Living Stone

History

Slow and tough, the Living Stone are biological stones with fire in their veins.

The Living Stone are the newest race to join the others in the Elemental world. They were created through some accident that took place at the Cataclysm, which they call the event of Creation. Far underground, perhaps by great pressure or some other unknown force, a Fire Shard exploded. This birthed the first of the Living Stone, quite literally stone men and women come alive. When they crawled to the surface of the world they were originally mistaken for Golems, and thus greatly feared. But the Living Stone, with no culture of their own, quickly adopted the Kingdom way of life, believing in the right to forge one's own destiny seeing as they had none of their own.

Beyond that, very little is known about the Living Stone. Their bodies are on a biological level completely different from anything else in the world, so much that they cannot rightly be considered to be alive like others. Of course, noone who has ever met a living stone would make such a claim to their face. Their stony bodies allow them great power in battle, although they move much slower than a human would of the same size - no doubt their great weight is to blame. Amongst the Living Stone, only one moves and acts more "human" - their leader, Ceto. They say he was closest to the Fire Shard when it exploded, and empowered him, giving him his unique orange colour. Because he is more easily understood outside the Living Stone society, and also understands the surrounding world around them better, he now leads them. Unlike other sovereigns, Ceto was born with the ability to channel magic, rather than having to learn it, possibly a result of a shard quite literally being his creator.

Faction Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

Fireworship	Living Stone build special improvements on Fire Shards (they raze all others that they conquer). The Living Stone build Stone-Fire improvements that provide a faction-wide bonus to Fire attack in addition to its normal benefits. Altars provide +5% Fire attack to all controlled units, Shrines give +10% and Temples give +15%. Direct Fire attack is found on weapons such as Burning Axe, and spells like Burning Blade, and the Living Stone Bloodline. It does not increase damage from spells such as Fireball, Burning Hands or Flame Dart.
Excellent Miners	Faction produces +20% Metal from all sources
Inorganic Sustenance	All cities suffer -2 Grains. For each Material in a city it gains +0.5 Grains
Close to Home	All units stationed in cities have their enchantment mana maintenance reduced by 10% per city level, and gain 10% more experience per city level.
Magma Forge	All Magma Forges count as +1 Fire Shard power as well. This effect produces no mana

Weaknesses

New Culture

Living Stone were created at the Cataclysm and so have no past knowledge to rediscover. Their research is 10% slower

Bloodline

Bloodlines apply to all units of this race.

Blood: Living Stone

-25% Initiative, +20% HitPoints, +50 Fire damage resistance, -40% Dodge. Living Stone suffer -5 Blunt resistance and -25 Cold Resistance. Living Stone gain +1 Fire attack (+0.5 per level). Living Stone count as: Humanoid Not Alive Hidden Genders Living Stone Champions may not pursue the Path of the Assassin.

Special Traits for Unit Designs

These traits are exclusive to this faction and can be used for their Unit Designs.

Trait	Cost	Effect
Fireborn	6 1	+30 Fire resistance. Stacks with similar bonuses. Costs 1 Crystal per unit member.
Living Metal	8 1 2	Each time this unit is struck in melee combat, it gains +25% to all its physical defenses until it ends its next round. This bonus stacks. The trait costs 1 Crystal and 2 Metal per member.
Half-breed	6 1	-15% HitPoints, +15% Initiative
Umberdroth Bond	10	As long as this unit is riding an Umberdroth mount, this unit will ignore 33% of all blunt damage. The bonus will not work when fighting any unit riding an Umberdroth.