Honestly, in a game of this epic scope and depth in a fantasy setting, I highly expect and want to see Elves and Orcs and Dwarves and Giants and everything else that's the usual "cannon" for most things of High Fantasy. I know Elemental will only have humans as a playable faction, but I do hope they decide to change that in the future or with a expansion. I know eventually I'll just Mod them in myself.

Yes, since we now know that there will only be humans as a playable race, I really hope that they add the other races in an expansion. And hope that not having elves, orcs, goblins and the like will not detract from the gameplay. Or that we have great modders who can add the said races and have them accepted as Canon. I am really excited about the modding possibilities this game is likely to offer

I think thaht you'll be able to custom a faction with the exact same bonuses from trolls. So you'll have a human faction with exactly the same way of playing.

I think that's a good thing to limit creatures, so when you'll see a magical beast, or trolls, etc. it will be more stunning.

Anyway, we should try before saying that "they lack".

The "History of the Runestaff" is one of my all the time favourites and only features humans. But you get the so wonderfull "Beast Legions" (not sure of the exact name right now, sorry) in it, with legions of soldiers devoted each one to an animal and behaving in their tactics and duties like the animal of the legion. "The Ladies of Mandrigyn" is also a very nice fantasy book that features just humans (ok, undead and other creatures here and there but their are collateral effects :P). And the Darwath Trilogy features just humans (vs the Dark Creatures, bringers of death and destruction, that incidentally eat humans) and I found it awesome and my favourites of all the books I have ever read (maybe tied with one trilogy from Louise Cooper, not sure of the title in english but if you have read it, the protagonist is named Tarod).

Not that I didn't like LotR (prefer the Silmarillion) or Dragonlance or Forgotten Relams... But nothing of all that will be above the simple fact of: give a solid, coherent and interesting world to play in/with/at.

Also, it's like obvious that Stardock will relase non-humans as non canon stuff? It's clear that people wants extra stuff (be it elves, dwarves, asian/greek based stuff like buildings/weapons/clothes,...), including expansive expansions a la Gal Civ II (wow, I would never dare to play the vanilla Gal Civ II again...). So no need to worry about the "no elves" in campaign and also, bad attitud to say that it's a bad decission not to have "elves and stuff" for the game anbd only have humans. It has been a while since I lose any interest in a MoM2. (even if my mod will use elves, dwarves and the like... but that's because of the original idea from which it was generated )

You're quite right of course, Wintersong. I know they'll release the common fantasy cannon stuff eventually and a lot of it will be in the game already.

I'm highly positive when Elemental comes out it will take the place as number one Fantasy Empire game of all time. The only thing it will be compared to is the original Mom, and even then they'll go on to say how Elemental blows it away. I think the Elemental staff should go beat up the Majesty 2 team and take that catch phrase away from them. Elemental will be the REAL "Fantasy Kingdom Simulator" of this generation.

Having racial diversity is fun. Let's take a look at your examples. Elves & Orcs We will be able to mod them into the game. Since modding is powerful, we will be able to create very unique races. Like: Elves will have access to awesome ranged weapons, but somewhat weak ordinary equipments, such as swords or armors. Orcs will have access to weak ranged weapons, but they will be able to use brutal axes and stuff like that.

Now I am not sure about the racial abilities however. Can we mod in things like that? Like can we create a race, which has certain amount of resistance vs. fire based spells? I am pretty sure that we will be able to do that also.

While the vanilla game will only have 2 "races" the possibilities of modding are endless. This is why I love this game already.

I am quite sure that you will be able to do that, and much, much more. I don't think that the game will be less moddable than Civ4 and in that game, you could do a LOT more, like Rhye's Rise and Fall of Civs. It's just a question of how easy it will be to mod and how well will such mods work within the framework of the game. I hope I am able to communicate what is in my mind

Not talking visual at all actually.  I just played MOM last night and picked Draconians as my race.  They fly which makes things interesting.  My point really is that I like there to be some large differences between kingdoms not just small or subtle ones.  Will this game have base flying units, units that regenerate, units with tough skin that don't use armor, units that fire bows faster, cause fear, etc?  Can we get this with humans?  I suppose but they will be very weird humans.  From the beta so far I don't think we will be getting humans with these large game changing differences which is disappointing to me.

Of course there is modding.  I just hope that the system is flexible enough to add unique abilites like those mentioned above.  Still I would have liked to see some of this in the regular game from the get go.

Well, Fallen were humans. If we are to find weirdos in any faction, that surely will be Fallen land.

Reptilian Homage for the win!

More specifically, the nature or cavalry based human/fallen race-> with cult of the red dragon, defeating a red wyrm, capturing its egg, raising your own red dragon, and having boosts to Any Red Cave-lizards/ lizardmen you gain through mercenary contracts, or simple alliances based on their lair being nearby, and you allow them to live, let them thrive, trade with them, protect them, and in return the red-lizardmen will fight for you at excelled proficiency, decreased cost, and a huge morale bonus if fighting along-side your Royal (pet) dragon.

The coat of arms for such a customized skill set (and long term goals) would most likely have a Dragon's Eye, or a full adult dragon in the foreground, with possible fire or mountain in the background.

Boogie Bac stated somewhere else that one of the main reason their weren't going to be multiple races (other than lore) was that for each race they'd have to generate or alter there exisiting 3d assest, ie weapons and armour, to fit said bodies And to be honest if dropping multiple races means those existing will be done to a higher standard then i'm all for it.

After all there are still 12 faction each with a unique tech tree and whatever other bonuses that they give each. That should be plently enough for anyone right?

Obviously not? Specially for those not interesed in the main game but the mods.

Uniqueness, races & special perks are the first things that I will try to add (mod) into the game (providing they won't be in the release version).

I think they should have a three-legged race. And whoever wins should get some kind of bonus like +1 to endurance or something.

I think it is extremely interesting how the game has only humans. I've always like human-focused fantasy with minimal interaction with other races. I think this not only makes the humans more interesting, it also the other races more interesting. Now elves, if they are in at all, will actually be reclusive. Honestly, sometimes I think elves really amount to skinny pointy eared humans.

They are.

And dwarves are humans who can't grow proper like.

And giants grow to much,

And lizardmen are just men with scales.

I'm sorry I've never seen differnt races in other games as unique. Usually it just means a new skin and maybe one or two unique units.*

*except perhaps MoM but even then there were only 3-4 unquie races and the rest were very similar to each other with minor changes.

Personally, I really like greatly differing races in my fantasy games. That's true for both medieval type and space type. It's just fun! MoM and MoO both had a fun mix. In my mind it doesn't have to Elves/Dwarves to feel like a fantasy game, but I always accept those too because they are fun. It's great to have multiple species in your army, some that can fly, some that can shoot, or whatever.

I'm not saying that it can't work with only humans, but leaving out playable monsters sure does leave alot up to the modding community...

My concern is that by going the human only route, design choices made along the way might inhibit the modding of other sentient species. It may end up unfeasable for some reason (or just a huge amount of work) to make a race that differs too greatly from the humans. Even if they had just one race of sentient beasts, that would give us a structure to follow when making our own.

I like having scales.

I like having a multitude of races.
But I prefer if there's only one species.

One specie (humans) with multiple races ... agreed

I'd always seen dwarves as the urge to contract and delve, while elves the urge to expand and surrender, orcs pack mentality and hobbits ignorant with circuit one dominance. Always reminded me of the Lion/Angel/Bull/Eagle set up. But obv. that's a JRR focus and I'm sure there's plenty of evidence to the contrary...like as soon as war arrives...everyone turns into murder anyway.

As for Elemental, I don't mind the human only factor, providing the magic and things I can do with it is diverse, it doesn't phase me what my enemy looks like. Though it might be nice to have them as minors...if Elemental is having minors that is.