'Fantasy' RPG set during pseudo-prehistorical era!

Anyway I understand if that title is confusing, but please read on for an explanation!

Many of you may be familiar with the worlds created by Robert E. Howard or H. P. Lovecraft, these men were writing in a time when we still didn't understand much about prehistory, hence they filled in a lot of blanks with sentient reptilians and great empires with medieval aesthetics back when we should have still been knocking each others brains out with rocks.

This is a world I came up with a few months ago, very much inspired by Howard and with a little of Lovecraft's less monstrous stuff. It throws together some of my own ideas about human evolution and advancement, as well as using discredited archaeology to add more flavour. This is definitely not meant to be taken as my actual views on human evolution or technology development, it's just meant to be a bit of fun.

Setting:  This map.  It's a very rough representation of what Europe, North Africa and the Middle East would have looked like around the end of the ice age, 10,000-5,000 BC. Like I say it's rough so don't quote me on it. As you can see we have the North African lakes that made the Sahara bloom, the straits between the Black and Caspian Sea's, and the land bridge between Britain and the continent known as Doggerland (where we get the modern term "Dogging" from.) The Ice Age is finally ending, the world is warming up and the sea levels are rising, creating a rich and varied environment for players to explore from the boggy plains of southern England, the ice-locked Baltic, the shrinking salt pans of North Africa and the fertile rivers of Mesopotamia.

Character Types: For those in the know, around this time there was only one human species left in the world, that being us. Homo Sapiens Sapiens. But I figured that would be boring gameplay so I spiced it up a bit! Humans are divided into a few sub-races here, as well as a few others.

Firstly, you have standard Cro-Magnons, Cavemen as our grandparents would have called them, otherwise referred to as European Early Modern Humans. They will be the most common human type across the entire map with many other player characters being sub-types of them, they will have various levels of development on their location. Guys living in the middle of Germany will still be hunter-gatherers whereas someone living in coastal southern France would have more contact with the outside world.

Next you have the early Balkan and Aegean Bronze workers. Yes I know historically metal working wasn't even developed until 1,600 BC (or there abouts), but it's fantasy for a reason. These guys are one of the more advanced races of the game, producing metal tools, weapons and early armour, as well as maintain pretty advanced societies and settlements, and they produce good alcohol. They're also kind of short and stocky as their society is largely based around mining, they are meant to remind the players of Dwarves.

Next comes this lad, Grimaldi Man. A highly controversial discovery due to the connections with the early 20th century racism of the paleontologists who made the find. You can read up on this yourself but basically the guys who found the remains basically looked at the skulls and said "Wow, they look like black people!" (or however an Italian in 1901 referred to black people). I decided to make a middle ground with Grimaldi man originating as Co-Magnons left the Levant, moved into North Africa and mixed with other Humans moving north across the Sahara. They then expanded into Italy through island-hopping, developing decent sailing boats and shit. It's not 100% fool proof but it does provide us with another player character and more diverse cultures, as well as the boats being a good way to move around.

Then there's the Steppe culture. Nothing too special about them that we wouldn't associate with the Mongols or the Huns, they like bows, horses, hunting on the plains and raiding their neighbors. They'll be the first horse riders in the game so if a player wants a horse he'll have to either start as one of these guys or haul ass across Europe and learn how to ride. Aside from that I might possibly make them either the first Indo-Europeans to push through into Europe (and all that entails) or just say that they're a Sapiens-Denisovan cross species.

Finally (as a Lovecraft Easter egg, as well as a Howard reference) based of the short story called "The Moon-Bog"and as off my love of Irish myths. You see Howard called Conan a Cimmerian, these being the ancestors of the ancient Celts and Gaels in his works, even their gods are based off of the ancient Irish dieties. Historical Cimmerians lived just north of the Black Sea and where eventually expelled by the Scythians, many sources claim they were indeed the original ancestors of the Celts, but this is still debated. In game they traveled across Europe after their homeland on the Crimean peninsula was destroyed by an earthquake and a flood (Hello Atlantis origin!), leaving behind cultural and ethnic traces in their paths until they eventually settled permanently in Ireland. They won't be actual Celts, more like an advanced culture with some proto-Celtic and Hellenic/Persian flavour.

Also there are Neanderthals as well! Also Sapiens-Neanderthal hybrids of giant size (by the process of Heterosis, look up Ligers). I decided having the last remnants of the Neanderthal tribes living on the edges of the human world would be an interesting idea, though whether or not to base them off the common view of our freakishly strong but dumb cousins or this more controversial one. They would make interesting enemies for the player. I'd likely create a halfway point where Neanderthals are slightly more animal-like and primitive but ultimately capable of mixing with Sapiens and forming advanced societies of their own (aside from us driving them to extinction and everything). They may even be playable. On the other hand hybrids would be ostracized by both communities, form small isolated (and likely inbred) tribes of their own and be massive threats to the player due to their size (7 to 8ft), strength and aggression. Basically giants.

Gameplay: I'm sorry how long the start was, this will be shorter I promise.

It's an RPG but I would also like to include a survival element, not entirely dissimilar to something like Day-Z or The Forest. The player will travel across the map performing missions and exploring whilst at the same time surviving as best they can. There will be wild animals, dangerous tribes, rock falls, and undercurrents. Frankly if a low level character isn't worried when they leave a settlement with no back-up I'd be annoyed. I would intend to include a realism mode as well with requirements to eat, drink, rest and relieve yourself (STALKER motherfuckers), including more severe limitations when it comes to gear being carried and how much damage you can take.

I'm still not sure about the story though since unlike something like the Elder Scrolls there's little that unites all these various peoples, so a united storyline such as "Save the kingdom!" wouldn't work. Though I like the idea of making character specific main story lines, whilst nearly all the side missions would be open to any character (you'd still get 100% if you do everything your character is capable of doing).

Conclusion I guess: I'm pretty stoked about this idea but I'm pretty aware that the major flaws are A) It's been done to death, and B) Who gives a fuck about cavemen?

Still I enjoy this world a lot, which is why I keep making material for it, so if anybody got any questions I'll be pleased to answer, also criticisms too.

TL;DR: RPG set around 10,000 BC towards the end of the Ice Age with unrealistic and ahistorical elements like surviving Neanderthals and Megafauna and early metal working thrown in for fun, largely inspired by Lovecraft, Tolkein and Conan the Barbarian as well as lots of trashy online science articles.