Minor bonus to all abilities while on the water.
Minor chance of additional loot from players.
Minor penalty to relationship checks with Karillian, Saa, and the D’ar Dwarves.
Frostkin
Minor bonus to resistance to cold effects and damage.
Minor penalty vs heat effects and damage.
Runesight
Minor bonus to all Runic based magic checks.
Yup, I looked like a Viking. A race of traders and raiders with a penchant for rune magic and violence, especially PVP; stronger vs ice, weaker vs fire, and the negative relationship checks were probably indicative of their normal victims.
This race definitely had potential, although I wasn’t too keen on choosing a race that seemed designed for PvP. Ending up surrounded by a bunch of griefers wouldn’t be fun at all.
I scrolled to the next human Sub-race and kept reading.
Base Race
Human
Sub-race
Saa
Dwelling on the banks of the Saa’eth river, this desert dwelling people lives at the whims of their gods. Forged in the heat of the unrelenting sun, the Saa have learned how to persevere in harsh conditions, and even flourish, against all odds. Following the teachings of their Pharaoh Priest-kings, the people of the Saa Empire strive to claim the entirety of the eastern continent of Orva for themselves.
Racial Benefits
Racial Detriments
Child of the Sun
Minor bonus to resistance to heat effects and damage.
Minor penalty vs cold effects and damage.
Double the time required before suffering penalties from Thirst or Hunger.
Effects of Thirst and Hunger are doubled once applied.
Martial Training
Improved chance to learn new combat skills and increase known combat skills.
Minor penalty to relationship checks with Quetzl, Njord, Moon Elves, and Dwarves.
Desert, Pharaohs, warlike society founded on the banks of a river? Okay folks, we had our Egyptians. The Martial Training benefit would be quite strong for any characters that weren't going to be pure casters.
The reputation penalties again gave a little bit of a hint about what other races shared the same geographical area.
My appearance in the mirror updated to match the current selection. Where the Njord me was a rugged, hairy individual, the Saa me was virtually hairless. Apparently the Saa were well acquainted with the razor, for my head was completely shaved.
My normally pasty skin had gained a bit of a tan, and even looked a little leathery to reflect exposure to a desert sun. The clothes confirmed my thoughts on the Egypt influence, although not entirely.
I was wearing a linen skirt, with leather sandals and a wide belt, coupled with a robe that looked like a sort of toga, revealing a touch of Roman influence as well.
Okay, one more to go, I thought as I read through the last human entry: the Quetzl.
Base Race
Human
Sub-race
Quetzl
Dwelling in remote villages deep in the Qu’oatl swamps, the Quetzl people live in harmony with the land. Revering the spirits of nature, these people are skilled hunters and have managed to stave off the Saa Empire’s advances into their territory by using the swamps to their advantage. Skilled alchemists, the Quetzl are adept at harnessing the vast bounty of poisons found within their land.
Racial Benefits
Racial Detriments
Swamp Born
Minor resistance to poison and disease.
Minor penalty to electrical based effects and damage.
Improved chance to increase all alchemy and poison skills.
Minor bonus relationship checks with Moon Elves.
Minor penalty to relationship checks with Saa, Karillians, Dwarves, and Ai’qular.
Swamp Hunter
Minor bonus to all stealth checks when in a natural setting.
Additional bonus if in a swamp.
Minor penalty to all stealth checks in urban settings.
The fluff for the race didn’t give much of a clue into what these guys would look like, but my current mirror image did.
Some of my hair had returned in the form of a long braid along the crest of my skull, hanging halfway down my back. The Saa skirt changed to a loin cloth, and the toga to a leopard skin cape.
I could see some similar features between the Quetzl and the Saa, so I guessed they were probably located in the same area of the world, and their respective penalties to relations seemed to back that up. I wasn’t quite sure where the influence for this culture came from, but it wasn’t for me.
Two out of the three Human races had promise, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least give my pointy eared friends a look-see.
I scrolled down to the first elven sub-race, “Sun Elves” and almost wet my digital self as my reflection changed in the mirror.
“Wow, I look like such a prick,” I said out loud.
My features had sharpened and elongated, my cheekbones and eyes gaining a slight tilt. My brown hair was replaced with long flowing blond locks and my skin took on a slightly golden tone.
I lost about twenty pounds as well, as my physique transitioned from my human majesty (fat) to a svelte elven body. Apparently, elves didn’t get fat in this world. Good to know.
I was wearing long embroidered robes with a cord belt, and some form of cloth slippers.
I gave my mirror image my most serious glare and almost lost my shit again. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t take myself seriously looking like that. For the sake of completeness I took a look at what Snooty Mc Snootyface had in the way of stats.
Base Race
Elf
Sub-race
Sun
The eldest of the races after dragons, the Sun Elves are the most in tune with the magical flows of the world. Dwelling in their capital city, Eir’e’lin, in the center of the great forest on the continent of Kor, the Sun Elves jealously guard their secrets. No one not of the elven people is allowed into their great city, and thus are denied access to the great libraries gathered there. When Sun Elves reach adulthood, they often partake in a ritual journey to explore the outside realms, to help the child races mature and maybe one day be worthy of the knowledge curated by the elder races.
Racial Benefits
Racial Detriments
Low Light Vision
Full visual perception in low light situations.
Minor penalty to relationship checks with Moon Elves.
Minor bonus to perception checks against items hidden in shadows.
Major penalty to relationship checks with Krek and Trollkin.
Arcane Attunement
Minor increase to mana regeneration.
Improved chance to increase and learn all arcane skills.
Increased magic resistance.
Adept
+2 Intelligence
-2 Constitution
-2 Strength
The non-humans had a bit more volatility in their skill sets. Sun elves had some pretty decent benefits but seemed to be destined for some form of Mage, which definitely fit the stereotype.
The strength and constitution hits seemed significant and were the first I had seen so far. Low light vision was a typical elven trait in most fantasy worlds, so no surprise there.
I scrolled to the next elven sub-race and looked in the mirror at my moon elven self.
The sharpened features of the sun elves had softened a bit and the flowing goldilocks changed to a jet-black braid.
The golden skin tone morphed into a muted silver, barely visible unless you were looking for it. The fancy robes and slippers were replaced with tooled leather armor and boots.
The look itself was quite nice, evoking a sense of practicality while still showing an appreciation of beauty.
I read through the stats.
Base Race
Elf
Sub-race
Cousins to the Sun Elves, the Moon Elves have rejected the isolationism of their kin and taken a more active role in the world. The Moon Elves act as guardians of the wild places, driving out the hordes of goblinoids and other races that would destroy the pristine forests they call home. Unlike their Sun Elf kin, the Moon Elves hold the other races as equals, and treat with them fairly, as long as they are no threat to the forests. Skilled archers and scouts, some Moon Elves sell their services as guides, and sometimes fill the role of assassin.
Racial Benefits
Racial Detriments
Low Light Vision
Full visual perception in low light situations.
Minor penalty to relationship checks with Sun Elves.
Minor bonus to perception checks against items hidden in shadows.
Major penalty to relationship checks with Krek and Trollkin.
Moontouched
+2 Agility
-2 Strength
Minor bonus to all stealth skill checks.
-2 Constitution
Improved chance to increase and learn all archery skills.
Increased stamina regeneration.
Moon elves filled that “wilderness” niche. They had potential to be good scouts or assassins, but still those hits to strength and constitution were worrisome. This would be a good choice if I was going to play an archer or assassin.
I flipped to the last of the elves, the star elves, and watched my appearance shift again. The long black moon elf braid shifted into close-cropped platinum hair, and my skin lost its silver sheen, instead turning pitch black, with silver freckles, like a field of stars.
Ahhh, here were the dark elves, I thought, and wondered what sort of subterranean villainy this version of the traditional bad guys had in store.
I examined my clothing, expecting some sort of spider themed, barbed monstrosity but instead found simple brown clothing that looked more like an old school karate Gi then what you would expect from a dark elf.
I quickly looked over to the race description to figure out what was going on.
Base Race
Elf
Sub-race
Star
The rarest of the elven races, the Star Elves live apart from their cousins, dwelling in mountaintop temples dedicated to the study and perfection of the will. Martial artists of great renown, the Star Elves are seldom seen outside of their home mountain range, located in the northeast of Kor. Peaceful by nature, the Star Elves often act as mediators and teachers to the young aristocracy within Karillia. Star Elves seek to avoid conflict at all costs, but if their hand is forced, one should be prepared to reap the whirlwind.
Racial Benefits
Racial Detriments
Low Light Vision
Full visual perception in low light situations.
RP Restriction: This race is dedicated to peace. Players of this race must adhere to the Star Elf code of conduct. Breaking of this code will result in a major penalty to all skill checks until a quest of atonement has been completed.
Minor bonus to perception checks against items hidden in shadows.
Minor penalty to relationship checks for all Krek, Trollkin, and Ai’qular races.
Star child
+1 Presence
Disciple of A’ie
+1 Wisdom
Immune to mind control.
Improved chance to improve unarmed combat skills.
Respected tutor
Minor bonus to a student’s chance to learn a skill taught by this character.
Bonus relationship check for all non Krek, Trollkin, or Ai’qular races.
Well damn, I thought, that’s not your pappy’s dark elf.
This race pretty much screamed “HARD MODE” to me, and I was almost tempted to give it a try. I would definitely take on that role playing challenge if we could have multiple characters, but since we only got one, I was going to have to pass.
That did it for the elves, so I moved on to the more bestial races. I scrolled through the krek, this game’s version of orcs, and couldn’t get past the ugly.
Same with all the trollkin and most of the mythical races. Even the dryads and fae-ish races didn’t excite me, so I decided to go with a human or elf.
Sun elves were right out, and the RP requirement was too much of a hindrance for the star elves. I eliminated the Karillians as well as I didn’t feel like playing a generic human. I mean, I was one in my real life, so where was the fun in that? I also didn’t really want to spend my days balls deep in swamp water, so the Quetzl were out too.
That left the Njord, Saa, and moon elves.
Going all viking on the high seas had a bit of appeal, but that bonus to PVP loot pretty much guaranteed that the islands were going to be full of trolls and dickhead PK-ers, and I didn’t want any part of that. So, no go on the Njord.
I flipped back and forth between moon elf and Saa, thinking of what type of character I wanted to play in this game.
In Talion Online I had played a ranger; a hybrid stealth/ranged DPS class. The moon elf race seemed ideal for that combination, but I wanted to try something new.
I hadn’t played a priestly type class before, and the Saa seemed like a much better fit for your traditional cleric type character, so I made my choice, selected Saa, and locked it in.
The list of races disappeared and was replaced with a smorgasbord of potential cosmetic modifications. Almost every aspect of my avatar was mutable to some extent.
This game even allowed you to select a gender, but I decided to keep my dick firmly attached. I won’t lie, I was quite curious about how the pods would translate the sensations from a virtual vag to my brain, but I wasn’t willing to experiment with my one and only character slot.
I adjusted my avatar’s height slightly and dropped some of the pounds for a more slim-line model. The shaved head looked pretty badass, so I selected that and then tweaked my facial features a tiny bit to give me a more hardened look.
The skin-tone option offered almost any skin tone you would see on a real-world human, which was pretty cool. I settled on a good tan that was a bit darker than I was normally able to achieve in the real-world, but was close to what I imagined my skin would look like if I had lived my life under a desert sun.
I kept my real-world blue eyes and selected jet-black as my hair color; in case hair grew back in the game.
All in all, I thought I looked pretty badass. I wanted to give myself more musculature, but surprisingly that option wasn’t available.
Maybe it was tied into the stats somehow, I wondered. It would be cool if you could tell someone’s stats by their appearance in game. It was never fun to enter an arm-wrestling match with a character that looked like a stick figure and then find out the hard way that they had maxed out strength.
I locked in my appearance and the mirror shifted to the left side of my view with the attributes window moving front and center.
*** As a member of a Human Race, you have 20 attribute points to assign at character creation. ***
Unassigned Points
20
Strength
-
10
+
Agility
-
10
+
Constitution
-
10
+
Intelligence
-
10
+
Wisdom
-
10
+
Presence
-
10
+
Fortune
-
10
+
Presence was the primary stat for divine casters in this game, so I made that a priority and raised that to seventeen.
Crimson Sands Page 3