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.