Nivarian Race
We drifted from the cold. Now we wake on a world that burns.
Nivarian Race brings an ever-evolving draconic humanoid race—the Nivarians—to RimWorld. They hail from the frigid, dimly lit planet Nivara at the edge of the galaxy, drifting here aboard a damaged generation ship to awaken on an alien world.
- Icy Core System: Cold restores, heat decays; full stat bonuses when stable
- Three Xenotypes: Lumin (psychic/healing), Artifex (research/machinery), Custos (combat/labor)
- Lumin Skills: No psylink neuroformers! Lumins gain abilities from three skill trees (combat/operations/care), earn XP to level up, unlock new skills and boost skill strength. The more you use them, the stronger they get!
- Uplink Research: Build beacons to connect to the mother ship, spend materials to download data, unlock exclusive tech
- Frost-Drake: A powerful colony animal—tameable, ridable, and pack-capable for long trips. When idling in the colony, it hoards treasure in its nest
- Building Special Production: Ordinary production happens at the workbench; advanced production is (mostly) automated! The Cryo-Printer links to pigment hoppers (red/green/blue) and uses primary colors to print items; the Cryo-Forge consumes coolant for cryogenic forging of Nivarian advanced metals. Artifex can tune these machines to boost efficiency and output
[list] - Scale Growth & Shedding: Configurable threshold; scales provide personal protection (ballistic plates) and crafting resources
- Humanoid Alien Races 2.0 (required)
- Biotech (optional, for xenotypes, babies & children)
- Royalty (optional, for psycast content)
Icy Core state affects colonist performance:
• Stable: +20% consciousness, +30% moving, +15% manipulation, -15% incoming damage, +15% work speed, +20% healing, +20% dodge, -5% rest fall, -20% mental break threshold
• Wavering / Decaying / Failing / Critical: Gradual penalties as severity increases
Manage it: Build Icy Core stabilizer furniture (furniture expansion) or print pills / establish cold zones. Nivarian colonists will use cryo pills or seek cold spots to rest on their own.
Xenotype
Role
Traits
Lumin
Spiritual & healing core
Psychic affinity, empath & healer; gains XP and levels through using psycasts (no neuroformers); gains entropy recovery when Icy Core is high; frail, poor with machines
Artifex
Logic & tech masters
Research, machinery, crafting; can tune Nivarian machines; emotionally detached, frail
Custos
Guardians & laborers
Strong, resilient warriors & workers; keep them away from the kitchen—their meals won't fill your stomach, but the smoke from explosions should fill the kitchen
Nivarian skin is covered in scales that grow over time. Scales provide armor and damage reduction, but overgrowth reduces movement. Set a shedding threshold—when reached, colonists drop scales. Scales are key crafting materials for research, gear, and buildings.
Nivarian tech depends on uplink to the mother ship. Build the Uplink Research Beacon to unlock the exclusive research tree. Research costs materials (steel, components, scales, etc.)—unlike vanilla research, Nivarian tech requires material samples from the planet.
Building
Mechanics
Uplink Research Beacon
Connects to mother ship; consumes materials to unlock tech
Cryo-Printer
Red/green/blue pigment hoppers; Artifex tuning; automated bill queue
Cryo-Forge
Coolant; Artifex tuning boosts output; automated bill queue
Name
Description
Frost-Wheat
Cold-hardy wheat; grows down to -40°C; Nivarian staple
Frostberry
Cold-hardy berry
Frost-Drake
Draconic creature from Nivara; tameable, ridable, pack animal; hoards treasure (silver, steel, gold, jade, etc.)
- Horns & Tail: Natural melee weapons with stun
- Prism Catawand: Psychic energy weapon with aim adjustment (guaranteed hit); damage scales with psychic sensitivity
- Cryo Grenade: Area freeze effect; turns enemies into ice sculptures!
- Cryo Pill: Automatically lowers body temperature over time to keep Icy Core stable
- Nivardil: Won't fix baldness, but accelerates scale growth
Coldness Shelter: Three Nivarians ask to stay and recover their Icy Core; if the environment is stable, they may join.
Mod Settings
Customize Icy Core decay rates, thresholds, Luminis bonus conditions, and more in-game.
Q: Where does the name "Nivarian" come from?
A: From the Latin stem Niv-, meaning snow.
Q: What do you mean by non-forcing gameplay?
A: I dislike forcing players to play a certain way—except for balance or functional constraints (emphasis). Overall, I believe players are free and have the right to steer the game. So when designing the mod, I avoided "you absolutely cannot have B without doing A" and leaned toward "you can have a weaker B without doing A."
Q: The content seems a bit sparse?
A: Yes. First, I'm a programmer with a heavy workload; making mods in my spare time is quite difficult. So I decided to release the core first and develop DLC mods gradually.
Q: Adding mid-save...?
A: No...
Q: Future plans?
A: After the core mod release, I'll observe for a while and iterate based on feedback. Then we'll follow our roadmap. If you're interested, welcome to our Discord or QQ group. Come chat!
Q: Bugs / Suggestions!
A: Submit here: Bug Form [ai.feishu.cn]
Q: How do I...?
A: There's a work-in-progress Wiki: Wiki [nivarian.miraheze.org]. Feel free to contribute!
[discord.gg]
[qm.qq.com]
Acknowledgments (in no particular order):
神月Shione for the awesome furniture/apparel item textures design,
大王(一木) for the lovely expression textures/hairstyles,
水圣绫 for the expression texture organization and maintenance
From Nivara's cold, to the stars, to this world. May your colony thrive.
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