Runic Races

[1.6.0] — 2026-07-06

Ability VFX Overhaul

This update gives every active ability a clearer, more distinctive visual presentation, while also improving passive effects and weakness feedback.

• All 37 active abilities now play out in more noticeable stages instead of firing all their effects at once.
• Added new particle shapes for cones, bursts, rings, and other ability effects.
• Added new race-themed particles and sounds.
• Passive abilities now give clearer visual or sound feedback when they trigger.
• Severe racial weaknesses now give immediate visual feedback when they begin affecting you.
• Added vfx.signatureParticleDensity to control signature effect intensity.

Improved Race Effects

Highlights include:

• Blood Elf frenzy now builds up before erupting.
• Ice Elf abilities gather inward before bursting outward.
• Deep One and Canine abilities create expanding shockwaves.
• Changeling's transformation now forms and shatters a magical mirror.
• Feline Pounce now uses dedicated claw and lunge effects.
• Fire Drake breath now looks like actual fire instead of purple dragon-breath particles.
• Terra Drake breath now throws stone fragments.
• Drake breath attacks now include matching sound and screen effects.
• Faerie and Sprite wing effects are now visually distinct.

Fixed

• Kitsune foxfire now looks like actual foxfire instead of generic soul particles.
• Previously unused Venom and Bone particles are now properly used.
• Removed HUD states that could never actually activate.

Compatibility

• No network protocol change.
• 1.6.0 clients and servers remain network-compatible with 1.5.0.

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[1.5.0] — 2026-07-05

A major bug-fixing, balance, security, and compatibility update following a full review of Runic Races.

Client and server must both update to 1.5.0.

Major Fixes

• Fixed wings not appearing for:

  • Avian
  • Sprite
  • Faerie
  • Wind Wyrm
  • All four Drakes

• Fixed several other race-specific features being disabled alongside wings, including scaling, ambience, HUD elements, and integrations.

• Fixed Magi's Arcane Overflow being unusable without Iron's Spellbooks installed.

• Invalid ability attempts now properly refuse activation without wasting the cooldown.

• Wing-flap boosts can no longer be abused by modified clients while simply airborne.

• Drake breath weapons and other area attacks no longer hurt:

  • Teammates
  • Owned pets
  • Allied pets
  • PvP-protected players

• Feather's Mod stamina values now reset properly if a player no longer has a race.

• Fixed multiple datapack powers accidentally overwriting one another's attribute bonuses.

Race Selection

• Added a Back button to the race-selection screen.
• Players can return to the heritage/family selection before finishing character creation.
• Once character creation is complete, the selection cannot be repeatedly reset.

Feather's Mod Integration

When Feather's Mod is installed:

• Wing flaps now consume stamina.
• Smaller wings cost 1 feather.
• Wind Wyrm wings cost 2.
• Attempting to flap without enough stamina gives a warning instead of wasting the ability.

Standalone flight remains unchanged.

Helpful Warnings

• Servers now warn when other Origins add-ons contain origins hidden by Runic Races' two-layer selection system.
• Added optional one-time learning hints explaining why certain abilities were refused.

Balance Changes

• Sprite

  • Speed: +30% → +20%
  • Attack speed: +15% → +10%

• Faerie

  • Ground speed: +20% → +15%

• Feline

  • Nine Lives cooldown: 10 → 15 minutes
  • Using a life now causes 5 seconds of Weakness II

• Fire Drake

  • Breath damage: 7 → 6
  • Cold/wet vulnerability increased from 30% → 35%

• Changeling

  • Mirror Shift cooldown: 40s → 25s
  • Attack penalty reduced from −10% → −5%

• Canine

  • Hunger penalty reduced
  • Taigas now count as home territory

• Zombie

  • Healing penalty reduced from −25% → −15%

• Valen

  • Movement and attack-speed penalties reduced

• Iron One

  • Reduced penalties when using Iron's Spellbooks and Ars Nouveau

• Kitsune

  • Reworked weakness
  • Now takes 20% more damage under the open daytime sky

• Volt Drake

  • Gains an extra 10% attack speed while in rain

Stability

• Added more automated checks covering abilities, networking, race conditions, and compatibility.
• Improved build and release testing.

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[1.4.0] — 2026-07-02

Race Presentation Overhaul

Every race now has a stronger visual and audio identity.

Ability Effects

• All 37 active abilities now use dedicated race-themed effects.

• Added new visual patterns such as:

  • Rings
  • Spirals
  • Domes
  • Lines
  • Bursts

• Added new custom particles for webs, leaves, feathers, shadows, foxfire, magic, bones, and more.

• Added additional race-specific sounds.

• Previously unused screen effects are now active for abilities such as:

  • Moon Elf's veil
  • Blood Elf frenzy
  • Changeling's Mirror Shift

Ambient Race Effects

Many races now produce subtle effects during normal gameplay.

Examples include:

• Magi producing arcane glints around enchanted equipment.
• Kitsune leaving foxfire trails while sprinting at night.
• Wraith producing shadow trails while sneaking.
• Sea Serpen leaving bubbles while swimming.
• Terra Drake producing dusty footsteps.
• Feline reacting to campfires.

Better Weakness Feedback

Racial weaknesses now have clearer visual and sound effects when triggered.

Examples include:

• High Elf crystal-like impact effects.
• Arachnid chitin cracking.
• Skeleton bone fragments.
• Avian feather bursts.
• Demon holy-damage flashes.
• Volt Drake electrical short-circuit effects.
• Dry-land and underwater weakness indicators.

Blood Elf lifesteal now also shows a visible healing stream.

Wing Overhaul

Wing models have been rebuilt with different styles:

• Membrane wings for Drakes and Wind Wyrm
• Feathered wings for Avian
• Gossamer wings for Sprite and Faerie

Wing movement is now more natural, with:

• Smoother follow-through
• Tip movement
• Overshoot during flaps
• Optional motion-blur effects
• Glide trails
• Landing effects

Resource packs using custom wing textures will need updating because the texture layout changed from 64×32 to 64×64.

HUD & Screen Effects

• Screen effects now use proper textures instead of simple colored rectangles.
• Added optional FOV effects for impacts, breathing, wind, and other abilities.
• Added effects.simpleCues for players who prefer simpler effects.
• Added effects.fovEffects to control FOV changes.
• State indicators now use themed rune icons.
• Ability HUD icons have been improved and enlarged.

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[1.3.0] — 2026-07-02

VFX Foundation

This update laid the groundwork for the later visual overhaul.

Added

• Added custom race-themed particles.

• Added new race-themed sound events.

• Added individual wing textures for each race instead of shared family textures.

• Added clearer feedback when:

  • An ability is still on cooldown.
  • An ability becomes ready again.

• Added underwater/dry-state tracking for aquatic races.

• Added more automated checks for race visuals and abilities.

Improved

• Added config controls for:

  • Ambient particle density.
  • Screen-effect intensity.

• Player scale now updates properly after config reloads.

• Improved breath weapon visuals.

• Wings now update immediately when switching races instead of taking several seconds.

• Added more race-specific sounds and subtitles.

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[1.2.0] — 2026-07-01

A major bug-fixing and balance update following a full audit of Runic Races.

Major Fixes

• Skeleton — Conscript the Dead

  • Now summons friendly Grave Servants instead of hostile skeletons.

• Arachnid — Web Snare

  • Traps now actually trigger.
  • Trap lifetime increased from 10 to 60 seconds.

• Fixed malformed datapack settings potentially causing server crashes.

Fixed Weaknesses & Passives

• Canine and Dryad

  • Forest bonuses now work correctly.

• Celeron, Avian, Faerie, Sprite

  • Increased-knockback weaknesses now actually work.

• Moon Elf

  • Night regeneration now functions properly.

Ability Fixes

• Valen Shoulder Check

  • Now works only on direct melee attacks.
  • No longer triggers on arrows or tridents.
  • No longer targets players, pets, or villagers.
  • Can only trigger once per sprint.

• Reaper Revival

  • Failed revival attempts no longer waste the 30-minute cooldown.
  • Removed an incorrect lifetime-use limit.
  • Tooltip now correctly says 30 minutes.

• Deep One / Terra Drake

  • Tremor abilities no longer waste their cooldown because of hidden activation requirements.

• Magi

  • Arcane Overflow now properly requires 30 mana.

• Feline

  • Nine Lives no longer wastes a charge on unavoidable damage such as the void or /kill.

Safer Area Attacks

Offensive area abilities now target hostile mobs only.

They no longer hurt:

• Party members.
• Pets.
• Villagers.

This applies to abilities such as:

• Rune of Warding
• Arcane Overflow
• Frostbind
• Foxfire Illusion
• Siren's Charm
• Infernal Wrath
• Soul Harvest
• Web Snare
• And others

Missing Mechanics Added

Several abilities that were described but not actually implemented now work:

• Arachnid / Serpen

  • Melee attacks can poison enemies.

• Blood Elf

  • Gains melee lifesteal.

• Wraith

  • Spectral Phase restores health.

• Wind Wyrm

  • Gains slow-falling drift while airborne.

Balance Changes

• Demon

  • Removed the nighttime attack bonus.

• Sprite

  • Adjusted its overall power rating.

• Serpen

  • Shed Skin cooldown: 30s → 45s

• Canine

  • Hunger drain increased.

• Changeling

  • Replaced its broken Luck penalty with −10% attack damage.

• Primian

  • Adaptation stacks now require killing different mob types instead of repeatedly farming one type.

Polish

• Dark Elf's daytime penalty now only applies under open sky.
• Wing-flap cooldown displays now work correctly.
• Invisible races no longer leave obvious potion particles behind.
• Improved visual effects for several abilities.
• Expanded weakness support to more damage types.
• Forge Blessing no longer duplicates existing Unbreaking enchantments.
• Improved Serpen's Shed Skin sound.
• Removed old and unused assets.
• Origins dependency now requires version 1.10+.

Admin Tools

Added:

• /runicraces validate

  • Checks race datapacks for problems.

• /runicraces state <player>

  • Displays detailed information about a player's current race, cooldowns, effects, and integrations.