Wingin’It with the EverQuest II Fairies

I don’t know jack about fairies. My sister has some scandalous fairy books that are pretty sweet, but other than that you won’t find me dawdling in the back of some library with a bunch of fairy books reading up on the blood line and fictional history of fairy god mothers. I try to keep an open mind, but some races I refuse playing - if it looks like a deformed flesh bag and it is not supposed to be, all bets are off, it wont play right. When it comes to the EverQuest II fairy models, the Arasai and Fae both get a thumbs up, the Arasai a little more so though!

Having a playable fairy race is a huge risk compared to your standard common place humanoids in other fantasy mmorpgs because a fairy race is easier to screw up. The fairies must be big enough and yet still diminutive in accordance with armor textures that display correctly while showing diversity, not only for thousands of pieces of gear, but distinct facial and body features as well. It doesn’t end there, a winged creature should move differently or have the ability to do so than flat footed races and the developers did an excellent job with both movement and the look and feel. I applaud the developers for taking a big risk on this playable race and not taking it lightly, making the fairy model cohesive with the other races so that it feels natural, but yet also unique.

In the latest Everquest II update, Neriak resurfaces bringing evil fairies with it, known as the Arasai - some players epitomize them as the emo’ness of all emo, they may look it, but I’m sure they are just misunderstood creatures who like to keep “I hate me” journals and slice themselves with a thousand cuts to relieve their pain because the Queen is a royal pain - and no the Arasai don’t actually do that, but their dance is very lame or funny, sometimes both. Is there much difference in the body shapes from a Fae and the Arasai? Of course not, what really distinguishes the two races from one another are their wings. For those who haven’t seen them I tossed up a few pictures. First set are the female Arasai and the second are the female Fae.

The Arasai have 12 wing variations where as the Fae only have 11, (not 12, look harder) each male race also has a different set of wings with the same number as their female companions. For further wing customization, you can tweak some colors - The Arasai definitely have the more vivid and magnificent looking wings, but the Fae wings aren’t bad after you pick out colors you like. I saw some real wicked combinations floating around in and out of Neriak last night.

What I like most is their movement is extremely fast, my Arasai is a dirge, that grants me a song with a nice speed bonus. I’m not sure if I would want to play another race because I love hauling ass. It probably doesn’t help that level 10 you can invest in one of the best racial abilities in any mmog - Glide. It does what it says, so come glide with me baby. Alright that’s lame, but damn that’s how I feel when I’m flying around, I’m sure the feeling won’t last, but I know I will miss it when I play another race that doesn’t have the uber glide. All-in-all, the EverQuest II fairies aren’t so bad for those not crazy about faeries.