• OK, it's on.
  • Please note that many, many Email Addresses used for spam, are not accepted at registration. Select a respectable Free email.
  • Done now. Domine miserere nobis.

Races

Anthile

Steel marks flesh
Local time
Today 6:15 AM
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
3,987
-->
Everything about the races will be discussed in here.
 

Artifice Orisit

Guest
Race: Cogite (Just me having a little fun, this should probably be changed)
Reference: Cogman-male, Cogmaiden-female, Cogites-plural, Cognitian-adj
Description: Victorian era styled cyborgs utilising steam based hydraulic limbs, visual references can be found here, here, here, here and finally here. Or, my avatar.
Background: Cogites are generally humans who have undergone various procedures to integrate steam/clockwork technology into themselves; although technically not really a separate race in the usual sense, their alienation from non-Cogite society as a result of their outlandish appearances has warranted such a description. Because they possess biological brains the Cogites (unlike Artilects) are capable of performing psychic feats, however considering the substantial psychological effects upon the mind that result from being Cognitized (verb) few dare stretch the limits of their sanity any further.
Attributes
(Stats Mod)-Body of Brass: Immune to Pain.
(Stats Mod)-Mentally Unstable: Sanity cannot exceed a maximum of 50%.
(Ability)-Cog Cannibalism: Can sacrifice health to fix tech or repair Artilects/Cogites.
(Ability)-High gear: Increased performance at increased fatigue loss.

Race: Avian
Reference: Lord-male, Lady-female, Avie (ave-i)-plural, Avian-adj
Description: 4-5ft literally angelic winged humanoids those proportions are reminiscent of young adolescent humans (lanky, big eyed) and are often seen wearing lightweight silk clothing and heavier but easily discarded robes, for warmth. Like regular humans the males tend to be slightly denser and as a result have much larger wings; when tucked to the back female wingtips extend to the upper thigh, whilst in the same posture the male’s wingtips extend almost to their ankles.
Background: Although their true origins are unknown the earliest accounts of Avie in society come from ancient religious texts whereby they are said to have come from the land of the gods. Of course human geneticists are quick to refute this claim and exhibit genetic traits shared by Avie and the Psionites, suggesting a common evolutionary ancestor (much to their mutual disgust). Regardless of what the truth may be the Avie are commonly associated with the mystical as they exhibit a astounding proficiency at performing psychic feats. Yet another reason why there is very little love to be lost between them and the Psionites, as both sides are extremely competitive, egotistical and unashamedly narcissistic, such is the prerogative of a psychic it seems.
Attributes
(Stats Mod)-Delicate: All Health loss and Pain is amplified by a factor of x2.
(Stats Mod)-Divinity: Sanity regeneration amplified by a factor of x2.
(Ability)-Flight: <See Flight Rules>
(Ability)-Psychic Restoration: Restores Sanity of target at the cost of one’s own.
(Ability)-Inner Peace: Psychically negates the received pain of targets by x2

Race: Artilect
Reference: Artilects-plural, Artilectual-adj
Description: Analogue constructs built from brass and iron, with painted ceramics used to emulate the appearance of human flesh; the overall effect being something like a beautifully crafted animate doll, or a robotic mockery of life from the depths of the uncanny valley.
Background: Created by humans as servitors these unliving automatons turned out to be applicable to psychic attack, completely undermining all prior assumptions that they were little more than fancy robots. Apparently sufficiently advanced analogue cogitation engines function so similarly to the living brain that these entities could be regarded as individual entities in their own right. Although opinions are still mixed, since some aspects of society still maintain that they have a right to own Artilects as pseudo-slaves based upon the justification that an Artilect cannot perform psychic feats and thus lacks a true mind or soul. However most people are willing to treat Artilects with at least some degree of respect and many are uncomfortable with the idea of enslaving something that doesn’t need sleep. Artilects themselves are conscious individual entities whom seem to posses a sort of quiet wisdom, seemingly grateful for existence itself and desiring little more than to be useful; philosophers attribute this state of mind to the inability to feel pain and postulate that if an Artilect were to learn to feel love it would result in dramatic psychological change with unknown results.
Attributes
(Stats Mod)-Body of Brass: Immune to Pain.
(Stats Mod)-Automaton: Utterly incapable of psychic feats.
(Stats Mod)-The Unliving: Artilects cannot be killed, only damaged to incapacitation.
(Ability)-Reset: Can restore 25% of sanity per round, but cannot act while doing so.

Still to come:
Humans, Lycanthropes, Psionites
 

Artifice Orisit

Guest
Race: Psionite
Reference: Lord-male, Lady-female Psionites -plural, Psionitive -adj
Description: Tall, lean, pale, dark long partly curled hair, elfish good looks, a dancer’s grace and often almost always seen wearing perfectly tailored suits with top hats that suggest somebody forgot the bit about them being tall, 1ft from top to brim at least. By now you could be forgiven for imaging something beautiful, an elegant man or suited lady perhaps, whom would steal the show at any ball or dinner party and I suppose they would. However I doubt anyone will pay any attention to their clothes, not when presented with the ear-to-ear smile of an utter psychopath and eyes glistening with secrets no man was ever meant to know, in short dear reader this is a Psionite, someone whom sanity has never dared disturb.
Background: They are the strangers from beyond the mountains, a people who have only recently decided to allow the eyes and ears of historians perceive them, that’s about it really. In fact very little is known about them at all or perhaps there simply isn’t much to be known, after all they’re far too flamboyant and talkative to bother with the strain of secrecy; the closest they’re known come is being playfully cryptic. The two things we do know about them are, that firstly they’re talented psychics with a fearless disregard for their own sanity which leads nicely into the second fact, which is that they’re all utterly insane. Now by insane I don’t mean to imply dysfunctional, they’re perfectly capable beings whom just happen to find the fastest route from thought “a” to thought “c” to be through the opposite of 23. Of course when having a rational conversation with one of them don’t be disturbed by their occasional fits of laughter, apparently from their perspective we’re the insane ones.
Attributes
(Stats Mod)-Odd logic: Immunity to all the effects of sanity loss, even at 0% .
(Ability)-Psych Vamp: Can feed off another’s sanity to restore their own.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Anthile

Steel marks flesh
Local time
Today 6:15 AM
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
3,987
-->
I'm not really a fan of flying races since flying is kind of a game breaker and when you restrict it it causes lots of fridge logic.

I'd say we should make more "general" races that are not too specific and that have a main culture but can adapt other cultures as well so that they can choose every class without too much handwaving.
 

Artifice Orisit

Guest
I'm not really a fan of flying races since flying is kind of a game breaker and when you restrict it it causes lots of fridge logic.
Flight rules will cover much of the fringe logic.
As for being game breakers... they're soft targets in a word with firearms, it's more likely this will become a medic-support specialist race, or relying on high speed dodging skills and obfuscating psychic feats to keep themselves alive.

Humans can't fly, so trust me when I say they're going to pay heavily for that privilege.
 

Anthile

Steel marks flesh
Local time
Today 6:15 AM
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
3,987
-->
I currently try to revise the races and I will mostly use your races but modified. Here is the first, new one:

Sphenie
Description: 4-5ft anthropomorphic penguins who usually look rather sturdy. For strangers it is almost impossible to distinguish males from females but those who live in human society tend to wear appropiate clothes. Skin and beak colour are like earthly penguins but can slightly vary.
They appreciate well tailored clothes and even poor Sphenie tend to look like gentlemen to members of other races.
Background: The Sphenie are an enigmatic race. Due to their bird-like nature and appearance it is often suggested that they are closely related to the Avie. A thesis that is eagerly negated by both races which have a tense relationship and try to avoid each other if possible. This is because they gave the Merbenians access to their steam engines which allowed the raise of the Callegian Empire and heralded the new era we live in which is called the Merbenian Age.
Their relationship with humans is very complex. On the one hand they look down on them and try to exploit them to gain more power but on the other hand they are deeply impressed by their creativity, their adaptability and their sense for art because the Sphenie are a pragmatic race and art has a very low priority in their culture. Technology is the driving force for the Sphenie and their technical devices are by the far the most advanced.
The Sphenie live decentral and they live in so called enclaves which are scattered all over the continent although it is suggested that there is a capital enclave that is unknown to the other races. These enclaves are usually hidden within mountains or hills and reach far under the earth. Some enclaves can be found in Merbenian cities in which usually all Sphenie of a town live. This is because of their appearance and their influence they are often the target of human racism and sometimes only the authorities can prevent open pogroms.
Strong company is another important part of Sphenie culture. Sphenie will help each other no matter what, even when they are from different enclaves, they will be treated like family members.
Even criminals are often considered more important than members of other races.
The enclaves are organized as republics and everyone has the same rights. This seems odd to strangers but is most likely the key to their success.
Although they look cuddly and harmless it is common sense that making a Spheni angry is a bad idea. They are fierce warriors and rely on their advanced technology in battle. Psionics is often considered as a marginal phenomenon and unrealiable esoterics but skilled Psionics users are well respected
Bonus:
Endurance bonus
Technology bonus
Inspiration: Dutch gnome dwarf penguin jews.


large_image.jpg
 

Artifice Orisit

Guest
Their relationship with humans is very complex. On the one hand they look down on them and try to exploit them to gain more power but on the other hand they are deeply impressed by their creativity, their adaptability and their sense for art because the Sphenie are a pragmatic race and art has a very low priority in their culture. Technology is the driving force for the Sphenie and their technical devices are by the far the most advanced.
...okay,
I was going to make humans the mad-scientist race, this being because in most fantasy setting humans are the neutral race between good & evil; this fits well with the scientist theme since science itself is an amoral pursuit, one that can serve to produce both great good and great evil.
Perhaps these Sphenies (which seem dwarfish to me) are masters of practical technologies and believe in high precision and workmanship; they're not the most inventive of races but they're masters of perfection, taking fairly simple concepts and making machines that perform them perfectly & reliably (very INTJ).
Humans on the other hand are prone to dangerous experimentation and crazy pseudo science (Frankenstein’s monster is a great example), often building devices that work in ways poorly understood by even their creators and are highly dangerous. So while Sphenies are building marvels of engineering out of clockwork and basic steam engines, humans are messing about with steam turbines, poorly understood electricity, flammable/caustic materials and even analogue cogitation engines (very INTP).

Due to their bird-like nature and appearance it is often suggested that they are closely related to the Avie. A thesis that is eagerly negated by both races which have a tense relationship and try to avoid each other if possible.
The Avie have very light bone (chitin) and muscle (bio pneumatics, using non-compressible lighter than air gas) structure, this makes them light enough to fly, very fast (high strength to weight ratio), quite physically weak and very prone to injury. Despite how odd their insides are they’re very human like externally.

My idea was that the Avie & Psionites were derived from genetic experimentation upon human subjects with the intent of developing latent psychic abilities, evidently this project was ended and the subjects founded their respective races. Lycanthropes are a similar deal except far more recent, this time instead of psychic abilities a “Jekyll & Hyde” style treatment was invented that like the original story separates the good self (higher brain functions) from the bad self (primitive brain functions). So while human they’re wonderful, intelligent, artistic people, but when they get overly excited and turn (the whole hulk deal) they mutate into werewolf like monstrosities and generally go on a murderous rampage (the player losses control until it turns back).

Cogites are humans who have taken the whole mad science thing a little too far or Lycanthropes seeking to “cure” themselves by reducing their biomass to the point where they can’t turn; likewise Cogites can become Lycanthropes by taking the treatment and moving their existing biomass into a tank containing blood or otherwise liquefied living tissue, the Lycanthrope regeneration ability does the rest. Humans can obviously become either Cogites or Lycanthropes, but once they do there’s no going back, it’s a choice on the desperate or power mad would make. Avie & Psionites could in theory become Cogites, but they’d rather die then loose their psychic prowess and the Lycanthrope “treatment” (an injection) has proven thus far to be either lethal or creates unstable mindless hybrids, monsters to be succinct.

Artilects are robots made by humans and recently freed in large numbers after people found out that they can be affected by psychics and thus possess minds; some humans and many non-humans still keep Artilects as slaves. They could potentially be a real threat to all the other races of the world but were never given the capacity for hate or greed, however over time they’ve been developing, learning, become more human-like.
 

Anthile

Steel marks flesh
Local time
Today 6:15 AM
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
3,987
-->
It was planned that Sphenie are an IXTJ race that takes basic concepts and turns them up to eleven. Often a single Spheni works a whole lifetime at a single invention.



Merbenians
Description: Look at a mirror, they look suspiciously like earthly humans. Merbenians can have every skin, hair or eye colour. Since they lack a collective culture their preferred clothing style depends on the region. Highly skilled Psionics may gain smaller physical mutations like odd hair colours, eyes that change their colour with the mood or small horns grow out of their foreheads.
Background: For the most time Merbenians were slaves of the Avie and only 300 years ago they were able to break their chains. Humans refer to themselves usually as Merbenians, a difference that is very important to them but the other races don't really grasp that concept – or to say it with Emperor Alepho: „The difference between a human and a Merbenian, you ask me? A Merbenian is free.“ It was Alepho who united the barbaric tribes, freed the enslaved humans and gained the necessary technology from the Sphenie to shatter the Avian Empire. After that he lead the humans to the northern sub-continent Merbenia and the first human empire has been founded with Callegia as capitol city. The Merbenians became the dominant race since the Avie never really recovered
from the total defeat they suffered. Soon whole Merbenia has been settled and the merchant cities at the sea became the wealthiest and most influential places in the world that attract people from every possible place imaginable. The Callegian Empire lasted only 200 years and after the last Emperor left no heir apparent it split into many different states that soon developed different sub-cultures that now wage war against each other and fight for influence.
It is not very surprising that freedom is a very important part of Merbenian culture and what is liberty and creativity at best can manifest in excess and recklessness at worst.
Their adaptability and inventiveness are unequaled and the other races look with a mix of bewilderment and fear on humanity.
Merbenians are capable of Psionics and while most states have a normal approach towards them they are considered heresy in some regions.
 
Top Bottom