NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rogueboy" data-source="post: 4809757" data-attributes="member: 61742">I'm not sure why, but this image (dwarves with really big axes) intrigues me... I'll have to consider keeping this as a final bit of crunch... but for now, here's the fluff I've settled on using for the various races:Humans:As the race that most of this thread has focused on, there's more for the humans than other races. Additionally, I dropped the focus on fire magic (though I may bring that back in, I'm not sure) since I'm leaning towards scrapping the non-costly material components (basically give every caster Eschew Materials for free). Reasoning for that is that I don't see any advantage to requiring them, except for saying "you don't have your spell components" as a way to say "you ca  n't use spells" or as a way to allow opponents to limit casters - either of which can be achieved by requiring use of an implement (perhaps leading to magical implements akin to 4e?). Anyways, here's the fluff:Humans are a nomadic race, living in tribes in the Whatchamacallit Plains. Warriors in human tribes specialize in mounted ranged combat, favoring a composite bow from the back of large birds which resemble emus. The raptors, called FancyRaptorRaceNameX, are typically about 5 feet tall, and are ridden much as horses are. Each member of the tribe prizes their personal FancyRaptorRaceNameX highly, often placing them in their top few of their (minimal) possessions.Due to the heat from being in an open environment, human tribes tend to wear lightly-colored, loose-fitting natural fiber (cotton) fabrics, with arms and legs covered. Warriors wear either no armor or very light armor, and metal armor is unheard of. Similarly, metals in general are a scarce commodity among human tribes due to their inability to maintain active forges to make use of the metal.Humans hunt for themselves, and have renowned wilderness skills. Aided by their nomadic lifestyle, they are respectful of the land and its need to recover after being used for a time. As such, it is rare for a human tribe to remain in one place for more than 2 weeks.As a whole, humans are somewhat xenophobic. While they will dine and trade with other races, it is unlikely that they will trust anyone without repeated encounters to prove the foreigner's trustworthiness. Despite this innate distrust, humans are infamous traders, traveling the world acquiring things needed elsewhere (the Whatchamacallit Plains cover enough of the world that it is a short [relatively speaking] journey from the edge of the Plains to almost any major settlement). Humans trade using a barter system, as they have no use for coins outside of other races' lands. In addition to exotic goods, human traders are an excellent source of news from the outside world, particularly politically, as they have found that political knowledge is highly valuable to many leaders of major settlements.Human tribes provide the vast majority of the world's exotic honeys, as they maintain beehives during their travels, using the wide variety of plants they encounter to influence the quality and flavors of the honey they produce. This has the added benefit of pollinating the flowers, which some settlements pay for, especially if they are unable to afford or access magical aid to the pollination of their plants. Many tribes have developed chambered caravans for their beehives, allowing them to control which hives have access to each area's pollen. This allows each tribe to produce several varieties of honey each year. A large portion of the tribal leaders' role is in determining when and where to travel. Missing blooms means the pollens are missed, leading to a poor crop of honey. In a particularly good year, honeys that are as complex and subtle as the best wines are produced, and sell for exorbitant prices.Magic in the human tribes is of critical importance to their survival. Mages aid in the breeding of FancyRaptorRaceNameX, providing the raptors with more strength, agility, endurance, and other critical factors to their use in war and hunting. Human tribes also maintain several locations with historic importance. Perhaps the most well-known is a cave, somewhere in the Whatchamacallit Plains, where tribal elders bring the greatest warriors of the tribes when they are killed in order to be revived. Little is known about the cave, but many suspect that it is surrounded by natural crystals (perhaps a natural diamond node?) that can amplify magic. The tribal elders maintain the secret of the location of this cave for fear that if it is discovered, the ability to restore great warriors to life will be lost forever.And for the other races...Gnomes  are quite possibly the race that is most in-tune with nature that still has  regular interactions with the other, city-dwelling, races. Gnomes have  mastered the arts of summoning and protection (abjuration) magic, as well as  communicating with forest creatures (Speak  with Animals at will, limited to forest creatures). Halflings,  as their name suggests, are small, standing roughly three-and-a-half feet  tall, on average. They have an innate connection to birds, and are able to  communicate with them using their innate Speak with Avians (as Speak with  Animals, but limited to avian species) ability. This ability to communicate  with avians allows halflings to gather information that most people believe  private. With natural skills allowing them to sneak around effectively and  their dexterous tendencies, halflings make excellent hidden informants,  particularly in urban settings.Elves have a focus on the long-term that takes advantage of their natural lifespan and their ability to act slowly and still live to see their actions come to fruition. While gnomes use their talents to protect and nurture the natural world, elves use their talents for divination, transmutation, enchantment, and illusion magic to manipulate the natural world to the plans of the elves. Though elves seem focused on nature, it is truly only an exercise in understanding changes over time and ways to shape them. The image of a sylvan glade is far removed from that of the elven orchards; nature itself is bent to the will of the elven craftsman, and their understandings of the world only garner a greater ability to change it. An elven forest will appear shaped by the hands of time; strange stone formations worn away by channeling water through odd canals, trees in unnatural shapes via pressurization and weighting, and beautifully complex arrangements of plants are all common signs. Young elves (read: Those whose life has yet to exceed humans born in the same season) are sent out from the community in tight-knit groups known as Groves. They live in small settlements which have been the gathering place of their kind for millennia, learning crafts and the ways of other races. Most humanoids have not met an elder elf, and due to the deep similarity in bloodlines some superstitious peoples believe that elves are actually immortal, though fickle and aloof.When the grove's members are sent for, they return to live their second lives amongst their own people. It is then that they apply their knowledge and thoughts to their elders. Elven culture trusts its young with a strong voice; elders are usually pushed away from service.The reason behind this casting out is simple; the elves spread their seeds through their elders. Highly trained and still strong and fecund for several decades after their casting out, elder elves establish new cities and fortresses, serve in militia, and live amongst the other races in quiet solitude. These wise elves are usually well received, but hide their elven appearance for fear of reprisal. Indeed, amongst the humans there is talk of men who live in hermitage who bear strange eyes, and are thought to be the spirits of the land itself.Shadefolk tend to dwell in areas that other races find uncomfortable, either due to heat or cold (as the Shadefolk feel little discomfort in head or cold, and even that is limited to temperatures well out of the human norm). Clothing worn by these Shadefolk accentuate their otherworldly appearance, which stems from their eyes and skin: upon puberty their eyes take on the look of golden orbs, which set against their skin "like the stars of the highest heaven on a sheet of smooth velvet". Shadefolk who survive their change at puberty (from an appearance that is human but for the lack of a shadow to their otherworldly appearance of adulthood) are natural leaders, fearless and strong. Shadefolk mages find that their energies are different than that of the other races, and often draw inspiration from the stars themselves. While rumors abound about the source of Shadefolk and whether they can reproduce naturally or are deviant births from other races (particularly human), it is generally believed that Shadefolk are able to reproduce. If any non-Shadefolk has given birth to a child with no shadow, the child was abandoned and the preceding pregnancy explained off as a miscarriage or a stillbirth.This leaves the strong race open (I don't have anything particularly good in mind) and the tough race (dwarves) somewhat undefined. Any comments, questions, ideas, or otherwise would be greatly appreciated.</blockquote>

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