaptations, since they rely on their strength and fighting provess to overpower their opponents. It's also worth mentioning, that the gremlins developed ways to sense ultrasound and they are the only ones whose noses bend upwards.

Adaptable eyes

Guuuhh! - A troglodyte [note2]
Though the darkness is one difficulty facing the inhabitants of Gendaaret, sunlight can be another problem. Quick changes in lightning can really strain the average person's eyes. As such, their eyes adapted to react very quickly to changes in light-levels, along with additional skin and muscles, in case excessive light requires them to hide their eyes even more. They also grew larger eyes, which helps them see better in the darkness.

Of course, ulgons orcs and troglodytes did not grow larger eyes, since they rely on their strength for self defence. On the other hand, hobgoblins grew extra large eyeballs, due to their preference of the darkness.

Excessive hair and the lack of it

"Ooh, I'd like to grow a pretty beard like yours!" - A hobgoblin we've met during our research.
Those who spent more time in the sun grew more hair, to protect themselves from harmful rays. They also have long eyebrows to further protect their eyes. The hairiest ones include gremlins, who spend a lot of time above the treelines and dunters who live on the plains.

On the other hand, some of them lost their hair, due to darker lifestyles. These include the ulgons, pukwudgies and hobgoblins, who prefer to stay deep in the forests, caves and underground settlements. The hair of pukwudgies developed into barbed porcupine-like spines.

Orcs, goblins and dunters have the most human-looking facial hair, which does help them in their interactions with humans. Although dunters' interactions usually consist of a lot of violence.

* [note1] - Orcs and beors are racially identical, but they consider each other a separate race, due to ideological differences.

* [note2] - Some of them only have limited linguistic skills. Troglodytes, dunters and ulgons are among the least talkative among the people of Gendaaret.