Now there's a page-title that demands pelvic thrusting.
Game Ideas
A new skill list, even new stats, the whole "pick your numbers and roll some dice" makes these fundamental building-blocks completely plug-and-play without invalidating any gameplay rules (perhaps like races or classes in a more traditional D&D modelled game?).
Majorly stripped-down version would be three stats - physical, mental, interpersonal, with a skill list that reads like professions, or even classes, perhaps "Fighting", "Reasoning", "Persuading", "Sneaking" etc.
Slightly more inspired by HEROES, you might do perhaps six core stats (arbitrary number) - Physicality, Intellect, Influence, Insight, Speed, Coordination, and then choose a set value in skills determined by the player describing skillsets, such as "dashing swordfighter", "history buff" or "goblin hurler", at his discretion. There would be maybe half a dozen of these max, if not more likely three or four, and each would require some prose to define it character-to-character (this approach might better complement HEROES).
And of course, a bespoke skill list of the same scale as DR, paired to the same stats would also work great.
Method and Inspiration Ideas
So I think the core of this setting is taking a fantasy setting and cutting out humans, so we have to ask ourselves "What do humans do for a fantasy setting?" and subtract that.
- They are the race that has cultural diversity (so the remaining races are more restricted in what they can be - less culturally able to stray from their archetypes?)
- They are usually the 'young' race, the most populous (so much of the world they would have settled is wild - there are 'gaps' in civilization?)
- They are short-lived, fast breeders, warlike (are orcs filling this role?) but also self determining and able to adhere to diverse philosophies (this might just define the ability to make a good character)
- They are usually more ready to deny the more supernatural elements of the world, to focus on the more simple aspects of their lives (thus making it more interesting for them to discover the wondrous and magical world) - perhaps this means each of the other races needs an ability that substantially changes the shape of their society (i.e. elven longevity) and makes them a little more alien, but with no 'normal' to contrast their alien-ness?
The whole 'races of the wheel' emotional alignment thing got a bit lost. I reckon either we do something with it, or consciously lose it - just calling it build-inspiration that gave us an archetypal character for each race (the stoic dwarven monk, insular and stealthy dryad warrior, swift elven trader, vengeful goblin assassin and shining orcish cataphract).
Setting Ideas
Wealthy families hiring a Zaguristra Mage, which in turn makes the upper classes magically endowed?
Gods were created as a sort of racial zeitgeist. Rather than being responsible for creating the races they were created BY them, or rather came into existence as a response to them, as a sort of divine race-template (hence the decay of the human gods, and the more locked-down nature of racial archetypes). Perhaps the D'Mon are the gods-that-never-were. Beings that might have been gods, but were denied the opportunity.
If there are D'Mon in the far north, does that mean there's an angel-race in the frozen south?
Wait, SNOW ANGELS!!! Gold.