I don't care if specifically a race of orcs, elves or dwarves exist within a fantasy game, but I would like to see races beyond just humanoids for a fantasy game.  It would be the same as creating a sci-fi space game and all the races were just humanoids.  I would be happy with a unique selection of fantasy races such as undead, humans, centaurs, insects, lizardmen and demons where each could provide very unique attacks, skills, recruitable units, and resistances(even 100% immunities).

For example lizardmen might have a natural short range poison spitting attack and undead would have vampires who can change into bats for traveling and drain life from enemies in battle with a bite attack.   Now when with only humans sure you can give a human slinger a short range poison attack and another human could have magical short swords which absorb hitpoints from enemies when struck, but it doesn't provide the same level of fantasy depth.   In the end 99.8%(or higher) of every game will be won by human races which will control the fantasy realm in Elemental...  until some custom content is created.  I guess the demons, undead, and other races just lack the intelligence and interest to lead a nation and conquer the realm which is only available to humans in Elemental lore.

I agree with NT. I would have liked the variation. All human races just seem boring...especially in a fantasy setting. Probably my only complaint thus far. Not a hater though...we can just mod them in. 

It's not that the human races will necessarily be boring... it's that human races are more limited on the type of natural attacks, skills, resistances, building types, and usage of resources.   I will just use one example which would be a race of insects and how they'd be vastly different than anything which can be done with a human race.   First the majority of the insects wouldn't use any forged weapons and armor as their natural bodies provide these traits.  Since they have natural weapons and armor a type of game balance could be a tough penalty against researching.  Second most of the food grown and consumed by the insects would be specific for its race unlike humans where any type of food one nation eats can be eaten by another.  Third the majority of buildings could not be used by another race unlike a game with only humans... at least logically anyways.  Their resistances and weaknesses would be vastly different as compared with humans where as with only humans it would be slightly different.   

So although the game may still be great fun... overall the fantasy depth and unique strategic options is not as great. 

Wait and see does seem the most sensible approach to me as well, and I definitely agree that a few bits of unique eye candy and combat tricks can sometimes do little or nothing to make a faction interesting to play. It'll be how they work as parts of a whole, and I'm especially hopeful about the story layer on account of the news that they're deliberately putting more resources into text assets.

As far as the "space sci fi with no aliens" goes, I have heard that the Honor Harrington books have little or no alien influence and that it is the best space sci fi out there. Haven't read it (yet) so all i can give you is hearsay.

Dune also comes to mind, although I am not sure that it is exactly what I would call space sci fi...the original trilogy is definitely some of the best sci fi ever written imho.

OT, but the Honor Harrington series are a lot of fun.  It's good, fun military opera.

A friend of mine drew a great cartoon showing a fantasy novel, on the back of which was a great reviewer comment:

"Just like Tolkien!"  -- Tolkien