PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: Nightflyer0ne on November 27, 2005, 11:23:59 pm
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Well, I\'ve been searching up and down the boards for scraps of info/opinions on the Nolthrir as I work on the basics of my character. But I thought it\'d be nice to concentrate a thread on them specifically....
What I\'d like to see from those of you already rp\'ing as Nolthrir is your take on your unique physiology, the climate and topography of the 7th and 8th levels (if a totally submerged level can be considered to have a climate), and the lifestyles and mindset that come from these (body and land). Also, how does your character adapt to/deal with life in the \"drylands\", for lack of a better term.
Too technical? Okay, tell me how your body is suited to the different challenges of your home\'land\', and how both influence you as a character, mentally, emotionally, whatever. This sounds a lot more complex than it is, IMO.
Personally, I\'ve already got some specific ideas on how my character\'s body (gills, webbed digits, etc.) fits into an aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle, as well as some ideas of the problems one would face away from our home lake. I even did some...well, research is too involved...targeted skimming? on some aspects of amphibians and such.
This mostly got started when reading a discussion about where gills might be located on nolthrir and klyros characters in the art section, but I\'d already started thinking about what sort of challenges a young Nolthrir travelling in Hydlaa (which I assume is on/in the 1st level) for the first time might experience.
I\'d like to see other people\'s thoughts on this, though, before I toss my theories out there. (Not because I\'m chicken, because you\'ve been here longer, know your characters better)
Obviously, not everyone\'s going to agree on things. It should make for some interesting discussion and debate, I hope. And it will help me kill time as my dial-up connection sloooowly downloads planeshift...*snore*
Nightflyer
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I believe that Nothrirs are supposed to have no trouble existing on land. Maybe it\'s a question of what you\'re used to? There is a river just outside of Hydlaa, I\'ve been saying that Ralas was raised in it. But then he faced some traumatic events and the result is that he now avoids bodies of water as much as possible. This is a somewhat risky history to RP as I\'m not entirely sure that my understanding is correct, but I think it works. I too would value some other opinions on this as the Nolthrir is perhaps the least-discussed race.
EDIT: too many commas!
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Sound travels better underwater, so maybe Nolthir have impaired hearing on land. Swimming involves a lot of strength though and it gives your entire body a work out, so I also think of Nolthir as being muscular. Also, our sports, architecture, and war plans are all three dimensional, which might suggest something about their intelligence.
Aparently, Nolthir have no trouble on dry land, but I wonder how well one would fair in a desert.
(http://www.planeshift.it/guide/images/nolthrir.png)
It\'s also notable that they\'re not an unattractive race.
The stats are kind of weird though.
nolthir - STR 45, END 75, AGI 75, INT 70, WIL 45, CHA 40
Nolthir are swimmers, but they have below average strength. They\'re a race borne to water, yet they\'re more agile than humans while on land. More intelligent than wilful, but less charismatic than either. I guess fish-folk don\'t make good conversationalists.
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Drink lots and lots of water ;)
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I haven\'t really thought much about sound--I don\'t think they\'d have trouble hearing just because sound didn\'t travel as far, they\'d just have to be closer to whoever was speaking, etc. But things do sound very different underwater, it\'s certainly something to think about.
I think if you\'re a Nolthrir that travels alot, you\'d probably be more used to land situations than someone who has never been out of their community before. If you\'re a person from the 7th level, who may live in an area where there is land only part of the year, or from the 8th level, who\'s been underwater their entire life, it would be more of an adjustment, esp. at first.
I agree that Nolthrir wouldn\'t neccessarily be as agile on land, at least at first. I can imagine my character over-balancing alot when she turns quickly, for example, because she\'s used to having the support of water all around her. Ditto with the muscle-tone from having to move against the water all the time, glad i wasn\'t the only one who thought of that.
The one think I think would be most important would be moisture, or the lack of it. Think how quickly your eyes would start to feel dried out if they were used to being in contact with water most of the time! I bet you can tell a \"yokel\" Nolthrir, out of water for the first time, by how rapidly they keep blinking :D When I was skimming over some info about amphibians in general, it said that they prefer places near water because they need to keep their skin moist (they breathe thru their skin underwater, rather than gills like the Nolthrir have). One type of frog adapts to being away from water by producing a waxy substance that traps the moisture into the skin. I was already thinking that oils or something could be used like lotion to keep the skin properly hydrated, so was happy to see that something similiar occurs in nature. There may even be a specially-bred seaweed that produces such a useful substance in Yliakum.
I wonder how the air humidity differs in Hydlaa versus near the lake?
I know the \"intelligence\" stat is because of Nolthrir being close to the Blue Way of magic, the magics of water.
I\'m sure I\'ll have more to add later, when I take the time to think out what I\'m going to say before I start posting, but those were my thoughts at the moment. Thanks for the replies so far, I look forward to reading more! :)
Night