Race Staterans and Noxanima - light and dark races

Staterans ~ Warriors of Order

Noxanima ~ Servants of Chaos​

Staterans and Noxanima - a bipedal dragon race and a race of goo-based lifeforms respectively - originate from the same world, and in many ways share a similar course of history. They are both technomancy-based races who share the same legend of an ancient entity who created their world. They say that this entity lies dormant somewhere on their homeworld, but none have ever found it. It goes by one name only -

Darklight​

Staterans and Noxanima have differing views about this entity, however. The dragons believe that the Darklight wishes their world's destruction and seek to destroy the Darklight first, while the Noxanima believe the Darklight to be damaged and that they must somehow repair it or face their world's undoing. That, combined with many Noxanima going feral by some unknown force and attacking Staterans on sight, has created major conflict between the two species. As more discoveries of ancient technology are made, these conflicts might come to a head...

Staterans are draconic in nature. They have wings and all the features of a lizard. Their body is mostly smooth-skined except for the spikes in the back of its head, the number of which varying between members of the race. Their lizard tails are short, just shorter than their legs on average. This also varies between members of the race. Their bodies are of moderate size, barely surpassing humans in height. Stateran scale color ranges on a spectrum of dark purple to light blue. These colors directly correlate to the biological energies they inherit from their parents. A dark and a light parent can breed to create a child that is a mix of the two.

Their bodies are surprisingly frail. Without magic, they are as vulnerable as little tiny lizards. Control over their dark or light energy is very important, as it acts as a means of strengthening them to where they are on par with other races. Their control over their energy is what enabled them to survive primitive evolution. In addition to their weakness, they are unable to fly despite possessing wings. Their legs are barely strong enough to carry their own weight (as they originated as lizards that walked on all fours), but use of their wings allows them to boost off the ground in a means simulating a jump.

Reproduction is done through sexual intercourse. There is no visible difference between different sexes of the species. Thus it is easy to mistake one gender for another. Rather than being based off bodily organs, Staterans are gendered based on their alignment. Blue-scaled Staterans are referred to as she and purple scaled Staterans are referred to as he. Staterans with a mix of purple and blue are referred to as they, unless they state a preference.

The majority of Staterans are considered spellcasters, battle-mages, or at the very least pseudo-wizards. Staterans constantly strive to improve themselves in combat and magic. One’s status is often earned from performance in battle or from their ability to conjure dark or light energy. Even the ones who prefer melee or guns use magic, as it is absolutely necessary to avoid injuring themselves through weapon recoil or other factors.

Staterans are not aggressive. Despite their culture revolving around combat, they do not actively seek it with other races. However, engaging a Stateran in combat is VERY ILL ADVISED, as they have been know to pursue somebody to the ends of the galaxy to destroy them.

Dark and light Staterans are referred to as Tenebra and Lux respectively. There is a common misconception about dark and light aligned Staterans having hostility towards one-another. This is not the case; the two halfs of Stateran culture cooperate as well as any other unified race would. However, there is no denying that there is some rivalry between Staterans of different elements. They both have different preferences in combat: Statera-Tenebra prefer more destructive weapons that can slay an enemy faster, while Statera-Lux lean towards defensive tactics. However, these are not absolutes and examples of the opposite are not rare.

There is also minor religions difference between the Stateran alignments. Statera-Tenebra believe the Darklight is a weapon, while the Statera-Lux believe the Darklight to be a beast. Different interpretations of their origins have come about thanks to these different opinions, resulting in a lack in credibility for Stateran historians when explaining their origin and evolution. Both, however, believe that their race originated from Darklight and that Darklight must at some point be confronted and destroyed.

Staterans originated from an entity known as Darklight, which was the epitome of balance between dark and light energy. It’s origin is unknown, but apparently it was used to create a perfect world. Stateran philosophers have gone insane trying to discover its purpose, its origin, and the nature of its existence. For Staterans, it is a very sensitive topic.

Their lore states that Darklight became imbalanced somehow. Massive amounts of energy spontaneously surged out of it, affecting many of the life forms on the perfect world and creating dozens of powerful and intelligent races. Only the Staterans survived past primitive age, thanks in part to their learning how to conjure the energy let loose on their planet by the Darklight. It is worth noting that Staterans have no specific name for their home planet, but it is unofficially referred to by their people as Mundi.

Early history of Mundi is rife with inter-species conflict, most likely over difference in opinion on what forms of energy were acceptable to use. The Stateran race came close to extinction many times. However, as the race’s industrial age was beginning to come into fruition, a new race of odd, warped creatures spontaneously emerged from the ground and began attacking Mundi. They are referred to as the Roganima. Staterans claim that these creatures were also born of the Darklight, but were created to reclaim the energy lost from it. The validity of this claim is unknown, but it has been observed that they seem to "drink" energy from the corpses of their slain enemies.

The Staterans suffered endless war against the Roganima for millennium. Despite being mindless, the world seemed to offer unending hordes of the beasts and offered unrelenting assault. Regardless, Staterans managed to survive and even thrive in many places. Combat became the basis of their culture, and many Staterans existed solely for the purpose of protecting their civilization. Their numbers never reached very high, but constant warfare soon opened the door to rapid technological advancement, up until the race became capable of interspace travel.

Upon the invention of the first Stateran FTL drive, Staterans found themselves able to leave their world and establish themselves on less dangerous ones. This enabled some members of the race to seek out a more peaceful existence. The majority of the race choose to distance themselves from Mundi for their own safety. Colonies began to pop up on other planets in their solar system, most notable of which were schools for practicing magic forms other than combat. Mundi was absolutely not abandoned - dozens of space colonies were set up orbiting Mundi so that Staterans could continue to fight the Roganima - but Staterans became more passive thanks to a mass exodus from their world to others in their solar system.

Philosophy became more commonplace during this age of space colonization. Their culture evolved as their ways were examined, and new beliefs began to emerge. The most prominent of these was that the Darklight was surely trying to eliminate them with the Roganima, and that it would stop at nothing to take back what belonged to it. Through this revelation, Staterans concluded that their race would some day have to face the Darklight and defeat it. This belief has become almost universally shared.

Staterans were exploring space far before many races were even conceived. However, Despite possessing the resources to explore the galaxy, cultural ties never carried the race farther than their own solar system for many more millennia. Despite not being bound to their home planet, they still held an innate need to protect it from the Roganima that constantly emerged from its underbelly. Additionally, the lack of constant warfare caused space travel research to slow down. As such, the Staterans were never fully recognized as a Starbounding race until their culture evolved to the point where interspace travel became acceptable, which was only fairly recently.

Today, Staterans are seen as a race unique to all others. Firstly, Their technology is looked at with envy by many other races. The race is rather divided on how to react to other races and their desire to wield their technology. Research has shown that other races are capable of utilizing these pseudo-magic weapons and tools, with the right adjustments, but it is a tricky topic for them. Secondly, their continued obsession with the Darklight has been met with mixed reactions by other races. Some choose to support their cause; Florans have been known to journey to Mundi to participate in Roganima hunts. Others believe their attempts to remove the beasts from their world are futile and that it should be abandoned. Finally, their use of Pseudo-Magic is labeled as illogical by intelligent races. Staterans can weild dark and light energy in incredible ways, but even now it is not fully understood. Staterans are critical of races who refuse to have faith in magic and what it can do for themselves and for others.

Most recently, Staterans have begun looking into recruiting members of other races to join them in their fight against the Roganima, as they have noticed increased activity in the beasts. Some are concerned that they are becoming intelligent...

I have yet to write the Noxaniman information. This section is just a placeholder.

Do note that this is heavily a work in progress. I only very recently came up with the idea! Please continue to give me your thoughts and ideas! I absolutely love what I am hearing. The next time I update this post I will most likely add info about the Darklight itself. It's been fun and intriguing discussing it thus far!

Major credit goes to Kaiachi, who is responsible for the wonderful image at the top as well as the anatomical reference! They do quite a lot for nothing, and to that I say they should absolutely be showered in love and praise!

 

Bal'Anz, Gatekeepers of Duality

Why not make them battle mages to keep more with the "balance of all" theme? Seeing as how warriors are the opposite of mages, it can be another balance theme.

I feel the idea is old, but bringing unique ways of implementing the class is always fun.

The class could swap between light stance and dark stance, light for warrior mode, dark for mage mode, and for X seconds between swapping stances, you are both forms.
But then if you use too much power aligned to a certain stance, it begins to lock out your ability to use powers in the other stance.

 

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=alienracename

Best place to come up with new names and ideas.

 

Well I did say in the OP that they were a wizard-y themed race. The light-stance dark-stance doesn't seem like the kind of combat system the devs are going for, but I do plan on writing the weapon types to reflect the natures of the dark and light aligned race members. The idea is more to have some unique differences between members of the race rather than have them be a singular kind of group.

I gotta ask though, what makes you say my idea feels old? I actually recently came up with this idea. I've barely written anything down on paper that I've set in stone. Is there something in particular in the OP that makes you think this idea isn't unique?

 

Battle-mage and wizard are two different classes. Battle-mages combine the spell-casting of wizards with the melee combat of warriors. Wizards are focused mainly on long ranged magic combat.

I've played other online games and the suggestions I see most of the time are "balance mages" that use light/dark themes. Maplestory implemented this class a few years ago. There are lots of fan creations for balance mages for League of Legends. Kingdom Hearts has the enigmatic Master Xehanort and Master Riku. Jak and Daxter has Mar.

Each balance mage has its own style though. Some have a resource that depletes if they use too much of one side, some gain/lose powers depending on how often they use one side, some use a counter system that tracks their devotion to one side. So what I mean is the concept is not a new one, but it does not mean you should stop. You still have the ability to put your own twist on the class.

 

Just wanted to point out: Hy-lo-tl, A-vi-an, No-va-kid, A-va-li, Pe-gla-ci ...

Three syllable names are totally in fashion right now.

 

Flo-ran, Hu-man, A-pex.

Well atleast one of these three are the most popular race.

 

Steve.

 

The parallel...

 

Hmm, I hadn't actually thought about that. I'm planning on writing a preference between the Dark and Light aligned Staterans to close-ranged destructive weapons and long-ranged defensive weapons respectively. Also, I've decided to go with Stateran after all. When you mention those games I suppose you have a point on how it's been done before. Still, I'm doing my best to make a unique take on it.

They aren't so much a class as a race who can wield a power to a degree. It's not like they can summon lasers from their hands DBZ style. They use weapons much like other races, however their weapons classes would mostly lean towards magic. They use swords and guns, but tools for focusing magic are what they prefer. The unique aspect for them that I'm aiming for is on the basis of their culture, which mostly revolves around the Darklight and the threat it poses to them. Somewhat of a Cthulhu-esque entity, is what i'm aiming for.

 

That sounds like a good idea.
If you do go with the Cthulhu style with the race, I still have my name suggestion up if you like it: Bal'Anz
I look forward to seeing you building the lore on your race and perhaps I could add input if you want any. The Darklight for example interests me.

 

We could talk about the Darklight if it intrigues you. Like I said, my idea is rather early into its creation so any talk about it helps.
It's not the race itself that is Cthulhu. It is the entity that created them. No, it's not a giant squid either; the Cthulhu part comes more from the nature of Darklight. Consider that the race believes they must some day face the Darklight. Sure, it is a physical entity that can be interacted with and therefor attacked, but also consider that its existence is the epitome of the balance between darkness and light, or between good and evil. Since there's always good and evil, no matter what one side does to destroy the other, the Darklight will always exist. It can be defeated, but it will always come back in new forms just like how good and evil comes back in new forms.

 

What you should do is have them use some sort of conjuration that no other class can wield, allowing them to create weapons out of the essence of monsters, or summoning ally's with the click of a button...

And by the sounds of it Darklight could be either an entity or a presence...

 

Hylnovallcian! Anybody? Just me? Okay...

On topic, while I like this idea for a magic themed draconic race, I feel like the concept of magic in starbound really doesn't fit in with the overall game. However, a loophole you could use is the concept of psychotechnics and the effects of using them has on one's mind. The concept of light/dark balance "psytech" still feels like it wouldn't fit in with the starbound game simply because it really doesn't fit into the already set race mold. The main differences between starbound races are always cultural and aesthetic, never mechanical (in the gaming sense, not physically being mechanical. ) while I see that this would make an absolutely excellent mod, I feel that this race is just far too unique to be implemented into to he base game. (Sorry...)
(Though I still think that this is an awesome idea that should totally be made into a mod!)

 

I thoroughly believe that I will eventually write this as a mod for the game, but my overall goal is to write a concept for magic that fits into the theme of Starbound. Consider this: in medieval times, a lot of things that people didn't understand were thought of as magic. In fantasy now-a-days, people consider magic to be the controlling of hidden/unknown forces into something useful, like conjuring fire. This is the idea behind the Staterans - that they know how to conjure hidden forces for expressed purposes. My plan is for their control of these forces to be through a medium; they can conjure it, sure, but they'll be hopeless to control it without a tool of some sort.

Now consider that their technology reflects these unknown forces. Through their study, they have created tools and weapons that taps into the hidden forces for a variety of purposes. Basically, they have learned how this energy interacts with the universe, in a crude sense, but they still do not understand the deep, complex nature of it. It is only partially understood.

With all of this said, I would call their powers Pseudo-Magic, or magic enabled by knowledge and technology. It is hidden forces woven into things that can be understood and used. For simplicity's sake, however, I'll probably refer to their abilities mostly as magic.

 

I have updated the original post with more information on the Staterans, namely their biology and culture. If anybody has thoughts on the new stuff I've posted, lemme know.

Also, does anybody know of any good artists around here who can help me with pixel stuff and character art? I would be willing to pay!

 

"Deadly Chillers Of The Monster Zone"

"Spirit-weasels Of The Ethereal Planet"

"Interplanetary Eels Of The Symbiotic Moon"

"Cloud Skunks"

"Aura Horses Of The Hag Asteroid"

"Wood Torturers Of The Aquatic Star"

I think I'll just stick to racking my brain, thank you very much.

 

Eheh. My thoughts exactly, but I didn't wanna say it outright and feel rude. I appreciated the help.

 

Heyo everybody! If you're watching this thread then I've updated the posts with a bit of extra information.

Reproduction is done through sexual intercourse. There is no visible difference between different sexes of the species. Thus it is easy to mistake one gender for another. Rather than being based off bodily organs, Staterans are gendered based on their alignment. Blue-scaled Staterans are referred to as she and purple scaled Staterans are referred to as he. Staterans with a mix of purple and blue are referred to as they, unless they state a preference.

Most recently, Staterans have begun looking into recruiting members of other races to join them in their fight against the Roganima, as they have noticed increased activity in the beasts. Some are concerned that they are becoming intelligent...

I'm currently working on obtaining visuals for the Staterans. Hopefully within the next few weeks I'll have some nice sprites and images to show what the Staterans look like. I'll bet they'll be super cool!

 

I'll be watching this thread now, if you please.