The race of Men in Tolkien's fictional world is the second race of beings, the younger children, created by the One God, Ilúvatar. Because they awoke at the start of the Years of the Sun, long after the Elves, the elves called them the afterborn, or in Quenya the Atani, the Second People. Like Elves, Men first awoke in the East of Middle-earth, spreading all over the continent and developing a variety of cultures and ethnicities. Unlike Tolkien's elves, Men are mortal; when they die, they depart to a world unknown even to the godlike Valar.