EverQuest sports an impressive twelve races which you can choose to play. Here's a brief outline of each race:

Human: Your basic human adventurer sort. Not spectacular in any one area or attribute but not particularly lacking in any either. A general well rounded baseline.

Barbarian: A hardier, tougher version of humans from a harsh, cold northern land. Something akin to a Scottish highlander or Celt. Somewhat rugged and warlike.

Erudite: Another variant of Humanity, dark skinned and highly intelligent. Erudites tend to make excellent spellcasters, but probably aren't the best fighters.

Wood Elf: Pointy-eared, fair, and lithe. Very intelligent, as well as being extremely agile and dexterous. Elves tend to be good spellcasters and rangers but make reasonable fighters as well.

High Elf: Thinner and paler than Wood Elves, they are considered the Royalty of elvenkind. High Elves tend to be more intellectual and thus are generally spellcasters.

Dark Elf: Sporting dark bluish/black skin and shock-white hair, these guys (and gals) are the bad-asses of elvenkind. Very intelligent, yet generally tending to be stronger than the High Elves, Dark Elves have a variety of class options. Since they live underground and generally devote their lives to the "evil" gods, Dark Elves can see almost perfectly in darkness.

Half Elf: Half-breed spawn of Humans and Wood Elves, Half Elves tend to be a mix of the strengths and weaknesses of their parent races. They sport less pronounced pointy ears than full-blooded elves but sharper features than humans.

Dwarf: Short, stocky, but extremely strong and surprisingly dexterous. Dwarves almost always sport facial hair and tend to make excellent warriors.

Halfling: Short and stocky like Dwarves, but extremely fast, agile, and dexterous rather than strong. They're basically quick midgets.

Gnome: Gnomes somewhat resemble Dwarves but have a darker, ruddy complexion and sparse white hair. Gnomes are highly intelligent and curious to a fault and have a tendency to enjoy tinkering with devices and machines.

Troll: They're about 8 feet tall, very strong, stupid, and smelly. They're also green, and they spontaneously regenerate damage.

Ogre: These are the big boys and girls, with an average height of about 10 feet, with massive strength and stamina to match. This is apparently a direct tradeoff for brains being the dumbest of all the races. Entertainment for an Ogre is smashing something then finding out if it's edible.

Each of the races has a distinct look to it (although the Elven races tend to be fairly similar in appearance, with the obvious exception of the Dark Elves), and you can choose not only your race and sex, but you have a variety of faces to choose from for your character as well. Talking to some of the Verant staff in the chat rooms, the lead character artist is supposedly female, which is somewhat surprising. The Wood Elf, Dark Elf, and Half-Elf females tend to be so scantily clad that you wonder during character creation if you chose a "nymph sex-kitten" option somewhere along the line.