The Witch's Library

Sub Races

There are only three Subraces of Men - Humans, Dwarves, and Elves.  Most of the differences between the three subraces are aesthetic and lore based - with no differences mechanically outside of a few types of Overdrive classes.  There are no differences in stat ranges, classes, or spells they can have. 

Humans are about average in height and weight compared to the other subraces.  Their skin is also the softest of the three, allowing them to take advantage of certain items that have strong psynergetic power.  These items tend to give them overdrive classes better suited for casting. 

Dwarves tend to be shorter and stockier, tend to have thicker, quicker growing hair.  It's rare to see a male dwarf without facial hair.  They're able to utilize certain types of items with strong physical traits, allowing them access into overdrive classes with high attack and defense power. 

Elves tend to be on average taller than the other subraces.  They have pointed ears and slender frames, and their lower appetite leads to less of them being overweight.  They're able to utilize certain types of items with swift, technical traits, allowing them access to overdive classes that have great speed and skill. 

Overdrive Type - Overburst

The Races of Men have the ability to channel energy from objects much more efficiently than the Races of Drakes or Beasts thanks to the relative softness of their skin.  Because of this, they are able to achieve powerful states of being by channeling power from various tools.  This is a technique called "Overburst", and is exclusive to the human race.  However, prolonged exposure to these energies can be lethal, and as a result djinn are used to channel away excess power so as to prevent death upon using overburst.

The form that these items take varies - they could be tomes, quivers, scabbards, cards, scrolls and a wide variety of others.  Generally speaking, most item types can be equipped by any of the subraces.  However, Tomes are unique to Humans, Scrolls are unique to Dwarves, and Bindings (ex: Forearm chain-like accessories) for Elves.  It is these types of Overdrive Items that show off the main battle differences you'll see between the three subraces. 

Overview

Overdrive Class:  Overburst (Item Dependent) Weak Influence:  35% chance of location override Moderate Influence:  65% chance of location override Strong Influence:  85% chance of location override Global Population: 45% of Weyard

Examples of the Races of Men in canon include:  Felix, Mia, Eoleo

Now, the first thing people may say is "What about the dwarves of Loho?"  Well, these is where the next part comes in - within each of the Three Great Races are many sub-races.  Each chapter in this series will cover one of the Three Great Races and will explain not only what sets them apart from the other races themselves, but also how each of the subraces stand out from one another.

At first glance, however, there will appear to be no difference whatsoever.  Unlike some games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, races has absolutely no effect on what stats, classes, or spells/skills a character can have.  Most of the differences are lore and aesthetic differences, in fact.  However, there is one big, huge distinguishing factor between the races:  Overdrive Classes.

What is an overdrive class?

Remember Sveta's beastform ability?  Every Beastman will have this ability.  Drakes, similarly, have an ability that lets them change into a type of dragon.  Humans, however, have no innate ability - rather, they must equip certain items that grant them the ability to tap into their innate alchemic power - essentially, they have to equip their Overdrive Class before they can use it.

In the days to come, I will post the next chapters in this series.

The Races of Man

The Races of Beasts

The Races of Drakes

Of Parents and Children

As far as gaming is concerned, been playing a lot of Disgaea D2 recently.  I'm really loving this game!  Pokemon, however, has dropped off a bit.  In fact, it's dropped off a lot.  Without Whimsicott, my desire to beat the E4 and Champion are kinda... not there.  Also Disgaea is awesome and I wanna play that instead.

Now, this isn't to say that it can't be adapted to Golden Sun.  If by some miracle of fate I was able to get a hold of the IP as a game producer, that series would have one hell of an overhaul on its hands - an enforcement of system, so to speak.  Camelot, however, seems do follow the "do whatever" approach, while I strictly follow a set of rules and guidelines.  And I do this for good reason - I refuse to break lore.  I could go into this further, but that's a story for another article.

Anywho, in the interest of enforcing Magic A is Magic A, a caster is only able to tap into spells that match both their Innate Element, as well as their Fundamental Affinity.  Innate Element is something everyone already understands - without the use of alt-elemental djinn, you can only use spells of your own element.  Fundamental affinity's a bit different, however.  This governs not only what forms of spells you can cast, but also what types of supports you're able to use.  Support spells will be covered in their own section, however.  For now, let's focus on the aspects.

No matter what class you are in, you follow the rules of your fundamental affinity.  If you can only use Lunar forms, then when you go from pure Venus to Dual Opposite, you can only cast the bolt form of Jupiter (as that's the lunar form).  With that in mind, let's look at what you can do with each type:

The Zenith Affinity only has access to the Solar forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by a midday sun.

The Dawn Affinity is able to use both the Solar and Pure Elemental forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by a sun at sunrise.

The Clear Affinity only has access to the Pure Elemental forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by a pulsating orb of energy.

The Dusk Affinity has access to both the Pure Elemental and Lunar forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by a moon at moonrise.

The Nadir Affinity only has access to the Lunar forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by the moon at it's highest point in the night.

The Eclipse Affinity has access to both the Lunar and Solar forms of the elements.  It is symbolized by a Solar Eclipse.

So long as you can use an aspect, you have access to any spell that utilizes the aspect.  That is to say, all the Wind spells that the Clear Affinity can use, the Dusk affinity can use as well.  So why then would you choose Pure Elemental over Dusk?

The answer lies in the support spells.  Recovery, Buff, Debuff, and Ailment spells are also affected by Alignment, and the more focused alignments have earlier access to some of the stronger effects without needing to reach to dual- and tri- element classes.  Dual element, on the other hand, are able to use a much wider variety of supports and added effects early on.

In the end, they balance out, and for the most part, they're aesthetic.  The easiest way to determine what Affinity you should be if creating your own caster is to just pick the aspects you want to use.  If, say, you want to specialize in lightning in your main class, but want to use Ice in an alt class, look into the Eclipse Affinity.  After all, nobody said you had to use all the forms available to you in a single class - you're as versatile as you make yourself.

The only part of the elements that is completely unaffected by Affinity is healing.  Healing is not to be confused with Recovery - recovery category spells include things like Cure Poison, Revive, Break, and Psy Drain, while healing is specifically spells like Pray and Cure.  Healing Spells are considered "Affinity Neutral", meaning no matter what aspects you wield, you are never unable to use healing spells.

With that, you know everything you need to know about the aspects.  I hope it was informative, and if you wish to adopt the Aspect System into a Golden Sun RP or something, feel free to do so.”