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On the subject of hierarchy:

I believe the richest should control the underground, with a few powerful allies. In this case, I'm thinking dwarves. Not only would dwarves be rich, but also good war tacticians. Drow could come in a close second, not because of their riches, but the way their society works (power, power, power). They and the dwarves, may not actually be allies, but stand on neutral grounds and do trades, because both sides realise that a war between them would weaken them down for other, more dangerous foes, like Illithids.

On the subject of skin:

I have always believed that elves, like humans should come in all contrasts. None of us might play them here, but I don't think we should restrict their appearance to staying only as "fair skinned".
Also, I strongly encourage adding more unusual colours to their natural appearance, depending on their natural habitat. Such colours like green, blue, purple or even hues of red.

And since I see some of you want to further them away from humans more, here are a few other suggestions.

Slightly changing their skeletons and organs.
For example, their skull could be a bit more elongated, and less ape-like. Or having straight teeth, as in no canines. Long, slender fingers. No body hair, or just very soft and thin, barely visible. Large, shining eyes, reflecting light like a feline's, meaning they might have a protective layer over them.

Those are just a few ideas.

I'll have to side with Aglo on the side of hierarchy here, of all the races dwarves and drow isn't such an unlikely pair of neutrals. Though the illithids aren't one of the biggest threats around, I do recognize them as a force for this discussion.

Going with the offspring, I'll have to say that it is a bit unfair to say that only humans are truly versatile enough to properly crossbreed with other species. Though it is highly unlikely that a elf and dwarf might mate, it is not impossible. And thus it should not be impossible for them to produce children. Though I do think they wouldn't be proper half-elves, instead they would have the genetics but due to the differences between the two races they would simply bare similarities to the other race by attitude and minor cosmetic differences. Such as a dwarven half-elf having blond hair, preferring music to mining, and other such small things. Or in the opposite a elven half-dwarf preferring living beneath the ground, having coarse hair, and appreciating stonework over nature.

I rather like to think of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings as various sub-species/races/breeds of homo sapiens in the same way cro-magnon man and neanderthal man may have been related. It's not actually even known whether neanderthalls and cromagnans could interbreed but some (including myself) believe they were not gentically exclusive of each other.

I believe the possibility should exist for these three fantasy races to be genetically cohesive as well (though it might be a bit of a stretch in the same way it's stretching the connection between neanderthalls and cro-magnons).

I do think however, the difference between a goblinoid and a human-like critter is as far separated as a human and a chimpanzee... far too distant genetically to produce viable offspring, unless direct magical influences are brought to bear (such as is the case with a dragon in human form breeding with a human or a demon mating with... anything). In these cases, the magic of the extraordinary parent merely alters the genetic structure of the offspring which are copied in large part from the "normal" parent.

While Aglo's idea of making elves even more biologically divergent from humans is an interesting one, I don't believe that elves should be moved into a separate species for our puposes here. I believe that magic should be part of the reasoning for elven physiology and not just genetics so that we don't have to get too deep into a discussion of heritable traits and genetic chemistry. Again, this is just my opinion here and I will not argue too hard to protect this stance.

Power... hmmm. If there are no dwarves present to claim power over an area, then drow probably aren't going to worry about discussing how to neutrally solve problems with them.

I think political issues, and power issues, can be roleplayed out as needed, and probably aren't going to be inscribed as hard fast rules. Certainly, we can say, "drow are typically ruthless" and "dwarves are typically tactically minded" but each group of players directing a populations interractions can decide for themselves how they want to play that out specific to their own circumstances.

I'm with Phren on this one.
Humans being the last species launched into the world, that basically was just let to roam free and evolve. Whereas all others were created by the gods.
So they all may look somewhat similar, but in reality are very different.
At least, I assume the humans are the youngest of the humanoid inhabitants?

Also, what HAVE we decided on so far?

my vote is for the serious stuff i have always looked at this and have tried to RP accordingly and yeah although i think the name can stay the connection should be cut off

I'm agreeing with the serious concepts here, I like the name UnderGaia and think it should stay, but as dot hack suggested; the rest needs cut off. Everyone at least makes the attempt to be serious in the various plots and stories of our little world. As Aglo said as well, there is a lot of world that doesn't really come into any attention in Gaia, UnderGaia could actually be beneath another continent altogether, in which case we could strike out the references to Barton and the like without much consequence.

As for humans being last, that was never really cemented in any part of D&D as every 'canon' source said something different. I'm not sure how everyone else will take this, but I am going to take a hint from one of the sourcebooks I read (I believe it to be the BoVD, but I am not totally sure and will look for it in my spare time). The book stated that humans have so many traits and adaptability because they were indeed, last to the table. All the gods used a mold to create their races, the mold changed as each deity used it to make their ideal race. Eventually the mold fell to the material plane when one of the deities accidentally dropped it. The mold landed in soft clay and when the clumsy deity pulled it out the first human was born. The human had traits from all the other races and as such could become anything it wanted to be. This roughly details why humans are so ultimately adaptable and able to breed so freely with positive results. If my memory isn't too bad the races were created in the following order and thereby closest relatives: Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, and then Humans being the culmination.

Going onto my own tangent idea here... Going by this particular creation theory, it would be fairly possible for a elf and halfling to breed but a elf and orc have virtually no chance whatsoever (aside from the 1 in 1 million of course).

Sorry if any of that turned redundant...

Yup...SRS UG IZ SRS! I also agree that (for now, at least) we should leave the world itself nameless. After all, why should the subterranean denizens of the world concern themselves with what the surface dwellers call the planet.

I believe he stated explicitly that the guild name should be the only remaining reference to Gaia. I think it's safe to say that none of us have any intention of changing the name of the guild.

As far as race relations go...I don't think we've gotten around to that part yet.