User:Downzorz/Tome of Steel/Urban Races

Urban Races

Dwarves: Leave me alone

Dwarves don’t want to say hi. If a non-dwarf walks into a dwarf community, doors will stay shut. Nobody will welcome them in. Beggars do not do well in dwarf neighborhoods- dwarf beggars are looked down on by other dwarves, and beggars of other races will be swiftly kicked out. Dwarf communities are very close-knit; everybody knows everybody, people have respect for each other, and they all usually conform to each other. There are many reasons for this- dwarves share a very long life, enough so that “lasting” friendships with the shorter-lived races seem ephemeral to the dwarves. Dwarves also have a heritage of war, making them uncomfortable with other races at best, and often outright xenophobic.

Dwarven communities are generally very productive. The cooperation that comes from a structured and dutiful culture means that selfish concerns are often second to the concerns of the group as a whole. This cooperation, combined with the natural productivity of the dwarves and the decades of training that even novices go through, means that a single dwarf will out-produce a single human, and the costs of cooperation in dwarven communities is drastically lower than that of many other races.

Elves: Everyone is a friend

Elves share in the long lives of dwarves, but they could not be more fundamentally different. The elves have the same “long view” as the dwarves, but elves are far less reliant on other elves. As elven communities are far more loose-knit, elves are far more selfish than dwarves. That doesn’t mean that the elves are inclined towards Evil- it simply means that while a dwarf can rely on the dwarven community to back him up, elves are generally on their own.

Since elves cannot consistently rely on other elves for help the way dwarves can, elves often form relationships with members of other races. While a dwarf may blow off an offer to form a business partnership with a human because he knows that there will be a dwarf somewhere who can partner with them, an elf doesn’t have the luxury of looking exclusively to their own race. They therefore look out to other races for help. That means that elves are often much more integrated into cosmopolitan society, and much better at getting along with other races. Note, though, that elves rarely share much of themselves with many other races- Humans seem overly ambitious and short-sighted, Halflings seem decedent and lazy, and Dwarves are just too gruff. There are rarely elf-exclusive neighborhoods in large cities. The exception to this is the Drow, who with their racial hatred of every other species rarely fit into a cosmopolitan community.

Halfling

Halflings have the perspective of the shorter-lived races and get along well with everyone. Halflings tend to meld well into larger cities, not establishing a distinct Halfling community unless forced to. However, there is a level of racism in Halfling organizations- for example; Halfling guilds will often only take other halflings as members. Halflings take friends among every race, but few are accepted into their inner circles.

Orcs

Orcs are some of the most hated groups in civilized societies. Their constant state of war with most of the civilized races combined with their racial stupidity and lack of charisma makes them ill-suited for fitting in to large cities. The orcs in a large city are generally pushed into the slums, working manual labor jobs for little-to-no pay. This makes orcs very racist against other races- any elf that wanders into an Orcish slum will be hard-pressed to make it out untouched. This only reinforces the idea that orcs are dangerous and uncivilized, pushing them further into the slums and away from everyone else. The historical parallel to this is African-Americans over large courses of American history.

Half-Elves

Half-elves are commonly depicted as having a hard time, but they have a pretty good shtick in the world. They understand the vigor and rush of life that humans have, but they can also see the “long view” like elves. They are hardier than elves, but are still more beautiful than most humans. They live longer than humans, and get along better with them than the aloof and distant elves. Half-elves make quick friends, and are good at keeping them. Half-elves tend to integrate with everyone who lets them in.

Half-Orcs

Half-orcs have a relatively dangerous life. They live on the edge of communities- ostracized by mainstream human and orc communities, they have to find their own places. The only creatures half-orcs get along with are each other, and even that is strained. As a rule, there aren’t enough half-orcs to make large communities in most major cities. Half-orcs just get a bad rap- on one hand, they aren’t as discriminated against as orcs, because they are as smart as humans- on the other hand, they don’t have the community that orcs do, and they are excluded from human communities.

Gnomes

Gnomes have good talents that lend themselves to city life. Their racial inclination towards illusions makes them well-suited for entertainment. They also have alchemy abilities that make them good craftsmen of alchemy materials. Gnomish neighborhoods tend to maintain lots of alchemy labs, though they tend to run theaters in the more cosmopolitan neighborhoods.