Order of Azeroth's Races

Introduction
Azeroth is home to numerous races, each of which began to appear within different time periods. Some of these races had even came from other planets, such as the Draenei coming from the planet Argus. This list will be in order from which races appeared on Azeroth first, to appearing last.

Elemental Lords (11,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: None

Old Age: None

Maximum Lifespan: Immortal unless killed by Divine Being or slain within the Elemental Plane After having created the entire universe, C'thalos still somehow felt empty, and carried the desire to test the development of his creations by focusing a great amount of care on a particular planet to then observe the history which was to unfold. The planet C'thalos chose happened to be Azeroth, the name roughly translating to "World of Warcraft" due to war occurring constantly on the planet even from the very beginning. Before history on Azeroth had even began though, the planet was a barren wasteland with no oceans, vegetation, fertile soil, or breathable air.

Part of this was due to the fiery core of the planet which released noxious fumes into the atmosphere and prevented any life from developing, at least without proper care. Seeing that the elements on Azeroth were so twisted, C'thalos had ordered Cataclysar, Kerah, Solarion, and Terralos to condition the planet into supporting life. These gods were however preoccupied with other planets and so to ensure the lasting survival of Azeroth's future life, they created the four Elemental Lords.

Among these Elemental Lords was Al'Akir the Windlord, Neptulon the Tidehunter, Therazane the Stonemother, and Ragnaros the Firelord. These Elemental Lords were greatly powerful beings with power arguably rivaling the Old Gods, tasked with the sole purpose of maintaining a healthy balance of the elements on Azeroth to ensure the safety of the planet's future life. With their creation, the Elemental Lords were bound to four distinct planes which would sustain their existence, these planes collectively being regarded as the Elemental Plane.

These realms would be Skywall ruled by Al'Akir, the Abyssal Maw ruled by Neptulon, Deepholm ruled by Therazane, and the Firelands ruled by Ragnaros. Despite the Elemental Lords being vastly powerful beings, they were in fact weaker than the Old Gods, as they were capable of death by mortal hand as long as they were killed within their respective planes. The Elemental Lords were aware of this, and so were to create an army of Elementals to guard the entrance to their planes shortly after their creation.

Elementals (10,500,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: Varies

Old Age: Varies

'''Maximum Lifespan: Immortal unless contaminated. Contaminated lifespan up to 50,000 years though generally no more than 500 years.'''

It is estimated that sometime between 10,500,000 L.D and 11,000,000 L.D that the race of Elementals were created. These Elementals proudly served their respective Elemental Lord, protecting the various elemental planes ruled by their lord from any outside threats that would eventually appear. The ranks of the Elementals would be determined based on their purity as well as strength. The larger Elementals would often become generals who commanded legions of smaller Elementals. As for purity, it is the life force that keeps an elemental alive. An elemental is capable of living forever, as long as he avoids being killed, and avoids being polluted by the other elements.

With that being said, Elementals within the Elemental Plane were often much more pure than those defending outside of the plane. For example, a water elemental who resides within waters outside of the Abyssal Maw would be corrupted by the silt deposits as well as the air and in turn would slowly die. The process of death by corruption could take several hundred years though, even millennia depending on how much corruption is exposed to the elemental for the rest of its existence. Additionally, when an elemental becomes far too corrupted, they will become volatile and often too unpredictable to serve a master.

However most corrupted Elementals will be killed before they reach a state of volatility. Though most Elementals avoid corruption, the Old Gods have actually manipulated fire and earth Elementals into fusing together to become lava Elementals which then became servants of Deathwing. In addition to lava Elementals, there have been a myriad of other fusion Elementals. Elementals which are fused between two elements are called Dual Elementals, while Elementals fused between three elements are called Triumvir Elementals.

Though lava Elementals are powerful, they are of course very unpredictable due to the amount of corruption and will live very short lives between 5 to 10 years. Despite death being near inevitable for any elemental to leave the Elemental Plane, Elementals are very loyal to their respective Elemental Lords and would gladly serve and die protecting the Elemental Plane from invaders. Many millennia later though, a multitude of Elementals would become renegade due to the several wars throughout history which tore apart the elemental factions. Renegade Elementals could then serve a new master, mainly shamans but also sometimes mages.

Old Gods (8,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: None

Old Age: None

Maximum Lifespan: Immortal unless killed by Divine Being When C'thalos was planning the development of Azeroth, the various voidlings that peered from the edges of the void relayed this information to Solaht'c. Upon hearing of C'thalos' plan, Solaht'c wished to destroy Azeroth. However being that Solaht'c was an eternity away from Azeroth, only a tiny fraction of his power could reach, which wouldn't be enough to physically destroy the planet. So with the amount of power that could reach, Solaht'c would embed the manifestation of his sin into the planet in the form of seven Old Gods.

These seven Old Gods would be C'thun the Old God of Pride, Obth'aras the Old God of Sloth, Yogg-Saron the Old God of Wrath, Y'Shaarj the Old God of Envy, Ajoraa the Old God of Lust, Ourogath the Old God of Gluttony and N'zoth the Old God of Greed. The purpose of their creation was not only to terrorize and possible destroy the current and future creations on Azeroth, but to mock C'thalos' creations with the grotesque appearance of the Old Gods. Though C'thalos despised the hideous creations, he could not destroy them or he would in turn destroy the planet due to the immense power held by a god, and this would only fulfill the goal of Solaht'c. When the Old Gods initially emerged though, they were disregarded by the Elementals which would eventually prove to be a mistake.

Despite the Old Gods being immensely powerful beings incapable of death by mortal hand, they do have their weaknesses. Their primordial nature is quite apparent, as aside from N'zoth, their bodies are incapable of moving but are instead rooted to the earth such as trees are. Though they cannot be killed by Azeroth's inhabitants, they are instead imprisoned by them to try and subdue them from harming others. Despite this strategy proving quite effective, the Old Gods are manipulative beings, and have, throughout history, manipulated their way out of imprisonment by corrupting nearby beings into releasing them with promises of power and such.

Though often these promises were broken, the Old Gods are in fact capable of bestowing magic, just as an ordinary god would be able to. This magic would be known as Void Magic, or Solathimancy. Though it is a powerful magic, it is dangerous to the wielder and can often induce insanity. With that being said, it is widely regarded as a forbidden magic, though nonetheless there are some cults that form solely for the purpose of worshiping the Old Gods.

N'raqi (7,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: 25,000

Old Age: 40,000

Maximum Lifespan: 50,000-60,000 For around a million years, the Old Gods were generally isolated on Azeroth, in distant lands from the kingdoms ruled by the Elementals. C'thalos observed Azeroth throughout this time, unsure of whether or not he should continue his development of the planet or to simply find a new planet to create life for. Around 7,000,000 L.D, to his surprise, a race came into creation by the Old Gods themselves. Though it took awhile to perfect the art of creation, the race known as the N'raqi eventually came into existence, created from the organic matter which surrounded the rooted bodies of the Old Gods.

With their creation, the Old Gods were ambitious to create a loyal empire with this new race as their servants, however since the N'raqi were composed of the organic matter that seeped from the Old Gods, they could only create so many before having to wait for more of the organic matter to compose.The N'raqi bore a resemblance to the Old Gods, however the Old Gods ensured that they would be more adapted to life on Azeroth than themselves, such as being able to walk around as well as communicate non-telepathically. The majority of the N'raqi thus held a similar appearance; their bodies standing between eight and fourteen feet tall while being composed of tentacles, though some, primarily N'zoth's creations, holding more crustacean appearances such as wielding claws.

Being that they were creations of the Old Gods, they naturally held a devotion to them, however the Old Gods had additionally influenced them with their manipulative abilities in order to ensure they held undying loyalty. For the most part, the N'raqi all held an allegiance to one another, even Old Gods ruling in other parts of Azeroth. However throughout history there has been some wars between the Old Gods which involved the use of the N'raqi as soldiers. Though for the majority of the Primordial Era of Azeroth, all the N'raqi constituted the first empire on Azeroth known as the Black Empire, a mega faction ruling the the majority of the planet while being commanded by the Old Gods.

While united under the Black Empire, the Old Gods then made their first conquest, a conquest on the only other beings they could find on Azeroth. This would be historically referred to as the 1st War of the Black Empire, a long war which eventually led to the victory of the Black Empire. Being that the Elemental Lords could seemingly not be killed, they were forced to join the Black Empire, which initially would be a reluctant alliance but overtime they would be corrupted by the manipulative Old Gods.

Aqir (5,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: 7-10

Middle Age: 15

Old Age: 18-19

Maximum Lifespan: 20-30 For around two million years, the N'raqi were the only race constituting the Black Empire, constructing various temple-cities surrounding the Old Gods which would be the essence of the empire. C'thun however wished to create a unique race which differentiated from the usual N'raqi that followed all the Old Gods. With that being said, around 5,000,000 L.D C'thun had created an insectoid race known as the Aqir. Generally though, the Aqir were considered a lesser race in the Black Empire's ranks, and replaced much of the N'raqi who were formerly laborers. However compared to the air Elementals who resided within C'thun's territory, the Aqir were still considered superior to them.

Due to the insectoid nature of the Aqir, the structures created by them appeared as horrific looking hives that often expanded underground as opposed to the metal and stone temple-cities constructed by the N'raqi. Though the Aqir were considered inferior to the N'raqi, they actually had the advantage of being able to reproduce rather than requiring C'thun to create more of their kin, and so even with C'thun's later imprisonment, the Aqir would live on as a race. Being that the Aqir were created by C'thun and C'thun alone, they exclusively served him and rarely left the territory surrounding him.

First Generation Titan-Forged and the Keepers (4,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: None

Old Age: None

Maximum Lifespan: Immortal until killed

Shortly after Solaht'c had embedded the Old Gods into Azeroth, C'thalos created a Titan Pantheon which was charged with the sole purpose of watching over Azeroth from the threat Solaht'c's Old Gods presented to the planet. Around 1,000,000 years after the Aqir were first created, the Pantheon realized that the Black Empire was becoming too strong, and that any life that was to be created would be destroyed just as the Elementals were. However like C'thalos, the Pantheon was too powerful to simply go into Azeroth on their own and tear apart the Black Empire, as each Titan is estimated to hold 1/3rd the power of a Deity.

To combat this issue, the Pantheon then created the race known as the Titan-Forged. However like the Old Gods, Titans could not create a new race out of thin air like C'thalos could, and so to create the Titan-Forged, the Titans used the earthen properties of Azeroth to create them, including stone and metal. Leading these Titan-Forged were beings known as the Keepers, who were created in the same manner as Titan-Forged and in many ways were similar to them. However, the Keepers were imbued with a great amount of power from their respective Titan, similar to Archons.

Upon creation, the Keepers and Titan-Forged were immediately sought after by the Black Empire however they banded together and tore apart the empire and then defeated the Elemental Lords, causing them to return back to the Elemental Plane where they would recuperate over the course of millennia. With the fall of the Black Empire, much of the N'raqi were slain and the Aqir that managed to survive had retreated underground where they would remain hiding for millions of years. Additionally, the Titan-Forged managed to imprison 4 of the 7 Old Gods. In Northrend, a massive titan-city was constructed known as Ulduar which would surround the prison of Yogg-Saron.

In southern Kalimdor, the titan-city of Orzedus was constructed to imprison C'thun, and in northern Kalimdor, the titan-city of Aunomar (now known as Zin-Azshari) was constructed to imprison N'zoth. Lastly, a prison in Alonia known as San'gezor was created to imprison Y'shaarj. For millennia, the Titan-Forged would be charged with ensuring the survival of these cities and the protection of the prisons in order to ensure the Old Gods never escape. Additionally, they'd be charged with imprisoning the other Old Gods who were still free, yet this wouldn't be done for several thousand years.

Second Generation Titan-Forged (3,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: None

Middle Age: None

Old Age: None

Maximum Lifespan: Immortal until killed

After around a million years of peace, C'thalos saw that Azeroth, for the most part, was quite stagnant, and the Titan-Forged created by the Pantheon were incapable of evolving overtime such as creatures on most other planets were. Seeing that the Titan-Forged would never branch out into other subspecies, C'thalos expressed his concerns to the Pantheon who then formulated a plan to combat this issue. The pantheon thus ordered the Keepers to create two forges known as the Forge of Wills, located in Ulduar, and the Forge of Origination, located near Orzedus. Both of these forges would slowly absorb life energy from Azeroth until after about a million years they would have gathered enough of the planet's life energy to create some new races of Titan-Forged, so as to simulate evolution. Thankfully, the twin forges gathered the life energy slow enough so as to allow the planet to recuperate and would thus not cause harm.

After these forges were built and gathered life energy for around a million years, the Keepers of their respective forges then created a variety of new Titan-Forged races that would come to be known as Second Generation Titan-Forged. The first to be created in the Forge of Wills using stone as the main component were known as Troggs, however the keepers who were still unsure how to properly create a new subspecies resulted in the Troggs becoming unintelligent creatures who lacked the humanity of first generation Titan-Forged. Using the same concept as Troggs, the Keepers of the Forge of Wills then refined the process and thus created the Earthen, a race of dwarf-like creatures comprised of stone just as the Troggs were. Unlike Troggs though, the Earthen were capable of communicating in the Titan language.

Once the process was refined, a variety of other races were created in the Forge of Wills, including Mechagnomes, Vrykul, Valarjar, Val'kyr, Mogu, and the various types of Giants. Once the creation process was refined, the Keeper Archaedas traveled to the Forge of Origination and helped the Keepers residing there to create the Tol'vir and Anubisaths. Though a few hundred thousand years after the Forge of Origination's creation, Obth'aras had sent legions of N'raqi to assault Orzedus in an attempt to free C'thun, and in the process had destroyed the Forge of Origination. The forge however, despite being destroyed to the point of being no longer usable, would still gradually gather life energy from Azeroth. Nonetheless, if the Titan-Forged were to create another forge, the amount of life energy gathered from Azeroth would become harmful when in conjunction with the Forge of Wills and Forge of Origination, and so the Forge of Wills was the only remaining forge that could be used for future generations.

Proto-Drakes (2,000,000 L.D)
Adulthood: 100

Middle Age: 15,000

Old Age: 25,000

Maximum Lifespan: 30,000 (Without consuming Elementals)

Around a million years after the Second Generation Titan-Forged were created, the various renegade Elementals wandering Azeroth proved to be a nuisance to the Titan-Forged. To make matters worse, Al'Akir had frequently sent his armies to attack Orzedus, and it was difficult for Titan-Forged to fight an enemy that was capable of aerial combat, as the only Titan-Forged capable of flying were the Val'kyr. To combat this issue, a new winged race known as Proto-Drakes were forged in the Forge of Wills using primarily metal, but also sometimes earth. In addition to the usual components, Proto-Drakes were created using elemental essences, or the remains of an elemental after it has died.

Though being that elemental essences eventually run dry of elemental energy by around 30,000 years, the Titan-Forged Proto-Drakes were not immortal, and therefore are seldom even regarded as Titan-Forged. However a Proto-Drake can also continually extend its life by consuming Elementals, therefore could hypothetically gain immortality as long as they were to devour at least one elemental around every 30,000 years. Additionally unlike most Titan-Forged, Proto-Drakes are unintelligent, however they were nonetheless capable of being trained and proved to be very useful. In particular, they were frequently used as mounts by Vrkyul. However, due to the heaviness of their hides, they were only capable of flight for around ten seconds before needing to return to the ground.

Flesh-Cursed Races (1,000,000 L.D)
It is documented that Yogg-Saron at some point after the creation of Proto-Drakes noticed a crack in the ceiling of his prison that lead to the hall which the Forge of Wills rested in. He however didn't act immediately, but instead chose to wait for the right opportunity to make his move. This opportunity came around 1,000,000 L.D when the Keepers of Ulduar were planning on creating their next generation of Titan-Forged within the forge. Yogg-Saron thus seeped a fraction of his power through the crack in the ceiling, the power then corrupting the Forge of Wills to cause all future creations to be turned from metal, stone, and earth into flesh. Thankfully before creating a new generation, the Keeper Mimiron noticed an eerie green light beneath the Forge of Wills and so decided to test the forge in the creation of a single Vrykul.

The result however was not the usual metal or earthen Vrykul, but instead a being that held the same form as a Vrykul except being comprised of flesh and blood. To their dismay, the Titan-Forged near the Vrykul quickly began to crumble away, revealing flesh and blood that formed underneath. This would come to be known as the Curse of Flesh, originating from the Forge of Wills yet also capable of spreading to other Titan-Forged who were exposed to the Flesh-Cursed races. Oddly though, the Curse of Flesh did not affect the Keepers, supposedly because the power they were bestowed with from their respective Titan gave them greater protection from the Old Gods' magic. From this curse, many of the races as seen in present-day Azeroth came about: the Troggs, Dwarves, Gnomes, Vrykul, Val'kyr, Mogu, Proto-Drakes, Giants, and Tol'vir.

Some races of course retained their original names, however they are nonetheless under the Curse of Flesh. Though the Flesh-Cursed races are much more fragile when compared to their Titan-Forged counterparts, they nonetheless have the advantage of being able to reproduce without the need for a forge. Additionally, the Flesh-Cursed Proto-Drakes had surprisingly benefited from the curse, their bodies now capable of prolonged flight. Proto-Drakes now also had a larger variety of creatures to consume, and most notably when consuming their own kind they would absorb the elemental energy within them and grow in size and strength at the price of some mutations as seen with Galakrond.

However, in fear of the precious Titan-Forged races being wiped out from the curse, the Keepers banished all of the Flesh-Cursed races from the various titan cities. This resulted in ancient civilizations being created, one of the earliest that still exists being Utgarde which would come to be owned by the Flesh-Cursed Vrykul. Over the course of thousands of years, the Flesh-Cursed Races had also developed some genetic traits unique to a particular subset of their race, most notably Giants and Proto-Drakes absorbing some of the magic from the environment to then alter their own bodies, which even resulted in certain Giants regaining their hard bodies whether from stone or crystal. To a lesser extent the other races had also developed genetic diversity, though this was mainly in regards to hair color or skin tone.

Ley Races (700,000 L.D)
Centering the titan-city of Aunomar in northern Kalimdor was a massive pool of arcane magic known as the Well of Eternity, a pool of magic that had existed ever since Arcanos had carved his leylines into the planet. All of these leylines had converged onto one point on northern Kalimdor, resulting in the Well of Eternity's creation. Though Aunomar had no forge to create new races, for thousands of years the Keeper Salrudoth had been studying the arcane properties of the well, and was surprised to see that it held many similarities to the organic matter surrounding the Old Gods.

This meant that the Well of Eternity could perhaps be used to create new races, though he was still unsure how. Hearing that the Forge of Wills was destroyed, this put even more pressure on Salrudoth to find a way to utilize the Well of Eternity for creation being that the Forge of Wills had been the only remaining forge to be used after the Forge of Origination's destruction. After Salrudoth's many years of observation, he had finally concluded that to use the Well of Eternity to create new races would require some of Azeroth's life energy just as it had been used to create the Titan-Forged.

After a long journey south to the titan-city of Orzedus, Salrudoth secured several million years worth of life energy gathered by the ruined Forge of Origination, securing it in a magic-sealing device before returning to Aunomar. Though Salrudoth wasn't exactly sure how to fuse the life energy with the arcane magic, the pressure from the Ulduarians made him realize that he didn't have anymore time to spare when it came to research. With that being said, he simply unlocked the magic-sealing device and released all of the life energy into the Well of Eternity at once.

The result was quite devastating to say the least, and would be the cause of a massive event known as "Sheun Azero'thalon" meaning "Azeroth's Great Creation" in Ancient Darnassian. To create a new race, the life energy combining with the arcane magic would create a volatile chemical reaction as the various life forms would randomly take shape. This chemical reaction on such a grand scale would rapidly expand across all of the leylines, essentially causing for new races to arise across the entire planet.

However with all of these chemical reactions happening simultaneously, it also caused a violent tremor, violent enough to separate every region into individual continents based on the positioning of the leylines, leading vast oceans to then stand between each continent. As for the leylines, they too were separated, branching out in random directions from their respective "parent lines." Not only did these ley lines create a variety of new races, but the magic from them was consumed by many of the Proto-Drakes, resulting in their bodies and minds transforming into a new generation of drakes which constitute the majority of drakes today.

These Neo-Drakes (primarily referred to simply as Drakes) had developed intelligence equivalent to the Titan-Forged, and had prayed to the Pantheon for acceptance as a fellow Titan-Forged race to then serve alongside them. Though they were denied from the various titan-cities due to the Curse of Flesh, they nonetheless were bestowed magic from their respective Titan they had prayed to.

Aman'Thul had bestowed Nozdormu and his followers with chronomancy, and in particular had bestowed Nozdormu with immortality to watch over the newly-formed Bronze Dragonflight. Eonar had bestowed Ysera and her followers with nyrumancy, bestowing Ysera with immortality to watch over the newly-formed Green Dragonflight. Eonar had also bestowed Alexstrasza and her followers with vitaramancy, giving Alexstrasza immortality to watch over the Red Dragonflight.

Norgannon had bestowed Malygos and his followers with arcanomancy, Malygos also receiving the gift of immortality to watch over the Blue Dragonflight. Khaz'goroth had bestowed Neltharion and his followers with teramancy, also bestowing Neltharion with immortality to watch over the Black Dragonflight. Though all of these Dragonflights were denied access to the titan-cities, they went on to create their own cities and were emphasized by the Titans to have their own purposes separate from the Titan-Forged.

Along with Drakes being created, thousands of other races were created, however the chance of a race holding exceptional intelligence was incredibly low. With that being said, the majority of races created relied primarily on instinct for their actions, generally the most intelligent akin to Gnolls or Murlocs however the majority holding intelligence similar to stags or crocolisks.

Many of these races also had been created with fleshy bodies similar to those under the Curse of Flesh being that materials such as stone or metal were of course not a material used in the Well of Eternity's process of creation. In the midst of Sheun Azero'thalon, it is estimated that over 80% of the races originally created had actually died in the initial event. Being that the process of creation was completely random, many of the newly created races weren't compatible with their environments, such as land creatures being created in the deep-ocean leylines.

Another cause of the races' extinction was simply from the massive tremors and flooding caused by Sheun Azero'thalon which was enough to completely destroy Aunomar and the Well of Eternity along with it. Though with the amount of races created, it was more than enough to populate Azeroth, and C'thalos had actually considered Sheun Azero'thalon a success being that it was the catalyst that truly began Azeroth's development, an event which he considered similar to his own Sheu'thalon.

Arguably one of the most important creations to come from Sheun Azero'thalon though was the race of Trolls as well as all of its subspecies. While living a mostly primitive lifestyle, they were nonetheless more intelligent than most of the other races to come from Sheun Azero'thalon and would greatly shape Azeroth's history with their various empires. While all the races to come from Sheun Azero'thalon would gradually evolve overtime, most importantly many of the Trolls would evolve into the various races of elves.

There were however many other intelligent races to come from Sheun Azero'thalon though, such as Arakkoa, Centaur, Sethrak. Ogres, Vulpera, Jinyu, Yaungol, Tuskarr, Saberon, and many more. Most importantly, Orcs had also come from Sheun Azero'thalon, becoming the dominant race to rule over the continent of Draenor for several millennia, while also becoming the future race to form the Horde. In ancient times though, like the Trolls, they lived a fairly primitive lifestyle, and their clans would still take many millennia to fully form.

Yaungol Subspecies and Kaldorei (500,000 L.D)
With a couple hundred thousand years of evolution at work, various regions which normally were home to Trolls had come to house an entirely new race. In northern Kalimdor (primarily Ashenvale and Mount Hyjal), the vast majority of Dark Trolls had evolved into the first Kaldorei, or Night Elves. These Kaldorei when compared to their Dark Troll ancestors were far more intelligent, and millennia of cultural development had civilized them into a race that valued nature and tranquility as opposed to the savage cannibalistic rituals practiced by the mostly subterranean Dark Trolls. Surprisingly, the same story can be said in regards to the Yaungol, a race of yak-like humanoids who have inhabited the various plateaus of Alonia for hundreds of thousands of years.

In antiquity, various Yaungol tribes throughout Alonia were at constant war with one another. Though the names of the tribes weren't recorded, legend has told of how the Yaungol remaining in Alonia are descendants of the winning tribe, and the various tribes exiled from the continent evolved into the Yaungols' subspecies. The tribe to sail far north would become the Taunka, the tribe to sail north east would become the Highmountain Tauren, and the tribe to sail north west would become the Tauren. It is also theorized that as many as hundreds of other losing tribes were to have sailed from Alonia over the course of millennia, though the only three to have survived the uncharted voyage are the existing subspecies seen today.