This is a tough call. As we all know, the fantasy races (elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, etc) don't actually exist. There is no strong template for their evolutionary development throughout the eons. Creatures of low or animal intelligence are easy to place and split from similar species already existent on earth. Intelligence is the characteristic that makes the timeline for development tricky. Here are some questions, and my present thoughts on them:
1. Are Dragons evolved from dinosaurs? If so, when did sufficient intelligence to manipulate magic develop? My original thought was to have an island in the pacific ocean be the home of dragon. The magic local to that island pushed these giant lizards to dragons over time, and intelligent dragons that use magic (vs the fierce, dumb, fire-breathing type) came along at some point. Magic is the catalyst for all the fantasy races coming into existence, of course.
2. That raises my follow-up, Are the fantasy humanoid races just humans that lived too many generations around a magical area? Or, did each develop from a split with proto-humans in the distant past, or both? Did lizard men come from a lizard progenitor? Also, do any such races share enough genes to have mixed offspring (half-elves, etc.)? I'm not set on any of these, but I do envision elves being smaller in stature and more closely related to fairies in the sylvan environment, though there should (could) be many different varieties of elves, or dwarves, or whatever, just as there are humans. The hard process will be determining which human cultures get squeezed out by dominating non-human cultures. Deciding the order of development to civilization for each race will determine their ability to seize resources and lands, thus denying other races.
3. Also, how does ecology balance out for all the predators (monsters and humanoid races) that are present in the food chain? Sure, magic could boost reproduction in livestock to facilitate survival, but this might be a slippery slope... Seems like fishing will be important.
4. History, as a record of which cultures seized and manipulated resources most effectively, may not be human dominated in any way. Domination of one culture over another is likely (humans did this among themselves throughout history), and I could see humans emulating successful, non-human races... Any thoughts?
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