Qud today is built on the ruins of multiple incredibly advanced civilizations. You're living in the aftermath of 30,000 years of wide-scale genetic manipulation. An extraordinary variety of things are sentient, and even the things that aren't can often be made so. The game is pretty realistic in terms of. More @Wikipedia
Hover over any link to get a description of the article. Please note that search keywords are sometimes hidden within the full article and don't appear in the description or title.