History Main / HumanSubspecies

** [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarves]] are probably a short subspecies of humanity (unless humans are a taller dwarf subspecies), at least if dwarfish creation myths are to be believed. They are definitely close enough to have children; Nanny Ogg has dwarf ancestry. For their part Dwarfs don't consider themselves a separate race at all, just a different culture. Case in point: Captain Carrot Ironfounderson is considered a dwarf by other dwarves, despite being better than six feet tall, because he has completed all the requisite rites of passage.

** One of the minor creatures native to the ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' setting is the Villichi; a mutant offshoot of Athasian humanity. One in 30,000 human [[OneGenderRace girls]] is born as a Villichi, a condition that grants them with unusually pale, borderline-albino skin, a very un-Athasian intolerance for sunlight on their skin, rapid maturation but a longer life (averaging 150 years), and a powerful innate affinity for PsychicPowers even by Athasian standards. Nobody is quite sure why humans randomly give birth to Villichi, but such spontaneous births are the only way that the Villichi race increases; Villichi are sterile. Consequently, whilst the race maintains a hidden fortress in the Ringing Mountains where the bulk of their people dwell, the small minority of Villichi master psionicists (10%) who develop an innate ability to sense the presence of their kind act as "Envoys", leAding small bands of wrriors to traverse the wastes of the Tablelands to rescue their sisters and transport them home. Whilst largely peaceful and just wanting to be left alone, Athasians are well-aware that they will come down with swift, brutal vengeance upon anyone who harms a Villichi of any age, and as such even the most superstitious Athasian family is usually wise enough to leave their mutant daughter unharmed until her "big sisters" come to collect her.

{{Heavyworlder}}s and {{Lightworlder}}s are often portrayed as this, as are TheMorlocks.

** For an Alien Subspecies example, look no further than the Romulans, who split off from the Vulcans 2000 years ago and traveled for centuries on sublight to their new home on Romulus. It's also implied that several other encountered "Vulcanoid" (such as the Mintakans) races may be descendants of the exiles who have settled on other worlds.

* The pseudoscience of racialism (sometimes also called scientific racism, race realism, or human biodiversity) is founded on the idea that the various ethnicities of the world are genetically distinct human subspecies (which isn't actually true; modern humans are a pretty genetically uniform creature and scientists can't even tell an African skeleton apart from a European or Asian skeleton at all). While racism, the belief that one or more of these groups are "superior" or "inferior" to one or more others in some vague, undefined way is a separate idea, the two groups do overlap much more frequently than either would have you believe.

* The original ''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Battlestar Galactica]]'' had, among the humans in the "ragtag fleet," a ProudWarriorRace with prominent eyebrow ridges called the Borellian Nomen. The strong implication is that, in keeping with the premise of the show that HumanityCameFromSpace, the Nomen are the answer to the question, "What about all these Neanderthal fossils? What are they?" They were Nomen, that's what.

* ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'': The Gray Wolves are [[ShorterMeansSmarter petite]], have long blonde hair, green eyes and SuperIntelligence. As they're cross-fertile with baselines but not completely [[HiddenElfVillage hidden from the outside world]], the women really shouldn't wander off. [[spoiler:[[BreakTheCutie Not that Cordelia Gallo had a choice]].]]

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'': The Abh were [[TranshumansInSpace engineered to be space explorers]]. They have a ThirdEye and some modifications to the brain so they can navigate better in three dimensions, and longer life and adaptions to cope with extended periods of microgravity with periods of high acceleration, since they were created before the InUniverse discovery of FasterThanLightTravel and ArtificialGravity. Interestingly, the Abh still consider themselves to be 100% human, and do not acknowledge claims that they are "alien" in any sense.

* In ''{{Webcomic/Aurora|2019}}'', some human populations have been influenced by the [[ElementalPowers elements]] over the generations, with their physiology adapting to the elemental energy of whichever habitat they're living in. Some, like those influenced by fire or lightning, are rather similar to regular humans with a few unique physical traits and abilities that aren't immediately obvious. Other subspecies barely look human at all; stone-influenced populations have traits ranging from AmazingTechnicolorHair to metal skin, and the water-influenced Sekrai possess fins and live exclusively in the ocean.

* While the concept of race and subspecies in modern humans is soundly rejected by scientists, certain populations do have a large genetic distance for the sheer reason of not being in contact with others for eons. Ironically, even though they look "black" and are often referred to as such, the UsefulNotes/AboriginalAustralians are genetically more removed from Africans than Europeans, Asians, and Native Americans are. This is because their ancestors did not intermix with other humans in great numbers since they arrived at Australia circa 70,000 years ago, therefore keeping their genes distinct, while the others are descended from more recent emigrants from Africa mixing with the older ones (humans did not come out of Africa all at once, but rather in waves).

* While the concept of race and subspecies in modern humans is soundly rejected by scientists, certain populations do have a large genetic distance for the sheer reason of not being in contact with others for eons. Ironically, even though they look "black", the UsefulNotes/AustralianAborigines are genetically more removed from Africans than Europeans, Asians, and Native Americans are. This is because their ancestors did not intermix with other humans in great numbers since they arrived at Australia c. 70,000 years ago, therefore keeping their genes distinct, while the others are descended from more recent emigrants from Africa mixing with the older ones (humans did not come out of Africa all at once, but rather in waves).
* One racial theory that used to be popular was that Khoisan and pygmy peoples were different subspecies than most black Africans and therefore the rest of humanity. This idea even held some sway among people who generally believed that all living humans were part of the same subspecies. While there is a grain of truth to this (both groups diverge quite a lot from the majority of humanity), the idea of them being ''that'' different has since been discredited.

{{Heavyworlder}}s and {{Lightworlder}}s are often portrayed as this.

* ''Literature/ManAfterMan'' is all about this trope, with an incredibly huge array of different human subspecies evolving to replace now-extinct animals as numerous species of megafaunal grazers, predators and parasites of said grazers, eusocial desert-dwellers, anteater analogues, manatee-like aquatic forms and others. The results are, in fact, rather nightmarish.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Anime/{{Vandread}}''. [[OneGenderRace Taraks and Majerans]] ''think'' that this is true of themselves, but they're actually just ordinary men and women whose societies are completely separate, such that neither group ever meets members of the opposite sex ([[DesignerBabies reproduction is achieved via cloning]]). They were set up by the humans of Earth to be [[WalkingTransplant harvested for spare biological parts]].

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': The word "human" is an umbrella term used to refer to the various hominid species such as [[HumansByAnyOtherName tall-men]], elves, dwarves, gnomes, and [[{{Hobbits}} half-feet]] as a whole, making them all explicitly human subspecies. Humans and elves at least can also interbreed, producing half-elves. Furthermore, in chapter 87, a glimpse into the time of the [[{{Precursor}} ancient civilization]] strongly implies [[spoiler: the ancients were the common ancestor species of all of the above, and implies their divergence into different species began with magical BioAugmentation that was reinforced and bred true across generations.]]

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-140 SCP-140]] describes the Daevites, an ancient human civilisation in Siberia, northern Iran and Mongolia. They were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a wicked people]] who practiced slavery, cannibalism and human sacrifice, and their government centered on the "daeva", a [[ReligionOfEvil theocratic]] aristocracy who possessed increased longevity and BloodMagic, and whom the Foundation's researchers eventually determined to diverge from modern humans that they constitute a separate subspecies in and of themselves. The actual SCP object is [[TomeOfEldritchLore a book detailing their history]], and the book writes itself on contact with suitable fluid that can be used as ink ([[CouldntFindAPen including human blood]]). [[RealityWritingBook As more is written, the Daevites retroactively survive longer in history]]; when the book was first discovered it said the Daevites were wiped out by Qin Kai, but the book now says they were wiped out by Genghis Khan, ''1400 years later''. Here's the real horror: there's more than one copy of the book out there and the one the Foundation has is continually being updated. The Foundation fears that should the Daevites' civilization survive past a certain point in history, it will have catastrophic consequences for the world.
** However, [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] eventually reveals that [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope the Daevite civilization is not only populated by actual humans]], but is also actually a peaceful, civilised democratic socialist republic (it's even recognized by the U.N.). All the stories about their cruelty, stagnation and blood magic were all made-up by a deeply disturbed British historian who took a single historical event and blended it with Daevite mythology and his own prejudices. As the problems of cultural misappropriation, racism, Orientalism, under-representation/deliberate exclusion and silencing of minority voices, and history revisionism is still very much TruthInTelevision, it's quite a cutting and sobering RealitySubtext.]]

* The pseudoscience of racialism (sometimes also called scientific racism, race realism, or human biodiversity) is founded on the idea that the various ethnicities of the world are genetically distinct human subspecies (which isn't actually true; modern humans are a pretty genetically uniform creatureand scientists can't even tell an African skeleton apart from a European or Asian skeleton at all). While racism, the belief that one or more of these groups are "superior" or "inferior" to one or more others in some vague, undefined way is a separate idea, the two groups do overlap much more frequently than either would have you believe.

* The pseudoscience of racialism (sometimes also called scientific racism, race realism, or human biodiversity) is founded on the idea that the various ethnicities of the world are genetically distinct human subspecies (which isn't actually true; modern humans are a pretty genetically uniform creature, physical differences are limited to such things as relative bone density). While racism, the belief that one or more of these groups are "superior" or "inferior" to one or more others in some vague, undefined way is a separate idea, the two groups do overlap much more frequently than either would have you believe.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WebOriginal/{{Vilous}}'': The three main races of the setting, Sergals (furry sharks), Agudners (basically {{fauns|AndSatyrs}}), and Nevreans (BirdPeople) are all considered separate species and cannot interbreed, but they actually are all descended from a common ancestor race of humans (or {{Human Alien}}s) and they still refer to themselves as humans even though none of them resemble humans anymore.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey V'' explicitly refers to all party members, be they [[HumansAreAverage Earthlain]], [[OurElvesAreDifferent Celestrian]], [[LittleBitBeastly Therian]], or [[{{Hobbits}} Brouni]], as humans.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* ''Franchise/JojosBizarreAdventure'':
** The Pillar Men, the main villains of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency part 2]] of the manga and the second half of the anime, were a tribe of pre-history Mesoamerican {{Horned Humanoid}}s who were physically harmed by sunlight, but had long lifespans and advanced technology. As such, they were worshiped as gods by early humanity. [[spoiler:The four Pillar Men in the present only survived by [[OurVampiresAreDifferent using the Stone Mask]], which gave them immortality and BodyHorror-tastic [[MasterOfYourDomain body-manipulation powers]]. Kars, the leader of the four and the creator of the Stone Mask, wiped out the rest of the tribe when they tried to kill him.]]
** The Rock Humans of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion part 8]] are a species of humanoids who can turn into rocks, have SuperDrowningSkills, and name themselves after mountain ranges.
* ''Manga/KonoSuba'' has the Crimson Demon Clan, a literal human subspecies who were founded by one of the "Champions" sent to the world by the goddess Aqua in the distant past. Crimson Demons look and fundamentally are human, but possess two defining traits; every single one of them is [[MageSpecies naturally adept at using magic]], and they are all [[{{Chuunibyou}} flamboyantly melodramatic eccentrics]]. The tabletop roleplaying game adaptation even goes so far as to present Crimson Demon Clan Member as one of the three playable races, with the others being "Reincarnated Otherworlder" and "Native Inhabitant".

* In the modern comics of ''Westernanimation/TheFlintstones'', some Neandertals appear as workers and within the context of the series are considered inferior by the ''Homo sapiens'' of the story (including the main characters).

** The Orokin themselves were very likely a distinct subspecies. Descriptions of them are vague, emphasizing mostly their immortality and unearthly, unsettling beauty, hinting that they were perhaps TheBeautifulElite taken to its {{Transhuman}} extreme. However,[[spoiler: if Ballas' appearance is anything to go by,]] their standards of "beauty" were very different from ours; [[spoiler: he looks entirely disturbing with his pupil-less all-white eyes, dark-blue skin and a monstrously elongated right arm]]. The game's primary [[WordOfGod concept artist]] said he was going for a "classical" Greco-Roman elegance in their appearance, as if the Orokin had ''designed'' themselves after the traditional image of gods.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': There are several varieties of "human" living in the world of Alrest. Lefterians, Ardainians, and Tantalese all appear to be "normal" humans, but the Gormotti have cat features like fur and claws, the Urayans have pale greenish skin with occasional scales and sometimes fin-like ears, and the Indoline tend to have bright blue skin, are tall and lanky, and have extended lifespans.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In the modern comics of the ''Flintstones'', some Neandertals appear as workers and within the context of the series are considered inferior by the Homo Sapiens of the story (including the main characters).

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The Hylians are a human subrace distinguished by their PointyEars, allegedly allowing them to hear the gods. It's rumored that they're descended from the gods themselves, [[spoiler:which is proved to be partially true in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' -- they're the Lesser Goddess Hylia's chosen people, and the royal family is directly descended from Hylia's human reincarnation]]. There's also the Gerudo (first introduced in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]''), a [[OneGenderRace mostly female]] warrior race of [[DarkSkinnedRedhead Dark-Skinned Redheads]] who rely on marrying men of other races to reproduce, the males of which are born once a century. The Sheikah also gradually emerged as one: originally characterized as a "tribe" rather than a fully separate race, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' establishes that they are fairly distinct from Hylians and other humanlike races, as evidenced by traits such as MysticalWhiteHair, being LongLived, and having a natural affinity for {{Magitek}}.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'':
** Mutants, magic wielders both wanded and wandless, Atlanteans, Eternals and Deviants (neither have been seen, but the Eternals, at least, have been mentioned). It's also been observed that a considerably sized number of people of European ancestry have got a bit of Asgardian blood in them [[AllMythsAreTrue (among others).]] They're not the only population where this happened, with most pantheons embracing the ReallyGetsAround aspect -- and, considering that they're gods, a number would have gone out of their way to have the children of gods. However, it is a bit more prominent due to the fact that the Asgardians fought a number of wars on Earth and were present in greater numbers and armies tend to make a contribution to the local gene pool.
** The sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past'', also makes mention of ComicBook/TheInhumans, and reveals that [[TheFairFolk the Fae]] were originally human (or at least a closely related species) which migrated to the [[EldritchLocation Nevernever]] hundreds of thousands of years ago and adapted to thrive there. It's also later established that the [[Series/StargateSG1 Jaffa]] exist, though in this universe they were, like the Inhumans, created by the Kree as a warrior caste.

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': The word "human" is an umbrella term used to refer to the various hominid species such as [[HumansByAnyOtherName tall-men]], elves, dwarves, gnomes, and [[{{Hobbits}} half-feet]] as a whole, making them all explicitly human subspecies. Humans and elves at least can also interbreed, producing half-elves. Furthermore, in chapter 87, a glimpse into the time of the [[{{Precursor}} ancient civilization]] reveals [[spoiler: the ancients were a common ancestor species of all of the above, and implies their divergence into different species began with magical BioAugmentation that was reinforced and bred true across generations.]]

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': The word "human" is an umbrella term used to refer to the various hominid species such as [[HumansByAnyOtherName tall-men]], elves, dwarves, gnomes, and [[{Hobbits} half-feet]] as a whole, making them all explicitly human subspecies. Humans and elves at least can also interbreed, producing half-elves. Furthermore, in chapter 87, a glimpse into the time of the [[{{Precursor}} ancient civilization]] reveals [[spoiler: the ancients were a common ancestor species of all of the above, and implies their divergence into different species began with magical BioAugmentation that was reinforced and bred true across generations.]]