Race histories and background!

[sunhear]

in the new version of history is the enki fur died in to the clan patterns or is it genetic and inborn since birth? or is there inborn pattern which can be died to mach other clan inborn patterns?

[Dau]

I'd suggest adding the lifespan info available in-game to the blurbs.  That's an important detail.

Also - I don't think this is a good thread for it, but perhaps there should be one in General Discussion where people could list the details re: the races that they'd like fleshed out, and make suggestions on how it should be done?   I could think of a couple of things I'd suggest establishing in settings to add some RP flavor.

[Venalan]

FYI I'm reading through all the pages and editing them, they should be much better (though I cant promise mistake free) once I'm done and then Talad said he would update the website. Only to races left too do.

I'd suggest adding the lifespan info available in-game to the blurbs.

This is already available in-game, check out the sanatorium in Hydlaa.

[Dau]

This is already available in-game, check out the sanatorium in Hydlaa.

I'm aware, but that's always been a silly way to make the information available.  Not everyone trots to the library first thing upon making a character, after all - and the in-game books really should be reserved for info not every character would know, rather than things as basic as "if character of X race is a young adult what age range are they".  Putting it on the website is more straightforward.

[LigH]

Good point; such elementary information about a race should already be available while creating a character.

[Cirerey]

This is more personal than game-wide but my existing diaboli char will need additional backstory to explain her existence. Feel free to ignore if this is getting in the way of wider discussion. I have two possibilities in mind and a fog of lost family history to help out. One is that she will shrug and point out that diaboli rarely do as they are told and her ancestors must have just remained when the rest left for the DR. The other is that there is a very rare chance of atavism where Ywnwn can give birth to nolthrir or diaboli children, creating an small "new diaboli" race. Naturally my char wouldn't know her personal origin, it was generations ago that all this happened.

Opinions on the plausibility within a PS setting?

well or you could have decided to go away on your own from the death realm. the first you've listed could work too. The second not.

I had considered the possibility of returnees from the DR, my issue with that is that the Dakkruist texts in the DR citadel library state that after a lifetime in the DR one cannot return, age will catch up with you. So unless diaboli are capable of breeding in the DR the DR diaboli can never return to the world of the living without a settings change. That makes the atavism possibility an easier way to reintroduce diaboli at some point in the future. It could be a rare enough event though that it cannot produce a stable population of diaboli at the present time - hence no new diaboli chars. At some point in the future (when needed) a magical deus ex machina could change that.

But since none of this belongs in this thread I'll shut up now.

[weltall]

even in the dr they cannot resist forever there are limits also there. the time is not stopped it's just slowed down.

[LigH]

Technical issue:

The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue. There are not many differences, they all use the same stylesheet, and Dragonfly doesn't report style errors either. I suspect the "Fancybox" script to remove the body background via a wrong escalation of the DOM, but that's just guessing.

[novacadian]

Technical issue:
The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue.

Relative paths have caused me a problem with Opera on the Cooperative Plot Creation Project. Hard links were used instead of relative ones. There may be a better fix than that; though it worked.

- Nova

[Dau]

Technical issue:

The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue. There are not many differences, they all use the same stylesheet, and Dragonfly doesn't report style errors either. I suspect the "Fancybox" script to remove the body background via a wrong escalation of the DOM, but that's just guessing.

Huh, yeah.   I had trouble getting them to load in readable fashion at all with Opera; switched to Firefox and it's MUCH better.   And it actually looks like the age info I was looking for is there, for some of the races; everybody's got a lifespan listed, at least.  Some also have age of majority/expectations for majority included, but others don't. 

Which brings me to a gentle criticism, from someone who writes enough to know how hard it is to be consistent when putting together this kind of stuff!   Some of the race pages are REALLY fleshed out and full of interesting detail, and others are bare bones.   Also, the info given is not all that orderly for some of the races.  I would suggest having a set outline that has to be followed for every race, to make it easy for staff to fill in the blanks and not miss anything.  So something like:

* Social Structure and Organization
- Overall social structure
- Unique social practices
- Typical social attitudes
- Typical family structure
- Gender relations and attitudes
- Childrearing practices
- Educational system
- Age of majority/rites of majority

... etc., for each subcategory in each race.

[Talad]

All races have exactly the same structure and info. If you still see the old page (example kran) then just refresh the page in your browser. Let me know if that fixed it.

[Talad]

All races (except Diaboli) have been reviewed and edited. Be sure to refresh the pages if you want to see the latest version.

[Talad]

Diaboli has been reviewed as well. Enjoy Yliakum's lore!!   

[Rigwyn]

First off, I think its awesome that the setting and history info has been updated. Ignoring the grammatical errors which are easy to fix, these few things stuck out:


"Diaboli live much shorter lives, only around 50 years."
-- Loriok Grunnval - was killed at 87 years of age
-- Sitrania Froulos lived to at least 115 years of age

-- These two historical characters lived significantly longer than their race's lifespan. Is there any reason for this? Without a reason, it sounds like an inconsistency.

"# 580 AY - No more Diaboli were found in Yliakum."
 
"The majority of the Diaboli disappeared in the Death Realm about 200 years ago, and very few are present today in Yliakum."

-- I am wondering if the current year has been revealed? Sorry if its written elsewhere. Prior to these additions, the current date was not revealed if memory serves correctly, so I don't know how this time line correlates to present day? It would be nice to know if my character was around for any of these events.

-- Prior to these changes, what was the date? In version 0.5 and prior, were we in the same year as we are now?

-- Also, saying that "No more Diaboli" were found sounds a little strong.. it would be more believable to say that "nearly all" of them left.

-- If "all of them" literally stormed off and left for the death realm AND 200 years or so passed by, then yes, they would be unable to return due to Dakkru's curse.

If someone could shed some clarity on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rig

[Rigwyn]

Sorry for the double post, but I don't seem to have the option to modify the above.

"Height: With a height between 1.65m and 1.85m the Diaboli were one of the tallest races in Yliakum."
-- I think this is a little misleading. They are about the same size and Ylians according to these pages and are smaller than Kran and Ynnwn