Many of the magic based races lost popularity when magic was put on a limit, while it not saying limiting it was bad, but many seemed to loose popularity with it. Saivalthar, Chi, etc. Drow mostly lost their niche with this, being as they were basically purple, weaker avanthar, who often had more harm come to them than good Saivalthar lost their niche as well as they were written to be more magic based, through self harm. Without, they became Steroid Altalars. Wolathar has an excessive amount of hype and excitement for something that hadn’t lasted longer than a week after they came out. Chi had no good niche without magic as they were much weaker and were magic-fighters like the saivalthar. However, I’d Rather not comment too much on them to see how the other Ji’s will play out. Maiar have become subject to becoming literally nothing but hulking shark men and little use of their actual ability. Lampar....lampar are lampar. They’ve been subject to becoming a cute-bait race that don’t seem to have much important. I’d love to see them become a more complex race with much better goals, take the skritt from gw2 but less...rat to not upset those who like their cute lampar Rashaq I personally agree fell apart after the first few weeks, as the pride I played in lost interest very quickly. They I agree should be scrapped. Wulong have never been a big part of the lore or community either, and also had no long term goals from what I’ve witnessed. Generally when I think of Wulong, all I can remember was the pack of Wulong who did nothing but cause havoc through the city. I agree they should be scrapped. Allar suffered from intelligence schools and alchemy schools, and weren’t very special because of it. They basically had intelligence and alchemy and nothing special besides lizard people. Sa-Allar, while I liked the concept, didn’t work out as it relied on another player and they had no personal goals besides follow Everything their master ordered them to. Mu-Allar became just Feathery, bigger allar that we’re void-essence worshippy my suggestion on abilities for a niche change culturally and ability wise would be: Drowdar: -Culture/Niche: The Drowdar culture has significantly become Purple, weaker avanthar with no real buffs but in rare cases. I propose that they become more anti-essence type elves. -Ability: Maybe an ability on the lines of either affliction detection, or affliction denial. An ability to where they deny a certain ability once, say almost a spell cast to where they can per say, deny a mages ability for several minutes, or deny a witchblood doll on themselves. Saivalthar: -Culture/Niche : Saivalthar suffered from the magic system, which made them special snowflake Altalars that liked pain and pleasure, but had no reason without magic. The blood elf culture is something I find interesting, but I’ve not been interested in making a Saivalthar because of no access to magic. I say their culture of the worst of the Elven Empires Aspect is Still good, but they could use more cultural flare to make them different from Altalar -Ability: Like the shendar, perhaps they have a small list of almost castable abilities where they use bastardized or weak magic abilities. The immunity to certain amounts of pain is also a nice ability that makes them unique. Wolathar: -Culture/Niche: Seeing as how Wolathar chars had to have their culture diluted Being they had to be raised by Cieloth or Avant culture, it made them somewhat subject to the special snowflake case of the Saivalthar. As I read in earlier posts, a shamatan Void Worshipy type niche or even ancient Mayan like culture to these jungle elves to where they have a well defined kingdom and culture to their name. -Ability: The bark-singing I still think is rather interesting, and could still be used effectively, with either shamatan or Mayan type cultures. Allar: -Culture/Niche: The intelligence culture where science above all else is still a good idea, but could use more depth. -Ability: A learning curve to keep the intelligence factor could make them interesting, making them learn more, and sooner. Poison resistance and regeneration could use a buff as well. Maiar: -Culture/niche: Could really stand for a more in-depth culture, and practically new one. Instead of the shifting physiology, they could stand for a more athletic standard race, instead of hulking shark beasts. Maybe even instead of fish, they could be more alligator-like @Timisc -Ability: With the alligator traits, they could retain Dakkar abilities, by being the armor niche of the races, having say scaled forearms and back but a weak belly.
From personal testimony regarding the Maiar Race; My first character when I had just started the server was a maiar and it's part of the reason of what had kept me so long. Massive had very unique and different races I hadn't seen elsewhere. (The linear Orc, Elf, Human, Dwarf etc. It deviated and it's unique in that regard.) The concept of an aquatic race drew me in and kept me for about a few years. However I lost interest as the character designs for the race gradually grew to these more primitive shark-men. By comparison to the other races they're also a bit out dated and not as well designed anymore as the others. I support the idea that they should be folded into the Allar race while retaining their unique aquatic niche. Perhaps more of a blue allar that has fins as opposed to bone protrusions to help them swim. And potentially put more focus on them as a civilized people with developed culture possibly having them live around rivers or on beaches in their own port cities. Or maybe even underwater cities in lakes? And given most races these days have abilities such as Yanar with evergrowth, Avanthar and their imprinting, Shendar-- Most of them follow a trend. They could possess abilities correlating to water or manipulating it of some kind. Perhaps their ability to manipulate water is what makes them move so fast in it? Edit; Or maybe combine Allar and Maiar period and give the Allar more amphibian traits and have them live in rivers or more swampy areas. Hadar on the map seems to be mostly this-- scattered isles or the like. On the Subject of Drowdar; Equally with the other races the Drowdar's niche seems in an awkward place. In roleplay most of the Drow I've encountered are portrayed more so as purple humans as opposed to Drow. And the previous niche many of them had which was essentially witch hunting is now covered by the Witch Bloods. I've seen even less Drowdar than I have a good portion of the races listed as underplayed. In total I have seen around three, maybe four Drowdar with the most active I've encountered in the tavern etc being Rena and Valentius. Previously before Avanthar they were the go-to warrior Elves however the Avanthar now portray it better and as previously mentioned the Witchbloods now cover their more witch hunting oriented niche. The Northern Taint could be elaborated on and their ability looked into to make it more interesting to roleplay and to make it less situational and more something they can use or have in every day scenarios to make things more interesting.
I absolutely adore this idea, and it's a really good callback to the Antimagic used back in the old magic system. However, I'd like to expand on this a bit more. Perhaps have it be like the Wolathar's Bark-Singing, where it grows stronger with age, to work in tandem with the half-elven aging. A weaker Elven aging mixed with an ability that grows stronger the older you are, and the more you've used it during that time. Whereas mutations would have to stay optional, I'd love to see some small, more aesthetic than detrimental, mutations on Drowdar. As for what @Deadfoe51 and @Suzzie said on magical swords... yeaaah, I kind-of forgot Bluesteel existed for a second there.
this is late BUT: Chi: Merge the three far eastern races making the Chi the "base" race and the other two sub races; with more and more dragon lore coming out, it might b time for an UPDATE focus on dragons more and how the relations with dragons affected chi and the various sub races tbh just a general update is needed as stated in the OP WOLATHAR: pls no delete personally, i like the wolathar and think they need some fine tuning(tm) make their barksinging more... drastic. it should be a focus on their design and should be afforded the same racial ability POWER as the shendar blood stuffs, yanar plant stuffs, etc if u rlly wanna merge them with the salvi (idk how they would even merge as their cultures are rather different imo) maybe focus on how the salvi parted from the wolathar to whatever island or far off place they come from again, i dont rlly think making them void worshippers is the best idea, may make them like shendar knockoffs
A bit worried and heartbroken, at the thought of my favorite race being taken away, so a bit of input from me: Saivalthar were sort of given this unfair hand, being magic oriented, and as put above "steroid, pain addicted Altalar", and nothing else to give them foundation. They were also given the time-limit of about 3 years to be known to the rest of Aloria. Any time before then, you couldn't say they were in any other place that wasn't Saivale, since there was no imports or exports, Saivalthar explorers and whatnot. Their culture is sort of black and white, in the sense that, you can only pick one of two options: Play a highborn, and most knew magic (Which required permission so that's a reg flag), or a slave... And people wouldn't want to play a slave since Unless someone cares to put in the time to make some creative reason as to why they're out of Saivale, people aren't going to play them. I love Saivalthar, to death, and most likely because they have glowing eyes... How is that not awesome? Anyhow, to limit them to both magic and a 3~ year world existence, you can't really do much, to be honest. So, I'm here to put out a few ideas @OnyxAstera and I have and wish to share, to build up with others and improve. Saivalthar are great, and they are special to us because they are so well written, even when out of date. Suggestions: Something @OnyxAstera suggested this, but a toxin immunity, and toxic blood. Since Saivale is... A sort of a jungled mess, and considering this I'm sure there's a number of poisonous plants and flowers. Trial and error, or just them wanting to resist the jungles hatred on anything with flesh. (Obviously, they'll do it for their love of pain, as well, but that's a given throughout) Building off of the one above, they can have a delivery system of sending their toxic/tainted blood to another. @OnyxAstera suggested this one as well, but the wolverine frog has these 'claws' that break from their skin. Perhaps Saivalthar have this as a way to latch onto a person, and this can be their delivery system. Either a cluster of small ones, enough to pierce the skin. Going off of the toxic blood, the systems of a short contact would be a rash around the area, oozing, itching, and burning Minor symptoms. Prolonged exposure would be nausea and vomiting, and even dizzing and or fainting. Nothing to kill a person, but it is not a fun or comfortable experience. Another we thought of are birth defects from the constant use of Void Essence for certain Void Worships or if their (literally) insane and like injecting in Void essence, or the effects of years of constant inbreeding, etc. But, they have certain mutations like double pointed ears, or cleft lips. Several added digits, or missing ones. Their glowing eyes could be an effect on that, some having glowing blue eyes, while others don't. Give some sort of diversity. Perhaps they're overzealous? They're too excited to be off putting and even dangerous to others, perhaps? They'll be mostly scholars of how the Elven Empire ran, and their usual cultural ways, and for them to learn more is exciting. But, they want others to know their knowledge, know their ways. So much so they force other to become "one of them" and force poisons and Void essence, change their skin, etc. Force outsiders to have a false ideal, and give them false positives that are drastically negative. The Saivalthar possibly have tomes that only Highborn are permitted to even touch, or knowledge considered taboo or myth to others, and continuously finding more of ancient knowledge. The cities can be schools of knowledge, powerhouses of political learning, etc. This is what we thought they could use, instead of magic being their foundation. Their culture is lovely, with sadomasochism, and they can be put into a different light if some creative thought was put into it. And the points of bastardized magic, or abilities, is just what they need, to spice them up and make them different.
Y'all discuss Alorian races for 25 posts and a whole table all the while forgetting about dwarves. @MonMarty @Miss_Confined As for playing other races, I've dabbed into most before, not nowadays. Nowadays they are merely a consideration. For statistics' sake, I had a semi long-term Songaskian back two years ago and a similarly played Shendar. I think the main reason, for me, is that I see no value of progression or chance of influence for any race other than Ailor. As such, any non-Ailor I play will be reserved as a fun side-project whenever I have the time to play one. What I enjoy in roleplay is playing rising/falling arcs, driving stories and leaving influences on other characters / the world. Ailor characters that accomplished this are numerous, non-Ailor are basically Ztril, Niantha and Jared. And the former two of these still face random racism & blocks that are just tiring after a time. Same's true for noblewomen, though I sorta take the meaningless sexism as a fitting challenge. I got somewhat tired of it, I always do, and I reckon I'd get tired of meaningless racism after a week or two if I tried a decent character. That's not to say racism in RP is terrible or whatever. But it could deserve a touch up and players a reminder that it's nothing else but a tool for RP. When I refer to "meaningless", I usually refer to characters that simply block other characters with no other reaction / input / action. And I do not think these issues can be fixed with racial buffs. I think those will only result in more abuse and power-gaming while the real problem is left unaddressed. It'll tempt more "temporary" players to draw towards a single race, but long-term characters will still remain impossible or extremely unrewarding. Look into nobility and see what goes in there. The more characters pile up around a single "niche" of politics, the less rewarding and the more challenging it'll get for players to take up and represent a new one, simply because they will have no allies or representation, only a bunch of noble houses with the default "hatred" button due to the new niche. And this fuels back into the unrewarding RP where reaction is merely blocks, no proactive RP or reactions. Another observation is that most long-term non-Ailor characters became long term for the same reason certain noble houses became long-term: because they don't roleplay out their culture / race. Though it makes sense, there is all too many non-Ailor pressed into the "dropped their culture to serve the Empire" niche which sort-of makes any attempt to amend race-cultures, racial background and related pointless. In a way, I see no reward in roleplaying out a culture or racial culture myself, only IC scrutiny and consequences in relations / politics. So I think, for a solution, you should allow the more "exotic" races to better serve the empire and fit in. Look at how powerful & tempting Isldar got only recently, not because they are powerful or invincible but simply because it's a semi-public knowledge they are impervious to dragon control. Lampar As much as I hate Lampar from an OOC perspective, driving a wedge between the cutesie roleplayers and those who actually want to progress stories with a Klein character should be important. If this can be done in a visible way, noble RP-ers will be far more inclined to not just baseline ignore or try and kick out Lampar but actually consider roleplay with them. Slizzar I love the idea of snake people but the fact their shifted forms tell their true nature ruins the whole concept for me. I'm unsure how much Slizzar use their emotion-magic thing but now with Folesta magic around, I think it could just be stripped and be available to them if they take Folesta, while they could receive less-discernable features in return. Possibly a fully shifted form with like, not a pair of eyes that random taverngoers point "SLIZZAR" at. Because they are straight-up visible and because seduction RP is baseline ignored 99% the time without OOC relations, I don't see the "politically manipulating" Slizzar as a possibility despite that niche being the race's main direction in lore. Dwarves I think a push on dwarves and their role in military & technology could help a lot. With the new intellect schools about, this should be more than possible. And if I remember the pic you linked in noble chat proper, I saw plans for a tech school. Furthermore, it'd be nice to see deeper dwarf lore. Clans, clan traditions, grand kings, more diversity and so on. Allar I think Allar are too much limited to alchemy, without being given any leverage in alchemy. To me, they feel like if orcs were focused around the school of Graklak, but with the clause that any race can achieve expert level in Graklak that'll be similar to your orc's. General question The general question: the question was asked why certain races are under-played, though the answers and solutions are very similar to the issues of human cultures. Right now, I would say 80% of human roleplayers are split between New-Regalian, Leutz-Vixe, Cultureless and Velheimer similar to how 80% of roleplayers are split between Ailor, Elves/Yanar and Orcs. I know only a handful of Daendroquean Dressolini and Etosian roleplayers, no more Vladno or Lusitsian, and we are sort-of vegetating with Ithanians and Anglians. And in the case of each, the question was powerful IC / OOC representation. All in all, I can't see any of these races repaired or rising to anything proper without a strong couple driving players that remain loyal to them. And I think that's where the true issue stems from.
Ch'ien-ji. I think there are a few things that could be fixed with the Ch'i to help them get played more so here we gO: Major setback about the Ch'i is the limited body builds. It doesn't make sense to me to have an entire human race limited to essentially toned. With the magic update the Ch'i were left a bit up in the air and their old back-up niche being astronomy and sailing was never really built on, I'd actually never even seen a sailor Ch'i until yesterday @Athelois - I think they'd stand to gain from more lore about both of those topics and potentially introduce some form of combat for them so they're less of a victim race. Another problem, which was touched on by a couple of other players was the language. Tatsugo would be fine as a Japanese, Korean or a form of Chinese but lumping the three languages together is confusing and almost seems insensitive and rushed in comparison to the Ailor cultures. On the topic of cultures. Rather than making new races like the Guo why not introduce subcultures of Ch'i in the same format Ailor subcultures exist? I'm not saying we need that many subcultures but it could solve the language problem and the niche problem in one fell swoop. I'd also love to see the Ch'i town aspect built on, I think that could build some incredible in-city storyline. Laaaastly, I don't think the 'mysterious not wanting any help kinda vibe' thing they have going on helps their popularity either. Summary: - Make Ch'i more diverse as a race (Body builds) - Introduce intelligence/combat skills to make them seem more rounded as a culture. - Iron out the language. - Potentially introduce subcultures rather than new races. - Make them more open to the outside world in the lore. - Ch'i towns ,,,question mark ? I'd be more than happy to talk to you about this more, I'm sure ya know I'm a sucker for nautical lore and I'd love to help build on that. Solang. As much as I love their lore I completely get where you're coming from. What would happen to Solangeria as an island and everything that went with it? Mekket/Circci/Maraya. Love it.
The racial body build limitation on Ch'ien-Ji really ought to go. When they were magic users, it balanced out. Now with magic's rework, the limitation seems unnecessary. It also would open up room for more "eastern" combat schools. As for the Maiar, I think we could move away from the muscle sharks by expanding on what their evolutionary physiology can do. Fish are an incredibly diverse group of animals. I don't see why we couldn't have electric Maiar, or Maiar with hypnotic bioluminescence, or even Maiar with slime glands like a hag fish. Lots of ways to be interesting and "powerful" besides brute strength.
Chi: On the topic of religion especially. Taking the recent void religion changes into consideration, I think doing something similar with Chi'en-ji dragon worship would be awesome as well. Dragons can tamper with the very reality of the plane they exist in, so they should also be able to grant the chi who worship them some power in return, especially seeing how dedicated they are. Maybe there would be various dragons available for worship that would give them a special ability. That way the chi' can maintain their magic-race status. Maybe each different dragon would encourage a different type of trait or lifestyle. Servitude, patience, focus, mastery, kindness, helpfulness etc. And as long as the chi devoutly fulfilled these traits and lifestyles, they could get access to some of the dragon powers. Maybe a slight manipulation of wind ability similar to Wolathar Bark singing. There is no wind magic in lore anymore. They could use that for their boats between the islands. Maybe they could get some form of floating ability, that allowed them, when running, to call upon a large gust of air to carry them at greater speeds or leap further distances. That way they could still maintain their lightweight build and still be able to disengage from combat. Another could be the ability to learn certain skills faster, allowing one to attain mastery a lot quicker but would only allow them that one craft to master? Maybe some other dragon magic that is specifically used and worshipped by the dragon monks in the Loong temples. I am certain that there could be many cool concepts born from this.
Quick little blurb. Perhaps now that Drowdar have been upgraded to Arken fighting guardians of the world, the Avanthar Drow Imprint can be powered up to what the Drow were about 24 hours ago.
First of all, Secondly, I agree very much with @Miss_Ortonnaise on all points. If you look at the non-human races that are the most underplayed, you've got (previously) Circci, Slizzar, Allar, Maiar, along with Wolathar, Rashaq etc. Circci, despite being immensely powerful before the rewrite, were impossible to do anything with for the most part because racism against them was so insanely strong. I was very lucky in managing to grab a job for my Circci under House Wodenstaff, but every other house that I applied to immediately rejected the application because of his bugliness. I'm not saying that we should remove racism rp, but what's the point in creating interesting and unique race designs if being unique makes it impossible to get anywhere? There is a similar problem with Maiar, though more deeply ingrained. The fact is that Maiar could never really get anywhere in terms of surface rp, because despite the tentative potential jobs in fishing, that isn't a roleplayed industry. I don't think I've met a fisherman in rp before, let alone seen any fisherman employ a Maiar to dive for clams. On top of that, their ability to become scholars was a little lacklustre as they couldn't be as good as many other races (elves, Yanar, humans, etc). Thus, they were confined to the slums (sewers). With the plenty waterways and their potential for strength, they became minmaxed powerhouses with a remarkable likeness to jaws. That's where they still are today. Allar suffer less racism, but obviously you have to work very hard in order to get your Allar anywhere. The good thing about them is that they're very competent alchemists, so if you're willing to work for it, you can get your Allar into employ with important organisations. It's still far more difficult than getting your ailor or elf into employ, though (able to do a far wider range of jobs, always preferable to bestia). Slizzar are pretty much beat-on-sight, and so they aren't really playable in any sort of non-slums role. The paranoia that seems to spread upon a slizzar entering a room makes it very difficult for them to get anything done, even shady things (partially due to largely unconscious meta on other players parts, and largely due to fully conscious wariness on the characters parts). This is further worsened by the fact that slizzar can't work together to succeed, due to their aversion to their own race. Wolathar are unable to do anything not because of racism, but because of their cultural barbarism and their language difficulties. Few legal employers will willingly take a wolathar on because they believe (rightly) that their society as a whole is primitive and xenophobic. On top of that, they cannot have any particularly useful skills but for in hunting, which is only ever rped by nobles and as such is not a viable option for employ. I could go on. Basically, my point is that there is little demand for non-human races in Regalia. The impression you get is that if all non-human races disappeared, beyond elves, orcs, dwarves and Yanar, there would be no problem. In fact, regalian citizens would probably be overjoyed, as currently more unique races are confined to crime rp or a multi-year slog in an attempt to prove that this beast isn't actually a beast, it's a beast with skill that probably won't kill you or desecrate your holy ground. The way to fix this, I think, is to either grant races more immediately useful abilities (currently the holy trio of orcs, elves and humans can do literally everything just as well than others, if not better (with the possible exception of swimming st depth). I think the way to number of players playing the more exotic and strange non-human races is to increase demand for them. Sa-Allar numbers would skyrocket if noblemen suddenly realised "these massive lizards are probably better at guarding than any other race, so despite the fact that they disgust me, maybe I'll seek some to employ". We need more exotic races that aren't just good at swimming, or able to change shape, but that are also to be 'the best' at something, and something that is both rped and also in demand. For example, a section of the guard force or military could be reserved for wolathar in which they will be allowed to retain many of their heathenous customs if they serve in a guerilla group which is deployed into the slums or used as a last-ditch (or frontline) defence against invaders. This would give wolathar rpers a clear opportunity and would allow them meaningful places in world progression. It would allow them to be ambitious and they wouldn't be confined to the grunty sharp stick slum rp that they are currently confined to. Not all of the changes would have to be like that though - I really liked the idea of slizzar being able to fully shift. This would allow them to somewhat bypass racial difficulties and take jobs, join organisations etc but would still put them in danger of being discovered and executed/punished for their trickery. Allar ability in knowledge schools and especially alchemy could be buffed to make them the clear choice for organisations in need of such things, possibly a little bit better than elves in order to allow elves and Yanar and ailor and whatever else a chance to thrive in those environments as well. The point would be to make Allar a viable (and favourable) choice for employ in some non-criminal organisations, which means making them good enough to even out the racial discrimination they will face. This could be applied to many races that are currently underplayed. I'm not saying it's a fix-all but in my opinion it's a big problem that has never been addressed properly.
I think Saival and Wolathar should be merged into Shendar more so than altalar, you could do this by making the whole shendar ritual just be utter garbage from a spell work perspective. It would often spit out a Shendar as wanted, but sometimes just resulted in a void mutant and everything in between, so basically Saival would be the in between step with their own abilities, perhaps the demon magic like body shifting for claws or hemokinises bolts.
Culturally and without whatsoever a shred of doubt or removal of substance you could simply have the Saivalthar as a more extremist group of Altalar. They basically are already. Merging them with Shendar is like saying there is no middle ground, there is no option for your person to be a voidworshipping altalar, because the skin of your entire race will turn grey. That being said, I've always had a super odd fascination for Wolathar. The tribal aspect is already present in the Avanthar, correct, but those are plains tribes. These are more like I imagine shamanistic little cults of various deities. In fact if you're going to change them, have them settle down into that. Have them be that little tribe of humans in the amazons that gives us a view of how life would've gone if we didn't share our discoveries. Then again, perhaps Wolathar niche can be sort of mixed into the Avanthar as a shamanistic class, which I think would give their aestethic a just replacement should you not wish to keep the race.
With this in mind, I would love to respectfully comment that even though dwarves are often the butt of everyone's jokes, they truly have a ton of potential. It wouldn't be too hard really, it could just be a few additions. Some minor ones at that, two or three paragraphs would even suffice. In fact I'd love to help weigh in on something like that. I have seen a larger influx of dwarves, especially amongst new players. I make it one of my missions on this server to encourage players to play dwarves and for the new players to stick with them. Dwarves lack their own special thing like elves. Elves are more appealing to play because of appearances, awesome schools and backstories, and generally just being more flashy. And that's fine!! But since dwarves are so underloved I feel like they are really underdeveloped. If I had the opportunity for dwarves to have more opportunities, more culture, and more drive then I'd throw Brynhild (Bronwyn) right into it! @Miss_Ortonnaise I'd love more elaboration on the ideas of women's leadership in the holds, especially since I play a female dwarf, but also since female dwarves aren't played much at all. I would adore a bit more info and I'd be willing to approach it in any way possible. I think even just a bit of flair and a spark to run with, such as: technology, richer information, perhaps stronger abilities since they're so stout, hefty, and generally physically unappealing. (That's the major turn-off for most players. But I actually love their inherent ugliness.) A trait or larger ability or dwarf-specific engineering school or trade would really help the dwarf race grow. I know that they aren't as popular or "endangered" as other races, but there is at least 6 of us players. I will tag those who I have seen before here. @Magivore @AntonVoron @SamSenpai @HeroicGinger @Goldifish @AntiquePicker @HandsomeJack @super_enderman There's definitely some I've missed, forgive me if I missed you! I'm currently feeling under the weather and can't remember or articulate clearly. and @Daekon will shortly be playing my character's brother: Eyvindur.
Ill just go down the list of marked races to give my thoughts I suppose: Solang / Wulong - It might be interesting to merge these two races into one, with the major distinctions coming about due to major class division or something similar, as thats not often done really. Kind of half-baked idea. Isldar - It would be interesting to give expansion to their strengths, make them more combat-inclined perhaps. I havent played one before so I am not well versed in their limits. Wolathar / Saivalthar - I like the idea of merging these two, with a heavier focus on Void Worship. Perhaps giving them some unique views on some of the aspects of Void Worship, such as different takes on their gods than other 'vanilla' void worshipers could help them stand out. Lampar - Yes thank the gods. I like the ideas of them continuing to have childish views on religion and the afterlife, but beyond that reducing their metal... deficiencies. Would he a boon. May first instinct is to say maybe make them by default ambidextrous as well? This might just be my brain lumping in generic halfling stuff but small, innocent, dexterous creatures sound fun. Also maybe something to discourage so much overly "kewtsiiieeee owo" RP. Its fine in small doses but its been bad in the past. AND LAMPAR TRESMISAE PLEASE. Quebo vampires were god damned terrifying and I really want them back. Maiar - The biggest boon of Maiar seems to be their, uniqueness. Having so many forms that they can take. Its hard to tell WHAT is specifically available though at times. Most go for generic shark because of this. Perhaps making some sketches of various forms, giving details about the underwater environments of different seas in Aloria and how they effect Maiar evolution, etc, just generally more information, would make them more appealing. Allar - No real comment. I dont play one, nor have I ever, but I feel like they are too integral to mess with toooo majorly. Their intelligence and alchemic interests need preserved but beyond that I have nothing. Rashaq - I enjoy the concept of the Rashaq, they have a lot of potential, but they are underplayed. One is a major player in Crime RP, but beyond that I know only maybe one or two others. Perhaps, in a similar fashion to Wolathar / Saivalthar, they simply need some more fleshing out. Adding something about a sacred site maybe, a neutral grounds that none dare violate blah blah that is actually a Seraph ruin, adding more focus on their internal culture rather than the war like side of things. Tie their religion vaguely into misconstrued concepts based on Seraph culture. Gives them a bit of intrigue and more depth.
On the Saivalthar & Wolathar issue I’d like to throw in my two cents, since I’ve had a Saivalthar as my main for a while now. First, a huge limiter I haven’t seen addressed, the 3 year time span they have outside of Saivalé since leaving isolation in 303 AC. Considering they do not have access to much outside of their homeland other than knowledge in magic, this leaves almost no room for expertise in anything but magic. This also halts the aging up of characters past 3 years, making adult Saivalthar or Saivalthar mixbreeds born outside of Saivalé near impossible. I highly advise that time be extended in their rework. Second, I’d much rather see Saivalthar as a subrace or subculture of Altalar than anything else, but only if they cannot be set apart further to make their own race. They are much more similar to Altalar than Wolathar in mindset and culture (aside from self-mutilation and Void worship). Saivalthar could be another to fill in the niche of Void worship, and to set them apart some ability unrelated to magic pertaining to the void. It would really be a shame to see such an interesting race and culture removed, or simply lumped in with something unrelated.
As I recall, it is possible for Altalar to be malformed by the Shadow Isles into a Shendar. Though whether or not the changes are physical-only as a means to establish a survival mechanism, I do not know. My point is that for the Saivalthar, perhaps making them into a stepping stone might implore already-playing Altalar to join them. I feel the issue is that players would not want their characters to practice Void Worship to simply keep the race alive, and tarnish whatever reputation they felt they've built over time with the bureaucracy of Regalia. Due to their magical nature of the Saivalthar, could it be possible to establish a further subrace? For example, The Saivalthar are Altalar, drawn to powerful magics with a lust for unbridled power. In order to pursue this goal, many travel to an island - Saivale (which may contain Seraph ruins (external only) which emit ravaging essences). One section of the island - The South, is dedicated to the use of Void Worship to reach their goal, whilst those in the North are aware of the costs, and are unwilling to sacrifice their soul to the abominable Void. These Sai-to-be Altalar remain in the North where they may be exposed to the essences to a lesser degree, and train their desired magic amongst teachers and siblings who live long enough to pass on the knowledge. The island of Saivale malforms them into the Saivalthar known today, whilst the Void Worshipping Saivalthar earn more Shendar-esque qualities, still with glowing eyes from the island's ruin. I feel this'd make character rewrites easier if their Altalar chose to study magic, but are willing to change their appearance for the masochistic power. Players without permissions can go to the Void Worship area and pursue the power of Saivale. Obviously there are WAY TOO MANY FLAWS in my initial idea to actually invoke any sort of change, but the concept remains for anyone who wants to pursue the way of the Saivalthar without needing to take up Void Worship or Magic at all - Their personality and appearance shaped by the island's magical essences regardless of magical gain, if they stay too long. The toll they pay however is that scholars and experts who research may know that the Saivalthar, Void or Magic, gained the physical characteristics through their lust for power. As for the Drow, I think the bone that could be thrown their way could be related to an anti-mage mentality. They may have witnessed brother or mother going mad and lusting after the magics, so potentially invested their time in studying ways to repel magic. But they only gain the ability to sense Void or Magical essences in order to prevent it from building. Essentially, my idea is that they could be alarms to magical attacks in whatever way it might present itself. Through their skin for example. AGAIN, very not-great in terms of a conclusion but I think it'd give people a base to build off of. Do they use the ability (which could take years to learn, in order to increase proficiency) in the name of Regalia, or do they join bands of adventurers who explore ruins, in order to be hired to warn them about the position of magical entities or masses of energies from a range.
I haven't read any comments since there are a lot, so apologies if I copy some ideas already. I really enjoyed the Solang ability, but I get that nobody wants to play a slave. I would suggest maybe giving the mimic ability to a Songaskian subrace, or even put it on another race to make them more playable. I don't see the benefits of having the Wolathar and Saivalthar become a void-worship cult, as that walks into the Shendar niche of being void elves to begin with. I think that if this race became a thing, they should be a race that is invented by another elven race, such as an Altalar choosing to become a woid worshipper or void mage, or a Shendar becoming a non-void worshipper. Sort of a grey area race between the "good" Altalar and "evil" Shendar, with an ability that comes as a result. This seems somewhat complicated, but it's the only thought I have. There are a lot of elven races, and it may be better to just scrap these two and give some of their abilities to the other groups. Lampar I feel are just meme tier with their intelligence and general comic relief at times. While I know a few players that can portray a Lampar very well, it might be more appealing to have the race increase their intelligence and mental characteristics to have a purpose in RP besides friendship and food. It might be a decent thought to have a Lampar spy that actually knows how to sneak around to get what they want, or Lampar that are so in tune with nature that they are better at agriculture than even an Anglian. idk about Maiar. this was one of the first races I tried to play on the server, and while I liked the water niche, I didn't get much enjoyment since they were always out of water for RP. While this is more of a Regalia map issue, that is my take on the matter. Though perhaps the Maiar could be the race to take over the mimic ability from the Solang, similar to their evolutionary ability? the Allar should just merge into one race that are extremely good at intellect schools such as alchemy. Similar to the Chien-ji and auto learning an Astronomy school through living, the Allar should become master alchemists without even trying. Maybe add on some immunity to some alchemical substances to further highlight their natural tendency to be alchemists. The niche I see is the trial and error scientist, sort of like those cartoons where an explosion happens and everyone is fine. I see the Allar having some immunity to alchemical substances as a way to highlight their skill at alchemy. By not dying from a normally fatal concoction, the Allar would learn from their mistakes, something another race would not be able to do (as they would be dead) I've usually stuck to Ailor my entire life because my first character was an Ailor, and I like the "easy mode" race to get situated in regalia before attempting another race. I continued to play Ailor since I joined nobility, and if I'm going to be a noble, I may as well go to the extreme and play the patriarchal aristocratic loving Alt Regalians. When I was a bit tired of noble RP, Iattempted to make a few other races and explore other niches in RP, but more times than not I just went back to Ailor since there were very few opportunities in RP. My largest critique wasn't the races, but just the overall environment of the RP world. The city is generally ok for any race to be in, but if I want to avoid the oppression of the Empire, the slums offer nothing, as it is comparably worse in the slums than the city (since everyone wants to rob you, or get into a brawl, or be nonchalant around vampires, or just say how Regalia sucks). Since this is off topic to the race question, I'll stop here. But the take away point is that I don't really care to play non-Ailor races unless there is a good environment to portray the race without any outside influence, be it an underwater coral reef or sunken ships for Maiar or hidden groves for elven (which imo was a highlight of the old sewers, the various tiny groves for void cults and other races, versus the slums where it all seems like dirt roads with no real identity bar the vampire town, which doesn't count as most races can become a vampire.)
So, I personally agree with this, and I miss the time when they were their old Mekett (the Torrp, Circci and Vissi that is) type. This lead to quite a bit of Roleplay, and some still may remember a certain Mekett Hive that inhabited the sewers for a little while. I do wish for them to return however. On the topic of Allar, as one of the few Allar players there are I can very much agree that as a race, they're all but useless. Originally my character, Susumu Yi, was someone who had been hardened after the Chrysant War, however with the race rewrite that made them entirely alchemic focused and weak cowards, it near destroyed him as a useful character, and thus for quite some time I stopped playing him because it was very little fun to play. It also limits the sensible resistance the Essa Empire could have actually posed against the Regalian Empire in the Chrysant War. I personally enjoyed the idea of what they were originally, the conglomerate of different reptillian races. The Drakkar, the Amphi, the Slither, the Lizzar and Alar. They are like this now, however the majority of these subraces are extinct. If indeed the Maiar were merged, I would be somewhat wary of it. It would however, given the opportunity, also add substantially to the Sendras/Hadar lore. As of now, they are supposedly quite influential on the current world stage, however there is little updated lore for them and it makes it hard to play a character as them, leading to underplayed races. The alchemic and scientific niche can still be fulfilled by them, however it would be best if they were no longer as rigid as they currently are. Also, as an Al-Allar player, I doubt that anyone has ever had a character Sa-Allar, as there is a race better than them in almost every way. The original idea of the race again should be reviewed and improved upon, with the diverse cast of reptillian peoples with different traits and attributes. Not necessarily subraces, but more ethnicity within the Allar people. The spoiler below is the original text, and I believe the idea of these races may be beneficial to the revitalization of the Allar race. Bar the Slither. Those are Slizzar now, and those seem fine to me. Hell, I think they might be played more than Allar. Speaking of which, the reason the Mu-Allar tended to be played more often (from what I had heard from Mu-Allar players) is that they aren't was cowardly and all-alchemic like the Allar, however are still a lizard race which many modern fantasy games include. (Only looking at you Elder Scrolls. I love those lizards.) Spoiler: Old Naga Types Subraces of Naga Drakkar: The Drakkar were the rulers of the Naga kingdoms. They were the strongest of the sub-races, making them natural fighters and leaders. Their scales tend to be a light green and they tend to have horns on their heads, with spines along their tails. Lizzar: The Lizzar are the most common sub-race of the Naga. They have long scaly bodies that come in all shades of green. They have no horns or spines and have a peaceful disposition. Alar: The Alar are a rare sub-race of Naga. They look like Lizzar but have harder scales, giving them a natural armor. The Alar were normally always recruited into the Naga military, these days however they have lost their purpose. Amphi: The Amphi look similar to Lizzar in appearance, but with smooth scales and vibrant colors. They are the most rare sub-race of Naga and have not been seen since the fall of the Naga Empire. They were natural swimmers with a set of gills which have caused many historians to debate if they were even Naga or Maiar. Slither: The Slithers did not participate in the Chrysant War yet were the most affected by them. After the fall of the Naga Empire most of the Slithers stayed in Hadar trying to take over the ruined Naga cities, forming groups of pirates to roam the Hadar seas. With darker colored smooth scales, they lack legs and closely resemble large snakes. I greatly miss the old Mekett however, as some of the Roleplay opportunities you could have with them were nothing else. There is no other race with a hive-like social structure, and the old Mekett had the closest to that. This was incredibly unique and enjoyable experience, and the hive I was in numbered in the double digits. The Maiar and Mekett hold a special place in my heart, just where the Allar do, and I wish for them to stay similar to how they are now, however a lore update may prove useful for them, specifically one that once again identifies specific types and cultural regions of Maiar. In honesty, I personally wish that the cultures of underplayed races was expanded upon, to give them unique culture pages and ideals, like what the Ailor have substantially. I simply wish the Allar to become more flexible, and a conglomerate of different types of reptillians with all sorts of aspects. Also, make them able to interbreed. Mu-Allar and Al-Allar not being able to interbreed is a little bit strange. The racism that exists in Regalia can drive many many non-Human players away, and I have heard time and time again how it does, however this is a part of a lore I have come to accept from the RP community. The discrimination of them seems to be something that will happen regardless, and so I won't try to fight it here, as much as I dislike of it. Currently, the availableness and easy-ness of playing an Ailor makes EVERYONE want to play an Ailor, or some sort of human-like race in order to be the top. Like someone said above, it's the 'natural selection' of Roleplay. In my opinion, as much as I love the build that is Regalia, another thing that may steer us away from problems is a setting change. The capital and holy city of a racist empire will NEVER foster Roleplay from the victimized races, and there will always be issues. I will write more later and less rambley when i'm not on my phone and am out of class. Maybe i'll write something like I did about the Mekett to you Marty, except about the Allar. I'll look for people to get input from if I do! Also if there was ever a bird race again that would be amazing. But that's not what this thread is about.
Okay so I looked at this thread last night and I thought, "Nah I'll comment tomorrow and give my thoughts." But the thread went mad so I'm just going to go through the mentioned races (not quite the newly brought up ones like drowdar, dwarfs, etc) to give snippets of opinions (not hate... Maybe... Towards Lampar about it). Edit: I'm using a phone so many typos to be had. Solang Of all races I probably have looked at the lore the least- heck don't think I looked at the page so most I know is ex-solang main's opinions and explenations when they decide "Regalias' Got Talent!" Jokes aside this race was really hyped, and in the old-new sewers there was a handful of awesome Solang players. The concept tired itself out because the drawbacks of them being slaves seemed too great (I guess?). Meanwhile leeching random skills was a perfect concept, but it is a skill that seemed too situational (in my opinion. Any creative Solang player can correct me. I'm an uneducated Ailor/Nelfin player.). A solang could ever use this when a nearby piano made itself known, find someone who knows said piano and goes ham (similar scenarios are present but I a piano had to be presented). The only benefit that is their own strength is agility, which can ever be useful in combat or someone is for some parkour rp. In short I had my rant on Solang. They were an awesome idea that tired itself out, overshadowed by other concepts deemed favorable by the community. I would suggest tying them in with Songaskia, but the concepts seem too unique from each other. Wulong These creature's only monkey business I've seen was really causing violence-related stuff. I'm not hating on them, I even heavily debated playing a Wulong that wasn't as violent as some portray. Heck there are Wulong players that I adore (as few they are)! I can't really say much else, I simply state what I know and the niches I've oberserved in my laughably short longevity as a member. Wolathar/Saivalthar Okay I said I am a Nelfin player but these are the nelfin I know the least about. So just going to make surprisingly short comments here. For Wolathar at least. Wolathar: Severely hyped but tired itself out. Seen their whole Woody Woodpecker Woody Widling made use of once, or is that my surprisingly decreased amount of slum activity? Saivalthar is a tave I fell in love with at first. It eventually became a niche that I wasn't comfortable on portraying (also because my Saivalthar character was almost killed within five minutes of playing them). In the begining they became almost as edgy as Shendar, but that died away and I guess people made use of their affinity in magic. It became tricky to play them or make a backstory for them with their three years of outside-saivale time. Or you played a slave that escaped, but becomes probably the weakest race known other than Lampar. With the new magic stuffs it is hard to play out their biggest strength. The new Void Worship gave me an idea. Maybe they can have Saivalthar exclusive rituals that require self mutilation to get the buffs out of them. It retains thay cultural craziness of self mutilation being a part of their culture, and also keeping their void-based religion rather unique from others. Lampar I'm sure you all know what I'm going to say. Maiar/Allar *Jaws theme* As mentioned in all the comments above my post. I agree with this whole "battle shark" niche. We have orcs to be that violent race. Though an amphibious/aquatic race is really good, I fell in love with the concept but never got to it because I'm lazy... What I thought at first glance was to tie them into Allar to be more aquatic-based, maybe add a drawback as being much more prone to anxiety as the regular allar (okay thay sounds like a bad idea but the idea of "A subrace of Allar hiding deep beneath the waves to hide from the conflicts of the world. Emerging to reclaim former glory." Which doesn't sound half bad to me... it may be bad but whatever.). On the subject of Allar, a rework is due but I don't play Allar enough to have any real comment. But I know that people who play Allar would want a rework to happen. Rashaq I loved this race. Never played them myself but they are entertaining to say the least. Though I see where Rashaq's pride system faltered. I've seen only one person strive for a Rohk position. In my opinion they should be integrated into Avanthar, since they already have a Varran imprint that basically are Rashaq but taller, stronger, and no tail... In my opinion at least. Again I am not the smartest in the world.
If I were the king of the forest: I would cut the races down to five or six and each one would correspond to a list of carefully picked and balanced traits from the trait plugin. Choosing a race would have a cooldown timer and be more like vampires are now. But that's just me; always trying to bridge the divide between our server's lore and actual minecraft gameplay.
And away I gooooo...! Lampar I care deeply for Lampar as a race as I once challenged myself to play a Lampar. This is OOCly by far the most despised and controversial race. Firstly: Cutesy RPers should exist, are allowed to exist, and whatever we do will continue to exist. If these people choose not to become a more engaged character beyond the initial cuteness factor we should not discourage them nor make this no longer a viable option. However what Lampar suffer from is being too stuck in their niche. I attempted to create a Lampar based around a dirty sewer rat who was obsessed with becoming a merchant. The character was lovely, and a great distraction from more serious characters. However I had to bend over backwards to try and fit the lore to the concept. Lampar are currently incapable of becoming anything more than cute nonsense (with no offense intended). This significantly limits the race. I'd propose we expand what Lampar are supposed to be. Going from cutesy characters, to being obsessive tiny animistic creatures. They do not need to be significantly intelligent (although we should remove the memory limitations). If you're playing a Lampar you are basically made aware from the start you are not playing a powerful character. However significantly opening the race to be (for example) non-pacifist, or more animal like, would be welcome. Perhaps also combine them with niches from other races. Such as the monkey rascals from Wulong. Or the aggressive primitive tribalism of Rashaq. Of course, all alongside cutesy. Saivalthar I am actually in favor of combining Saivalthar with Altalar. However, Saivalthar players hear me out. Doing so would open significantly more doors to Saivalthar. They would be able to access the entirety of the elven lore (no small amount). It would encourage more aggressive and imperialistic Altalar that are generally near impossible to pull off in Regalia. And it would allow Saivalthar to exploit the generally more benign attitude to Altalar rather than being distinctly and openly nefarious characters. If we could keep the core idea intact I think it makes sense to combine this race with Altalar. Ch'ien-Ji Ch'ien-Ji are terribly underplayed. Why? What can a Ch'ien-Ji do that an Ailor can't? I've yet to see anyone play Chi'en-Ji as astronomers, because astronomy rarely has an active impact in roleplay. Nor does it require continuous interaction with other people. They are essentially just the eastern race of Ailor. However. Perhaps we can build on this similarity to Ailor. Rather than give them a unique magical power, or skill. I would like to propose that we open up political power to Ch'ien-Ji. Make it easier for them to assist or possibly become nobility and become a force in Regalian politics. I'm unsure how this could be done, however. Trade organizations controlling the Not-Silk-Road maybe? As they are already so similar to Ailor this would essentially just be making them a very unique subrace. I would argue this suits the race much more than making them more exotic. Maiar Simple idea here. If most players make Maiar muscle-killer-sharks, and we have a never-played race of muscle-killer-lizards with the Sa-Allar, why not combine the two? Allow the Sa-Allar to be less dependent on Al-Allar. Give them some new abilities, maybe some lore or racial traits linked to the specifics of the Chrysant Wars. And this could help revive two broken races. Dwarves Dwarves are wonderful. I love dwarves. However I am saddened to admit dwarves are always going to be underwhelming in MassiveCraft due to the huge expectations placed upon them. For as much as we try dwarves will always be considered a Tolkien race. A part of the 'big three' of Human, Elves and Dwarves. Yet Elves and Humans have so much history, importance to the MassiveCraft story and vast array of subraces and cultures that Dwarves will never be able to match. This does not mean there is no hope however. Dwarves at the moment are rarely played simply because there is little reason to play them. Everything they do, another race can do better. They lack the political power of the Ailor. The fighting prowess of Drow or Avanthar. The technological capability of the Qadir. Dwarves are a race without a niche. And so, we must find a niche for them. What this will be, however, I do not know. On Miss_Ortonnaise's (and others) response Alas I must admit to agreeing with Miss Ortonnaise here. Ultimately, creating a vast and interesting array of differing cultures, backgrounds, races and beliefs offers nothing to the server if these do not come into play and affect Regalia in some way. I won't ramble here since Ortonnaise made the point extremely well. Go read her post! ((Note: I wrote this far too late into the night. Forgive any spelling or punctuation errors.))
When it comes to Maiar, I think it would be a real motivator to play them if we had some defined subraces underneath the bigger umbrella of Maiar. Perhaps the beefy shark kinds that are played now, then a more intelligent and lankier version that could be based of octopuses in their design, and a very slow and small kind of Maiar that are often classified as prey, something that have evolved them to grow a thick shell, much like turtles, but without the tanky inclination for war of the Dakkar. I think designs like these would really inspire roleplay, designs that have different positions on Maiar society, the Sharks could serve as the hunters and gatherers, the Octi-types could perhaps be the leaders and thinkers and so on, and so forth. Expanding upon their culture and history prior to the sea serpent attacks would drive roleplay, seeing as people have very little to go off of if their character is any older than 25. These were just my rambly thoughts though, I hope they get considered!
@Gartono plays an extremely good alligator-type maiar. Anyone looking for a maiar to roleplay with, search him out.
Mu-Allar are in perfect health, they're just isolated in Sendras and don't wish to leave. Either way, it leads to them having a IC reason for being incredibly rare. The Allar however, do not, and should be much more common. I do still believe the old racial model (with the diverse subraces) of the Naga was a good way to handle the Allar. They are like that now, except some of their past relatives are extinct, and offer nothing to Roleplay. For others, I pasted the old Naga subraces for people to look at. The Amphi were somewhat like the Maiar could turn into, if they were changed into a subrace of Allar. The Allar in my opinion should be a class of a greater variety of reptillian races, some ideas of which are in the little bit I pasted in my main post. With many modifications, the idea itself may be something of interest for players of the race, due to the added diversity yet still a non-Human race. Also, I agree with optimal. A defined subrace category could prove benefit for the Maiar, if they are not merged with the Allar.
There are vague hints about the Avarr, Lovarr and Qavarr in lore, but they haven't been fleshed out. They are obviously not playable, but intended to be at some point when it's conceivable possible that we've nailed down all other races.
I agree with this, especially since I always thought it was somewhat laughable that Ch'ien-Ji is expected to cover all of China Japan and Korea, which are all linguistically and culturally pretty distinct. I know we aren't going to get a separate race for every real life culture, but what I mean is that it seems more realistic for races to be combined.
Personally, I'd love to see more of the strengths of Isldar written in more detail, as well as a rewrite concerning magic. Since the magic update, there's been a lack of ice magic, and since said magic is commonplace among Isldar, I feel this needs to be expanded on or made less common in Isldar society.
Prefacing this by saying I used a lot of spoilers, as otherwise this response would probably be lengthy and not easily read. Spoiler: Problem I've always thought that the Solang had an amazing racial ability with a lot of potential, but that a few of the problems they struggled with are the idea that they are mostly slaves and the ability that makes them so interesting. While slave roleplay has basically always been a thing and was quite popular at one point, the problem with it, as was mentioned, was that it requires a sort of dependency in roleplay that can't always be there. People don't want to be locked out of playing their characters or asked 'what are you doing without your owner' if the essentially second half of their character isn't present. Their ability is a very interesting concept that makes me want to play them, but it's so situational and limited that it feels awkward to use. The Solang retain no real skills or anything that really makes their individual characters exceptional, and are entirely reliant on finding other characters to absorb skills from. Spoiler: Potential Solution I believe if this could be worked into another race or even into one of the less developed subsections of Qadir it would stand to benefit them, as the ability itself is very unique. Again the problem with Solang being they could have very little individuality on their own and were entirely reliant on other characters in almost every way. The race always seemed like a less angry and less monkey-like Wulong to me which made it very interesting. I can imagine that the race needs to go because it is underplayed and reliant on dependency, but I would hate to see the racial ability go to waste. Spoiler: Problem I did a search on the wiki to see if there were any character sheets made of wulong characters, and unsurprisingly there is not a single one. I also believe in my time roleplaying since the Wulong race was implemented I have seen maybe one of two, and most were used for powergaming and win-rp purposes that made them less than memorable and applied a sort of stigma to the race as a whole. Spoiler: Potential Solution I believe the best course of action would to be just remove the race altogether or replace them with a more fleshed out variant of the Solangeria, which may not make much sense in the context of the war in the Yang-Tzu. Spoiler: Problem Two underplayed races that I have seen people portraying poorly or just not playing all together, with very rare exceptions. I can only think of a few players who actively play their Savailthar, all of which I could likely not discern from normal elves if it wasn't for their skins being a tad different and the presence of scars/tattoos. Spoiler: Potential Solution The idea of a void cult of Nelfin that appear less obvious than Shendar are interesting, but the portrayal would likely wind up being very similar with regards to how these races are/are not played now. I believe this is also a niche that is filled by the current Shendar race, and Shendar may lose a lot of traction with the player base is more regular looking Nelfin can fulfill that same niche. Spoiler: Problem Lampar, in my mind, have always been these cutesy little characters that are always either played like child characters are for normal races, or really lack no depth besides their desire to be cute and carefree. I don't believe there's enough depth to this race and a lot of the skill lore overall is very exclusionary. Many intellect and combat schools list that Lampar are not capable of being involved at all simply because of their size and potentially their attitude. I believe this race should be restructured. Spoiler: Potential Solution Make the characters more intellect heavy, or give them another potential niche to fulfill. What is the upside to playing a Lampar character versus something like an Ailor or an Altalar? I don't believe theres anything exceptional about Lampar that drive players towards it besides the fact that they are cutesy and somewhat mischievous at times. Give them something that they can fulfill, like a natural affinity to certain dextrous combat schools or working with intellect schools that involved animals or small parts. Spoiler: Problem Ah, yes. A race that shows so much potential but has really only ever been used, as mentioned, as burly fish men who are unintelligent and capable at crushing things with their mass. Regardless, I believe the current Maiar concepts are fascinating and have astounding potential, but are difficult to design and roleplay out, as well as lacking a community to share similarities with. There also isn't an abundance of water anywhere near where major roleplay takes place Spoiler: Potential Solution I believe doing something like absording them into a race like Allar or Slizzar would be very good for their image overall, as well as perhaps giving them set body limitations that would lean towards them to be more naturally fluid swimmers. Overall I think this race has a great design, but could be refined to a point where the community may find more interest. Perhaps make it to where they learn magic and other schools quicker, as I believe is either currently mentioned or was formerly mentioned. I know things are currently being thrown around for this, and I have little experience with these races so I'll repose myself from this one besides saying they are underplayed but still have a noticeable presence because of the quality of the roleplayers who portray them. I have simply never seen a Rashaq played, or if I have seen one then it wasn't any different from a Lampar. I believe they would fall somewhere similar to my proposed solution for Lampar. The big reason I, and I believe others, have had with roleplaying more fantasy esque characters like the Allar and the Maiar is the inability to find capable or willing skinners and artists to create them in the creator's vision. Skins and art are two of the most desirable types of products on this server, and many artists or skinners will state right off the bat that they refuse to do skins or art for these races. This isn't the fault of the artist, skinner, or creator, but more so just a problem with the design of any race like this. In appearance they are widely complex and less sought after than some of the more normal looking races. There is little to no reward for trying to learn how to skin these races as most of them are played in very small ways, so there's not much potential profit there. Most people want to play characters that are fun to portray and are aesthetically pleasing, thus the presence of manly men and incredibly feminine women. People want to play characters that they find attractive and pleasing to the eyes, as well as ones that can have skin and art created in their image.
I feel like the issue with the Solang isn't that people didn't want to be slaves in rp- But the issue that most wouldn't be able to afford slaves so even if you wanted to be one it'd be a pain in the butt to find where to go, and also the fact that slaves are more labor-based and are better off left as a NPC thing, so they really wouldn't get to do much besides be put down in public. Maybe something of a subservient gladiator type race would be cool. The strength of an orc, the aesthetic of an Ailor, with potentially a magic-based racial passive revolved around defending their owners, an Ailor looking race, Bio- Engineered and magically altered by an ancient civilization specifically for fighting in Arena's and in wars due to their artificial need to obey combat-orders. I bet Avarr comes to mind, but the issue with those is that they were tribal bloodthirsty beasts. These would make perfect competition for house guards.
I do have one suggestion that may help players who would want to play more animal-like characters, a chance to play more than lizards, cats or sharks. Maybe add species to the Varran culture that would essentially evolve them as generations spent time in different cultures. For examples, Varrans that have spent generation with from a Ch'ien-Ji culture may end up looking more or less like a panda or red-panda. Or if a varran group spent generations in Cielotha like societies they may end up becoming more fox-like. This would allow people that have a niche for animals, or for those who are furry and would like a chance to play as one, to be able to play one within the limitations of lore. They would still be classified as Varran just as a sub-race of one, and could potentially further the race as a whole.
Not exactly, they are very... Xeno-y so it ends up nobody really wants them as a companion or a guard because by having one you already lower your own social status. Rather than being mentally inept swoll xeno-slaves, these would appear more like Ailor and have the intelligence of one, so they would actually be capable of being in the guard and being house guards. Instead of just being the cannon-fodder for criminal organizations. Also this "Sa-Allar live exclusively in small Al-Allar led enclaves within Regalia itself." So the requirements to play one of them is fairly specific.
Hey, I’d like to talk about the Ch’ien-ji for a moment. (On second thoughts...maybe 10 minutes more than 1 moment. I've written about 1100 words. I'll spoiler it, don't worry.) Language Spoiler So, the first thing, let me express my inner linguistics nerd for a while I feel that one of the big things that needs to be cleared up with the Ch’ien-ji is the language. I feel the simplest thing to do is instead of lumping Korean, Japanese and Chinese together as the one base race, it would probably be easier and more culturally sensitive to do the same to the Ch’ien-ji that has been done with the Ailor: Make each language and culture have its own specific people to go along with it. My main reasoning behind this is the complete impossibility that is constructing a language using Chinese, Japanese and Korean. From a Westerner’s point of view it’s very easy to say “They’re all Far-East Asian so they can all go together easily,” however this is actually completely incorrect. The languages themselves are quite incompatible. At one point, all of them made use of the Chinese writing system, yes, (Though Korea abandoned it a few centuries ago in favour of Hangul because the Chinese writing system made it incredibly hard to read because of how completely incompatible those languages are) and Japanese still makes use of that writing system, but that is because the Chinese writing system is a logography and as such people speaking entirely different languages can technically use it to communicate. (I know that that’s a gross oversimplification but its the easiest way to explain it) However, apart from this aesthetic similarity, the languages themselves are incredibly distinct. Korean, Japanese and Chinese come from three completely separate language families. When I say this, I don’t mean it like “Irish is from the Insular Celtic Languages and Italian is from the Romance languages.” Despite how distinct Irish and Italian are, they are both WAY less distinct than Korean, Japanese and Chinese because both languages are Indo-European. Japanese, Korean and Chinese are not from the same language family. Japanese comes from the Japonic language family. Korean comes from the Koreanic language family. Mandarin, Cantonese and other chinese languages are from the Sino-Tibetan language family. Mixing these three languages is not just more ridiculous than mixing Irish and Italian. It’s more comparable to trying to mix Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and Swahili. Or English and X’osa. Now, I know that no one actually expects you to speak a language fluently to play this culture. But to make names and places and just..the cultures in general make more sense, I think that Korean, Japanese and Chinese should at least be given their own language and culture each, maybe even more in the case of Chinese. I don’t fully know if this is the idea with the Guo-ji and Huon-ji, and if it is good on them! Please still make them separate cultures though and possibly give the cultures names that are more specific to the language itself. Culture Spoiler As far as culture goes, I feel like a few things could be done. Firstly, I believe that Chinese, Japanese and Korean should all get their own specific languages and cultures at the very least, or maybe even each one could get multiple cultures or at least sects of culture to themselves. While you can easily say “this is the East Asian race” and be done with it, it would be considered more culturally sensitive to do the same as was done with the Ailor. The Ailor are not lumped together as “The European Race.” They are instead each given their own unique culture and language and identity. I think the same respect should be given to East Asian cultures. Maybe one culture is more focused on a strict honour-based system like what existed in Feudal Japan. You could have something similar to a Shogun-type system, fulfilling a Samurai niche whilst doing so. You could have a culture that closed itself off from the world to prosper on its own with a policy of isolationism, with only small trade with other neighbours, like what existed in Japan. You could have a complex, imperialistic empire like what China had, with long dynasties and an ancient history. Maybe that culture has been able to innovate due to a wealth of natural resources like silks that the Ailor and other cultures want to trade with. Body Build Spoiler I think Body Build holds Ch’ien-ji characters back quite a lot, and I see no reason for it to be a factor. It is my personal belief that when you have a race based off of IRL humans, you should give full creative control to the player on how they want their character to look. Now, I don’t mean giving them free reign to have bright pink and neon green eyes with emo fringes and candy floss hair. I mean that you give people the creative control to have a character that looks like them. IRL, there are Asian bodybuilders. There are athletic people, hell East Asian people have created most of the most well known martial arts. There are also plenty of East Asian strongmen and obese people. Just look at Sumo Wrestling. The tallest Chinese person is Zhang Juncai, who stands at 2.42 metres tall. The shortest chinese person was 79cm tall. While these are of course extreme examples, my point is that there is nothing genetically in an asian person that prevents them from being able to attain the same body builds as every other race on earth, and therefore I believe that there should be nothing stopping a player making a Ch’ien-ji character who has a strongman body build or a scrawny body build. In doing this, you also allow players to attain a character that fits niches such as “Samurai” “Mystic” or “Sumo Wrestler.” I also think that cultures shouldn’t be made in such a way that you can ONLY be a samurai if you play a Japanese person or you can ONLY be a Mystic if you play a Chinese person. Every culture naturally has a balance of scholars, fighters and ordinary people. During the Feudal period in Japan, you did not only have Samurai. Plenty of people trained as Scholars or Monks. In China, not everyone was a warrior monk or a soldier. People did different work and filled different niches. TLDR Body build restrictions should not be kept on any race that is based off of IRL ethnicities, for cultural sensitivity, good representation and player creativity. Chinese, Japanese and Korean are incompatible as languages and cultures and should be distinguished plainly in the same way as Ailor are. I feel like this would greatly improve the ability to play and make Ch'ien-ji characters.
From my meager experience and the general feedback on this thread, it seems that one large complaint about lampar is that there isn't a lot of wiggle-room for making vastly different characters. For instance, while two ailors can have extremely different viewpoints, two Lampar will probably have quite a bit in common (in terms of worldview) because of their inherently peace-loving and jubilant nature. Furthermore, Lampar are generally played as cutesy characters given their peace-loving nature. I think it would be beneficial to really flesh out the dual-society idea posted on the wiki; something similar to the Morlocks and Eloi in The Time Machine. Both societies would still strive for peace and share a general camaraderie with all Lampar, but a few notable differences could allow for more flexibility within the race. Here is a rough outline of what I'm talking about. Urban Society Have flexible morals Are more work-inclined than their forest counterparts Have a propensity for thievery (due to their agile nature) Are more spartan than those from the forest society Are more family-oriented (easier to get by in the city environment) Forest Society Have rigid morals Are more fun-inclined than their urban counterparts Prefer honest work (though they won't deny a shiny coin on the ground) Adore bright colors and decorations in general I think capitalizing on the urban and forest societies would satisfy a significant chunk of players. Roleplayers who enjoy easy-going characters who love to have fun could achieve that by playing a Lampar who recently migrated to Regalia from the forest society. Someone who wanted to play a more tribal-oriented Lampar who is willing to scrape at the bottom of a barrel or make their living through dishonest means can achieve that through a Lampar from a Regalia-born family. TLDR: Greatly expand upon the dual-society outline of Lampar to increase the flexibility of the race and satisfy more players.
I have not put much thought into the other races, but from experience and development, I do have a few things to state about Maiar. First, generally and as of now, I believe the Maiar race as a whole is too vague and underdeveloped. Though this might make sense as a niche race, there should be a section specifically based on Maiar types and transformations. To those claiming the Maiar race is primitive in mentality, I would argue that as currently stated, Maiar only become these feral beasts only when left in isolation. From those of you who know my character, Ikaiko Mordida, this can be easily avoided through constant exposure to others. Aside from that, I have a few propositions for improvements upon the race to make Maiar more colorful and interesting. I think it would be ideal for the Maiar to have their tendencies and societies based on the environment they have grown in. Two examples to contrast would be Maiar who have developed in freshwater environments to those who have grown in salt water ones. Maiar of per-say a forest or Oasis environment would be smaller though more kind and curious of the world around them. Where as Maiar who have developed in the oceans would have developed larger and according to their ocean, though not necessarily less intelligent than the Maiar of freshwater. They would be more keen toward their own beliefs and stubborn in nature. If they are adapting to their environment, fish of the sea have plenty of space to grow and space to mind to themselves, where those of smaller lakes and ponds learned to share and mutually benefit in such an enclosed space. This being said, I think it should be specified that Maiar would not need to always be in the water, though like any other aquatic animal, they would have to be born within water. To the societies of Maiar, though I could continue fleshing out all my ideas here, I would want to propose a larger, more advanced Maiar society compared to the tribal ones that already exist. The Maiar of the oceans could have large cities built from the sea floor, with large societies much like a Monarchy, with unspoken wars beneath the ocean's surface to create even a history for the Maiar. A point in time where eight Maiar had ruled a sea to their own? Maiar organized in social rank depending on their traits, or simply larger Maiar representing a higher level of royalty to their kind? Their eye colors representing the part of the world they have came from? This was my issue originally seeing the concept of the Maiar, that even if they are not changed much, they have so much to be built upon. Lastly, for any ideas regarding the physicality to the Maiar other than what was previously stated, though I could propose subraces, such as squid, more reptilian or shelled Maiar, I fear not enough play Maiar to make that necessary, even though it would be nice. I will just restate that their limits to their adaptations regarding their entire body should be specified. That is my little rant, and I hope my input is helpful. Edit: With the idea of society in mind, I was thinking of basing it off of Songaskian society where those born with certain traits are respected differently.
I agree with Nitesho. To the best of my knowledge, I first thought of a Citizenship Ministry back in June (2017) where lower races could actually have an incentive to be law abiding subjects and perhaps generate law rp with not only the city guard but also with possible criminal friends. It could also generate IC bribery and/or corruption plots that could further enhance the feeling of dog eat dog world for the lower classes as they try to make a better life. Forgive me if I’m simply saying the same thing as Nitesho but it could be a prime opportunity to build a more racially diverse Regalia that gives players incentives to be the underdog, it would also challenge Ailors to try and stay top dog.
Yeah, the inability to "advance" as anything other than an Ailor is, I think, the biggest reason some of these other races aren't played much. If people felt they had a chance at being relevant as non-humans, we'd probably see more of them. That was the main reason I stopped playing a Maiar, as after a certain point, Morei just couldn't really go anywhere. Obviously the limitations on races makes sense "in-universe", but shouldn't the rules of this universe facilitate player enjoyment first and foremost? There's no reason the culture of Regalia can't be re-imagined to be more fun to role-play in, especially when so many other cultures and races have been re-vamped, tweaked, or completely scrapped.
