The Aarde and the Hemel

When the Change occurred, 99.8 percent of the world's population lost their memory of the old world (though around 10 percent have some sort of vague recollection, though most cannot, or refuse to, understand the memories. This is how a lot of old technology was rediscovered or re-conceived of). Informing those who have had their minds completely wiped (known among the very few who remember as Mundanes or 'Deadheads' as a prejudicial term) is an unrecommended and dangerous proposition, as most Mundanes cannot recall their past lives and attempting to force it will often result in violence. As many humans were transformed into what could be known as demihumans, entire histories were crafted from whole cloth to ensure any and all Mundanes believe what they think they are; descended from many generations instead of recently transformed in the last few years and with their families, friends, and old life erased and impossible to retrieve. Due to the fact that all demihuman races in Ash's world were once humans, crossbreed children are relatively easy to produce should a member of each species fall in love and desire a family.

The Aarde: The myth of the Aarde's origin has the people of a country known in the Aarde language as Luu, who were conquered by an empire only remembered as 'Rung Lan', or 'The Black Ones' and enslaved to mine the gigantic amounts of minerals located within Luu. Exactly how long the Aarde spent enslaved is uncertain (it is suggested at least one generation), but eventually the Aarde discovered strange caverns lined with unknown crystals and metals, that changed the Aarde (or their newborn children), making them something other than human and gave them a deep connection with the earth itself. Using this new power, the Aarde overthrew the Black Ones, but discovered that the change was permanent. While some 'history studies' have located 'possible locations' for where the Aarde's old lands could be, there is nothing definite (of course), and most Aarde do not care.

Due to their origin, the Aarde are the dwarves of Ash's world, being shorter and bulkier (due to working in cramped spaces), though they do not universally have long beards like traditional dwarves. Virtually all Aarde have a spiritual connection to the ground (and by extent, to plants and sometimes animals that live there), and hence most can mentally command 'the ground' in some way, ala Earthbending. A peaceful people in general, the Aarde help greatly in construction and farming, and are in charge of Ashworld's sole universal currency, the Terrae, condensed clay squares that is produced by a secret process that makes it immensely difficult to counterfeit, even by other Aarde.

The Hemel: Like the Aarde, the Hemel are supposedly a product of an exceptional situation: a group of several human clans that for a mostly forgotten reason (like the Aarde, most theorize they were fleeing some sort of persecution) attempted to escape across a dangerous mountain range. It proved to be a wise choice, as a gigantic earthquake caused by an undersea volcano immediately following their traversal of the range wracked and splintered the landscape, making the already-dangerous mountain range all but impassible, while the volcano transformed the seas surrounding the pocket of land the Hemel found themselves in into a chaotic, boiling maelstrom that was death to sail. Cut off from human civilization and with no one able to follow or discover them, the Hemel clans settled into the fertile lands and built their original city: Veloeren.

The minds of the new city quickly realized that eventually, they would be unable to sustain themselves on the lands they had found, and devoted themselves to discovering absolutely every possible option to increase their chances of survival, short and long term. Some believe like the Aarde, the Hemel were situated on a similar patch of 'special ground', perhaps brought close to the surface via the earthquake (the Hemel are not talking if they were), as over time the children of the people changed, becoming leaner to conserve energy, taller to spot prey, and with naturally sharper eyes and a better sense of hearing to aid in their hunting efforts, said hunting causing the Hemel to develop an entire series of processes and techniques to ensure they would not be killed or harmed hunting prey due to their somewhat limited breeding pool. This would cause the Hemel to be the sole species to invent firearms (as well as constantly improve on more traditional bows, slings, and darts) and eventually a whole system of ranged combat known to them as 'Sie Perren Chaden', 'Beyond The Eyes Of Death', or as humans call it, T.A.N.G.L.E, making them the 'elves' of Ash's world.

The focus on survival created a pocket society based around developing the mind and discovering any and all new things, causing the Hemel to rapidly advance technologically far quicker than the rest of the world. While the Hemel ultimately developed ways to go past the mountain range, the new demihuman species kept to themselves until the lands around Veloeren were absolutely exhausted and ruined, at which point they returned to the world at large. Whatever was originally persecuting them was long gone, and the Hemel spread back across the world. Misunderstood by some due to their calm analytical natures (though the claims that Hemel cannot feel emotions is false) and their constant need to discover and improve their creations, the Hemel are also sought after for city development and especially for mercenary work, as they are generally the only ones capable of making weapons more advanced than Middle Ages blacksmithing.

Unlike some fantastic settings, there is no feud between the Aarde and Hemel; in fact they get along quite well, considering their somewhat shared origins.