I know Krivohan and I can't be the only arial fans around. While I never liked his idea of making all arials chirp, I can see some arial voices being chirpy. Others could be screechy or melodious, depending on how the player sees the birdlike features of the race. Personally, I think an arial around other races might eventually lose that 'accent' if they socialized enough with other races, similarly to how a parrot gets better with practice at mimicking human speech.

To follow other examples Krivohan's given, not all dwarves would grumble and not all felar would growl, at least not all the time. How else would the races have distinctive ways of speaking without using the foreign words and accents that annoy so many?

I see some people use certain words or phrases with esay to make their character distinctive, and I like that. Especially when it's personally or racially oriented instead of just emotionally.

I welcome any opinions and comments on this, I'm sure not everyone will agree with me.

There's a reason Intronan only whispers, and it isn't really because he's an assassin shadowy guy.

To everyone except I suppose humans, common is a second tongue. That factors in on how they speak, to an extent. Every character understands it, but not all are fluent in it. I think that can help add flavor to speech, and to roleplay.

And no, you're not the only arial fans around. I've always been a huge fan of them, and I've rarely seen their roleplay explored as much as other races, for some reason.

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

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

Giants always had only a single alignment to draw from and thus stereotypes to be drawn from, and in the case of storms and fires...areas (lake/kiadana) that explained via room descs and mob descs alot about the kind of "people" they were. And now you even have these new helpfiles.

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.


Duergar are "evil dwarves"...that have both dwarf rp, and single alignment rp to draw from...as well as some fantasy literature.

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

Orcs are almost as explained as the elves...and they not only have a single alignment to draw from...but a single class...making it easy to fall into the stereotype...and easy to adjust the existing stereotype enough to make it interesting.

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

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...

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 people like that open-ness and the freedom of roleplay and are able to make a rich character out of it. Most people take the shortcut and just put something vaguely "birdish" into their roleplay and call it a day.

"Death awaits ya all, wit nasteh big pointeh teeth!"

>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.

If I'm playing an evil I'll look into vultures, ravens, or crows. I look into their appearance (and write my desc accordingly), their behaviors, favorites foods, etc. All of my arials, except Cerubian who was insane and thought he was an angel, have been played like this.

> 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

I believe if you look at the arial (with all the other races) in newbie school. This is the type of feel I think you get with them. I agree though when I played my arial bard, I found it greatly difficult to just try and write her description. I went to arial city and the descriptions blow, they tell nothing of what they look like at all. Even the emperor and queen just talk about them being rulers or about their personality (or something like that anyways).

If any race needs an overhaul it would be Arial. I also believe that somebody needs to go through Arial city and make it FEEL more like an arial city.

Since I'm on a role with my comments, that Arial's have very little in the way of equipment for their slots. Sure there are some ok pieces but nothing to something to the extent of say like felar gear or elf only gear.