The Races of Requiem

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This is my breakdown of the four playable races of Requiem from an immersive players perspective, which means I couldn't care less about class balance and I don't even care that much about the details of the backstory, just the general feeling the backstory gives the race itself.

So.

Turan

Turan is the representative race of Ethergia.

These would be the plucky group of teenagers caught in Camp Crystal Lake when everything goes to hell in a handbasket. In other words, more than any other race, these are the Heroes, the Playable Characters, the people who aren't scary because they're the ones who get scared. They're also not very interesting because they're just like us.

Its strengths are tenacity, efforts and high unity though does not have any distinctive special ability.

They also have an immunity to Engrish, but that would appear to be universal amongst the inhabitants of Ethergia. You can tell this is a Humans Are Special type of game, even though Ethergia reeks of dark creepiness. I find this an odd trend overall, that the darker the work itself is, the more likely the writers are to remind you that humans are special, unique beings with the ability to rise above their awful circumstances. I imagine being a cyborg helps in the case of Requiem characters.

It prefers to balanced and harmonized combat style instead of power based one.

This is mostly about game mechanics, but it's also basically telling us that humans are a jack of all trades, which is odd because I doubt Turan classes are any less specialized than anyone else's. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Bartuk

Based on strong strength, Bartuk has enormous power.

As opposed to weak strength, I suppose. Bartuk's are the unstoppable killing machines of the Bloodymare world. They're part Frankenstein's monster and part Terminator. Although plenty of them have been seen to be reasonably likeable (Dumb Is Good, I suppose), Temperion Bartuk are the kind that walk straight into a machine gun turrets line of fire and rip the man behind it to pieces. They're scary because they're monstrous and monstrously strong, but they're also very direct, so not terribly creepy, although it is worth noting that their minimal intellect makes reasoning with them more difficult.

With naturally low levels of spirit, it always takes dichotomy at the battle, friendly forces and enemies.

I assume this means that it splits the world into "good people" and "bad people" and tries to protect the former, preferably by beating the latter to death. I'm honestly not sure what they were getting at here, though.

This way of thought serves as an advantage of preventing confusion and making unified movement at the battle.

The Bartuk would appear to be particularly resistant to the Engrish. They're sort of like children, however, children that never grew up. With huge bodies capable of snapping you like a twig.

Kruxena

A race created by an ancient race Nach.

A race created by the bad guys. That never ends well. At least the Bloodymare team is willing to admit to themselves that every single Dark Elf is a Chaotic Good rebel against his dark origins. D&D is still trying to pretend Drizz't is the exception to the rule, 10,000 imitations later.

It does not go well with other races.

So remember when making sentient race stew to save the Kruxena for dessert. Alright, so Chaotic Good-ness aside, they don't really get along with others. They're presumably loners, which means they probably either believe themselves to be superior to others, they're looked down upon by the rest of society, or both. I like the last one, personally.

It is cold and brutal.

So I'm guessing the Kruxena are the outsiders, the weird kid at school that everyone makes fun of, except that no one dares make fun of a Kruxena because the whole world is in something of a Wild West stage and thus the Kruxena you make fun of might kill you in your sleep later that night. And being cold and brutal, they'd do it, too. I'm getting sort of a Columbine shooter vibe from them, over all, Columbine shooters who've been given something else to shoot at so they don't feel the need to butcher their peers. I wonder if they ever get sick of the slaughter and move on? Given they're created for purposes of war, I doubt it.

It has both wonderful physical ability and spirit enough to handle various weapons and magic.

Nothing that is universally better at everyone else ever gets to be one of the good guys. The good guys always get the second-best species in the world with powers like unity and friendship, while the evil monsters that go bump in the night get the hellish, half-monster half-god's that are better at everything. Of course, the Kruxena's stats aren't actually all that better than everyone else's, but they do have the look.

Xenoa

A race that has ruled Ethergia since the demise of the ancient races.

A race of creepy children who are our seemingly benevolent overlords? The Kruxena might be the type to tear your spine out and impale you with it if you look at them funny, then give a polite british laugh and walk away as if nothing happened, but these guys strike me as much creepier. I can just see them staring at me and saying something like "You're making me upset. You don't want me to be upset, do you?" And saying it in a twelve-year olds voice with the most eerily polite tone possible. *shudders*

Though having weak physical ability, they have an outstanding spiritual power and huge knowledge.

Not only are they (if memory serves) responsible for Thanatos and, thus, for everything that's gone wrong (admittedly, they were playing with artifacts from other, more ancient races, but still), they also have unmatched control over the mind/spirit and more knowledge than the other races. So if you insult a Turan, he'll punch you in the face, while a Bartuk will snap your arm off, while a Kruxena will tear out some vital organs, while a Xenoa will make you their personal mind slave. Eek.

They are excellent in magic and long-range combat.

This doesn't strike me as particularly scary.

But they are arrogant.

Joy. So not only are they capable of various creepy things, they'll also have fewer inhibitions than most about these kinds of things.

tl;dr

Turans are normal humans, Bartuks are kind of scary because they're big and strong, Kruxena are very scary because they're heartless half-monsters, and Xenoa are very, very, very scary because they can peel your mind apart from a safe distance and they rule the world.