Lack of racial exposition?

[Tacred]

Anyone think they skimmed over the races a bit too much? There isn't even a tab for them in the cyclopedia. I mean, sure, I know what an elf or a dwarf is, but theres little exposition their history and relations with other races. I dont even know if they live for centuries in this world setting.

It also seems like there is little racial acknowledgement aside from Orlan and the paladin you recuite in this as well. Seems like every race gets along with one another and theres little racial identity.

[Flip]

I too would have liked to have seen this. In convo there are sometimes special options depending on your class/god of worship etc so makes sense that race could come into as well.

The play devil's advocate, I don't remember race coming up really in any of the DnD games such as BG, IWD, NWN etc so maybe it is just taking race as not a big deal in the world.

[Undead Rufus]

I suspect that the lack of emphasis on racial conflict was deliberate. Rather, the tribes and nationalities and other factions are fairly racially diverse, and the conflict comes into play over ideological matters other than race. It's actually a nice change, as opposed to having the usual gruff, axe-wielding dwarves and "lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty."

[Flip]

Originally posted by Undead Rufus:

I suspect that the lack of emphasis on racial conflict was deliberate. Rather, the tribes and nationalities and other factions are fairly racially diverse, and the conflict comes into play over ideological matters other than race. It's actually a nice change, as opposed to having the usual gruff, axe-wielding dwarves and "lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty."

True and the God you worship has a lot of emphasis as well.

[kesat]

Originally posted by Tacred:

I mean, sure, I know what an elf or a dwarf is, but theres little exposition their history and relations with other races. I dont even know if they live for centuries in this world setting.

There are some history information about the various races. But PoE doesn't follow the classical ("Tolkien") approach for them. There isn't something like a "dwarven kingdom" with relations to some woodhugger-elves but nations, tribes and cultures consisting of several races etc. with a rich background. But you are still able to find quite a lot history information about the sub-races themself within the game and using some out-of-game information (wiki & forum posts).

While the orlans are lacking a bit more information about their history and origins, all the other races are quite "ancient". Both Elves and Humans are originated in the northern hemisphere and migrated south somewhere around 12,000 to 50,000 years ago. Aumaua's origins are somewhere around the equator ("warm oceanic climates") and started coastal exploration at least 20,000 years ago (which explains their early contact with the Engwithans). Boreal Dwarves originated from the southern boreal regions, while mountain dwarves came from an (unnamed) continent east of the eastern reaches. The don't share a common origin as it seems.

[Kissamies]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllThereInTheManual if you read the supplemental material. I approve their efforts to make the standard races something other than the usual stereotypes. It just seems to make them feel a bit bland and samey. Some people just happen to be pointy eared and some shorter. I know it's supposed to be replaced with the mixed race cultures, but I feel it's not communicated strongly enough. It is there, but you'll have to look for it.

I guess there's a reason the typical tropes are often used. New concepts need more exposition and then people will complain about lore dump.

[kesat]

Originally posted by Kissamies:

I approve their efforts to make the standard races something other than the usual stereotypes. It just seems to make them feel a bit bland and samey. Some people just happen to be pointy eared and some shorter.

In my opinion PoE did a realistic approach. Elves have another physiology compared to a human - and that's it. Aedyran woodelves and aedyran humans share a common history over several thousands of years. Their culture and parent languages just merged together to the nowaday aedyran culture. There's no reason for any difference beside the physiology.

I guess there's a reason the typical tropes are often used. New concepts need more exposition and then people will complain about lore dump.

Those are used because people like to use stereotypes to make their world as simple as possible. You're saying yourself, that an elf has to "be different" to a human - why? That's just high-fantasy nonsense.

[Procrastinating Gamer]

I think elves do have longer lifespans, at least. One bit of party banter from Aloth had him mention that he's been putting up with Iselmyr for fifty years. Can't recall how old he was supposed to be when he Awakened but at a bare minimum it makes him somewhere in his sixties. He sure doesn't look to be that old, though.

[Alien]

Races don't matter that much in POE (except for the Orlans maybe). Culture is more important in this game (and it makes more sense actually).
The Tolkien-ist idea of the race that conditions your behaviour unless you're corrupted by the evil Melkor comes from a medieval idea (and is linked to the topic of the good kind, and also the rise and fall of the great dynasties). There are also cultures in Tolkien's world, but they are unimportant (except for the hobbits maybe) because they have no role to play in his world (they are only a part of the general background).
It has been very badly retaken by many fantasy authors who didn't understand what it meant, and they confused races with cultures. For example, the racial/mythologic/dynastic antagonism between elfes and dwarves is always treated as a cultural hate by modern authors, more similar to real world racism than to the medieval rivalry of the world of Tolkien.

In POE you have truly cultural geopolitics and race is only a clue for your culture. That's why there is only "racial" history for isolated populations like the Orlans or the Boreal Dwarves. There is more to say about the History of the different cities and groups and organizations.

[HiddenHope]

It seems like pretty bad design if you have to go to a wiki or forums to learn more about the game world.

[[NGNS-SWE] ⚡ Quezkatolen ⚡]

Well the basically roman empire in this game are black people, atheism is true in this game, one country is ruled by women warrior and hunters and men are the hometakers, gay jokes are censored- this game is very pc/far-left. Nothing wrong with that, but its obviously wouldnt wanna offend someone. I wouldnt be suprised if they censor Thaos in a future update and make him gay as well.

[kesat]

Originally posted by HiddenHope:

It seems like pretty bad design if you have to go to a wiki or forums to learn more about the game world.

Well, most of those background in-depth information is meta-knowledge and probably only interesting for a small portion of players. And those who are interested into that kind of stuff are doing their "homework" by reading ingame-books and additional content like the almanach as also using community content/discussions.

Doesn't make any sense to put an essay into the game about the migration periods which happened tens of thousands of years ago.