Or species? That strikes me as more accurate. Also, probably replace 'new' with 'old'. Very old.
Anyhow!
Have you fellows heard of the Cynocephalus?
Ancient Greek furries.
But, actually, I'm really surprised I've never seen any mention of these chaps in any media anywhere. You don't even need to worldbuild, because Greek physician, Ctesias, seems to have already done it:
'They speak no language, but bark like dogs, and in this manner make themselves understood by each other. Their teeth are larger than those of dogs, their nails like those of these animals, but longer and rounder. They inhabit the mountains as far as the river Indus. Their complexion is swarthy. They are extremely just, like the rest of the Indians with whom they associate. They understand the Indian language but are unable to converse, only barking or making signs with their hands and fingers by way of reply... They live on raw meat. They number about 120,000.'
And it goes wayy further on than that, too, where he details their general mode of life - hunters who keep sheep, goats, and so on, along with dried 'fruit of Siptakhora' (I haven't a clue what this fruit might actually be.)
They send the sweet amber of this fruit, the fruit itself, purple flowers, and purple dye, to the king of India, and then trade the rest of it with other Indians for food and weaponry. The king, every five years, sends them a present of heaps of weapons - 300,000 bows and spears, 120,000 shields, 50,000. They could probably also bite you with their dog-teeth. They supposedly lived around India and North Africa, and places in between.
He describes them as being good with bows and spears, and, generally living in 'lofty and inaccessible mountains', outright calls them undefeatable in war.
They seem to be a kind of hunter-gatherer society kind of deal, living in caves, outright chasing their prey down and overtaking it, sleeping on leaves and grass and so on. Only their women bathe, and only once a month. The men just sorta stink.
They wear tanned and fine skins except the few rich, who wear linen.
Apparently they live pretty long, too - up to 200 years.
He emphasises a lot that they're quite just, and, well, they seem pretty chill, ay? In the face of the barking and raw meat eating, they seem to fiddle around a lot with sweet fruits and flowers and dyes. In fact, one of them supposedly became a Saint - Saint Christopher! One of the theories is that Saint Christopher was depicted as a dog-headed chap due to a language misinterpretation - Cananeus (as in, Canaanite) misinterpreted as canineus - y'know, dog. People took this depiction and ran with it and now everyone reckons he's a dog-guy.
Marco Polo has also sighted them, in which they are depicted in a less positive light: 'they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.'
This sighting took place on the island of Angamanain, thought to be part of the now Andaman Islands - which are around India.
Perhaps these chaps Marco saw were a sort of nastier, distant tribe, long ago branched off from the fellows Ctesias saw, ay? Or maybe Marco was just really racist. Maybe they're just not real at all, but that's a bit boring, innit?
Anyhows, they are gone nowadays, both physically and in media. Which is a shame, because I'd certainly be a whole lot more into a race of just dog-headed hunter-gatherers who live in mountain caves and who have mean island cousins than the old elves and dwarves!
What do you lot think? Are there any other old, weird races and species that just don't seem to appear in any fantasy or anything at all, when they really probably ought to?