Making our Tolkien races unique

[ignamiranda]

What are some ways we can make our elves, dwarves, halflings and orcs distinct from LOTR?

[ignamiranda]

I like the idea of elves having animal traits based on their environment to emphasize their closeness with nature.

[macniel]

Do you know The Dragon Price? I love that they made the elves not only close allies with the dragon but also gave them scottish accents, or atleast scottish VAs, and one less digit on their hands.

I wouldn't want to see the Orcs being the brutish dumb stereotype. Klingons are cool, so lets have them a pronounced warrior culture? Perhaps even mix them up a bit with dwarves and make them cousins. So same height, same body types but more aggressive as they spent most of their live underneath the mountains while the dwarves mostly reside above and even outside the mountain, having trade and commerce with the other kins.

About the halflings though. I know that the Hobbits are the cozy type who needs everything oderly. Why not have them come from the fae realm, fleeing something dark for over a millenia (or more) and finally were able to find some respite on the primary realm?