[quote] if you guys have any ideas for magic systems/not-evil races, now is the time to send them to me,[/quote]

Giant, domesticated tarantulas: There was a time when you wouldn't think of keeping company with, let alone giving scratches to and sharing a bed with a wolf and yet, here we are. 

Phorusrhacidae, or Terror Birds: I don't know; man sized, meat eating, flightless birds just feels right for this sort of setting. I may want to ride one or ceremonially kill it and use its bones and feathers as decorative flair. 

Cactus People: Wasteland Ents made of succulents and or weeds. Largely useless as they are preoccupied with a widely different approach towards both morality and time management, they none the less maintain a monopoly on the region's environmental economy, dictating the ebb and flow of natural resources. 

Sentient Ruins: Giant Mech / Transformer style bases / cities that maneuver around the continent occasionally seeding self sustaining technology in the form of factories, infrastructure, weapons, and robots that further perpetuate a particular technological and political agenda.