Yeah technology as a magic is a bit weird isn't it?
But I liked the phrase “technomancy”, so I decided to make it a magic, and it works well for balancing for nature and making the system work!

Magic influences the way the races behave, but not so much in a “good or evil” sense. There are no bad elements. Quinn-Tain himself has dark as one of his. The Tendu in Jaydia are highly civilised and find violence and war distasteful and they have Mind and Death as their elements.
Asside from the Nameless, there are not any “evil races” made bad by their combination of elements. THough there are plenty of bad people.
(Technically the Gnarl are racially bad, but they dont have magic so dont count!)

“Each mortal race of Harkovast (with the exception of the Gnarl) has two magical elements with which it is associated…”

Are these combinations unique to each race? Are combinations of opposed elements reserved for special races?

Yes, each race gets its own combination, as part of what makes them unique.

You wil lhave to judge for yourself on how special the races with opposite powers are…

Limiting yourself to just 92 races then, eh? ;-)

Oh no!
Only 92??
Argh!
Curses! Now race number 96 (the earth worm ninjas) will never get a look in!

Out of interest, how did you calculate 92?

hehe.

My dear TI-89 broke at some point, so I googled “calculate combinations” and filled in the fields.

…and added 1 for the… Gnarl if I recall correctly.

Did your calculation include the fact you cant have, for example, a race that has fire twice, so that limits the options a little more?

I have had a few issues with the spelling of the race who dont have magic.
I am thinking of sticking with Knarl.
I somehow like it more then Gnarl.
Either way, the first letter is silent when you say it!

Harkovast - While reading this over I suddenly thought of something. The way the Golta work using special rituals to create their devices and weapons, reminds me of the old superstitions that used to suround blacksmiths. Working metal in anceint times was like working magic. The smiths jelously garded their secrets in case someone else stole their techniques. There was said to be special words and rituals that needed to be done by the smith himself or else the metal wouldn't work right. it would be brittle or warped or weak at some point.

Snowhunter thats really cool.
In the same way that magic spells and powers are real in Harkovast, the ancient mystical knowledge black smiths were thought to have is made real through the Golta.
Thats an excellent concept, thanks!

I have a question that's somewhat related to harkovast.What propeties would ice magic (on it's own) have?

Magic in Harkovast can basically manifest in almost anyway concievable, the range of effects is really wide.

Here are some examples of different uses for Ice magic- the Frost Berserker can summon a suit of ice armour to fight in.
The Eslum (who live very far to the north and have water and ice as their elements) have monks that can freeze their enemies when they strike them, shattering limbs with their blows.
The Mariat (the leader of the Eslum religion) can walk on water by turning it to ice under his feet.

Anything relating to reducing temperatures, freezing water, snow, and (of course) producing ice would come under ice magics remit.

It would be interesting to see what a race who use Death and Technology would be like; I can't imagine anything good can come of that.

Renard ooooh yeah, that would have some sinister implications!
*grins evily*

morbid question. if one could stitch together the bodies of say, darsai(s), junlock(s), and tsung-dao(s), and then resurrect the abomination and somehow drive the walking nightmare against its enemies, what would(could) be the result in the usage of magic of the collective death machine?
for the darsai, though im sure it should be placed in the mechanics of darsai weaponry, the creation of weapons (strong ones at that) come with the will, courage, honor, spirit, yada yada knightly strength, would that mean that other devices could be made that dont revolve around weaponry? for instance, a darsai theif who took great pains to learn how to construct lock picks and keys with his gift from thane? sure he definitly aint a soldier, but would he really need much motivation to open a simple lock? which also asks does/could different attitudes affect the creation of different objects?
further bordering the realm of sheer speculation, the darsai weapons are fueled by knowledge in creating the weapons and the spirit put behind them. so, could some magician of the mind empower the darsai by inspiring unbreakable fanaticism and implanting the memories of a well trained knight into others? yes, i doubt they would ever allow that, but it would be statistically terrifying to be confronted by an army of the deadliest swords.
also, darsai weapons can have differect colors, is this a personality thing,allegiance thing, or is it just “i like green today, so ill be different”

The stitch together undead abomination would, by definition know death magic and not much else!

Darsai powers are based on their belief, courage and strength of will. Weapons are the easiest things to make, though armour and shields are possible.
Using them for tools or lock picks would require TREMENDOUS ability. That level of ability you would only see in a knight who had trained his entire life, and a knight would never use it for something so petty. Besides which, using it for something better would undermine the knights self belief, weakening his powers and making the whole thing fail anyway!

Mind magic could inspire Darsai to make better weapons, but you can get the same effect with a good speech or inspiring hero leading them. Even untrained Darsai, if they are suitably “fired up” can produce effective weapons, as long as their courage and enthusiasm holds out.

Colours of weapon depend on the discipline they were trained in. Different religious groups produce ones of different colours and appearance. A Darsai of great power could potentially create a new discipline to make a new colour of weapon, but most would not want to (being proud to show their allegiance to which ever sect they are in.)

Hope that covered everything!!

darsai energy armor, that would be interesting. i wonder if the darsai king wears a set.
thinking about it, what are the limitations to mind magic? cause really, super smart, mind control, and those things inbetween would lead to an extremely influencial race.
i also see the darsai working together to make a ‘rock’ to fire out of a catapult. would a darsai be able to create a weapon for his tsung-dao comrad to use?
also, the darsai make weapons of energy, composing the fire and steel magics. however, do they posess strength over the fire and over the steel they have individually? is this the same for any race, such as junlock ice armor and thing you havent mentioned?

The Darsai magic generally all relates to the creation of energy weapons (other than a few simple healing magics that the priestesses of Hevalla use).
With regard to exactly what they can do with these powers…time will tell on that one.

the standard play of keeping us in suspense eh? in the words of a wiser man than i, thats mean you meanie!