Counting down the sentient non-Seven races in Divinity
The classic six races in Divinity get 99% of the spotlight, but Larian has thrown in quite a few other sentient races over the years. Some of these never really got fleshed out in detail, or they were just brushed off as minor lore footnotes and local enemies. I'm not sure if I remember all of them. Now that Swen has promised their "most ambitious RPG yet", I think it would be nice if they used this opportunity to expand the lore by bringing some of these back.
Examples ranked by importance, at least in my opinion:
Raanar: BD race native to Nemesis, supposedly created by the goddess Raan. They're surprisingly fleshed out race despite Larian's general approach to the lore and the fact that BD is widely considered the worst Divinity game. The society operates on a caste system divided by fields of interests, hardened by constant battles with demons, that deeply values knowledge, faith and honor. Their most notable specialty is rift-opening magic, which allows travel through worlds or even time - and their most notable achievement was teaching it to the demon god incarnate. One particular book about riftrunning describes humans engaging in mass enslavement and destroying towns with metal machines, which is pretty vague but still could be a reference to an upcoming Divinity game (and not WW2) if your imagination is wild enough.
It's very likely they'll appear in the future, as D:OS2 already has a lot of in-engine names referencing them before they were scrapped during development and replaced with Eternals. Who knows, maybe these races have something in common.
Dragons: present throughout the entire series in various forms and to different degrees: from being part of the wildlife and someone else's mounts to creators of worlds. Presumably the oldest race in the universe, true dragons are thought to have left Rivellon according to the timeline, leaving behind their soon-to-be-extinct Dragon Knight proteges, as well as lesser dragons who became slaves of the Black Ring. They are very likely to play an important role in the upcoming Divinity game, as they’ve been a staple of some previous games, and everyone like dragons.
Goblins: totemic-shamanic tribal community. Had a lot of screen time in D2 and D:OS, maybe they're Larian's favourite. Despite being smart enough to be able to have normal conversations with other races, prefer the language of violence, but this feeling is mutual as most races treat them as pests. Level of hostility depends on the tribe, but the feeling of superiority and violent tendencies are a shared features. Red Hammer tribe in D2 was particularly dedicated in playing on human patience by shooting down zeppelins with trebuchets. This tribe also has unique giant flying goblins for some reason. At the same time, some goblin individuals express a particular passion for trading with other races or blending into society.
Trolls: everyone knows them since they appear in almost every game, though their design is rarely consistent. Rivellon may not be their homeworld, but I'm not sure about that. In DD and D2, they aren't friendly at all and will just eat you; but, AFAIK, D2 was the first time it was revealed that their brain activity can even produce "kingdoms" (realistically, gangs controlled by the strongest specimen). Despite their brutish appearance, it seems they know some magic, though this is presented through curses and barriers. Later, in D:OS, they were transformed into relatively chill and quite smart dudes with a troll toll fetish, but Larian didn't forget about inclusivity and appointed to this job some customary psychos too (gotta find em all). D:OS2 mixed both versions to create intelligent yet savage extortionists with elemental features.
Larian like bridge encounters and trolls will definitely be a part of them.
Dragon Elves: artificially created by dragons to serve them and guard a specific island, they appear as local enemies in D2. While supposedly to be on par with the common races, aside extra dragon-scale strength, every single one of them went into animal mode following the necromancer incident, except for one last friendly individual on that same island. They're all likely dead by the end of D2, but as they say: if there's a plot hole, there's a plot way.
Beholders: big levitating glowing orbs, in yellow, blue, or green hues. Exclusive to D2. They wear a mask, which supposedly indicates there's a face you can hit. Beholders often serve as chieftains of goblin tribes or as esteemed members of their communities, but also can be found in the Black Ring army. In combat, they rely on magic. They're presumably so cool people treat them not as monsters but as outlaws because of this, at least some of them share "wanted list" among with human criminals. Still not smart enough to stop believing in the totems though. Following the trope, there's a friendly individual in the game, well-educated one. Never explained what, how or why, but they exist and in a large nunbers.
Cyclopes: quite a weird case. They appear only once in the swamp guarding a mighty demon in D:OS (with some being held in his cages), and are never ever mentioned again in the entire series. Their appearance resembles that of sea creatures, with each one having unique clothing and a distinct body shape. Know magic and can swing sharp sticks, as expected of almost any living being in Divinity.
Titans: two encounters in D:OS. Already better than cyclopes, and we can even desecrate the tomb of their king. Made from stone, the size differs from the one of a big house to a really BIG house. It seems like they also have all the properties of stone, since we meet a healthy "living individual" who is just a thousand-year-old stone head without a body. That head knows both titanic and general rivellonian languages.
Halflings: at least once mentioned in DD dialogue. That's all I know.
Vampires: probably not a race, but can't be sure since the only known stereotypical specimen is in DD, if we exclude batshit something creatures from D:OS2.
Kirill: cameo of Kirill Pokrovsky in D:OS is quite unique comparing to other games, because his creature model doesn't resemble any other being in the series. They literally created a new species just to use it for a single NPC model.
