Which Race Do You Play?

[Gossamer]

Personally, I'm glad Tarot posted the statistics. I think a lot of people feel specific races are overused when the reality of it is, the players of those races are just people with big personalities and thus make it seem like the game is overran with them.

As the creator of the Akalak, Konti, Kelvic, Drykas, and Vantha I feel a certain fondness for these races above and beyond the role of 'Oh I think they are cool because I wrote them." And of course, I feel the need to defend the Vantha and Siana's comment "I initially didn't like their mood-ring-eyes trait, which I thought sounded way too gimmicky" which btw I think is cool shes honest about.

Most of you might know that I'm native american and I know a ton of stories and legends, some of which I grew up with. As a Bannock Shoshone, legends come alive and stay with you almost all your life. Whenever you see something odd or awe inspiring you can bet there's a native story that surrounds it. So, when creating a lot of these races (I'll talk about Kelvics in a minute) you draw your inspiration from this.

The Shoshone believe that at the beginning of time, the people of the stars often came down and mixed with the people of the earth. And long before Grandfather released the horses, the people of the earth had oddities born among them because of these odd alliances and bride matches. Daybaigwandawenede was the keeper of rainbows and took an earthside bride who gave him a daughter called Vakanitah. I don't remember her mothers name. She had her father's blood and thus her eyes held rainbows. But it was hard to live on the earth for she was never truly one of the people because her eyes saw far more than they should. Her people loved her dearly, and thought she was beautiful beyond belief. Many warriors wanted her for a bride and were patiently waiting for her to grow up. But she was still strange and more aloof than together with the people. When her mother died, her last link to the earth was severed and it was said that her only close friend became Wahnaye (fox). She spent long hours with Fox who taught her many clever things and even how to take on his shape. And so they would run together over the grass chasing mice, but you could always tell which was Vakanitah because her eyes glowed with multiple hues and sometimes her tail as she ran gave off the rainbow dust inherited by her father.

Despite her time with Wahnaye, Vakanitah was still horribly unhappy and it broke her father's heart. He finally came to the realization that her unhappiness stemmed from the fact that she was more of the stars than of the earth and felt trapped upon the skin of the land. So he brought her back to the sky to live with him and for the first time she felt freer, finally found her peace, and her pleasure lit up the sky - especially in winter - so that all her people would know she was happy and whole finally. Thats how the Shoshone think of the Aurora Borealis. And oddly enough, quite a few native cultures depict the aurora as the marks from a fox's wagging tail as it runs through the heavens. The Aurora is even considered a special guardian of foxes. In shoshone culture, you cannot kill a fox with the aurora out shining or bad things will happen to you.

Now, hopefully that explains the 'mood-ring-eyes' a bit more.

Now, I think of all of the races I've made, I like the Akalak the best. I think its because of their tragic story. They are facing extinction and there's really not a whole lot they can do about it other than seek outside help. They are constantly torn, and a good healthy Akalak pc with a balanced mentality will never ever really have any peace in their lives.

And the Kelvics... well I like a good tragedy as you might have seen due to Akalak situation. But truthfully the Kelvics are the first race I wrote up, and I wanted to balance their coolness (who doesn't want to run around being an animal and having a perfectly good excuse for finding nothing wrong with say urinating in public or growling when the situation merits it?) at being able to shapeshift with something that gives them a sense of sadness. People don't want to play things that will age and die ususally between 10--20 years, but the truth is if your still playing your pc ten to twenty years from now in real time, that is going to surprise the heck out of me. Most pcs on games like this last a few years, maybe five or six, and then get shelved or the game closes or something else horrible happens... like real life swallows you whole. So... this shouldn't be a deal breaker, the age thing, and plus it generates a lot of angst over really close friends or bonded even mated pairs. Thats a whole lot of rp generated to look for a way to halt someones aging, and the way it could be done on Mizahar is pretty much limitness. So thats why they have those traits built in.

I truthfully patterned the Konti after a character I played for years and years (who did not have gills/scales/or sight). But I wanted something of her to have an influence on Mizahar because I loved her ethereal looks and her quiet strength. And truthfully she was friends with both the evils and the goods and never seemed to take sides... so I wanted that for the konti as well.

And I hope you guys like the Inarta as much as you do the Drykas, for that's going to be the next human subrace put in... they are fiery tempered and redheaded to boot.

[Avi]

Well, about Kelvics, from my perspective...

I've got my Talderian Black Owl kelvic, and I love her dearly. She's marvelously quirky and a great deal of fun to play. Despite the fact she is this massive predator who can and would pick up a seal (or a person!), fly up, and drop them on the tundra to kill them, she has this cheerful energy, this upbeat positivity that so long as she can fly, she has enough. Sure, she becomes deadly serious when she is on the hunt, and would fight to the death for her loved ones, she is this free-spirited girl who not only accepts the harshness of life in Mizahar (and for that matter, the Northern Reaches of Taldera) she embraces it as a challenge and uses that as motivation to find new things and new people. The morphing ability is the icing on the cake.

Now, regarding the subservience issue... the way I play it out with her bondmate is that Avi is a forceful predator at the top of her food chain. She is stubborn, pushy, and dominant with an independent streak a mile wide. She was vastly picky about who she bonded with--who wouldn't like a giant bird that can fly you around?--and found someone who complements her well. He's more prone to letting her have her own way until she pushes what few limits he has, and then it's about clipping those wings for a while. While she takes care of him, she does it in her own way... she doesn't crawl around cuddling him and demanding pets, but she hangs around him and likes having her hair braided and make him things and occasionally drape herself all over him and go 'mineminemineminemiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine...' in Vani. If she was concerned for his safety, she might well chase him out and away from whatever threat she didn't want near him... displacement biting, in bird terms... before going back to deal with that threat. She does not see herself as a slave. She sees herself as a bond-mate and a protector. He hasn't really asked anything of her that she wouldn't give willingly anyway. But despite all of that, she can and does think for herself from long practice, and might well try to do his thinking for him too if and when she can get away with it.

Now, that being said, some people genuinely like the submissive factor, and may branch that in to whatever aspect of play they like. It's really all about what you're writing for and who you're writing with. Some people... you can really develop that bond and connection with, and your character genuinely WANTS to look after their bondmate's every need. Some find a certain kind of joy in not having many outside responsibilities and not needing to be on their own... and prefer to let someone do that for them in return for undivided devotion and loyalty that they can give in return. I think we all know people like this, and we may not think that such a relationship is healthy, but sometimes, relationships just work for certain individuals. I know some people equally that would play a Kelvic for that aspect alone - because that is what they genuinely like and enjoy, and if they are loving what they write, then you know, hats off to them. It really all comes down to different strokes for different folks.

[Paisley]

It's very interesting to read why people chose a certain race. I considered the kelvic and the konti, but none seemed quite as appealing as a pycon the reason for this is because I was completly drawn to their urge to explore and learn as much as they can in their short lifespan. Their urge to explore also gives me an excuse to travel whereever I wish in mizahar, which is good,because every area is very interesting in their own way.

[Emory Ruin]

Interestingly enough, my race is not even included into your poll.
I play Emory Ruin, and she is Inarta. She’s actually the first on the game, a very small accomplishment. [That is registered with character sheet and so forth]

Although there was no racial information, knowing she was a human sub race, I went ahead and created her personality, appearance, and concept.
Over time I stole tidbits of information from Jen as she posted about them in Chat. After “Wind Reach” came up with information about Skyinarta, her homeland and then the Wind Eagles to which Emory would eventually be bonded too, I really had just about all I needed to complete Emory’s information sheet.

Then Jen, because she is ever so wonderful, answered some more direct questions as it related to the appearances of their homes, common skills for racial bonus’s and religion.

I love the theory of being an “eagle rider”, so that is why I chose the beautiful Inarta people. I sought to tame the skies of Mizarah.

[Nascha]

I chose a Chaktawe as my first character largely by process of elimination. The Kelvic race looked interesting, but I took one look at the information page and went “yeah, everyone’s gonna pick that.” Not only that, but I didn’t like the idea of, eventually, staying with someone for the rest of my time on Mizahar. I’m a tad too independent. >.>

Playing a human, to me, felt like I wouldn’t be taking advantage of all of the wonderful creativity that went in to Mizahar. I also felt as though it would be a more interesting challenge to create a character that is so different from humans physically, and yet much the same. A sort of twilight zone, if you will. In addition, my first character had to be someone who would be able to travel easily (I want to explore!) and be resilient. Hence, Chaktawe. I admired their determination to survive and their strong traditions. The whole idea of the race also worked very well with the character that I had in mind. Benshira was on my mind for a while, but I decided against it in the end, largely because I couldn’t find any specific traits in them that would be useful to my own character’s personality and needs. They are very pretty, though.

Next, I will be releasing a Dhani PC one of these days, just because I want someone with a personality so much meaner than my own. I’m kind of a pushover, so it would be fun to play somebody that’s rude, inconsiderate and just all-out cruel. I didn’t pick a Myrian for that sort of personality because… well, I like snakes.

I just realized I’ve spend the majority of this post insulting other races ._.
Apologies.

[Alynshi]

Honestly, it took me quite a while to decide on a race.
The first race that caught my eye were the Ethaefal, but after reading the details I decided that I didn't want to choose another race just to be one race, if you know what I mean. My next stop was the Dhani, and I was very close to making one. I'm not exactly sure why I didn't go with Dhani, I just didn't in the end.
I chose Chaktawe because I didn't want something too different from human, but because of their rich culture and the things that did make them different from humans. But, I did end up starting away from the Chaktawe tribes because I wanted to work in a reverse order, instead of having Alynshi start in her tribe, I wanted her to work her way back to her tribe. Just cause i'm a wierdy like that.
So, yeah.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

I choose Ethaefal because they are tragic. They are also I think on of the more unique races I have seen. I also like the Akalaks, again tragic. Together I felt they would make for a fairly unique pc who could either go the way of sorrow and self pitty or fight to over come the stacked deck against him. It could still go either way but it has been fun so far.

[GarraG]

Its kinda a funny story for me... I personally didn't join this site and start looking for the race I wanted to be, the very opposite atually. I have always been a lover of the race of undead, yet always looking up new spins on them since I never liked most of the sterotype ideas like the resident evil movies. And wouldn't you know google led me to yall's page on the Nuit race. I immediately fell in love, as if my dreams of a perfect category of undead finally existed.

In short, the Nuit race was my only initial reason for even joining this site.

Though after having looked at all the other races, city, gameplay even, I was only drawn in more and more.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Like a lot of people, I initially wanted to be a wolf Kelvic. But I had just gotten out of a stage in my RP life where I was going from one horrible, half dead wolf roleplay to another, and frankly, I was getting sick of it.

None of the human races appealed to me. The Charodae were too peaceful, and the other races seemed kinda bleugh.

So I went with the dhani, made him a Viper so he had an excuse to be short (I'm tall for my age, so playing a short character is interesting.), and tada!

[Midnight]

Hmmmmmmmmm, This is an interesting thread.

I originally chose a kelvic because well they are awesome. I was going to be some sort of canine but decided against it because there are other abilities other then walking biting and being lazy that other animals have. I made Midnight partially out of a joke my first time here in Mizahar where I met Cayenne. After a few minutes, a parrot kelvic was born.

The next character is Devandre who was originally a human. This character however felt very unfinished to me since in all honesty I threw it together to join an assassin thread thing, which incidentally I believe has stopped. So I revamped him into a mix blood, I wanted to make something that is just terrifying to me without even trying. So I mixed Spiders and Snakes, bam now we have the fricked up, munchkin from hell.

The next one is Jerry and Draven Draderex the Twins. these two came straight out of a literal hat of ideas I had laying around for another project. I have a fascination with the strange and macabre. In real life, death really doesn't bother me and I except it as a natural part of life. Having recently lost my grandad whom I took care of for two years, having a character that could contact the dead or celebrate the dead seemed perfect. Ontop of that I layered on my fascination of the BME* crowd specifically why people suspend themselves by fish hooks? Some say it is just relaxing and it was a form of meditation. That was perfect for me and once I read more about Dira and Black Rock, well the rest just went from there.

Now future characters I plan on doing in the near future is only one.

It is going to be a kelvic but what animal it is going to be is being debated by myself. This Kelvic is going to be based off of an animal totem I feel I relate too (Coyote) and one that I think I can write (Eagle). I am leaning toward coyote, because who doesn't like a comical boy who causes much trouble while also inserting valuable lessons?



A stream of consciousness,

John

*Body Modification Extreme