Darmia
A general rule of thumb is that the longer a given race lives, the fewer of them there will be, in turn this will then be impacted by the available land for the race to settle. Darmia encapsulate this living a long time, were only found in very specific areas and have had very little space to spread. As such their populations is relatively small compared to other species.
Darmia are probably the most divergent from humans of all humanoids, with the possible exception gnomes. They grow facial hair from a very young age and at a rapid rate, which was useful in the erratic climate in which they originally evolved. Their hands have developed over the centuries to be virtually senseless, with thick, non-porous skin and little to no nerve endings. This lack of dexterity seldom dissuades them from exploring their creative faculties however.
Origins
The Darmia began on the island of Darmian, living upon and around the grassy knolls on the weather beaten land. With a long maturation period, Darmia expansion was slow, compared to other ethnic or mixed tribes, and not helped by the fact they were isolated upon their island. With a small population technological progress was also limited and bad luck would plague the Darmia. Human and gnoman explorers are both known to have visited the island at various times, with early maps having it marked, but none recorded contact with the Darmia. The tall cliffs, often exposed to the elements and saturated in salt water, made for poor agricultural ground and the lack of trees meant no lumber for construction and so those same explorers wrote it off. Whether it was coincidence or intention that other races would never meet the Darmia is unknown, but it certainly harmed the island dwellers, as they lost any ability to trade for goods they would have needed to leave the island.
The one thing that could be
said for the Darmia is that they where adept tunnellers. Upon the island
of Darmian, there where no majorly useful resources to mine for, at
least not
at the time, so the Darmia instead dug for shelter. Digging with crude
stone tools and lacking wood with which to fashion suitable handles, any
humanoid would find digging these shelters uncomfortable to say the least, but not the
Darmia. Benefiting
from the lack feeling in their hands, they were able to comfortably carve out
enormous chambers below ground in which to live and store and cultivate foods.
Darmia would still visit the surface, often living just below and
foraging
for what little they could find, but the vast majority of life was
underground. They would often enhance their bland foods with various
poisonous flowers, inadvertently building up resistances to it, a trait they are still known for.
When the Gnoman Empire was
rising, it came across this young race who were still leading a very simplistic
lifestyle and, as the Gnomans were want to do, took them as slaves.
Recognising
their use as miners and labourers, the Darmia population was
deliberately increased and they would be put to work across the northern Empire.
The Gnomans
would be pleasantly surprised as the Darmia, although never having
developed technology of their own, were quick to adapt and understand
the efficient new tools provided too them, although not gracious enough that they would be allowed to earn citizenship.