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I have recently discovered that esavs actually exist in folklore! They're called woodwoses. This makes me wonder why they never caught on as a separate fantasy race especially more, since not only are they a super simple fantasy race concept but they are also already in folklore, ready to be adapted.
But I have a theory why.
Woodwoses are already quite similar to humans, so when they were swept up in the large-scale humanization of fantasy races by Tolkien, they became basically a human subspecies - the Druedain - and lost their 'furry' quality. This resulted in them not being picked up on the roster of fantasy races in future works inspired by Tolkien.

What is interesting about woodwoses is their racial culture - a complete divergence from the one I have suggested for esavs. In that they don't really have one. They're more like animals living in the woods than actual people in the original folklore.

Fun fact: the name 'esav' derives from the character Esav in the Bible, who is described as so: >The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.
This is along the same lines as 'goliath' race name from D&D.

#BringBackWoodwoses #Esav

Description
I have recently discovered that esavs actually exist in folklore! They're called woodwoses. This makes me wonder why they never caught on as a separate fantasy race especially more, since not only are they a super simple fantasy race concept but they are also already in folklore, ready to be adapted.
But I have a theory why.
Woodwoses are already quite similar to humans, so when they were swept up in the large-scale humanization of fantasy races by Tolkien, they became basically a human subspecies - the Druedain - and lost their 'furry' quality. This resulted in them not being picked up on the roster of fantasy races in future works inspired by Tolkien.

What is interesting about woodwoses is their racial culture - a complete divergence from the one I have suggested for esavs. In that they don't really have one. They're more like animals living in the woods than actual people in the original folklore.

Fun fact: the name 'esav' derives from the character Esav in the Bible, who is described as so: >The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.
This is along the same lines as 'goliath' race name from D&D.

#BringBackWoodwoses #Esav