Anticipation is reaching a fever pitch for the upcoming action-MMOG style="font-style: italic;">TERA.
This month, En Masse Entertainment is releasing their latest race
reveal – the High Elves! To learn all we can about our
favorite pointy-eared race, Ten Ton Hammer talked to Dave Noonan, Lead
Writer for TERA
about what makes elves unique in the world of style="font-style: italic;">TERA.

---

Ten
Ton Hammer: Other RPGs seem
split on what to do with elves. Often enough they follow the Legolas
mold and portray elves as proficient in ranged weapons, but just as
often high elves are skilled magic casters, excellent healers, and
fierce melee combatants. Where do style="font-style: italic;">TERA's
high elves fall in terms of combat proficiencies?



Dave
Noonan: style="font-style: italic;">TERA’s
high elves are spread broadly across player
classes—that’s part of the game’s
approach to design. There are no “race X makes the best class
Y” situations in style="font-style: italic;">TERA.
That said, high elf culture certainly favors its sorcerers and slayers,
and a theoretical high elf census would reveal fewer priests and
berserkers. High elf berserkers certainly exist, though—after
all, one of the most important NPCs in the game is a high elf berserker.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95346"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 326px;"
alt="tera high elf"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95346">

Ten
Ton Hammer: What's the
elves’ relationship to the "Flower of Life" mentioned as
enormously important to high elf history in the lore? Do quests revolve
around increasing its power, or are the elves content to contain its
enormous power?



Dave
Noonan: The elves made the
Flower of Life to celebrate the marriage of their creator god, Karas.
The fact that mortals were able to distill such power in something as
innocuous as a flower filled Karas with paternal pride (think of a
precocious child’s art project). Karas invested some divine
power in the flower and taught the elves further secrets of arcane
magic. The elves had proved themselves quite capable, and Karas thought
they were ready for further lessons.



Later, during the Divine War that pitted god against god, the Flower of
Life was accidentally damaged and began leaking uncontrolled
magic—a bit like a nuclear reactor melting down. To keep the
devastation from spreading, the elves transferred the
flower’s magic into a sorcerous lattice they call the Core.
All that dangerous power is now contained within the
Core—under the control of an elf who sacrifices a normal life
to become one with the Core and control it.



You'd better believe that lots of people—good and
bad—would love to get their hands on the power that the Core
represents. So yes, count on plenty of Core-related quests and
plotlines.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95347"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 326px;"
alt="tera high elf"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95347">

Ten
Ton Hammer: The story snippet
refers to Wind Elves, hinting that this splinter faction may play a
role in the unfolding style="font-style: italic;">TERA’s
story. MMORPGs typically go towards darkness and mystique (dark elves,
night elves, blood elves) or towards nature-loving (wood elves) or go
hybrid (i.e. half elves) for dissident or "impure" elf factions. Wind
elves sound new - can you tell us anything about the wind elves and why
they went their own way?



Dave
Noonan: The high elf/wind elf
schism happened when the elves were in crisis—the Flower of
Life was damaged and destroying the elves' homeland. The Core was the
high elves’ plan, and the wind elves wanted to let the
devastation run its course, then rebuild elf society in a way that
wasn’t dependent on a single power source like the Flower of
Life. On top of all the elves’ other problems, they now had a
bitter civil war to contend with. The high elves won, but feelings are
still so raw that they rarely even mention the wind elves—if
any still exist.



Ten
Ton Hammer: Elves and
diplomacy typically go hand in hand. Will this result in any sort of
"charisma bonus" for elves? Can you tell us anything about what racial
bonuses elves will have?



Dave
Noonan: There is no Charisma
bonus beyond what you get when you make a good-looking high elf in the
character creator. Their racial bonuses involve manipulation and
extraction of magical energy. There are also some efficiency benefits.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95348"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 326px;"
alt="tera high elf"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95348">

Ten
Ton Hammer: When describing
the personality of elves, it's stated that "Other elves can usually
spot the telltale signs of an angry, sad, or amused elf, but
[non-elves] see only an implacable calm." Does this perceived calmness
affect your approach to things like emotes or even motion or combat
animations? Are High Elves the Dirty Harry characters of style="font-style: italic;">TERA?

Dave
Noonan: This might be my
writer’s imagination running away with me, but when I look at
the high elves’ combat animations and emotes, I see very
little wasted motion. They’re very graceful and purposeful.
Even their “idle” emotes—what they look
like when they’re standing around—have a purposeful
body language to them.



Ten
Ton Hammer: I promised myself
I wouldn't make any Elrond references (oops, just did), but are elves
the mainstay of the Valkyon Federation - the alliance of "good" races
that players will initially serve? Do they form the diplomatic backbone
of the Federation, and will players have a role in this process through
quests or story?



Dave
Noonan: The high elves would
certainly say that they’re the mainstay of the Valkyon
Federation. There’s some truth to that—when the
races banded together to face the argon menace, the high elves were
probably the strongest militarily. But they were also in crisis, with
argons at the walls of their capital city. It also probably troubles
the high elves a little that the Valkyon Federation was a human idea
and it’s based in a human city.



In any case, the high elves are nothing if not forward-looking.
“Let’s see who’s the mainstay of the
Valkyon Federation five years from now,” they might say.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95349"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 326px;"
alt="tera high elf"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95349">

Ten
Ton Hammer: With power
(typically) comes arrogance, and the lore intro discussed the
superiority complex that high elves project. How do you develop this
with story and quests? Any suggestions for high elf roleplayers?



Dave
Noonan: The trick is to be
justifiably proud of your heritage and to let that pride shade into
arrogance—without being a jerk about it. High elves are also
capable of separating the specific from the general. For example, an
elf might say, “My friend the castanic lancer is a terrific
ally, even if the castanic people are mired in short-term thinking and
pointless attitude.”



Ten
Ton Hammer: Could you tell us
anything about the art direction and character customization options
available for the high elves to help ensure every high elf is a
unique-looking high elf?



Dave
Noonan: The overall aesthetic
for the high elves is refined beauty. They’re the runway
models, not the rock stars or the athletes. Just in terms of the
visuals, mind you as they’re just as athletically capable as
everyone else. We do a lot with eyes and hair in character
customization—plus some jewelry that involves their pointed
ears, but isn’t a set of earrings.



Our thanks to Dave Noonan for this interview.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95350"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 326px;"
alt="tera high elf"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95350">