Hated Trends

[John]

People traipsing round in heavy chitin or obsidian are going to dehydrate and die. Maybe it isn't coded that way yet, but that doesn't make it make sense.

I don't know if weight or certain materials will cause you to dehydrate quicker. But I can say that carrying a lot will make living in the desert a lot harder. I've died quite a few times this way

Axes and swords were designed for human vs human combat.

And that's how someone can come up with a pro-sword and axe argument.

I'd see this as one of those things that depends on the desperation of the bandit. What I find far more amusing is to see a nice middle-class House guard with a good upbringing and a cushy job looting every last thing off a corpse. Braxat are one beast that is vaguely humanoid. I'm pretty sure there are others as well. So I agree with Quirk in saying that you should determine your weapon choice based on what your fighting. Braxat, swords and axes are good choices. creatures that are easily startled make projectiles a good choice. Animals with good expensive skin make blunt weapons a good choice. Now the difficulty is being good at all of these weapons. But I reckon if you manage it code-wise it is good RP to use different weapons based on the animal your hunting

[Dan]

Keep in mind that a Braxat is roughly the size of a half-giant as well.

[Trenidor]

You guys have been busy since my last post...

A note on the dead animals thing:
If you don't know what happened to it leave it alone, it might be on the ground because it was hacked to pieces by someones axe or stabbed too many times with a sword. I know that this can be solved by picking up the body and dropping it with some emote followed, but you've got to know that lots of people don't do that either due to ignorance or speed or whatever. If you're gonna do it please leave remnants of you skinning it to provide RP for the rest of us that aren't around.
-This isn't the main reason I don't like it but it's some more to back it up.

Trenidor wrote:
8. Engaging combat abruptly after entering a room while in outside areas.


Not good, not nice, but understandable given that many people will react to an emote indicating a stranger heading towards them by spamming commands to get the hell outta Dodge. Really, if they're heading the way you just came from, unless their mount outruns yours by some silly factor you should be able to cut them off. Code-wise you can't. If they're spamming commands to get up the road, there may be no other option - you don't have time to prepare an elaborate emoted attack.

Quirk

It's understandable, but like I said earlier, if we all took our time outside bandits would be able to attack after emoting a while.

perhaps a target command could be used (totally ooc thing); when a target is attached the only way to get out of it is to flee self followed by a direction. It doesn't initiate combat it just keeps people from leaving without flee self <direction>. But make a strict concequence if the code is abused.
With that, there would be emote time, but also  a way for people to escape without being harmed. This command could auto lose against flee so that those who want to get away can get away.

I call it: The Emote lock

Dunno, just an idea for discussion

[X-D]

Quote:
Thus, availability of materials aside, heavy armor is not really practical in most circumstances, for it saps the strength and moisture (via sweat) of the wearer far more than it would in most parts of the real world.


Quote:
The Southlands are generally much hotter and dustier than the Northlands, so heavier types of bone and wood armor tend not to be used except by those fighters based exclusively within Allanak (e.g., the Highlord's soldiers). Independent mercenaries and adventurers of the south tend to favor lighter armors and clothing, suitable for desert wear.

Now, that aside, I never stated that chitin/bone whatever DID have any mystical properties, I stated that we did not know, nor do the docs hint in any way, as usual you decide to read things in.

Should a hunter be wearing lighter armor in the desert, Yup, if he is a human, half-elf or elf. The lighter part is subjective after all, to a d-elf many of what a human calls light armors are pretty darn heavy.

As to other races, well, everything is light to a half-giant, and you really have to pile some plate onto a mul before he thinks it is heavy, and most dwarves can handle your lighter chitin armors with ease.

Which I suppose is another point on that subject, you look at a char who is walking around in the desert with plate covered with a greatcloak and go gee, how unrealistic, but that char is a mul or other strong race and has an encumbrance of no problem, meaning he is walking about with the same ease as if he was naked, does that still make it unrealistic?

[spawnloser]

Half-giant armor should be proportionate to their size...meaning it would be just as heavy, relative to size, as human armor is to a human.  I do not know if the code supports this, but it should.

[creeper386]

Half-giants are, if I remember right, ussually about ten times the mass as most humans, but I'd say they are WAY stronger then that. So even though the proportion to size and weight from human sized armour, to half giant armour of the same type, they'd be able to handle it easier as their strength isn't following that same proportions. Most likely the weight isn't on the same proportion as size really either. As although it's getting bigger it's most likely not getting TOO drastically thicker, and so on.


Creeper

[EvilRoeSlade]

Now, that aside, I never stated that chitin/bone whatever DID have any mystical properties, I stated that we did not know, nor do the docs hint in any way, as usual you decide to read things in.

It never said anywhere in the documentation that the people of Zalanthas have to breathe air.  You wouldn't believe how pissed off I got when I fell into a pool of silt and drowned.  I sent a very strong-worded E-mail to the account, but I'm still waiting on a reply.

If the documentation doesn't say that chitin and bone is a magickal substance, I think we can assume that it's pretty much exactly like the chitin and bone on earth, even if (gasp) the documentation doesn't expressly say that it is.  Chitin/bone being expressly unusual is an important fact.  The only reason the documentation would have ommited saying anything about it is because there is nothing unusual about it.

As to other races, well, everything is light to a half-giant, and you really have to pile some plate onto a mul before he thinks it is heavy, and most dwarves can handle your lighter chitin armors with ease.

Yes, but strength and endurance will only take you so far.  No matter how strong you are, heavy armor will wear you out after a while, make you hotter than you would otherwise be, and make you sweat more.  Half-giants probably have to consume massive amounts of liquid, and so should be especially wary of overencumbering themselves.

[X-D]

If the documentation doesn't say that chitin and bone is a magickal substance, I think we can assume that it's pretty much exactly like the chitin and bone on earth, even if (gasp) the documentation doesn't expressly say that it is. Chitin/bone being expressly unusual is an important fact. The only reason the documentation would have ommited saying anything about it is because there is nothing unusual about it.

And if chitin and bone are exactly as they are on earth then 90% of zalanthian fauna cannot exist,(GASP) therefore something is different on zalanthas, wether it be gravity or magickly strong substances or whatever.
But definitly different. Not like there have not been many GDB threads in the past talking about how larger then mansized insects can exist, for a kank to exist either, A, his exoskeleton has to be very thick, to the point he would basicly be unable to move or B, the gravity of the planet is low enough to allow a thinner exoskeleton or C: The material of the exoskeleton is amazingly strong and light, or D: a combination of the above. Then you have to wonder things like, How does a plate encased creature stop from cooking in his shell? It does not sweat, so maybe it gets rid of extra heat like a dog, from the inside by panting or something, if it does then it needs something to insulate the outside from heat getting through....Well, not like kanks have fur to insulate, no, they have chitin, would it make any sense for the chitin to insulate, yup, do the docs say it does, nope, do the docs say it does not, nope.

Yes, but strength and endurance will only take you so far. No matter how strong you are, heavy armor will wear you out after a while, make you hotter than you would otherwise be, and make you sweat more. Half-giants probably have to consume massive amounts of liquid, and so should be especially wary of overencumbering themselves

Um, A half-giant with poor strength can wear the heaviest gear you can find in the game, carry a giant backpack full of rocks plus a few large corpses in inv (assume over shoulders or something) And still be at light encumbrance. A half-giant with poor str in normal heavy armors and with normal amounts of other items is at no-problem or less, now, I don't know about anybody else, but I take an encumbrance of no porblem to mean basicly not noticed, light means slightly more encumbered then naked, easy but manageable means you will get tired slightly quicker, etc etc, So, any char with an enc of light or less, regardless of what they are wearing is moving pretty darn easy, easier then somebody in sandcloth but at managable enc.

Otherwise, look at creeper's post up there:)

Besides, it would be silly for any low agi race to go out with less armor then they can handle with at least reasonable ease, and I'm not talking about ooc knowledge either, every dwarf knows he is a lot stronger and a lot slower then any elf, elves dance around and dodge and dwarves stand in place and rely on strength endurance and armor.

[EvilRoeSlade]

And if chitin and bone are exactly as they are on earth then 90% of zalanthian fauna cannot exist,(GASP) therefore something is different on zalanthas, wether it be gravity or magickly strong substances or whatever.
But definitly different. Not like there have not been many GDB threads in the past talking about how larger then mansized insects can exist, for a kank to exist either, A, his exoskeleton has to be very thick, to the point he would basicly be unable to move or B, the gravity of the planet is low enough to allow a thinner exoskeleton or C: The material of the exoskeleton is amazingly strong and light, or D: a combination of the above. Then you have to wonder things like, How does a plate encased creature stop from cooking in his shell? It does not sweat, so maybe it gets rid of extra heat like a dog, from the inside by panting or something, if it does then it needs something to insulate the outside from heat getting through....Well, not like kanks have fur to insulate, no, they have chitin, would it make any sense for the chitin to insulate, yup, do the docs say it does, nope, do the docs say it does not, nope.

That is simply a gray area.  Yes, chitin would have to be light for gigantic insects to survive, but if you've ever gotten an average piece of chitin armor weighed then you'd notice it was very heavy indeed.  No, it doesn't make very much sense, but you can't simply ignore one piece of contradictary information (chitin armor is heavy), in favor of the one that supports your arguement (chitin would have to be light for kanks and scrabs to survive).

Um, A half-giant with poor strength can wear the heaviest gear you can find in the game, carry a giant backpack full of rocks plus a few large corpses in inv (assume over shoulders or something) And still be at light encumbrance. A half-giant with poor str in normal heavy armors and with normal amounts of other items is at no-problem or less, now, I don't know about anybody else, but I take an encumbrance of no porblem to mean basicly not noticed, light means slightly more encumbered then naked, easy but manageable means you will get tired slightly quicker, etc etc, So, any char with an enc of light or less, regardless of what they are wearing is moving pretty darn easy, easier then somebody in sandcloth but at managable enc.

And what I'm saying is that it has nothing to do with how easy it is to lift.  Heavy armor will get HOT out in the desert, quite possibly hotter than a level at which humans, dwarves, or half-giant could expect to tolerate.  For this reason, it states in the documentations that heavy armor is NOT practical out in the desert.  How much clearer does it need to be?

And if chitin and bone are exactly as they are on earth then 90% of zalanthian fauna cannot exist,(GASP) therefore something is different on zalanthas, wether it be gravity or magickly strong substances or whatever.
But definitly different. Not like there have not been many GDB threads in the past talking about how larger then mansized insects can exist, for a kank to exist either, A, his exoskeleton has to be very thick, to the point he would basicly be unable to move or B, the gravity of the planet is low enough to allow a thinner exoskeleton or C: The material of the exoskeleton is amazingly strong and light, or D: a combination of the above. Then you have to wonder things like, How does a plate encased creature stop from cooking in his shell? It does not sweat, so maybe it gets rid of extra heat like a dog, from the inside by panting or something, if it does then it needs something to insulate the outside from heat getting through....Well, not like kanks have fur to insulate, no, they have chitin, would it make any sense for the chitin to insulate, yup, do the docs say it does, nope, do the docs say it does not, nope.

That is simply a gray area.  Yes, chitin would have to be light for gigantic insects to survive, but if you've ever gotten an average piece of chitin armor weighed then you'd notice it was very heavy indeed.  No, it doesn't make very much sense, but you can't simply ignore one piece of contradictary information (chitin armor is heavy), in favor of the one that supports your arguement (chitin would have to be light for kanks and scrabs to survive).

Um, A half-giant with poor strength can wear the heaviest gear you can find in the game, carry a giant backpack full of rocks plus a few large corpses in inv (assume over shoulders or something) And still be at light encumbrance. A half-giant with poor str in normal heavy armors and with normal amounts of other items is at no-problem or less, now, I don't know about anybody else, but I take an encumbrance of no porblem to mean basicly not noticed, light means slightly more encumbered then naked, easy but manageable means you will get tired slightly quicker, etc etc, So, any char with an enc of light or less, regardless of what they are wearing is moving pretty darn easy, easier then somebody in sandcloth but at managable enc.

And what I'm saying is that it has nothing to do with how easy it is to lift.  Heavy armor will get HOT out in the desert, quite possibly hotter than a level at which humans, dwarves, or half-giant could expect to tolerate.  This will cause your endurance to wear down quickly, and your body to sweat profusely and demand far more water than it otherwise would.  For this reason, it states in the documentations that heavy armor is NOT practical out in the desert.  How much clearer does it need to be?

Besides, it would be silly for any low agi race to go out with less armor then they can handle with at least reasonable ease, and I'm not talking about ooc knowledge either, every dwarf knows he is a lot stronger and a lot slower then any elf, elves dance around and dodge and dwarves stand in place and rely on strength endurance and armor.

It isn't silly to not do something that can't reasonably be done.  However, it is silly to refuse to take into account the difference in strategy in the city versus travelling in the wastes.  All your logic really comes down to is that quick, maneuverable races will have the advantage in the wastes when compared to slow, powerful races.

There is no Desert Dwarf race for a reason.

[Angela Christine]

Heavy Armor.


Heavy.


Heavy compared to what?

Heavy compared to sandcloth?  Well sure, but sandcloth isn't armor.


Heavy compared to iron?  Nope.  There isn't much metal armor in the game now, but there used to be.  Crude metal armor might indeed be significantly heavier than chitin and bone armor.


Heavy compared to stone and obsidian?  Nope, stone armor is heavier than bone and chitin.


Genuinely heavy armor is rare, and rarely shows up in shop inventories.  Most of the armor you run into is light to medium weight armor.  It would be absurd for Salaar to focus on armor that no one but the occasional mul or half-giant would want, since most of their customers are human.


AC

[X-D]

in the documentations that heavy armor is NOT practical out in the desert. How much clearer does it need to be?

And again I state that weight is subjective, How much clearer does -that- need to be?

Light-weight leather armor (as some people state is alright for the desert) Covers just as much and prevents just as much circulation of air as chitin/bone/stone, Or have you spent no time looking at descriptions?
A chitin plate cuirass is a -leather- cuirass with chitin plates to reinforce more vulnerable areas, which increases weight and maybe makes it less comfortable, but for purposes of coverage and heat it is almost exactly the same.

The only real difference comes with the strength of the wearer, if that weight is too much then the wearer must expend more energy and will get hotter and tire more quickly (reflected by code) But if somebody is strong then it encumbers as much or even -less- then that light armor does for weaker people. Also, you tend to forget that both wearers usually wear a desert style cloak to stop the sun from directly beating on the armor.

It isn't silly to not do something that can't reasonably be done. However, it is silly to refuse to take into account the difference in strategy in the city versus travelling in the wastes. All your logic really comes down to is that quick, maneuverable races will have the advantage in the wastes when compared to slow, powerful races.

There is no Desert Dwarf race for a reason.

First, How do you know that all dwarves are not desert dwarves? Or that they did not evolve in a manner to make them fit for the desert in a particular way, everything has a nitch, if you can not go one direction, you go another. You don't know any more then I do. All elves are desert elves, all elves are tribal, Elves did not start in city then move to desert, it was the other way around, there is only one elven race, it is lifestyle that makes them different, nothing more.

And I do not care about advantage, the game does have a balance, some is coded, some is RP, the things you see as advantage I see as difference because using the advantage of another type can cancel the other out leaving balance. Heavy armor to an elf is barely there to a dwarf, this is a balance.

[Akaramu]

Recently I encountered two PCs with "handsome" and "beauty" in their sdesc. I dont care about eye color in sdesc, but that annoys me, and makes me struggle hard to not be biased against them OOCly.

[Pungee]

Recently I encountered two PCs with "handsome" and "beauty" in their sdesc. I dont care about eye color in sdesc, but that annoys me, and makes me struggle hard to not be biased against them OOCly.

Well, it is -possible- to have attractive people even in deathly harsh climates. Though I am right there with you on that struggle, I'm just playing devil's advocate a bit. However, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder argument aside, I think if someone's going to be 'attractive' that they should at least be from a situation that allows them to be more or less protected from the elements. I.e. Nobility or Merchant class who have money enough to afford their own places or who have access to things that let someone be 'pretty' or primped up.

But yeah, in general that annoys me a bit too. Im more a fan of the disfigured and battle scarred types. I'm still waiting to see a mostly toothless and saggy faced tavern whore.

[Akaramu]

It mainly bugs me because attractiveness is relative, they should the heck make up a nice description about their features and let our characters decide if they find them attractive. Forcing us to view their characters as a "beauty" with the sdesc is just lame. Very lame.

[Quirk]

Half-giants are, if I remember right, ussually about ten times the mass as most humans, but I'd say they are WAY stronger then that.

More than ten times? We already had this discussion. Strength is in proportion to the cross-sectional area of muscle in the limb, weight is in proportion to volume. Half-giants would be at most about six times stronger, likely less. I can dig out the old thread link if you're really interested.

Quirk

[Pungee]

Oh god, I feel a physics discussion coming on. Please, lets avoid the weight/mass/velocity stuff.

[creeper386]

Half-giants were magically made by combining humans with a race that doesn't exist in the world where YOUR physics is based. So bugger off. I'm pretty sure, from what I've seen in game. That half-giants are stronger proportionately then they are bigger. You have physics that state otherwise? Who gives a flying fuck? I don't, as they most likely aren't true. As, by the laws of physics ... they wouldn't exist in the first place. So bugger off.


Creeper

[Quirk]

Half-giants were magically made by combining humans with a race that doesn't exist in the world where YOUR physics is based. So bugger off. I'm pretty sure, from what I've seen in game. That half-giants are stronger proportionately then they are bigger. You have physics that state otherwise? Who gives a flying fuck? I don't, as they most likely aren't true. As, by the laws of physics ... they wouldn't exist in the first place. So bugger off.

Creeper

Thank you for that polite and well-informed response. Actually, if you play a half-giant and investigate a half-giants carrying capabilities and damage caused in combat, I think you'll find the factor of difference in strength in game is rather less than ten. They're not necessarily impossible under the laws of physics, though I suspect they'd probably need a bit of internal replumbing over the basic human form to be workable.

Quirk

[Angela Christine]

Don't be hating.    Seriously, hate is bad for your health.  If you need to hate, hate nazis and childmolesters, not folks with slightly different play styles.

Sure, in our world hunters don't wear heavy armor.  Even hunters from small scale societies who may be trying to engage a wild boar in melee combat don't cover themselves head to toe in heavy armor.  On the other hand, few hunters in our world have to deal with the "if you leave the village you are meat" attitude from their fellow hunters.  You may be going out to hunt tregils with your bow, but you know that you could be attacked without notice by halflings, tembos, bandits, savages, and opportunistic bastards.  So you wear armor and carry weapons appropriate for fighting off those dangers, with the goal of keeping yourself alive long enough to run away.  Some merchants traveling with mounted caravans wear heavy armor even though they aren't looking for a fight at all and have hired swords that are supposed to protect them, because without any armor at all they can easily be cut down (insta-killed) before anyone has a chance to help.  As long as there are aggro PCs and NPCs out there, travellers have to wear armor, even if all they want to do is shoot a tregil.

It is just as odd for people inside the city to wear heavy armor, because the city is often just as hot or hotter than the open desert.  Yet no one scoffs at guards, mercenaries or militia that wear their armor while off duty.  Some kinds of armor should probably only be worn when going to war, not for routine hunting or guard duty.  Remember Fatty Tor?  A very well RPed character, but he should have sweated himself down to a stick-figure in the massive armor he routinely wore to sit around in the Trader's Inn.  

Most PCs only have one outfit that they use for all occasions.  Even those with several outfits and a place to store them don't change clothes as often as they might realistically be expected to do.  Changing clothes is a pain in the ass, and takes longer than it should unless you have clothes-changing macros (and those macros get embarassing if you accidentally hit one in public).  So many people end up wearing their worst-case-senario clothing all the time, even when there are not armies of gith mounted on mekillots attacking the city.  No big deal.

Cutting up corpses of opportunity?  Why not?  Yes, the corpse could be diseased, it could be poisoned, it could be rotted to an unpleasant degree (although the extreamly dry climate would stave off rot to some degree).  First you face the skinning test, if you fail to skin the beast you can explain it as the corpse being too rotted or torn up to have anything useful.  If you succed, then you found a couple hunks of meat, out of an entire scrab, that look ok.  If you aren't starving you may decide not to risk eating them yourself, hey they could be poisoned, but instead try to sell them to someone else.  You know the body isn't -that- old because corpses eventually disappear, ie: become to wasted to use or get completely picked appart by vnpc scavengers.  Besides, many people prefer meat that is aged (in other words rotted) for a while, because it is "tender" and easier to chew.  There are PCs who play scavenger-types, and scavengers try to scavenge all sorts of unsavory things.  It would usually be odd for a wealthy or fastidious character to bother trying to skin a found corpse, but there are plenty of characters for whom it would be a-ok.


I'm not going to go through the whole list, my point is that there are characters for whom most of the things on the list would be perfectly IC.  The shadier things tend to be self-correcting.  A hunter that kills everything from vestrics, to tembos, to gith is an odd duck, but  luckily those tend to aim too high and get eatten by an uber-duskhorn before too long.  And these aren't exactly new trends either, these things have been going on for years, maybe forever.

It's a good thread.  It give us a change to look at our character's behavior and evaluate it, but I wouldn't assume that everything on the list is going to be bad RP for every character.


AC

[SpyGuy]

Recently I encountered two PCs with "handsome" and "beauty" in their sdesc. I dont care about eye color in sdesc, but that annoys me, and makes me struggle hard to not be biased against them OOCly.

Maybe that's the PCs intent.  I view the sdesc as being the most distinguishing features of a character, if your blue eyes are your most distinguishing feature then use that as an sdesc.  If a character is physically attractive wouldn't that stand out in a place like Zalanthas?  And I have to ask, do you have the same problem with characters with "ugly" in their s-desc because I can think of a few of those I've seen.

My biggest problem is with people with generally vague s-descs (the tall, lean man) when their characters have features that clearly stand up in their L-descs.

But thats just how I look at things.

[Bestatte]

I don't like subjective words like handsome or ugly in descriptions. Here's an example to support why (using a character I had awhile back)

My character is a noble's aide. She's also a commoner from out of town, and feels uncomfortable surrounded by silks and extravagance. She lives with it and learns to enjoy it, but it doesn't spoil her, and she retains her appreciation of the more simple things in life. Her preferences extend to her tastes in men.

Then she meets a man...his description:

This man has gleaming silver eyes and pearly white hair that flows magnificently down his shoulders in tumbles of waves. He is extremely handsome, from his smooth flawless skin to his rippling muscles. Not a single scratch mars his tawny soft skin, and his fingernails are manacured and immaculately clean.

I read the word handsome and I think - WTF??? My character does NOT think this guy is handsome. She thinks he's crazy scary as hell looking. Unnatural, something out of a child's horror story. Not ugly, but most definitely, without a doubt, not handsome. She would recoil from someone who looked like this. He doesn't turn her on, he isn't handsome, he isn't anything other than very unnatural and scary as hell.

And yet - I'm seeing that he's handsome. But he isn't. Not to my character. And certainly not to a dwarf, who would think all that hair is pretty damned hideous.

That's why I hate subjective terms. Don't tell me what you want me to feel when I look at you. Just tell me what you look like. Let me decide what my character thinks about it.

[SpyGuy]

I can see this line of argument and now am a little embarrassed that I've made it in the past without thinking.

My only request is for those that do see this ingame (handsome, ugly, pretty, beautiful, whatever) is to OOCly view it as conforming to earth standards of beauty (which are more the standards of Zalanthian nobles I would think) and leave it at that.  ICly let your character make up their own mind.

Its kinda the same principle behind the seeing their eye color 3 leagues away, you ultimately have freedom of choice in how your character percieves things.  Beautiful here is an adjective, not a command -want to have sex with me-

My embarrassed 2 sids,

[Bestatte]

No reason to be embarrassed SpyGuy! I'm not judging the person who writes the description. I'm just slamming on the word itself

As for handsome vs. blue eyes - blue eyes aren't anything other than blue. It's not a subjective term, it isn't up to the reader to decide that they are seeing red or yellow (unless they're colorblind - another interesting character concept hm? )

Handsome is entirely subjective. It can't be supported by any possible fact, and relies only on the viewer to determine whether or not they consider it a valid application or not.

A suggestion for the future though - instead of saying "he's handsome" - why not describe what you feel makes him handsome instead? Tell me about those luxurious silken white tresses. Use a splash of "pretty talk" in the flow of your sentences. Give me the "feeling" of beauty. That way, you're not forcing my character to see something she doesn't see, but instead, you're allowing her to decide if she likes white hair on a guy or not.

[EvilRoeSlade]

However, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder argument aside, I think if someone's going to be 'attractive' that they should at least be from a situation that allows them to be more or less protected from the elements. I.e. Nobility or Merchant class who have money enough to afford their own places or who have access to things that let someone be 'pretty' or primped up.

Are you saying that only rich people can be attractive?  That makes about as much sense as a raving spice whore.

First of all, I still hold that even nobles and merchants are going to be dark-skinned.  Zalanthians are NOT dark skinned because spending all that time in the sun tans them.  They are dark skinned because they are born dark skinned.  It's a hereditary trait that would prove extremely useful to them due to the fact that it protects them from the full force of the sun.

Second of all, people should quit trying to be pretty by earth standards and begin thinking about Zalanthian standards.  Would a Zalanthian care if somebody has weathered skin?  If everybody else has weathered skin too, then probably not.  Maybe a Zalanthian might be considered disfigured by earth standards, but according to Zalanthian standards they are simply the norm.  On Zalanthas, piercings and tattoos are what make people beautiful, and not skin texture.

[sacac]

I also saw someone with a word like beautiful or handsome or another one of those words.

But the LDesc only had what the head looked like.. (I kill you)