Races

''Currently,, races are not yet implemented in-game. What you see below is a representation of our future intentions, and is aspirational ''

All Intelligent Races fall onto three adaptive strategy spectra: “Specialists vs Generalists,” “Feral vs Civilized,” and "r-Selected vs K-Selected." The unique life history of each race tends to determine where they fall on these spectra, as well as determines which types of environments and contexts that they tend to thrive or fail in. After a patreon vote, it was decided that Elves would be the first race added into the game after humans.

"Generalist Races" vs "Specialist Races"



Suggested Reading (edit) Generalist races, such as humans, can tolerate a wide range of environments reasonably well, but have no special adaptations to any given environment. Specialist races, on the other hand, are exceptional at living in a narrow range of biomes but are quite poor at thriving in other circumstances. Dwarves, for instance, are exceptionally adapted at living in mountains and plateau valleys, but are challenged elsewhere. So while a generalist like a human might still be able to survive in cold mountainous regions, Dwarves are more competitive in these areas due to their stout build, hairy bodies, and other unique adaptations. However, these dwarven adaptions are a hindrance in surviving in other environments. A human can always throw on a few furs to adapt to the frigid mountain weather. A dwarf, on the other hand, can’t strip away their thick flesh in order to adapt to a hot, humid jungle.

While some races are true generalists (like Humans) or specialists (High Beavers), most fall somewhere in between. For instance, Orcs and Gnolls are not climate-sensitive and can survive well in any relatively open biome where they can leverage their unique comparative advantage in hunting large natural herds of game. Thus, they have a diverse range of effectiveness from savannas to tundra to the steppe to plains and even the arctic. However, both races do relatively poorly in woodlands or coastal areas that involve maritime skills for fishing. Orcs and Gnolls are considered to be roughly in the middle or slightly skewed toward generalism. Otterfolk, on the other hand, skew toward specialization but can exist in more than one environment. Otterfolk would be reasonably well adapted to live along rivers, rocky coasts, and lakes, but survive dismally in almost every other environment.

Specialist races can survive, sometimes even thrive, outside of their preferred biomes, but they will be found statistically most often in their preferred environment. In the case of Dwarves, their long lives and adaptations to the cold make them more vulnerable settling a warm plain. The defense of mountain strongholds allows them to maximize their long life spans, whereas frequent attacks on the plains would progressively dwindle their numbers as a result of their low reproduction. A common cycle is for specialists like dwarves to overpopulate in their relatively safe "refuge" biomes, migrating outward to colonize or conquer the surrounding areas. Over time, however, they tend to gradually lose their ground to races that are more competitive in those surrounding biomes. This often results in "splinters" of specialist races left throughout the world.

Keep in mind, while a race's specialist or generalist tendencies dispose them to certain environments, this is by no means their destiny. A player commanding a society of dwarves may very well wish to build a sprawling, cosmopolitan empire that stretches across many biomes or even (improbably) build an elder dwarven civilization deep in an old growth forest. A witness might even discover these peculiar edge cases evolving organically in the world on their own as well. In statistical terms though, one will most often find specialists living where specialists are best adapted.

"Feral Races" vs "Civilized Races"



Races that skew feral do better in the wilderness and are significantly advantaged when the world is in chaos and in an earlier stage of succession. Races that skew civilized do well the more order that is imposed on the world and the more they are able to transform an environment to their own needs (grassland to farmland, riverbank to city, etc). If allowed to thrive undisturbed, civilized races enjoy more longer-term competitiveness than feral races. Races that skew civilized prefer to transform the environment to their own needs while races that skew feral prefer to thrive in the context of wilderness. Long term, civilized races that don’t face major disturbances will achieve higher population density and greater power.

An example of a race that skews significantly feral is Gnolls. Their violent predatory tendencies, relatively fast breeding and maturation, and their tough, resilient bodies dispose them to a lot success in the wilderness. However, their relatively short lifespans and lower intelligence make civilizing extremely difficult. While a great, learned society of Gnolls is theoretically possible, it is extremely rare and difficult to achieve. The advantage, however, is that if a Gnollish society falls into disorder, they can easily “go back” to the wilderness.

An example of a race that skews significantly civilized is High Beavers. Before High Beavers ever evolved sapience, they were explicitly adapted to alter their environment. In effect, while a race like humans can still survive as wandering, feral hunter-gatherers, a High Beaver is incapable of surviving in an environment they did not create themselves (beaver lakes). What this means is that a race highly skewed to “civilized” is very competitive in the land they have transformed, but have significant difficulty penetrating lands that are still wild, as they make poor pioneers.

Feral races often tend to skew r-Selected, whereas civilized races often tend to skew K-selected.

"r-Selected Races" vs "K-Selected Races"



Suggested Reading

All races will fall somewhere on the spectrum of r-selected vs K-selected. An r-selected race (like Goblins or Kobolds) tends to reproduce quickly, experience rapid maturity, have low caloric and protein needs, and on an individual basis compete less efficiently with other races, but often make up for this in sheer numbers. An r-selected species will thrive most in recently disturbed environments (for example, a burnt-out forest or recently collapsed empire).

Highly K-Selected species (like Elves, Dwarves, and High Beavers) tend to reproduce slowly, have slow maturity, have high caloric and protein needs, and on an individual basis compete very effectively against other races. K-Selected species do best when they have had time to develop advanced civilizations and in circumstances with few disturbances.

Most races are not on either one side of the spectrum or the other, but fall somewhere in between. Humans in Songs of the Eons, in fact, tend to be a compromise between r-selected and K-selected, being relatively competitive and having an average reproductive time and average protein/caloric needs relative to other races.

K-selected races tend to be disposed toward civilization, whereas r-Selected races tend to be disposed toward a feral nature.

"Civilizational Mutualists, Commensalists, and Parasites"

Suggested Reading on Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasatism

Some races have many of the components necessary for existing in a “civilized” society but are missing some essential life-history attributes to develop civilization on their own. For instance, Centaur’s might have the opposable appendages and minds to develop a society, but not the population density to achieve the critical mass necessary to create a sedentary society. Dragons might have the intellect, but not the population density or the opposable appendages to develop such a society as well. But while races such as these are unable to outright develop a sedentary civilization all their own, they may be capable of becoming civilized by developing mutualistic, commensalist, or parasitic relationships with civilized races which raise them to a civilized existence. A mutualistic uplift relationship exists when the uplift to civilized status is mutually beneficial to both the feral race and the civilized race. For instance, a tribe of Centaurs, through commerce with highly civilized humans, might be able to use their comparative advantage at hunting to trade high-value furs for the niceties generated by civilized societies, thus producing the surplus necessary to develop things like literature and higher levels of development themselves. This would be an example of a mutualistic relationship between Centaurs and humans that allow Centaurs to become civilized. In time, this relationship might even blossom and evolve in such a way that the Centaurs move into other civilized roles in the human society itself, such as serving as mercenary soldiers or even an entrenched soldier caste (like the Varangian Guard). While both Humans and Centaurs benefit handily from this arrangement, the Humans can remain civilized without the Centaurs, but the Centaurs require their relationship with the Humans to remain civilized. If said Human society collapses, the Centaurs would return to their feral life.

Commensalist uplift exists when a feral race benefits greatly from a relationship with civilized folk and are able to civilize themselves as a result, but the civilized folk comparatively gain little or nothing in return. An example of this might be a group of Gnolls living in a region that is fertile, but only farmable with technological tools which the Gnolls are unable to develop themselves. If merchants from the earlier Human civilization we mentioned were to engage in trade with the Gnolls and offer them the tools necessary, the Gnolls would benefit disproportionately in relationship to the humans. The Gnolls would generate enough surpluses to create a sedentary, civilized society with radically larger population density than before while the Humans (while still benefiting slightly) would receive only a few trade goods in return. Parasitic uplift exists when a highly feral disposed race civilizes at the cost of civilized societies. For instance, an intelligent dragon or clutch of dragons might not be able to build a city and all of its complexities all on their own, but they could settle themselves on a mountain top and extort tribute from neighboring villages and cities. In this way, they could extort goods, services, and servants from the nearby societies in order to surround itself with the trappings of civilization. In this way, their civilized lifestyle and its benefits exist purely due to a parasitic relationship with other civilized societies. However, a parasitic relationship might become mutualistic over time. If the surrounding “true” civilizations were able to strike a bargain with said dragon and its clutch, they might willingly offer tribute in exchange for the dragon’s protection against their enemies.

Race statistics Qualities of every race are described by a list of various statistics defining their bodies, diet, limitations and reproduction. These statistics include:

Note, the above list is subject to change and new variables will be added in the future, as required by the demands of SotE's deep simulation.

Primary stats
 * Muscle density: Determines strength
 * Toughness: The ability to withstand force exerted upon a subject
 * Intelligence: The ability of a subject’s mind to understand the world and abstract concepts
 * Agility: Ability of a subject to move quickly and easily
 * Dexterity: Ability of a subject to act with precision
 * Endurance: The degree to which an individual can sustain activity for long periods of time
 * Preferred temperature, in C: The average temperature in which a race does best. Hot adapted races tend to culturally adapt better to cold than the other way around.
 * Resistance to chronic diseases: To what degree a race invests in repairing long term damage to their bodies. How well they resist long term organ failure, cancer, etc. (greatly influences long term age).  Can be very low, low, average, high, and very high.
 * Resistance to infectious diseases: Ability of a race to resist infectious diseases. Can be very low, low, average, high, and very high.
 * Fecundity: the maximum fertility the average member of a race can achieve, measured in years between live births. Sufficient nutrition is required to achieve this potential maximum.
 * Soulless Heathen who can be slaughtered without burdening one’s conscience: True/false

Nutrition needs
 * Diet Type: Obligate herbivore, omnivore, or obligate carnivore
 * Daily Calories Needs: How much energy a race needs
 * Mineral and Vitamin Needs: How much diversity in minerals and vitamins a race needs. Can be very low, low, average, high, and very high.
 * Protein Needs: How much complex proteins by mass that a race needs. Can be very low, low, average, high, and very high.

Body attributes
 * Weight: Average mass of a member of a race. A race’s general stats will act as multipliers on nutrition needs.
 * Land or Ocean Habitat: Whether a race is obligate terrestrial, obligate marine, or amphibious.
 * Hands or Prehensile Appendage: True/False
 * Legs: True/False
 * Bipedal: True/False
 * Flight: true/false
 * Body plan: A description of creatures body as a weighted graph

Composite stats (calculated based on primary stats and body attributes)
 * Strength: The ability of a subject to exert force on another object. Covaries with size and muscle density
 * Hit Points: Composite of numerous variables like toughness, weight, etc.(the exact formulae is yet to be determined and the examples given in racial descriptions are subject to change)
 * Speed: How quickly the average member of a race can move
 * Height: Average height of a member of a race.
 * r-Selected vs K-selected: Measured in mixed, slightly skewed, moderately skewed, heavily skewed, and complete.
 * Feral vs Civilized: Measured in mixed, slightly skewed, moderately skewed, heavily skewed, and complete.
 * Specialist vs Generalist: Measured in mixed, slightly skewed, moderately skewed, heavily skewed, and complete.

Races

Completed Races Humans

Elves

Dwarves

High Beavers

Harpies

Goblins

Vermen

Incomplete Races

Orcs

Merfolk

Gnolls

Trolls

Statistics by race

Primary statistics

Nutrition needs

Body attributes

Composite statistics