What's your favourite race?

We should do an RPG where everyone plays a character from a race they don't like.

Renard...do you at least like Raeeda? And Al-Harg?

There aren't any that I actively dislike, and I think you could make any of the races likable while still staying true to what that race is about.

I can't remember his name but there was a cool Al-Saigal guy who was helping the zadakine in chapter one. He was good!

It's a fact that if you play a race for a while in the rpg, you end up liking them.
Even people who start out luke warm to a race, after a while of getting inside their heads playing them they end up liking them.

I concur, this is all racist.
So let me join in.

Likes:

Junlocks. They're born to be badass; they're wolves, they're free, they're equal, they run around with no shirts and glorious striped pants. And they have both "jun" and "lock" in their names, sounds I rather enjoy (I must get around to making "most and least favourite words" thread in random nonsense (which it is) when I have more time).
Oh, and fun ice magic.

Tsung-Dao, isn't it apparent? While rather stereotypical, I think the communal rather than feudal system is an interesting spin on their society, with a lot of interesting possibilities.
I just recently realised that when you said "shogun" in the comic, you actually meant "kensei". Whoops.

Zadakine. While not... let's say, I would not enjoy living in their culture, but it's a very interesting culture nonetheless. Very much not like most in fantasy. And it helps that most Zadakine who appeared in the RP are quite friendly and open folks, who stick to the values of their society, but not in your face.

Nymus. They have wings and cool magic/priesthood. You know it's them who are right about Shaldemos, since they're the ones getting superpowers from gods. Ivos and Gotetra need not apply.
We haven't seen a lot of their culture, but it seems to be somewhat similar to Zadakine, just less... monetary?

Bardabor. The bovines are taking it in stride and just not give a shit, even if things go wrong. Plus, Glunn and Tempest's RP character (whose name I forgot) are just made of awesome.

Ano-Chee. You just can't not like the foxes.

Eslum have a potential to be fascinating, but I don't think I've seen enough of them. Plus, their animal is just the worst.


Dislikes:

Thamus. Ah, Sparta, grandmother of all fascism, how could I approve of thee? Shame, too, since I like crows.

Golta. I'm sorry, but a mix of stereotypical American gun fetish with stereotypical American paranoid ignorance and disdain for foreigners just doesn't mesh with me.

Darsai. They're all chummy-chummy until it's time to steamroll some other culture over barely comprehensible religious claims.

Ivos. Lame animal, lame society, conquerors and slavers. Don't even have a proper power.

Tolpish. Almost feeling for Golta there. They're like crazy survivalists mixed with Stockholm syndrome, and coated in Watership Down.

Eldex. Their name sounds like Eldar crossed with Pokedex. I'm sorry, I had to.
Besides, judging by Quinn-Tain, they're all self-righteous Knight Templars who believe their endless power struggle with the KitW trumps everything else in the world and are not bashful at all to use their power to bully other nations to do their bidding. It's probably justified, as KitW is doing the exact same thing, but still.



Just imagine that the dialogue goes:
"My liege, should we direct our forces against the encroaching threat of the West?"
"The West? I think we'd rather focus on enemies closer to our home!"

So yeah, things got pretty racist.

Its the religion that bugs me about the Al-Saigal, but at least they don't have the slavery and decadence of the Tendu... though they go the exact opposite from them in both their good and bad aspects.

Darsai at least have the potential for comedic fucking with people's space, whereas Al-Saigal do not. And Darsai... I'm sorry, they get cool armour and their weapons are almost entirely ones I like.  Arming swords, shields, spears... etc.

I agree with criticism of the Ivos' conquest and slavery. However, I find the culture beyond that interesting. Also, feral pigs/boars are dangerous and sometimes surprisingly cute. Like Junius' card art. Look at the little piggy! Other than that... the fact that they don't have any battle specific magic is actually interesting and makes me appreciate their accomplishments more. Here they are fighting superfast, tough, and strong wolf things, magic camoflauging superfast, tough, and strong fox things, and these freaks with superperfect summonable fiery weapons. Yet through organization, discipline, and good equipment (linked in some ways to their metal magic, which probably helps with maintenance as well), they win more often than not. Also, their actual differences from the Roman Empire are interesting too. Romans were very religious people, very conservative, generally very (as they saw it) moral people, yet it seems to me that the oaths and traditions of the Ivos Emperorship have been more effective at maintaining stability than the Roman Emperorship.

Fun fact. All that orgy stuff was quite likely Christian propaganda... or propaganda/history written by those against people like, say, Caligula. Fact is, such debauchery seems to have made Roman citizens generally uncomfortable.

Tolpish though... sure, survivors. They've got life magic to help them cheat with that. And similarly, while you can see value in them, Hahman for instance actually subverts much of what is expected of a Tolpish. He's decadent, narcissistic, etc... but that makes him loveable partly because he isn't like a regular Tolpish.

After that 300 movie, I find liking Spartans almost impossible. Fact of the matter is, really, that the Persians were more sympathetic than the Spartans, except in one thing: Sparta was, until the Peloponnesian War, entirely insular and uninterested in actual conquest of other nations. The Persians, however, were generally more egalitarian than the Greeks, relied somewhat less on slavery from the sound of it, and were multicultural and accepting of other peoples. Some Greeks had that whole Democracy experiment going on, but generally speaking it was... unformed and rather dangerous, no more than mob rule.

The religion, yes yes, it is similar, but more strict. It isn't that they worship Thane that bugs me. Darsai at least get to drink from time to time. Sure, I'd fit in with the Al-Saigal fine when it comes to drinking, but forcing people to not do it? Also, I find lying rather difficult to swallow, even if I'm just party to it in some way. So I suppose I could fit in with the Al-Saigal a little. Also being grumpy, yeah... okay...

But the strictness and telling others what to do bothers me. But I don't really dislike their culture. And ironically enough, despite being somewhat more patriarchal, we've seen more female warriors from the Al-Saigal than we have from the Darsai... I'm writing something that might change that though. Well... it won't, actually, as there is only one of them.

Also, Darsai aren't grumpy.

The ancient Romans were very multicultural, moreso than most of anyone else around them, and were keen to accept other peoples and ideas into their Empire (the upper class, though, liked keeping their power). We see a bit of this with the Panvos, but the Ivos Empire doesn't quite demonstrate that same level. Don't see any Junlocks walking around as citizens, for instance. But on the other hand, it seems more likely that the Ivos won't end up simply genociding anyone they conquer, perhaps. They've got the most likelihood, so far, of being able to accept others into their empire. Well, aside from the White Empire and maybe the Galdrasai.

See, that's one more reason why I dislike Ivos. Say anything about them and Canuovea will immediately pop up and start saying how they (and their RL buddies, Romans) are the best thing since (or before) sliced bread.

Al-Saigal... I'm deferring judgement. Haven't seen enough of them in the comic. They make me laugh, because their strict patriarchal moral codes disallow women from showing their bodies, but somehow do not prevent them from grabbing a weapon and strolling off to foreign lands. There's a glitch in the system, I tell ya.