Illarion.org

Name: UrZreithi
Appearance: Small Almost child-like, all are the color of an earth thing like copper or wood.
Abilities: Thier main trait is that they can change shape. However changing shape is taxing and they must get enough food and rest to change alot.
History: Were created by an ancient now extint race to kill the dragons. The UrZreithi raise mountains and tend to drive Elves away.
Transportation: Mostly get around by walking or changing so that they have horse legs.
Religion: No Main religion though if kill in battle they are left where they fall.
Language: They Speak UrZreithian which is a harsh language though when other races are around they speak the common tongue.
Society: They are a matriarchy and males are just workers unless needed for mating.
In the World: They keep to themselves most of the time so are rarely seen, they live in mountains, and are known for their abbility to change shape.

The Illarion Homepage wrote:Humans
Dwarves
Elves
Halflings
Gnomes
Fairies
Lizardmen
Goblins
Orcs

The races in red are the implemented ones. The default colour races are the ones that have yet to be implemented.

and umm....the change shape thing........nope don't think That will happen, youll be doing a LOT of #me

If he were to pretend to be a shape shifter or whatever, I dont think the GMs would approve. Remember, they do not allow character types which the client has no technical support for.

lol i guess

Yes, i know brendan but i was say IF this new race somehow got in the change shape most likely wouldn't happen and they have to do a lot of #me's

Although I doubt that anything like this would be implemented, to give a greater understanding of why it would be turned down, I would like to put in my two cents:

I think anything of the sort would ruin the atmosphere. Most of the playable races come from Norse or other mythology, and the rest (Orcs) from the writings of Tolkien. There is a reason to this, and that reason is familiarity.

Consider, for example, a new player to Illarion. Most people recognize most if not all of the normal races from television, roleplaying games, books, and mythology. If a new player stumbled upon this new race, they would only be confused.

I had a real problem with this when I was running my own D&D game back in junior high. Various players would propose new races or new monsters and although I had my doubts, I wanted to make the players happy, so I added them in. Soon, the campaign setting was as foreign to me as it was to everyone else.

Also, there is the problem of balancing the power of this new race. If this new race has the ability to change shape, everyone will want to play one! Then to balance things elves would have to be able to cast a spell at start, and halflings would have to be able to blend into shadows, and dwarves would have to be able to shoot gold coins out of their-- I think you get my point.

yeah i get it

Shoot gold coins out of their what?

their magical gold coin guns, of course!

Urii

Orcs are not Tolkiens, they have been around for hundreds of years in mythos.

Like Warhammer Quest ... good game, it's a hack n' slash rpg, it's what got me into rpg's.

From norse mythology....Partially because Toilken got quite a bit of infkuense from Norse mythology. That and The Kalevala

My bad. I originally thought they came from Norse mythology, but I heard an interview on NPR with an expert on Tolkien and he seemed to imply that Tolkien created them. I was in the wrong.

Yes, Norwegian mythology is one of the many things that makes me proud to have Norwegian blood in me.

The trolls also came from the myths there you know. Hideous beasts with huge bashing clubs the size of several men...

Hm, are lizardman from any mythology? I think the developers might have just decided on lizardman for originality..

Lizardmen are in several RPG's and some forms of D&D older then illarion.

Its possible they come from mythos, but i'm not sure

1. Orc
A sea-monster fabled by Ariosto, Drayton, and Sylvester to devour men and women. According to Pliny, it was a huge creature 'armed with teeth'..

A good source to look such things up is the Encyclopedia Mythica, to be found here: http://www.pantheon.org/

Thanks for that link! I'm a little dissapointed that the fabled Nain Rouge of Detroit isn't to be found in that encyclopedia's bestiary.