@BlueAngel: Actually, Enchanting/Crafting/Etc was something I planned to have available to all characters once materials were acquired. I'm sure not everyone will have an interest in it, so if you wanted to make that a part of your character's motivation or a hobby/talent, you could certainly pull off something like a "group engineer/alchemist/smith/etc."

Unfortunately, no races other than humans are available for players. While not all ExBeasts would be hostile, there aren't any that have allied with the humans because it would mean turning against their own world.