Hello! I would like to say that the idea of creating a new masterwork from scratch is simply fantastic, and also say that getting the mod a bit more lore friendly. Its for the best.
I must say though that actually i got to state my opinion about the races. Actually there are too few races in DF mainly, and too many in the old Masterwork!
I like the idea of spliting the gnomes into dwarven tech and elven wood magic, but i really dont find appealing mixing goblins and orcs, because the actual orcs could add a new worldly level threath to the game, like an huge horde of orcs wandering arround with few scouts and raiders but a slow moving horde thats just a ball of destruction pillaging whereevr it goes.
So about orcs and goblins, i think it would be very lore rich to make an connection with the goblins and (maybe) trolls, like the normal orcs and Uruk-hais of lords of teh rings, but all that orchish talk, brings us to the warlocks, i love the idea of automatoms, but they could be very rarer and powerfull, I mean something like the orcs beign like a puppet in the hands of a small civ of warlords (mages arent all that common eh?) wich the leader is a god(a deeeemon impersonator), thats where the succubbi comes in handy, as conjured to that ''god'' as an small consort.
But how that could be moded into the game? I am sorry if it looks just too crazy, and i must say that i know only a little about modding in DF, but there could be small orcs camps equivalent to humans hamlets, with warlocks towers intead of mead halls, where the warlock leader would be with his automatom guards, followed to cities with goblin traders, lots of orcs and a huge ''cathedral'' as keep where their ''god'' would be located.
Woah, that if possible, could make a real chaos in the world, who will be there to defend the poor and defenseless? The shiny Human knights of course, with forts loaded with cannons, huge muskets lines and shiny templars to match an orcs brutal strnght, and of course the high tech and golemized dwarfs, providing the uncapable humans with steel and in desperate times adamantine!(I know adamant trading seems a big bit forced, but i have a dream of beign an human adventurer wielding an adamantine two handed sword :3 without using hacks or cheats!!)
Sooo, those are some ideas i had, and i apologize for the torturing and long text, ima noob on writing so sorry about that.
Keep up the good work and good luck!