Palaeolithic Period

The Paleolithic Period extends between 200,000 years ago and 12,000 BC. The Lower period reaches from 200,000 to 40,000 years ago; the Upper period begins after that. Through most of the Lower Paleolithic, only human race dwelt upon the game world's Earth, primarily in East Africa. Late in the Lower period, primeval elves began appearing in the lands of Anduin, in the far extreme of Siberia, sometime between 50 and 45 thousand BC.

After the outset of the Upper period, it's believed — but not known for certain — that the first svirfneblin began to spawn beneath Europe between 30 and 27 thousand BC. Ten thousand years later, sometime between 20 and 18 thousand BC, scattered cave peoples began to appear in east central Asia, radiating outwards from the Kodar Mountains — bugbears, ogres and orcs ... then, some 15 to 14 thousand BC, hobgoblins, goblins and xvarts.

About this time, some 18 thousand BC, dwarven cultures took shape and acquired life from the flesh of the Ymir, a primordial deity that was ancestor also to the "jotnar," or giants. Primitive forms of these humanoids arose more or less at the same time as the dwarves.