How to create a new specie?

[Celsius]

I hope I won't get busted for this, but I'd like to make another "race thread". This one will be diffrent though, since I am not asking for ideas for a specie, like "Do you want wererabbits to be in game?", but for a brainstorm on how a specie may be created. Results of those ideas are irrelevant for me.

 

My idea is that once, there were only humans and they are the root for all other species. So, what I came up with so far (and picked up in other related threads) is:

 

1. Magic. A failed (or succesfull!) experiment resulting in creation of a new specie. Obvious, but ok.

2. Religion. Deities may want to create believers more fitting to them, so they alter their flocks. Also a very common idea.

3. Soul. Since they are the main aspect of the game, they may be a being changing on it's own. So they could evolve, changing the host body with it, or degrade due to certain factors (and produce daemonkind for example).

 

I also have a very specific idea regarding the souls, which may be simply called a Merge. Once in some time (one, two, three or thousand millenia, not relevant) a person is born with a trait that allows it to merge it's soul with another, creating a new specie. The trait would be undetectable, the merge itself spontanous and it would also have an area of effect, so when a person merges with another soul, the fallout of it also alters every similar soul (for example - all humans) in a radius of 50 miles. This way a merge may sometimes create a brand new culture when happens in a vastly populated areas, or only one progenitor if there was no one around, who is unique and cannot breed with other species.

 

4. Simple evolution.

 

Share your ideas! And please don't ban\merge my thread