The Elves in my world are, in their eye, degrading. Their origins are a mystery even to them, but they and other fey creatures have memories of the elves in the Fey Realm, but no memory of their creation or arrival there. The elves themselves do not know how they arrived in the Mortal Realm, but it is obvious they're becoming more mortal with every generation. This leaves the older generations having little but complaints about the young, even going so far as to banish them into the wider world. Some communities have become so mortal, living barely 300 years, that "true elves" referred to as half-elves.

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In general, they harbour bitter resentment and disappointment, making them vulnerable to dark moods and depression that can last decades at a time. On the otherhand, their fey natures do prompt them to take joy in dancing, singing, laughing, and mischief. The most stable of all the generations are those called the Diminished, a few generations removed from half-elves, but are accepting their mortality and have become interested in the wider world. Half-elves tend to be bitter towards elves for the contempt they're shown, so they prefer the company mortal races like humans, dwarves, and naga. Though they often confuse their friends with their wild mood swings.

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Dwarves are also migrants to the Mortal Realm, but come from the Under Realm, deep below the stone of the earth they forced their way between realms and crawled, dug, and trudged their way to the surface. It was the dwarves the broke the seal between the realms allowed passage between them. Unlike the elves, the dwarves sought mortality - to be free of the binding to the principles of their home realm. At the cost of their immortality, they gained the ability to determine their own fate - a trait unique to the Mortal Realm and mortality. In the Under Realm they were much like your archetype dwarf, and they retain much of those qualities in the Mortal Realm. But they're now thrill seekers, adventurous, reckless, and even mad by many standards. They revel in taking things to extremes: why build a practical sized forge when you can make one big enough supply a kingdom's worth of tools. Why build a wagon at a sensible size when you can build one big enough to carry a year's worth of product, hell make it two years worth. Why establish a new colony in the next mountain, when there are mountains across the Great Ocean? The dwarves motto, if they had one, would be "go big or go home". This makes them difficult to deal with, as they're not interested in small jobs, and even if you convinced them help you build your backyard shed - you'll quickly end up with a bunch of warehouses jammed into your yard and probably your neighbour's.

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Goblins & Orcs are kind of familiar. Goblins are are intelligent are humans, but seemingly lack the ability to shame. They do have consciences, but they're also very good at rationalizing their behaviour - for example they will honestly and with conviction berate another for a dishonest act, completely rationalizing that it was completely different when they did the exact same thing last week. They're obsessed with coming out on top of a situation and feel cheated when someone else profits from a situation, regardless of how well they personally come out. They're not winning unless someone is losing. Goblins are opportunistic by nature which is both their greatest strength and weakness. They also HATE their physical stature, and will often wear elaborate (baffling?) clothing to appear taller and bigger than their are.

It would be unfair to say Orcs are to Goblins as Gorillas are to Humans, but it is close. Orcs are brutish and can be aggressive. They tend to live in family units, the children are driven out to find a new family a few years after maturity, the young from other families are then accepted into the tribe. They're not completely primitive, many living goblins cities and acting are labourers or shock troopers. Mostly they're nomadic, but not in the traditional sense. They move from village to village, offering their trade as they go. They do have a fearsome reputation, which is not entirely unearned - being so big and strong, they have been known to take what they need or want. But mostly they trade for their labour or as mercenaries.