Race Well, What's Missing?

We've got seven colorful and unique races at the moment, each with their own vibrant culture and crafting, and unique blocks and furniture they can build with. But wait, something seems funny here...

Apex = United Soviet Socialist Republic (or IngSoc, Furry)
Avian = South America (Mayan/Aztec, Sky)
Floran = Tribal Africa (Plants/Fungi)
Glitch = Medieval Europe (Mineral)
Hylotl = Feudal Asia/Japan (Water, Dragon?)
Novakid = Wild West (Space, Steampunk?)
Human = Boring, Neutral, Contemporary/Modern

So what's missing? We have almost every major continent of the world and most general levels of technological progression. But something still feels... Missing.
Three things, actually:

1.) There is no Middle Eastern themed race, and there is nothing that mimics Classical Roman/Greco period architecture. Of course, both of these cultures border the Mediterranean sea, so they share many similarities and could probably be rolled into one. India also shared a lot with these areas, due to how land wars effected culture creep, although they could be considered separately.

2.) None of the races so far are sub-terrestrial. We have each other major geographical type represented already, but none of them come from underground environments. Space, Sea, and Sky are represented by Novakid, Hylotl, and Avian respectively. Since desert, tundra, and jungle are probably neutral and shared by the other land races, it's hard to think of additional types of environments, leaving underground as the only one left.

3.) We have races that are fleshy, as well as a race made entirely of minerals (the Glitch), and a race made of formless matter given form (the Novakids). We also have almost all of the animal kingdoms covered. What seems to be missing are arthropods (insects or arachnids), creatures that have no internal skeleton and instead rely on an outer shell.

Perhaps a burrowing arthropod race that carves their buildings into the living stone itself, creating architecture like the Lost City of Petra in Jordan, which has a good mixture of Roman/Greco and Mid-Eastern influence? No other race could better recreate that Prince of Persia feel!

They could be loosely modeled after Camel Spiders. I nearly died of fear while doing the research on them, but if they make them cute enough for Starbound I think I can handle it.

Furniture could include a variety of ornate rugs, alabaster pottery holding plumes of giant feathers, frescoes and carved statues, ionic and tuscan columns, marbled slabs of marble and granite, arabesque archways and buttresses, and perhaps a giant hour glass and abacus. The light fixtures could use crystals to refract light, coloring it to be easier on their sensitive eyes. Precious metals and gemstones would be a major part of the culture because they live underground.

Weapons and Armor could be modeled after the great Spartan, Roman, and Persian armies of yore, with tower shields, scimitars, segmentata, etc... The racial armor bonuses could be increased mining speed or improved dark vision. Racial themed tech items might enable some limited ability to stick to walls, spin webs, or inflict debuffs with venom.

Since I'm really just brainstorming here, feel free to contribute with ideas, art, concepts, criticism, etc... All is welcome. When we have narrowed it down to one concept and have some artwork, maybe a new thread can be made for the race.

EDIT: Several people have mentioned Viking culture, and another hole might be the time period between the 1800's American Western Expansion and the time period represented by Human culture, presumed to be Modern era. Since then there have been suggestion threads posted for those as well.

EDIT: I have completed my race suggestion, the Arachneidi. There will be updates, but I like it so far.

 

For the culture part, we're missing Egyptian (Check my suggestion )
Greek
Viking
Indian
Asian

That's kind of what I can come up with right now

 

Ancient Egyptian bug/scarab people seems logical to me, and on theme. Plus no bug races so far.

Although, I'd like to see a going off the rails and seeing a real alien race. Something... really inhuman and freaky in an alien not at all like anything on earth sort of way. But I guess time period and animal arc types is a Starbound thing.

 

We actually have asian. The aquatic race, the Hylotls, are going to be Japanese/asian themed.
Indian is partially covered by the middle east, with some asian influence. India was a part of Persia at one point, and the Persian empire had a huge influence over Middle East, as did the Greeks. You -could- separate the two cultures into Persian and Helene culture, but they are actually quite similar in many ways. Bear in mind, the cultures have to be unique and vibrant enough to each have their own crafting, blocks, architecture, furniture, and equipment that are easily distinguished from the others.

Like, Vikings were already present in medieval Europe, they were just further north in the germanic areas instead of the romantic areas to the south. For the most part these cultures are similar (germanic and romantic europe). They built very similar castles of stone and mortar, used straight edged swords and axes, typically wore the same armor in the same time periods (mostly leather and chain mail, plate mail was uncommon until the 16th century)... I suppose it would be great to have a uniquely viking feel to one race, but at the same time it might be simpler to roll viking items into the Glitch crafting scheme.

So basically I'm saying I think Mid-East and Roman/Greco kinda also have the same general flavor and geographic area as Ancient Egypt and India. They all have this sort of Fertile Crescent/ Mediterranean atmosphere and culture that there shared because of their proximity and the way wars were won and lost in those areas. For example, stone columns where almost exclusively used in those cultures (until the renaissance period, when mid-east and roman/greco influences were brought back into northern Europe after the end of the Dark Ages.) They also kept libraries of scrolls instead of books. That's another key idea: Glitch have books that we've seen, but maybe this race could have bags and jars full of scrolls. Large, colorful feathers were also frequently held in urns as a decoration in these cultures.

Yeah, I picked up on the references. My point was that the closest -real- geographic location and culture would be the USSR, which is actually where Orwell got a lot of the ideas for his novels, including Animal Farm. Also, the Apex clothing just reminds me of stuff I've seen worn in Cold War era Sci-Fi.

I'm pretty much 110% sure all the the official races will be very humanoid, and they all will have to look cute. Even the florans, with their sharp teeth and vacuous eyes, are drawn up to have very cute sprites. Now, IDK how to sprite well enough to make highly humanoid insect/arachnids that actually look cute, but that's probably our best bet. Like I said above, I think Egypt, Mid-East, and India all share a lot of similarities in their cultures. It's possible we could roll them together, but they might also be better off seperate.

 

I'd like to see an Arabic race that has looks similar to this:

 

They really, really don't. The stereotypical Egyptian has more in common with the Aztec and early Romans than they do with the Mongols, Bedouin, middle-eastern tribes, or Persians. To say nothing of the Sassanids or Babylonians.

Though I don't know how we'd do an alien race with a ruling slave-caste, desert stone architecture, and heavy emphasis on mounted armored warriors.

 

um... the Aztec and Myans are North American not south, mexico is not in South america.

and I wouldent call them Triba, the Mayans are like the athens of Mexico, and the Aztec are the spartens.

 

The greek styled species needs a crystal-based technology. After all, crystal spires and togas go well together in SF.

 

I'd love to see some sort of awesome desert/Aladdin style people. Like like... with magic genies and stuff. That would be awesome.

Aladdin approves.

 

Brilliant callback to an excellent video, very impressive! highlights the awesomeness of your company as a whole!

 

not going to be heard, but... can people stop calling the Norse vikings? that's like calling 1800's Europeans pirates.

 

That is a great idea. They would work nicely as a subterranean race.

P.S. That's a better idea than Egyptian scarab-people.

 

you forgot cuba is own state country, never apart of mexico or either U.S, I bet they probably on their bottle again. *sigh* *looks at Mr.Lonely country*

 

Does it bother you? A lot of people call them vikings.. It's not a big deal if we do it anyways.

 

Like I said before, it could be split up into Persian and Helene cultures (Helene = Area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea; Persian = Area surrounding the Arabian Sea). Although each nation throughout the era we are looking at have unique characteristics, I'm aiming for something more general than what one specific nation did. Ancient Greece is one nation, Egypt is one nation. Medieval Europe (Read: The Glitch) is way more that just one nation, and could include Norse-themed architecture and equipment. The reason I lump all of these very unique Mid-East cultures together is because the same furniture items and equipment could work within the theme.

The fact that Egypt shared so much culture with Rome (and vice versa) is exactly why all of the Mediterranean cultures would be so easy to merge together. The architecture in particular was very distinctive compared to other areas of the world. Round Columns aren't commonly found anywhere else, for example. They also had similar technology. Oil Lamps from these regions all share the same basic design (LOL Aladdin indeed, the original story takes place in China!), as just one example. Ornate Rugs were pretty much a Mid-Eastern commodity, and are still found and made mostly in Greece and Egypt all the way over to India and all the countries in between.

As for Egypt in particular having a great deal in common with the Aztecs, it's just a good reason to say the Avians already have the Egyptian angle covered. I wouldn't be very disappointed if the Helene/Persian cultures were broken up between two races, but I'd rather not even try to think of TWO new race ideas and get BOTH of them implemented.

Let's get some things straight here, though. We're talking about a fictitious race that is designed to be entertaining, not a historically accurate essay about ancient world history. I just think the City of Petra in particular is a fantastic inspiration. It is one of the seven wonders of the world, as are the Hanging Gardens of Bablyon, another great inspiration. We have fantastic stories, history, and mythology to work with for inspiration for the lore, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Book of One Thousand and One Nights, to the burning of the library at Alexandria and the great military feats of Alexander the Great. Like, the writings of Aristotle that have come to inspire a great deal of Christian philosophy are only available to us now because Arabian Scholars like Muhammad al-Gazali actually kept them SAFE from the Catholic church during the Dark Ages, when they would burn ancient "heathen" texts. All of these elements could weave together into an AMAZING race concept and lore.

The key points are, the Mid-East and Western Asia were the only places that used rounded stone columns or decorations using acanthus leaves or arabesque patterns. They wore loose fitting clothing of wrapped cloth. They used similar technology like curved weapons, the abacus and hour glass, oil burning lamps, aqueducts and rudimentary plumbing systems, etc... They also shared a HUGE amount of philosophy, India and Greece especially, with the Mid-East being heavily influenced by both cultures.

I'm not an archaeology major, nor am I a history major. I'm a philosophy major, which means I mostly know about the eastern hemisphere. Thanks for the update though! Not being corrected would be even more embarrassing, like going a whole day without realizing my fly in unzipped. Aren't the Incans the one in South America, or is that also Mexico?

Why does the word Tribal imply not being advanced? Tribes are a social structure, not a level of development.

O. M. G. So true. And since they come from underground it fits in perfectly, since crystals form naturally underground on most planets.

...

So we have the following:
---Underground race, probably based on the Burrowing Sand Spider. I'll work on concept art/ prototype sprites.---Clothing is a sort of hybrid of different clothing styles used around the Mediterranean over to India. Mostly loose-fitting garments of draped cloth and sashes. Head coverings could be all sorts of things, but should probably not be based too closely on the Turban, Hijab, or Kafiya. We don't want to offend anyone, obviously.
---Equipment bonuses could either focus on improved mining speed, or possibly enhanced dark vision (if Glitch already have mining speed).
---They use crystals, possibly to bend and reflect light and illuminate their deep dwellings without electrical power. They may use Oil Lamps or natural light from the surface as the original source, while the crystals are used to make it more efficient.
---Marbled stone columns and frescoes are common in the architecture, as well as ornate decorations such as acanthus leaves or arabesque patterns. Ornate rugs are used as well, possibly harvested from silk created by other sub-terranian life forms. Other furniture/decoration items include large vases stuffed with giant feathers, statues that might resemble Egyptian gods or chess pieces, and maybe even hookahs.
---Sundials (or Shadow Clocks) are also from the same cultures, so maybe despite being an underground race, this species could have been fascinated by the light, which drove them to move out and experience the stars. They could have cultural conflict between factions that wanted to avoid the light and retreat within. This could reflect the conflict between the An Atman philosophy of Indian Buddhism and the Eudaimonia and Virtue Ethics of Aristotle. Basically, the darkness symbolizes that there is no self, and that you should meditate and become one with the universe instead of interacting with the illusions of reality around us. Light symbolizes the world outside, adventure, exploration, and conflict or change. The factions could eventually make peace, traveling and exploring while maintaining an aloof attitude and inner peace. In some ways it is similar to the Avian experience, and it could be the one thing that bridges the difference between sky dwellers and the underground.---History could involve a great war between the factions that involved burning libraries. I can definitely write lore for these guys, using what I know from my studies in ancient philosophy and my travels in India. Heck, there is so much literature from this area that it is a near endless supply of inspiration.

Also, here are some pictures for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about with the architecture stuff. These were all built within roughly the same time period, to give you an idea of just how powerful the culture spread was. You can thank Alexander the Great, mostly. All of them feature stone columns that are decorated with acanthus leaves or arabesque, or both.

The Hanging Gardens (Babylon) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon.jpg
The Colosseum (Rome) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseum_in_Rome,_Italy_-_April_2007.jpg
The City of Petra (Jordan) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Al_Khazneh.jpg
The Tomb of Petosiris (Egypt) = http://www.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/tuna_el-gebel_petosiris01.jpg
The Mughal Palaces (India) = http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8194/8140972522_c065532c96_o.jpg

 

Actually - Ancient Roman/Greek culture is a base for Anodynes and there are good chances that it will be incorporated into the Novakid( Wild Roman saloons, i don't know really...)

What Starbound really is missing are axe-wielding booze-drinking VIKING SPIDERS FROM HELL. Seriously, that's the first game in the genre that has almost no dwarf themes .

 

We dont know if hylotl are actually japanese coz they were not introduced yet

 

Not going to lie... I'm going to play an apex until a bug type people are released.

I'd like to see an Egyptian Insectoid race being with playable.

Spiders would also be really cool, but I know it would freak out a lot of people as I know quite a few people who are arachnophobic.

 

These are some really good ideas. I generally hate bug-people, but with the Mediterranean theme, I might have to play as them.