This is a rough draft of the races page. It needs a lot of editing. Feel free to comment on it.
Dwarves:
The Nobles Dwarves live in halls of stone deep beneath the ground. They are rarely seen above ground, and tend to get so adapted to the dark that the very sun makes them nauseous. As is tradition, when a city gets too large a small team of brave young dwarves who have not yet adapted to the dark may be sent out over land to find a suitable place to settle. The parent fortress will then send out immigrants in small groups until the new fortress is a decent size, and the cycle will begin again, forever insuring that Dwarfkind has a place in the mountains.
Dwarves are significantly short and rounder than humans, generally standing between 3 and 4 feet in height. They are virtually androgynous to other races, mostly due to their impressive beards which are common to both genders, yet somehow they manage to tell the difference with nearly 80% accuracy.
Dwarves are a particularly honorbound race, and marry for life. If a dwarf's lover dies, he or she will truly never love again. As honorable as they are, they are equally stubborn. Oftentimes a dwarf who is incapable of finishing a particularly engrossing project will go insane.
All of them, even the children, cannot function without a steady supply of alcohol. In fact, unlike humans, they have no need for water unless they are deprived of alcohol. Drinking water is both embarrasing and unhealthy for a dwawrf.
It is requested that you only play this race, as this is the race upon which the entire game focuses.
Humans:
Humans are the "average" race. They stand slightly shorter than an elf, yet taller than a dwarf. There are vast differences between the male and female individuals of this race, and most other races have little difficulty telling the difference. Their male members generally fall somewhere between 5 and 6.5 feet, while their female members are generally slightly shorter. They are not as industrious as dwarves, and tend to live aboveground in wooden dwellings. They only drink alcohol in celebration, though a small percentage of their population are addicted to alcohol. These are called drunks. The behavior of a human while intoxicated is similar to that of a dwarf while sober.
Elves:
Elves are frail, forest-dwelling creatures. They stand a few inches taller than a human, and their sexes are slightly more difficult to tell apart. whereas most female dwarves look male, most male elves look female. Elves live in harmony with nature, reviled by the butchering of animals and cutting of trees. While they do not like dwarves to eat meat and use animal products (such as leather, bone, etc.) they themselves will eat their slain enemies. Once, when asked why he did this, an elf replied: "It would be a worse sin to let good meat go to waste than to eat it." Dwarves tend to consider elves hypocritical and pansieish.
Goblins:
Contrary to the belief of most "civilized" races, goblins are actually quite intelligent. Brutal and lazy, they will kidnap the children of other races to serve as slaves for them. Little is know of actual goblin culture, as every kidnappee that was ever rescued was only capable of babbling incoherently and biting at its rescuers, and the goblins themselves tend to be considerably less tactful. They make a habit of sending wave after wave of troops against the larger, more lucrative dwarven fortresses, apparently hoping to wear them down gradually. Throughout history, a number of fortresses have been taken by the hordes.
Kobolds:
Small, fast, and frail. These are all commonly used adjectives to describe the lizard-like kobolds. Of all the intelligent races, kobolds are known the least about, perhaps because no one has ever really bothered to study them. Their language largely consists of yipping and growling sounds, that no other intelligent race can likely make. They will ocassionally show up at fortresses to steal small trinkets, and it has been theorized that they do this because they have no normal sense of ownership. This is a hotly-debated topic in the academic circles of the dwarven empires, as it is sometimes considered the final piece of evidence as to whether or not morality is inherent inintelligent races, while some would argue that Kobolds are not actually intelligent and merely run on instinct. Other still would argue that the behavior of the goblins flatly contradicts any claims that a race cannot be intelligent without being moral.
Author
Topic: Dwarf Fortress MU* Discussion (Read 46258 times)