>Felar have had an in-game past and a distinct creation story.

Thanks to she who was Poetry for that.

>Dwarves in almost any and every incarnation in every fantasy setting
>are based in something vaguely stereotypical highland Scottish.

Don't forget the Viking origins of dwarves either. The master smiths were much praised in Norse mythology.

>Gnomes/svirfneblin also have a not-insignificant representation in popular fantasy
>literature...as well as a fairly well-defined "personality profile" in their in-game helpfiles.

I don't read D&D based fiction, so for me (and others who don't read it) there isn't much of a way to distinguish svirfs from duergar. They're each the 'deep' version of short folks with beards, but the duergar are evil.

>drow/elves are probably the most extensively "explained" in fantasy literature.

It's interesting to see how the evil elves of Norse mythology's Svartalfheim have evolved. Some other cultures with elves had mischevious ones, but reserved evil reputations for other fae types.

>Minotaurs have a bit of a real-world mythological background...as well as a very
>well defined in game helpfile.

Minoan/Greek mostly.

>Arials are....birdlike. Arial city does not give them any flavor
>other than "humans with wings" (sorry to say it that bluntly, but
>that city just does not offer any uniqueness to arials that drow
>city/blidgen/mortorn/lake/kiadana/blackclaw lends to their
>respective races). They can be any alignment and almost any
>class...and given the EXTREME variation in how we as human
>beings look at different birds...from doves to woodpeckers to
>eagles to vultures...combined with almost a total lack of in-game
>history/distinct culture...

The trouble with Arial City in this case is due to the rush job given to its making by Stormace back in 94/95 or so. I looked it over back then, found it to be a poor framework to base my RP on, and mostly ignored it until recently. Now I find it's fairly well designed mechanically, it's the descriptions that make it suck RPwise. This lack of basis for arial RP is a large part of why I've wanted to volunteer to help with the race projects the Immortals have hinted about. I'd still like to help with that, but I'll have to prove myself and become an Imm for that.

>where all of the other races have stereotypes that are well known to
>draw off of...the player of an arial has to work *MUCH* harder to
>create a distinctive background and attitude...to the extent of
>almost every well-roleplayed arial has had to create out of whole
>cloth an entire arial culture from which to draw manerisms...speech
>patterns...and the like.

Some things I've based arial RP on. Early on, I took various famous arials as inspiration. Shokai for example can be seen as a shining example of a true arial hero. I also once used Nighthawk as a basis for the rapidly changing nature and views of a chaotic arial, although I don't think he was actually an arial. (my character was slightly clueless about the gods) Later, I used the arial weakness to lightning for character development. You can go two ways on that, with lots of little twists. Either you fear/hate lightning for the danger, or you love the danger and natural lightning of storms. The second type makes a good lightning oriented invoker.

Or my favorite, you can play off the short life span. Maybe you're anxious to get things done because you feel there's so little time to do anything. Maybe your mind is always thinking about everything at once, making you seem hyper or like a human with ADD. Either one is also a good explanation for the arial high intelligence, they think quickly and just never stop.

As for the culture outside the personal RP, I like to think of the general arial population as mildly isolationist in that they prefer to stay somewhere comfortable (nesting/aeries) when they're not revelling in the joys of flight. They don't try to keep strangers out, but they don't go out of their way to visit the lands of others. Those who leave home are the arial explorers, outcasts, heros, travelling priests, and so on. I also think the arials who stay comfy at home, are very family oriented. They have family traditions, and pass along knowledge verbally from one generation to the next. (it's more efficient in a short-lived race to teach all your kids at once than to have them each go learn for themselves) So, I guess in some ways they'd share certain traits with Hobbits, they like comfort, enjoy spending time with relatives, and are sometimes intellectual or philosophical on a personal level.