This week at San Diego Comic Con WildStar revealed the final two races in the world of Nexus. We got on a call with the team at Carbine Studios to talk about the personalities behind these races and what they bring to the two major factions in the game. Wildstar has a unique sci-fi universe and both races fit into their weird and alternate roles. The Chua are the sociopathic gremlins of the Dominion faction that are responsible for the bulk of the empire’s weaponry. The Mordesh are space zombies who have been fighting off the Contagen for over eighty years. The Exiles have been smuggling them out as allies in the search for Nexus.
The Chua - Furious Furballs
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Every MMO need its “small” race. The Chua fill this role in Wildstar and appeal to the mad scientist in all of us at the same time. The Chua can chose from four classes: The Spellsinger, the Esper, and the two still unannounced classes are all playable by this race. They are definitely not the hardy warriors striding into battle. But what they lack in brawn they make up for in brains. The Mechari selected the Chua for membership in the Dominion because they have incredible technological skill. They are the best at making weapons and armor for the other more warlike races. However, their appearance and hyper personality give them a very bad reputation in the Dominion. This reputation that Chad Moore, Lead Narrative Designer, touched on adds a lot to their story line. The Chua return the evil eye back to the Dominion by not buying into their propaganda and basically pulling pranks whenever they can.
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A lot went into the dialogue and personality of the Chua because they are so different from the faction they serve. They wanted them to almost sound like the Joker in their approach to evil genius. The Chua still maintain a very light side; with the arrogance of their tech backing them up these guys get away with murder and usually laugh about it in the process. For those of you worried about the smaller race competitively, the team assured us that PvP would not be an issue in terms of targeting.
The Mordesh - Likeable Zombies
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Even though they are deemed the “good guys,” the Exiles get a much darker race as their fourth companion. The Mordesh have a long history as a race bent on perfection. When an alchemist named Victor Lazarin created an elixir to ensure the race’s immortality it instead unleashed a horrible plague. The Contagen turned the Mordesh into a zombie-like race as they border on becoming ravenous beasts. They are kept safe by another elixir which was invented by Lazarin that is a blue liquid which runs throughout their bodies. The Mordesh are part of the Nexus project in an attempt at revenge on the Dominion for trapping them once the outbreak occurred and setting up a blockade to keep them quarantined. Chad Moore calls them the “emo” race because of their dark history.
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The team explained that the Mordesh can be played as a Warrior, Stalker, Spellsinger, and the two new classes which have not been announced yet. This gives them some solid flexibility as melee fighters with some casting options thrown in. The content behind the Mordesh makes for an epically dark storyline. Their history was factored into their speech and personalities to make them as awkward as possible. There are portions of the game where you battle the Ravenous. These creatures are what would happen to the Mordesh if the elixir fails to keep them from turning into flesh eating zombies. Because of their quarantine by the Dominion the race is now bent on revenge and destruction of their enemies.
Carbine said that one of the main elements of WildStar that makes the races fun is there are not clear black and white sides. Every race, whether deemed good or bad, operates in a very cloudy shade of grey. There is even one zone where the Exiles had made some mistakes and come out of it looking pretty bad. It’s this mix that makes WildStar a stand-out when designing story and setting. The team often thought of what they would do in a given scenario vs. what the clear hero or villain would do. This helped to add a human element to Nexus’ many races.
We will have more on WildStar in a few weeks as hopefully the final two classes will be revealed. Hopefully, beta keys will be coming soon for all of us as the team heads into fall.
Garrett Fuller is the Industry Relations Manager for MMORPG.com
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