The Karnetn are descended from Homo neanderthalensis, and are somewhat stronger, stockier and have pronounced brow ridges and sloping foreheads. Their skins are very dark with dark brown hair. They often ceremonially paint themselves in bright colors.

Technologically the Karnetn are Neolithic. They live a nomadic life, hunting using flint tools and traps woven from plant fibers.

The abduction to the new world has not changed them much. Among the tribes the old tell stories of their origin in the netherworld, where the true sky was hidden by a black fur across the night sky. A few generations back the trickster Hyena threw down the fur on Earth, trapping the twelve tribes within the now transparent and hard skin. A few brave scouts have managed to find ways through the netherworld, and have brought reports about the affairs of the pale spirits living there.