When my nephews and their friends first asked me if we were ever going to have fantasy races in Age
When my nephews and their friends first asked me if we were ever going to have fantasy races in Age of Exploration, I was hesitant, because there’s a lot of things I dislike about High fantasy model based on Tolkien, and I really prefer Sword and sorcery, more like Howard’s Conan. When people explore the world of Alterra, instead of instantly thinking: Elves are Chaotic Good, Dwarves are Lawful Neutral, Orcs are Chaotic Evil; I want everyone to have the potential for good and evil. So we’ve dropped ‘monster races’ like orcs, gnolls, and hobgoblins completely. Kobolds are still everyone’s favorite minions, but it doesn’t mean that they’re implicitly evil. And while we’re on the subject of elves…I don’t really understand the point of having elves if they’re just going to look like pointed eared humans. So when I designed my elves I wanted them to have skin and hair combinations that aren’t naturally occurring on Earth. The less drastic of those is what became Sun elves: Copper skin and bright blonde hair. Sun elves live in Tropical Rain-forests all over the world. They live in jungles, they live on Tropical Islands, and they live on sunny beaches everywhere they can find a forest close by. They are renowned for fishing, sailing and blacksmithing. And there is no city in the world more famous for smithing than the Vulcanforge.It’s built into an active volcano whose lava tubes provide heat required for incredible works of bronze, silver and steel. Since I already commissioned a female Sun elf as a seafaring explorer, I plan to have my next sun elf be a metalsmith, but they’ll still keep the islander motif. We have two upcoming expeditions (adventure modules) that feature sun elves. One is set in the new continent and sends players on a quest to find a lost city of gold in a deep jungle, rumored to be inhabited by the (supposedly extinct) Rakshasa Cat men. And the other takes place on a chain of islands, and features a significant amount of lore borrowed from traditional Pacific Islander Mythology. Its lead writer is @snickups, a long time member of the creative team and a native of Guam. Which one do you want to play first? -- source link