I was taking a look at the choice of species, and I thought it would be a good time to talk about, or remind you of a few characteristics of the main species of this world. I’ll talk about the three races of elves, orks and dwarves for now. These are the most classic species, so it might not be entirely new or original, but I still want to give my twist to them.
Though like most things I do, it’s mostly theory and not set in stone. So I might make changes later.
Elves: I’ve talked about elves before in a general manner. Elves are advantaged in many ways compared to humans, but they’re not exactly as much of a superior species as they think. Elves are slightly stronger, but more importantly much faster than humans. They have a faster reaction time, reduced by almost half, giving them insane reflexes, their senses are also much better than humans, they can see farther, hear clearer and feel with more details, and that applies to magical senses as well.
Elves are very intelligent, and almost all of them are born with a higher magic potential, and a much higher chance of them being born as sorcerers.
But millenias of decadence, isolation and sheltered existences made the elves weak physically, elves are weaker to diseases and poison, have mediocre stamina and feel pain more accutely than humans, they’re more sensitive in general.
Another significant weakness of the elves is their very low birth rates, which makes elven populations very small comparatively to humans.
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High Elves: They are relatively untouched, the high elves have all the strengths and weaknesses listed above. Additionally, they tend to learn magic faster and be more powerful mages, though they have an affinity for sorcery and wizardry above all, a high elf shaman, priest, druid or witch is mostly unheard of.
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Wild Elves: The Wild Elves are the descendants of exiles and criminals sent to their deaths in the deep woods, they lived in the wilds for a long time and adapted over time. Wild Elves are tougher than any other elves, shorter but stronger physically, less weak to poisons and diseases and significantly more tolerant to pain, they also have a higher stamina. Though their affinity for magic shifted to druidism and shamanism. They are often less intelligent and educated than high elves, and less of their children are born as sorcerers and have a lesser magic potential compared to high elves. Finally, their birth rate is slightly higher than high elves, making them better able to multiply.
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Dark Elves: The Dark Elves are corrupted with demonic power and have significantly different features. They tend to be taller, slightly stronger and just as fast. Though they are not as tough as wild elves, they have grown less weak to poison, pain and diseases than high elves. Their affinity is for witchcraft and all forms of black magic. Though their corrupted nature makes them weak to all forms of divine magic, and weaker outside of places where chaos is strong.
Orks: Orks usually live in tribes, either nomadic or settled into fortresses. Most clans have a tribal structure, and only a few Orkish factions adopted a more feudal way of doing things. Orks are incredibly tall, averaging at 2.2m tall, though the tallest, most massive of them reach the 3m tall bar (incredibly rare). As you can imagine, they are extremely strong, and much tougher than the average human.
An adult Ork could tear a normal human apart with their bare hands, though not without a little resistance. Their skin is rough, tough and thick, naturally resistant to damage, wounds that would be fatal to a human could turn to a mere nasty gash on an Ork’s skin, their bones are thicker as well. Orks are fast, but they are much heavier than humans, and a little less coordinated, some would say clumsier, but it’s more like having less control over their strength and momentum. Orks have slightly slower reflexes due to their large size, though the difference is not insurmontable.
Orks are not stupid, even though people tend to characterize them as such. Far from it, they have a developed culture, an extensive history and are fully conscient and sentient just like humans. But they have less raw processing power, they learn slightly more slowly and are not good when it comes to understanding complex concept. Orks can still be very wise, so underestimating their intelligence is a mistake you’ll never make twice.
Orks usually don’t make good wizards, and have few sorcerers, but the few sorcerers they have are incredibly powerful and unstable. However they have very deep and ancient shamanic traditions, their shamans are usually the best in the world, they are also well-suited to druidism, and surprisingly enough good clerics and priests.
Orks have a notable sexual dimorphism, beyond the usual differences between male and female. Female Orks tend to be taller, closer to 2.3m or 2.4m on average, though they are less wide proportionally and slightly skinnier, females also have a characteristic lush mane of hair, with a lot of volume that grows rapidly and quickly reaches to their hips if left untended, they are usually slightly less clumsy than males and have a faster reaction time. Males tend to be very broad of shoulders and their chest are wide, their hair is usually far less voluminous and their tusks tend to be larger, longer and deadlier, their skin and bones also tend to be thicker.
Finally, Orks are the species of humanoid closest to monsters, chimeras in particular. They are the only humanoid species with human-level intelligence that tend to mutate into particular creatures instead of randomly mutating. Like wolves tend to turn into dire wolves over time.
Dwarves: Dwarves were split into three different main factions, much like elves. But unlike elves, these different dwarves are relatively similar physically. One of the reason is that dwarves are the humanoid species most resistant to chaos, but also to all other forms of corruption. They almost never develop major mutations due to chaos.
Dwarves are of course, shorter than humans. Their adult size can vary a lot, from 1m to 1.50m for the most massive dwarves. But Dwarves are MUCH wider and thicker than humans proportionally, as well as much heavier.
Dwarves are stronger than humans, but that doesn’t even begin to compare to how tough they are. Of all humanoid species, dwarves are probably naturally the toughest, they have incredible stamina, a very high pain tolerance and tough flesh and bones that is hard to cut through and can absorb strong impacts with relatively little damage. Their small size actually works for them here, not only are they hard to hit, they can take a beating. They can also survive a long time without eating or drinking.
Though of course, their short legs make them poor runners. They cannot cover a lot of ground quickly by running, though they can jump surprisingly high and far considering their size.
Dwarves have lived underground for ages, and that affected them, they do not handle sunlight very well. Their skin easily get sunburnt and their eyes are sensitive to light, beacuse of their great night vision. That’s why they tend to wear full armor or heavy covering clothing when they are above ground, and don’t show their faces on the outside. Though the nomadic copper dwarves caravans have spent enough time above ground to slowly develop a better resistance to sunlight, at the price of their night vision’s efficiency.
Finally, they are also less prolific than humans, like elves, but not as bad.
So, here you go. If you have any question, or want to discuss about what I said, don’t hesitate.