Dorri Has Two Mommies?

Dorri

The wiki says the original Sirens were people of other races who were turned into Sirens. Does that mean all Siren PCs are formerly other races, or they have two Siren parents, or one Siren and one Satyr parent? I can't write a proper background for my character if I don't even know how she was born.

Sorry if this was already discussed in a previous thread. Doing a forum search for "siren" gives me little more than posts from people whining about half-naked Sirens and bragging about their l33t bullying sk1llz. =D>

Achimrst

From how I always understood it, daddy is any race and mommy is a Siren. Girls come out Siren and boys are the dads race.

Sybilla

During the Aetolian Saga, random adventurers were turned into either Sirens or Satyrs. Since then, both those races have been playable. 

Being born a Siren happens at random, but a Siren's children can (according to the HELP file at least) be either Siren or the father's race.

Sena

According to HELP SIREN and HELP SATYR, the child of a siren/satyr can be either a siren/satyr or the race of the other parent. So the daughter of a siren and a human can be either a siren or human, and a siren will always have a siren mother. It's not clear how other races differ from this; I would expect every race to work like this, given that there can't be hybrids.

In practice though, this is almost entirely ignored, and not just by players. Characters of any race can have children of any race.

Nellaundra

Roleplay-wise, the flame kinda screws with people.  They may go in as one thing and come out another, hence being able to pick any race we want.  Not to mention reincarnating there.

Despran

In game, I have always looked at the "being born as a siren or race of the father" rule as applying only to original purebred sirens. We're all so mixed now that children with parents of any race might come out as sirens.

That is how I justify the inconsistency.

Xith

Maybe someday they'd implement Achaean genetics that prevent you from being bloodlined by a non-Siren and also delete reincarnations (delete the racechange artie and make the Dagger of Reincarnation closer to its cost) so people will stick with their race better and stop choosing it for functionality.

But that wouldn't change all the previous bloodlines being messy and stuff so I don't think that'll happen at this point.

Eiredhel

I personally refuse to bloodline any female players who aren't Sirens, and I don't plan on bloodlining any males who aren't Human or Xorani but I think that's just a personal choice. 

Eiredhel's mother was once a Siren though she's a raja now, and Eiredhel's father is a Raja. So it works out well enough. 

If I recall correctly the Keeper story says that Sirens were created by the Gods and they used to have wings, due to a failure on their part the three Sirens were cast down from the Garden and stripped of their wings. They ended up on a desolate island where they then procreated with males whose ships crashed and washed upon their shores alive. 

The numbers multiplied and eventually the race came to Sapience, Sirens who stand true to this ideology and are 'pure' or whatever (the discretion is up to the Siren initiating if I recall)  and it is the job of those Sirens to spread the word of the Siren Origins and to gather more Sirens into the sisterhood to protect their heritage and culture. 

I probably got some of it wrong as I haven't been involved with any of it for a bit due to roleplay stuff, but I'm sure @Ryanna will pop in eventually to clear up further questions as I think she was one of the original Sirens in that group when the roleplay was officially getting started and the High Clan being made. 

Edit: Also, most people complain about half-naked anything especially if they have disgusting descriptions with vulgar language or symbols on their body for absolutely no reason. But that's my take on it. Personally I RP as a Siren who feels as females are superior to males in every way, and that other races are less pure and noble. But it's an rp choice. I view Sirens are more of a Sorority like setting and there are different types and groups you can belong to.

Pretty sure I can think up some other things, but wtf is with this title <

Dorri

First, my apologies. I thought the wiki was the primary source of information for this game, and did not know there were help files that elaborate further on races. Otherwise, I wouldn't have pestered you folks for help.

Second, thank you to everyone who replied to this thread with helpful information. It's much appreciated. I'd prefer that my character's parents be alive (maybe even a couple siblings too), so all of this info is very useful. :-bd

Tahquil

How races are looked at/explained away:

There has been so much interbreeding between the races that it is possible to give birth to any race and it be explained away as a genetic throwback from generations on generation on generations on generations ago.

Synbios

I still say I am sprung, adult and fully-formed, from the earth, capable of speech and mediocre fighting and magic ability. Naturally, this explains my pristine bloodline record.

Katzchen

Clearly achaean genetics work differently to RL world ones. If it were not, then we'd see hybrids instead of being able to bloodline any race. I like there to be some correlation with kids though. One is Troll (His father is a Troll), another is Human (Katz is human, and has been most her life), and the third is Dwarf (Father was a Dwarf up until a few years before he was 'born').

Trevize

I miss the old comments in the race helpfiles as to why you were a certain race. The basic idea was the special abilities determined whether you were a race or not, regardless of the rest of your traits.

Sirens were the only ones who could do that lovesong stuff. Xorans and breathing fire. Satyr and the goat legs (being able to STOMP). Atavian and wings.

I think those went a long way towards explaining how race was determined. I could even see stats now being almost even as a result of interbreeding, but the special abilities being what determines race.

Anedhel

Explaining how Anedhel turned out to be a siren's always a bitch.

In all seriousness, the Rebirth explanation is the most logical one; I see Achaean genetics differing from RL genetics in that there's some element of desire/consciousness in the manifestation of a person's form- whether you choose to attribute that to a character's personality shining through in their race, or a latent idea of who/what they are, or even a slightly hierarchic (or maybe xenophobic) world-view that places a person firmly inside the confines of a race, at the time of the creation of their adult mortal body. At any rate, I've always found it satisfying, in Achaea, to explain anomalies by assuming that some measure of force of personality makes up for a leap in genes.

ETA: I never bother much with trying to make sense of gems, though. That's just magic.

Trevize

Anedhel said:

Explaining how Anedhel turned out to be a siren's always a bitch.

In all seriousness, the Rebirth explanation is the most logical one; I see Achaean genetics differing from RL genetics in that there's some element of desire/consciousness in the manifestation of a person's form- whether you choose to attribute that to a character's personality shining through in their race, or a latent idea of who/what they are, or even a slightly hierarchic (or maybe xenophobic) world-view that places a person firmly inside the confines of a race, at the time of the creation of their adult mortal body. At any rate, I've always found it satisfying, in Achaea, to explain anomalies by assuming that some measure of force of personality makes up for a leap in genes.

ETA: I never bother much with trying to make sense of gems, though. That's just magic.

If you reincarnated: magic!

If you created Anedhel like that: genetics! (siren in your heritage somewhere, you can sing! and can't breathe fire/etc)

Seems easy to me.

Anedhel

Aarashi Shamshir Anedhel Azon (male Tsol'aa).

It was a joke

Nim

What part of magic do you not understand?