non-humans and crazy enviroments ( high fantasy)

Hey guys what's going on? As you can see I'm completely new here and I figured I shouldn't waste any time in asking for help with the ethos I'm trying to build.

I already have a pretty strong foundation for my world and story. Hence, this post will be pretty long as there are aspects of my world that you need to know about before you make a decision. Having worked on this mentally in my mind for the better part of 4 or 5 years, I've scrapped and implemented alot of different ideas.

The problem I'm facing right now is that I'm looking for a way to incorporate non-human cultures and characters into my world. See the world I'm making is almost complete norse mythology.All the gods, all the giants and all the trolls are there. But I've included elements from other, indo-european religions as well, in particular hinduism.

Initially I figured the best way to put the non-human element in it would be to just put elves and dwarves in it ( who have a pretty solid place in norse myth ). But it's so cliché and old at this point that I really don't want them in my story anymore. I have painted a really expansive storyarc and designed several human cultures, but I don't know where and how I should put non-humans into the world I'm making. Trolls and giants are already in there, but I need some help to come up with others.

The other problem I have is that I don't know where I should place the freakish enviroments. I've already decided that some few regions should have enviroments similiar to earth, meaning expansive woods, deserts, jungles and tundras. The things I want to put in there is stuff like cities floating on water, forests made out of metal, rivers made from blood, stuff like that. So what I'm asking for is where you think I should put these enviroments and where I should put these non-human anthropomorphic creatures. Any of the regions I haven't specifically described what type of enviroment is dominant is a region you can decide what it should be. Here are the perfect places to create alien ecosystems.


So, without further of due: this is the world of Midgard ( it will be illustrated using my AMAZING skills in paint ):

Map:

Spoiler

( I realise it looks quite a bit like Europe and North Africa, in the sketches I made, there is far more details and it looks almost world's apart from this. )

Midgard:

Spoiler

Midgard is a world about the size of planet earth. Only one continent is being explored and is the only one any of the characters in the narratives are aware off. As a result, the continent as well is known as Midgard, it's about the size of North America, with a varying climate, although it follows the basic rules most of the time: the further north you go the colder it gets. The more south, the more tropical, until you reach the South Pole. . There are a bunch of different regions off considerable importance, with varying degrees of having been fleshed out.


The North

The north is a penninsula located to the north of the rest of continent, connected to it via a huge, mountainous landmass in the east and where the majority of the story take place. Its inhabited by your run-of-the-mill fantasy barbarians, living in tribal congregations and clans. It's considerably much colder during winters and the lands are largely covered in forests and mountains. They go on viking-style raids to the south when times are sour and commonly enlist as mercenaries in the southern armies.

Lycium

Lycium is the largest nation and strongest military power on the continent. Sharing borders with most of the other nations, with the North looming right over them. Lycium is run by a Plato-style government of pragmatic philosophers rather than the typical feudal kingdoms of analogous times. It's a land that's split between central european forests in the upper half and more Mediterranean climate in the south.

Durkheim

Durkheim is a tiny, steampunk-esque country located to the west of the Lycium on the coast. It's unusually technologically advanced and favour rifles along with bizarre inventions over magic. It's only in recent years they've begun to trade these wares with other nations. The people are highly educated, the country's low population along with their technology allow for less labour as farmers or mines and more so with law, finances and medicine. In a sense, it's basically the Luxembourg of this world.

Bay of teeth

The Bay of teeth is a large bay inside a landmass shaped like teeth. Inside The bay itself and the thousands of islands within it is home to several city states, pirate fleets and political refugees from all over the world.


Smejj

Smejj is a smaller kingdom located to the southwest of Lycium, creating a landbridge to the contesting kingdom on the continent; Torados. The kingdom is a splinter of both Torados to the west and the Empire in the east, that was conquered by a lord of a city state in The Bay of Teeth 100 years before current storyline.

Torados

Torados is a feudal kingdom located to the west of Smejj, it's a massive penninsula kingdom, with flourishing cities and a great military. Toradians are a proud, warrior people with a long history of military success. At the time, the two realms aren't in open warfare, but they still hold animosity towards eachother.

Yalariaa

Yalariaa is a huge Island, located directly to the south of Lycium via sea. It's a desert realm, where different city states, traders and kings rule smaller nations and trading empires. Yalariaa's coast is swarming with pirates and slavers.


Marisia

Marisia is a vast and untamed jungle, many miles south of Yalariaa. The land is largely undiscovered. It is connected to the east by the very same mountains that connect the Northern penninsula many thousand kilometers upwards, making it a part of the rest of Midgard. The people living here are known as marisians in the rest of the world, a loose adaption of indigenous south american people.



The mountainrange of the east

This is a mountain range that reach absurdly far south, connecting the entire continent together. What is east of it is unknown. The mountains are inhabited by nomadic tribes with strange and savage customs.


Khaland

To the east of the Lycium lies a tiny kingdom known as Khaland. It is a tiny nation where people live as goatherders and farmers. There is a powerful movement of monks here who train martial arts and enlightenment to those who wish.

Istos

Istos is another tiny nation close to Khaland. It's a nation of lumberjacks and hunters above all.

The Wilderness

The wilderness is a large, rocky plain inhabited by a savage group of humans known as the morkhari. They fight a bloody civil war between eachother, but will occasionally turn to the empire for greater loot.

And if you're wondering anything about these places, feel free to ask. Thanks in advance for anything you say.