What do you want the other race(s) to be?

[eimatshya]

I've seen other threads on Project Eternity's races, but they seem to all be arguments over whether or not to have Elves and Dwarves. So, since it sounds like Project Eternity will have Elves and Dwarves, what would you like the other race or races to be? So far we have Human, Elf, Dwarf, and possibly the Godlike. That's four out of the five playable races. What else would you like to see?

 

They've mentioned the possibility of an insect race; personally, I'm not that interested in having one. I've seen interesting insect races in some pen and paper games (Ashen Stars and Dark Sun), but I'm not sure an insect race really fits a medieval Europe themed setting (assuming that's what we are going to get with P:E). I would like the races to fit the world (although I suppose there could be parts of P:E's world where giant sapient insects would feel more appropriate). I liked all the bizarre races that we had in Planescape, but they seemed appropriate in the setting. I think the bizarre factor needs to be toned down in a more conventional setting (i.e. European inspired fantasy).

 

Anyway, I think it might be interesting for the fifth race to be people who were born with souls that had somehow carried with them traces of their previous incarnations' deaths (maybe only in instances where the deaths were especially traumatic). As such, the soul would taint the new incarnation with an element of death, meaning that, while technically a member of their parent's race, these beings would be part mortal and part undead. This would leave them pale and sickly looking but would give them extended lifespans and heightened immunity to diseases and death magic. Their connection to death would also give them a greater sensitivity to the souls of others. Perhaps they could tell whether the soul was whole, fragmented, awakened, etc. This sensitivity would also make them more aware of the presence of concealed individuals (bonus to perception checks to spot hiding or invisible people) and possibly of ghosts, if they exist in this setting. Due to their cadaverous appearance, they might have penalties to social interaction, especially in societies in which they were stigmatized.

 

I'm not really sure what to call them, the Deathborn? Deathwalkers? I got the idea from the Shade race in Shadowbane, so maybe they could be called that, although that would probably be a copyright violation.

 

http://shadowbaneemulator.com/page.php?d=4&n=Shades

 

I suppose these wouldn't be a "race", so to speak, since their condition wouldn't be hereditary and their offspring, assuming they aren't all sterile, would probably be normal members of their grandparents' race (unless they had the misfortune to be born with a tainted soul, as well).

 

If Obsidian decides to go with something more traditional, I would be interested in playing a member of a stereotypically brutish race like an Orc, Troll, or Minotaur (the Minotaurs in Shadowbane were pretty cool).

 

Anyway, what ideas do you guys have for the fifth race?

[Death Saved]

Personally im ok as lonmg as they add some real races and not just paint jobs of a human.

[Piccolo]

I think they should look to sci-fi for inspiration (avoiding the obvious cliches). Just because the game has a fantasy setting doesn't mean some of the races can't be very alienlike in appearance.

[ogrezilla]

I think they should look to sci-fi for inspiration (avoiding the obvious cliches). Just because the game has a fantasy setting doesn't mean some of the races can't be very alienlike in appearance.

Namek

[Tale]

I've always been a fan of trans-kobolds.

[Elerond]

How about for odd race, moomin.

 

And here some pictures of belligerent moomins by my friend Eero Ylönen from his art show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And those for you who don't know what moomins are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin

 

Edited September 23, 2012 by Elerond

[Nivenus]

I'm guessing there will be a race that somehow ties into the concept of "souls" in the game. The so-called Godlike (of which we know nearly nothing it is fair to remember), may be an example. Possibly we might also see some race that ties into the folklore of Europe that isn't usually represented as playable, such as lycanthropes or goblin-like creatures (I'm thinking brownies and kobolds, for example).

 

Another possibility is something from outside of European folklore, perhaps representing a foreign and uncommon race in the accessible game world.

[ogrezilla]

I'm guessing there will be a race that somehow ties into the concept of "souls" in the game. The so-called Godlike (of which we know nearly nothing it is fair to remember), may be an example. Possibly we might also see some race that ties into the folklore of Europe that isn't usually represented as playable, such as lycanthropes or goblin-like creatures (I'm thinking brownies and kobolds, for example).

 

Another possibility is something from outside of European folklore, perhaps representing a foreign and uncommon race in the accessible game world.

a race that has a different belief on how the soul/magic connect works than most of the world could be interesting.

Edited September 23, 2012 by ogrezilla

[Oridan]

I think I've said before in this forum that I want a centaur companion. And I still want that.

 

Otherwise, I'd like to see minotaurs and/or lizardmen. I'd also like to see something like this:

 

 

Basically humans in different colours, with glowing eyes, hair, and body/face markings/tattoos. Also, they would wear clothes and not float above the ground, so they wouldn't be entirely like the pictures I posted. (Image is artwork from Might and Magic: Heroes VI)

 

Oh, and Elerond, I love the moomins! I fondly remember the moomin cartoon from the 90s.

[dlux]

How about wookies? Wookies are awesome! ^^

 

 

lol

[Oridan]

"Wookiee" is spelled with two e's! Just saying!

[molarBear]

can't we have total non-human races resembling tanarri, baatezu, thokola etc.? never seen that before.

[IchigoRXC]

My vote is for wookiees and Nameks

 

I would love to see something different and I trust in the devs ability to deliver.

[incubus9]

How about a slave race. They would be known as the Soulless. All other races would believe they are beings without souls. I'm kind of stealing the idea a bit from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. A race of intelligent yet complacent beings would allow for interesting role play scenarios.

[nikolokolus]

It seems pretty tough to come up with something unique that hasn't already been done somewhere in fantasy or science fiction before. So I don't expect their races to be ground-breaking or anything.

 

All I can ask for is no fricking halflings ... I'm not sure I can handle any more of that.

 

Centaur would be kind of cool, since you don't see them too often in as playable race in games, or maybe druid/ent-ish, plant-based biped would work (resistant to poison, but highly susceptible to fire)?

 

I don't know, I trust the Devs to come up with something cool.

[MinotaurWarrior]

I really like Minotaurs, as you might imagine. I'd like to see a race of vegetarians with strong social unity among the females, and fierce competition and frequent violence among the males. Both males and females would be nothing to mess with: tall, horned, and thick with physical power. Because of their herd nature, they'd be capable of true egalitarianism at higher populations than humans or elves - thriving towns of a few thousand could get by this way - but it would not be in their nature to unite different communities into a larger heirarchy. The strongest bulls would be dominant in their community, and not easily allow anyone to rule over them. War among Minotaurs would be rare, and done by champions - the strongest bull of one community fighting against the strongest bull of another. When humans, elves, or dwarves invade their lands, Minotaurs are often disguisted by their apish barbarity. The Minotaurs would be given to deep rumination, not idle displays of cleverness or invention.

[Starglider]

Centaur would be kind of cool, since you don't see them too often in as playable race in games, or maybe druid/ent-ish, plant-based biped would work (resistant to poison, but highly susceptible to fire)?

 

Agree : it would be good to have a non-humanoid race. I think you'd give up the ability to wear most armor + social difficulties in return for stat bonuses e.g. for centaurs better constitution, running speed & carry capacity. PST had bariaur wandering around and ToEE managed to include a lamia (cat-centaur) as a one-off throwaway monster so it can't be too hard to implement.

[rjshae]

I wonder. Since they seem to have a somewhat hindu/buddist theme of reincarnation of souls, maybe they will look to east Asia for inspiration? How about the Garuda? Or the Naga?

Edited September 24, 2012 by rjshae

[Bill Gates' Son]

I would love to see some TEH orkz, preferably noble savage kind from the Warcraft series and not mindless beings you have to kill.

[gglorious]

Well, we get 5 races. All of them should tie in somewhat to magic, given that the world is very magical.

 

I think most of the races from traditional DnD could work with some reflavorings. I wouldn't prefer that though.

 

I rather like lizardfolk(they could be dragonfolk too, some offshoot of the major dragons). I really like the idea of the "Soulless". Additionally, if this is a really high magic world, we really can get away with some very explicitly magical beings. So, why not something like tieflings and aasimar(maybe even one race with potentially either set of characteristics)? We could even have races of constructs, or the undead, or fairies. So long as an undead race didn't rip off WoW too much, it could even be very conceptually interesting to explore some of those themes. (Undead love interest? You may want to avoid some of the taboo elements of it, but it could be interesting to pull off a romance that really could last an eternity.) I mean, if this is really high magic/defined by magic, then the biggest thing is to make them all spectacular and wonderful and mind-twisting at the same time.

Edited September 24, 2012 by gglorious

[hideo kuze]

a race that has a different belief on how the soul/magic connect works than most of the world could be interesting.

I think that should be done at a faction/country/area level and not at a race level.

 

 

 

How about a slave race. They would be known as the Soulless. All other races would believe they are beings without souls. I'm kind of stealing the idea a bit from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. A race of intelligent yet complacent beings would allow for interesting role play scenarios.

I have the same opinion as the race mentioned by OP. It is a nice idea, but it works better as a condition for a character of any race.

 

 

OP, I also don't see insectoids fitting in this setting. But we know so little, so who knows.

 

Assuming we will have tieflings as the godly race (which I'd love to), we already cover the demonic area, and its appearance somewhat also covers the minotaur aspect and even the reptilian look. (not that looks are the core aspect, but people enjoy variety)

 

 

If we don't get the tiefling, I'm all up for a minotaur and a reptilian race.

 

can't we have total non-human races resembling tanarri, baatezu, thokola etc.? never seen that before.

If we have tieflings as the godly race, would you still like to have one of those? Or do you see that ground as covered?

Well, they said the 5th one would be for "the truly odd".

 

 

I'm really curious on what they see as the truly odd. Maybe we'll get an insectoid race or a cthulhvian race

 

I would have really enjoyed to have orcs or ogres as a playable. So it's a shame they won't be there.

 

Alternatively I'd like to see a matriarchal race, with a culture similar to the drow (if we will have drow, then not so similar but still matriarchal).

From a biological point of view, most of these tend to be from the invertebrate family. So maybe we'll get an insectoid race.

 

Maybe a spider alike race?

 

More cool stuff by Sweets:

http://www.justinswe...047_mantis.html

http://www.justinswe...130_goblin.html

http://www.justinswe...S/136_ogre.html

http://www.justinswe..._minotaur2.html

http://www.justinswe...0_aslannew.html

 

(sorry for the minor artwork derail, but when you look at it you do wonder "hey, this would be cool")

Edited September 24, 2012 by hideo kuze

[ogrezilla]

I am almost positive there will be a faction or country that has different beliefs, but I think it would be cool if the PC could be one of them. Though that could be an option other than race when creating the character. Sadly, that would probably change the story pretty dramatically and end up being too much extra work to be worth it.

[Superdeluxe]

I want insane alien races like in PS:T

[Gorth]

All I can ask for is no fricking halflings ... I'm not sure I can handle any more of that.

And gnomes. Don't forget to hate gnomes. I've had an unreasoning dislike of gnomes ever since Jan Jansen. Death to gnomes in all universes!!!

 

I like the idea of centaurs. They are a classic, yet somewhat underutilised in various settings. Of course, the misogynist in my would rather see a female only dryads race, that abducts human males for procreation, even if all they leave behind is shriveled husks that serves as fertiliser for the forest (it's a "fantasy" setting, right?).

 

Never mind their physical looks and attributes, but I like the idea of "hive minds", where ruling castes control the "drones" with pheromones and other subtle signals. Could look like squid for all I care. Maybe something along a similar vein of Cranium Rats from PS:T, the more there are, the smarter the group is?

 

[eimatshya]

Maybe a spider alike race?

 

It's funny, I was against the idea of an insectoid race because I was thinking of something like the Thri-kreen, but a playable, Drider-like race would be pretty cool (which would technically be arachnoid, so I guess I'm not a total hypocrite for liking the idea). Given the emphasis on creating a variety of cultures for each race, the devs would be able to come up with a bunch of interesting societies for these spider-people to have formed.