Monday 12 January 2015

The Elder Scrolls Conversion Project; Races of Mer

Just as the races of men, the Elves, or Mer are also numerous, but only four of them was playable. They are the following: The noble, and haughty masters of magic, the High Elves, or Altmer, the ritually caniballistic forestdwellers, the Wood Elves, or Bosmer, the darkskinned ashlander Dark Elves, or Dunmer, and the strong berserkers, the Orcs, or Orsimer.




The Altmer, or High Elves:

These tall elves hail from the Summerset Isles, and they consider themselves the most cultured of all the races, and truth to be told, there is something to this. They are often found in high social circles, and magical societies thanks to their inherently powerful magical blood. They are incredibly haughty and they think of other races as "lesser creatures".
Their complexion is of gold, they are very tall, but not particularly strong or hardy. Their eyes can be the color of gold, magical green. Their ears are strongly pointed but not really long. Their hair is almost always fair or golden colored.


Altmer Traits

Ability score increase: Your Intelligence and Willpower both increase by 2.
Age: High elves live a long life, a lot longer than humans. They mature at the same rate, but they can often live longer than 300 years.
Alignment: High Elves prefer order over chaos and slightly inclinced towards being Lawful.
Size: High Elves are very tall, sometimes as tall as 7 feet, but they have slender, thin builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Basic Magic: Every Altmer has some kind of magical power. You learn a cantrip of your choice. Your spellcasting ability is your Intelligence.
Arcane Masters: Altmers are without debate the most magically gifted of all races. If you are a spellcaster you gain +2 magicka* every time you gain a level in a spellcasting class.
Languages: You speak, read and write Altmer and Imperial


The Bosmer, or Wood Elves:

The Bosmer are short Elves from the forest lands of Valenwood who live in harmony with the forest. Many of them keep themselves to the Green Pact, a strict code that forbids them to harm any plantlife in their homeland. Due to this, they are strictly carnivores and they use mostly bone and metal weapons, and they only use imported wood products. The Green Pact also states they must eat the bodies of their fallen enemies. They are quick on their wits as well as on their feet.
Wood elves are shorter than most other elves and men, and have a frail, delicate build, but they are incredibly dexterous, and have an affinity with the beasts of the wild. They are the best archers in all Tamriel.


Bosmer Traits

Ability score increase: Your Agility is increased by 2, and your Intelligence by 1.
Age: Like the Altmer, Bosmer mature the same way as humans do, but they can live up to 300 years or more
Alignment: Wood Elves are not drawn to either chaos or order. They are inclined to be Neutral
Size: Bosmer are smaller and more delicate than other races, they are rarely over 5 feet in height. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Poison and disease resistance: Your Bosmer blood gives you resistance against all non-magical diseases and poisons. You have advantage on saving throws against poison and diseases, and you are resistant to poison damage.
Y'ffre's gift: Animals of the natural world are friendly towards you and your companions, unless they are starving, or you or your companions threaten their life or offspring. They are willing to do small tasks for you, but nothing that would endanger them or their offspring. You are also proficient with the skill Animal Handling
Beast tounge: You can understand and speak with animals. This is not an actual verbal communication, but a lot of animal sounds like growling and facial experssions as well as body language. You can convey simple messages this way. You cannot gain information from an animal that is above its understanding of the world. You can for example ask if people went this way, but not the faction of the people.
Bosmer weapon training: You are proficient with shortbows, longbows, daggers and blowguns.
Languages: You can speak, read and write Bosmer and Imperial.


The Dunmer, or Dark Elves

The Dunmer are dark skinned elves hailing from under the Red Mountain, from the ash covered lands of Morrowind. They are proud and willful beings, and have slightly racist tendencies. They are often considered ruthless by other races. In their homeland, they are maintaining a clan system, and even abroad these clan ties have strong presence. Assassinations between rival houses are common.
As a race, the Dunmer are blessed with many gifts, they are strong, agile, cunning and willful, and can boast with a natural fire resistance. Furthermore, Dark Elves can summon their ancestral spirits to help them in need.
Their complexion is of ash, dark grey, and they always have blood red eyes. Their hair is often silky black.


Dunmer Traits

Ability score increase: Your Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Willpower each increase by 1.
Age: As all elves, Dunmer are long lived, maturing at the same rate as humans, but possibly living longer than 300 years.
Alignment: Dunmers are often perceived as evil, and there is some base for this stereotype. They are slightly more inclined toward evil alignments than most other races.
Size: Dark Elves have average builds, and their height is between 5 and 6 feet. Your size is Medium
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ashlander: Your Dunmer blood gives you resistance against fire damage.
Ancestor's Wrath: As a bonus action you can summon one of your ancestors' spirits to save you from harm. The spirit manifest itself in the form of flames around your body, searing your enemies. The spirits remain for rounds equal to your proficiency bonus, and deal 1d6 fire damage per round to every enemy within 5 feet of you.
Flare: You can cast the Flare** destruction cantrip. Your spellcasting ability is your Intelligence.
Dunmer weapon training: You are proficient with dagger, hand crossbow, dart and shortsword
Languages: You can speak, read and write Dunmer and Imperial


The Orsimer, or Orcs

The Pariah folk, the Orcs are the bastards of the races of Mer. In ancient times, their God was cursed, and this curse affected his followers as well. The once beautiful people turned into a beast looking race of monsters. For long time, they were shunned and feared, and only their strong sense of honor and their excellent service in the imperial legion erased the suspicion towards them.
They are physically strong and powerful and they are the most excellent smiths in all Tamriel. Outside of their native homeland, the mountainous Orsinium, they live in Orc fortresses with their kin, or serve as highly payed and respected mercenaries. They live by the Code of Malacath, and they are set in their ways.
Their skin color is greyish green, and their hair is often black. They have prominent lower jaws, and tusks jutting forward from them.


Orsimer Traits

Ability score increase: Your Strength and Endurance both increase by 2.
Age: While they are Mer, Orcs do not live as long as their distant cousins. They could live up to 80 years old, but the Code of Malacath demands that an old Orc should end his life before he becomes weak and a burden to his clan, therefore they rarely live longer than 50 years.
Alignment: Orcs are bound by honor, and they are often lawful.
Size: Orcs are tall and muscular, and their height is around 6 feet. Your size is Medium
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Berserker Rage: An orc can enter a berserker rage, greatly increasing their martial prowess. For equal rounds to your proficiency bonus, your attacks deal 1d6 more damage. You regain the use of this ability after finishing a long rest.
Orcish Smith: Smithing is very important to Orcs, it's part of their culture and their fortresses are often near mines to acquire ore. As every Orc, you also know the basics of the trade, as well as a few orcish smithing secrets. You are proficient with Smithing Tools, and you apply the double of your proficiency bonus when creating items. Also, when creating something with the smithing tools, you can advance the progress in 75 septim increments instead of 25.
Orcish weapon and armor training: You are proficient with the light hammer, morning star, maul and warhammer. Also with light, medium and heavy armor with shields.
Languages: You can speak, read and write Orcish and Imperial.


*For this conversion, I use the spell point variant presented in the DMG. To fit within the Elder Scrolls Lore, I call spell points Magicka.
**For this conversion I completely rework the spell list. It will be revealed in a later entry on the blog.

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