Shadows of Nightside ~ Blog

Races of SoN ~ The Goblins

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The following is an excerpt from “The Compendium of Life on Nightside”, Qwazzu’s Addendum.

Goblins are thin and hairless, with snake-like skin that ranges in color from pale yellow to pea green. Their large, pointy, bat-like ears make their heads look small. They are typically shorter than humans, averaging 3′-6″ to 4′-0″, and weighing 70 to 80 pounds.

Even when not being used as shock troops for the Shadow, Goblin lives are shorter than their natural span of 30 to 40 years. Most will die violent deaths before reaching the age of 20.

Female Goblins are virtually indistinguishable from the male Goblins, the only notable difference is the size and shape of their ears.

Due to their short life span, compounded by the influence of the Shadow, goblins are very fertile and procreate often. Gestation is a short 80 days, and often results in small litters of 2 or 3. Once born, the young goblins are tended to by adults that are assigned to watch and train the young until they can fend for themselves, which is usually within 6 to 8 months.

The Goblins are relatively new to the continent of Zinnia. Brought here to fight in the Shadow’s horde, many thousands died in the third shadow war. The survivors were abandoned once they were no longer needed.

Left to themselves, they gathered mostly in the foothills, forming several small war bands that prey on each other as much as anyone else.

While most of the Shadow’s troops are seen as expendable by The Dark One, the Goblins were breed to die; to be thrown at the enemy in overwhelming numbers, regardless of how many were slaughtered. Combine that with the abuse and mistreatment by their handlers and the other troops, and you begin to see why the Goblins trust as little as they do.

The Goblins in general have no regard for life of any kind. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone, even members of their own band, if they saw an advantage to doing so. A side effect of this behavior is that there is little cooperation between Goblins beyond basic needs.

One notable exception to this are the Goblins of Kragg-Saar. Lead by a Goblin named Skcah, this band of Goblins took up residence in the town of Kragg-Saar and has built itself up to be a rather large and influential force. This of course, doesn’t sit well with the other goblin bands in the area.

Races of SoN ~ The Narshe Gnomes

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The following is an excerpt from “The Compendium of Life on Nightside”, Volume 3: Sentient Races … by notes Sage and Scholar, Aan the Large.

The Narshe Gnomes are unique to Nightside, being the only known sentient mammal to lay eggs instead of live birth.

Unlike their cousins, the Forest, Lawn, and Mountain Gnomes, the Narshe Gnomes are semi-aquatic, being equally at home on land or in the water.

They prefer salt water for general living arrangements and hunting grounds, they generally seek the safety of small fresh water lakes for laying their eggs; the lakes afford protection from ocean going predators. Thus, one will tend to find Narshe young frolicking about the lakes. Their preferred habitat is self-made floating raft cities anchored not far from shore. The raft cities are built above and below the surface of the water.

The Narshe are the largest of the gnome races, standing between 2.5 feet and 3 feet tall and weighing between 60 and 80 pounds at maturity.

The average life span of a Narshe is 40 to 60 years. Although there have been reports of individuals reaching 75+ years.

Another difference from their gnome cousins, the Narshe have a short tail. This broad, flat tail is used help navigate while swimming.

The body and the broad, flat tail of the Narshe are covered with dense fur that traps a layer of insulating air to keep them warm. Their fur ranges in color from tan to dark chocolate brown and is lighter in color on their bellies and darker down their spine to their tail. The webbing between their fingers and toes can retract when on land. Their noses are generally flat and the nostrils can be closed when under water. They have a nictitating membrane to protect their eyes while swimming.

The Narshe are a Matriarchal society. The females are usually larger and darker colored than the males. The Grand Mother is the ultimate authority.

They are generally monogamous and mate for life.

The females lay one to three (usually two) small, leathery eggs, that are about 6 inches in diameter and slightly rounder than bird eggs. The eggs develop in utero for about 28 days with about 40 days of external incubation. After laying her eggs, the female leaves the egg chamber and the male takes over, tending and caring for the eggs.

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Note: Yes, I know .. this info was posted on the forums awhile back. But I like the format and figure it was a good way to go. Plus there’s art to go with it this time

The starting races in SoN

It’s already 3 weeks into 2010 so I figured I take a little break and give a quick introduction to the six races that will be available to players to play in the initial release of Shadows of Nightside.

This will just be a quick overview to give some idea of what’s in store. The plan is to eventually do full write up on each of them, but I don’t yet know when.

Some of the info that follows has been discussed before, but this is the first time it’s all been in one place.

ok .. enough rambling .. read on …
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Think about it, we all just took another trip around the sun together. That means we all traveled the distance of about 581,165,175 miles (935,294,688 km) over the last year! Incredible isn’t it?! How about this: A typical cookie is about 4 inches in diameter. If you laid them side-by-side it would take 14,815,067,857,920 cookies to span that distance. That’s a lot of cookies! Hmm…that seems like a nice side project for Citrine. Hey Cit! You better start baking!

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Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy and safe Holiday!

We’d also like to thank you all for sticking with us even though not much about SoN is public and it seems like even less progress is being made.

It really means a lot to us all.

And we promise – the wait will be worth it.

Now .. off to make cookies!!

With the Thanksgiving Holiday only a week away, I thought I’d share with you all one of my favorite cookie recipes. These aren’t as good as pr0v’s super awesome cookies, but they’re still good.

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