Runic Races

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Runic Races

A flagship Origins add-on for the Runecraft modpack. 37 deeply designed races across 7 families, each with exactly one active ability, one passive strength, and one weakness — plus environmental interactions and deep integration with Runecraft’s mod ecosystem. Pick a family first, then a race within it. With Pehkui installed, each race also has its own height (0.45–1.30), clustered by family so a party reads at a glance.

Minecraft 1.20.1 | Forge | Requires Origins Forge

Races

Human (4) — adaptable generalists

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Primian | Stroke of Fortune | Luck + adaptability / no specialization |
| Celeron | Messenger’s Dash | speed & wit / fragile frame |
| Magi | Arcane Overflow | born of magic / frail body |
| Valen | Unbreakable Stand | armored bulwark / slow |

Elven (5) — arcane grace, frail bodies

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| High Elf | Arcane Reflex | arcane mastery / physical frailty |
| Dark Elf | Shadowmeld | night power / sunlight |
| Moon Elf | Moonlit Veil | moon/tide magic / waning by day |
| Blood Elf | Blood Frenzy | bloodcraft lifesteal / reduced healing |
| Ice Elf | Frostbind | frost mastery / fire |

Dwarven (6) — tough, subterranean

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Deep One | Tremorsense | darkvision miner / sunlight |
| Forge One | Forge Blessing | fire-forged smith / heavy in water |
| Frost One | Glacial Resolve | cold-immune / fire |
| Iron One | Shield Wall | fortress tank / slow & magic-poor |
| Sky One | Mountain Leap | sure-footed climber / claustrophobia |
| Runic One | Rune of Warding | rune-smith party support / scholarly frailty |

Bestial (6) — sharp senses, predatory

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Arachnid | Web Snare | venom & vibration sense / fire |
| Avian | Wind Burst | feathered flight / hollow bones |
| Canine | Howl of the Pack | pack hunter / ravenous |
| Feline | Pounce | Nine Lives / hydrophobia |
| Kitsune | Foxfire Illusion | fox-spirit magic / spirit-frail |
| Serpen | Shed Skin | venom & heat / cold-blooded |

Faeborne (5) — magic, illusion, often winged

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Changeling | Mirror Shift | many faces / hollow identity |
| Dryad | Verdant Bloom | grove healer / 3× fire |
| Sprite | Phase Shift | gossamer flight / glass cannon |
| Nymph | Siren’s Charm | water spirit / bound to water |
| Faerie | Faerie Bargain | pixie glamour / cold iron |

Undead (5) — undeath immunities, night power

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Zombie | Undying Hunger | deathless flesh / sunlight decay |
| Skeleton | Conscript the Dead | bonecraft archer / brittle bones |
| Wraith | Spectral Phase | soul-touched / sunlight & holy |
| Demon | Infernal Wrath | infernal fire / holy & water |
| Reaper | Soul Harvest | death revival / −50% healing |

Draconic (6) — elemental breath, scales, flight

| Race | Active | Passive / Weakness |
|——|——–|——————–|
| Fire Drake | Dragonfire Breath | fire immune / cold & water |
| Ice Drake | Frost Breath | freeze immune / fire |
| Sea Serpen | Tidal Breath | ocean leviathan / landbound |
| Terra Drake | Seismic Breath | living stone / ponderous |
| Volt Drake | Lightning Breath | storm speed / grounded & wet |
| Wind Wyrm | Galeforce Breath | supreme flyer / caged underground |

Mod Integrations

All integrations are optional and config-toggleable. If a mod is absent, its features are silently skipped.

| Mod | Integration |
|—–|————-|
| Ars Nouveau | Casters: −15% Source cost, +20% max mana. Iron One: +15% cost |
| Iron’s Spellbooks | Per-race spell damage modifiers (Magi +15%) |
| Curios | Elven +necklace, Dwarven +belt, Faeborne +ring, Undead +charm |
| Apotheosis | Luck modifiers (Primian/Faerie +1, Wind Wyrm −2) |

Installation

1. Requires Origins Forge (1.10.0.9+) installed in the modpack
2. Drop runic_races-1.1.0.jar into the mods/ folder
3. Remove the old KubeJS Runic Races datapack if present (kubejs/data/runic_races/)
4. Existing players with preserved race names will keep their selection

Configuration

Config files are generated in config/runic_races/:

• runic_races-server.toml — Integration toggles, resource gating posture (failClosedWhenResourceModMissing defaults to true for predictable standalone play; flip to false inside a pack that guarantees Iron’s Spellbooks / Feather’s are present).
• runic_races-client.toml — Racial HUD (anchor, offset, scale, opacity, minimal mode, ability names, ready glow), ambient state effects (passive state particles, screen cues), and state-rune pulse.
• runic_races-common.toml — Debug logging; disableDefaultOriginLayer (see Origins Compatibility below).

Origins Compatibility

By default Runic Races shows only its two-layer Family → Race selection and hides the
vanilla origins:origin layer — which is where most other Origins add-ons register their
origins, so they don’t appear.

Let other origin mods coexist

Set disableDefaultOriginLayer = false in runic_races-common.toml. Other add-ons’ origins
then reappear as the standard Origins screen alongside Family/Race. This is shipped as a built-in
datapack toggled by the config, so the change is read at world load — quit to title and rejoin
(or restart the server) for it to take effect; /reload alone won’t pick it up.

Add origins into a Runic Races family

Origins merges layer membership across datapacks, so a datapack can append origins (from any mod,
or your own) into a family’s race list with "replace": false. See the ready-to-edit template at
examples/datapacks/runic_races_extra_races/.
Note: an injected foreign origin keeps its own powers but isn’t treated as a native race (no Runic
Races HUD/notifications/scale/Curios slots).

Keybinds

Runic Races adds a Runic Races category to the vanilla Controls screen:

• Flap Wings (unbound by default) — while gliding, press to flap upward.
• Fold Wings (unbound by default) — while gliding, press to cancel the glide.

If you leave both unbound, the legacy fallback stays active: while gliding, press Jump to flap and double-tap Jump within 4 ticks to fold your wings.

Commands

• /runicraces info [player] — Show selected race
• /runicraces list — List all 37 races by family
• /runicraces debug — Show current attribute values

Design Philosophy

• Race = what you ARE (permanent identity, not progression)
• Racial traits are static and don’t scale — prevents competing with Skills/Gods
• Drawbacks pass the “of course” test — every penalty is narratively justified
• Integration through affinity, not gating — race makes paths easier, never blocks them
• Every race changes how you play, not just how well you play

Building

# Place the compile-only dependency jars in Dependencies/ (gitignored), then:
./gradlew build
# Output: build/libs/runic_races-1.1.0.jar

Required: origins-forge, apoli-forge, calio-forge. Apoli and Calio ship inside
the Origins -all jar under META-INF/jarjar/ — extract them:
unzip -o -j Dependencies/origins-forge-*-all.jar 'META-INF/jarjar/apoli-forge-*.jar' 'META-INF/jarjar/calio-forge-*.jar' -d Dependencies/.

Optional (only needed to compile their integration classes): ars_nouveau, irons_spellbooks,
curios (local jars from Modrinth). Apotheosis, Pehkui, and Feathers resolve from
Maven automatically (CurseMaven / Modrinth) — no local jar needed.