RACES IN TERA

In total there's seven playable races in TERA, all of which were available from the start of the game. You've got the standard noble Humans and assholeish High Elves, but TERA took an interesting approach to other races. Castanics were one of the most marketed races when the game first came out, especially in the West. They're horned and more petite compared to humans, but they look a bit devilish, smug and I guess you could say cocky, which fits with their ingame portrayal. Then we have Amani (or Amans/Amanis, I see people use all three although officially my usage is correct), a large and muscly reptile like race and Barakas, which are just massive tranquil dudebro rocks. Lastly there's Poporis and Elins, both coming from the same goddess in-universe. Poporis are completely animal like while Elins are, well, kemonomimis. Allegedly, Elins got added pretty late into the development of the game (as evidenced by their less detailed character customization options in fine adjustments), which is ironic considering they became the game's biggest cash cow.

Aside from the playable races the game has a lot of other creatures in it considering it's your standard fantasy mmo. A lot of them taken from other cultures, books and popular media. Arachnens, Devans, Imps, Nagas, Vampirs, Wendigos etc etc...

All of the pictures were taken by me, and all of the official descriptions were taken from EnMasse's page on Tera's races, now sadly dead. If you're interested in reading more about Tera's lore please check out tenacity-tera.eu which has one of the most comprehensive lore summaries for TERA, as it pulled through multiple language sources. Yes, TERA lore differs by region!

PLAYABLE RACES

HUMAN

Official description:
Cursed by their god to wander without a homeland, humans turned their adversity to advantage by using their long exile as a learning experience. They studied the culture and crafts of other races, and forged their own destiny without guidance from their neglectful deity. Now, as creators of the Valkyon Federation, they are admired and respected by all the nations of the world for their role in bringing together the coalition that will defeat the argons and return the world to peace at last.
My analysis:
First of all I'd like to point out how WoW inspired Human Males are. The muscled build and bulky armor with huge shoulder pads always gave me Arthas vibes. Generally I feel like you could plop them in WOW and they'd hardly stand out.
Humans are probably the least popular race if we exclude the niche Barakas and Amani. If it weren't for the Brawler class initially being locked to Human Females only (afterwards extending to Human Males, Elins and Poporis too), they'd be even less popular. And I get it, playing Humans is the "boring" choice in an MMO. Personally since I'm 100% all about the dressup and aesthetics with no regard for the lore or connotations that come with playing certain races, I think Human Females are the prettiest female variant as they've got a great balance in the cute/beautiful/sexy triangle and they've got 2 really pretty faces with multiple nice adornments. Human Males on the other hand are too bulky and burly for me, so they end up looking like baras or dumb himbos which is not my thing. I do have to admit they have really great face and hair options. I feel like Castanic Males especially lack good hair options.
When it comes to what kind of players you'd usually see play Humans, most of the time it's noobs, especially when I take Brawlers out of the mix. It's very rare to see an experienced player stick to a Human as their main, maybe they'll have an alt of some class be a Human, but never their mains. The rare experienced player that plays Humans is usually a total bro though.
I am a human female main, more or less (no my previous sentence was not biased, you gotta trust me). It started with my Priest being race changed to one, but currently on Menma's my Zerk and Warrior are humans.

CASTANIC

Official description:
Castanics inspire more conflicting emotions than any other race in the federation. Clever and skilled, castanics are also opportunistic and hot-tempered. A castanic never forgets a friend and never abandons an ally. They're also notoriously quick-tempered and have a tendency to decapitate first and accept apologies second.
The castanic race is famous for the skill of its artisans and crafters. They are also adept merchants—cunning negotiators who love the interplay of bargaining, and strive to come out on top in every deal.
My analysis:
Castanics are definitely the most popular race behind Elins. The reason is simple - the Males look like gymrats (appeals to men and some women), the Females look sexy but can have pretty faces (appeals to men and women). Their horns and cool scars give them some fantasy appeal which makes them less bland than Humans, and they seem less hoity toity than High Elves. One thing I've always been pretty impressed by is that despite TERA being a Korean game, Castanics don't have a single totally lily white skin option (the images I used are kind of not representative of this because the lighting really washed them out it seems, oops). They're simply a mostly tanned race (with the exception of one skin which is pinkish tanned you could say), which I respect. Plus, they're a slutty race in general like high elves, men and women included, which I also respect. Idk what the Koreans were smoking when making Tera, but it turned out more gender equal than the stuff they're putting out today.
While I could divide them into subgroups like some other races, it wouldn't be as meaningful because all sorts of people play Castanic so they're not as stereotyped. Tryhards love Castanics because of the 1% more crit from the back (negligible even if you're into score running), there's some people that loved to ERP as Casts, girlies love to play Casts because of the cute face number 9 and so on. They simply have the right ratio of uniqueness to wide appeal.

HIGH ELF

Official description:
The elves once lived lives dedicated to venerating nature and the gods. The "Children of Karas" maintained their forest homes in peace, but that changed when the conflicts of immortals destroyed their civilization and split a proud and powerful race into two factions. Now, only the "High Elves" remain.
After three thousand years of conquest, a force of allied races dealt the mighty high elf armies a devastating loss. After this rebuke, the elves withdrew from the world for a century of seclusion that only ended when the gates of Allemantheia opened to refugees fleeing the argon invasion. The world took notice when from those gates marched an army that fought for the lives of all mortal races.
Though the blood of elven soldiers bought their seat at the Valkyon Federation table, many among other races do not trust the elves' "New Way," believing the desert city's walls conceal many secrets, and that the elves never gave up their conquering ways.
My analysis:
There's a lot of memes about High Elves, namely that they look a bit like giraffes because their necks are very long. High Elf Females have an unfortunate case of lordosis and extremely huge breasts that makes them disliked by a lot of people. I appreciate them for their elegance despite the fact that they have massive breasts, a trait I hate on Elves, in addition to negative hips and ass but I never stuck playing with them for too long. High Elf Males on the other hand are memed for looking too gay, but that's just cope because they always get all the girls and are the biggest prettyboys ingame. My first Priest was a High Elf Male, I also had a Lancer and a Warrior. At some point my Priest and Warrior were a High Elf Female too. I like the race, but somehow always end up race changing from it.
High elf players come in multiple forms.
The Lancer: The most popular choice. Helf Males have stayed the best choice for Lancers due to their slightly faster Shield Barrage animation. Elins were the second most popular due to the best skating ability (pressing combo + block to move fast in combat - useful in pvp) but frankly, I think these animation differences got equalized at some point although I feel like I memoryholed it. Either way, this rule still persists in the zeitgeist so people tend to roll High Elf Males for lancers to this day. Plus they just look really cool. These types of High Elf Males Lancers always come with an Elin pocket healer and ERP companion.
The Coomer: Always a High Elf Female, played by a male ERPer into cowtits. After Elins, the most popular ERP choice. They don't usually do PvE or PvP, they just idle in the most populated spots in a swimsuit with +3 breast size waiting for someone to whisper them, or they whisper others.
The Woman: Every female player will make a High Elf Male at some point. If it's not a lancer, it's usually a warrior, sorcerer or some kind of a healer. It's just a right of passage. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

ELIN

Official description:
The elins have one driving goal: if it's not good for nature, stop it. Older and wiser than they appear, they join with forces of nature and mortal races to sweep their enemies from the battlefield. Their speech is often dark, forthright, and otherworldly, and their sense of humor can border on vicious. Other races find the elins' manner and behavior off-putting.
My analysis:
Ahh Elins, there's too much to say about this race. I'll admit, they're what got me into Tera. Besides just being loli bait, there's something genuinely cute about them and it's no wonder this race is the most popular one with actual non-pedo women as well. A lot of my characters were/are Elins, although I'm currently just keeping an Elin as my Lancer. They have the biggest choice of cosmetics, so they're the most worthwhile to play if dressup is your endgame.
However, they're the most controversial race for a good reason. They're basically lolis with really thick thighs and big hips, made to look more sexualized than actual children. While this can be mitigated with the use of thigh and height changers, it doesn't change the fact that Elins are a bit... sus.
Elin players come in many forms, and I'll try to categorize some of them here.
The Gooner: Elin ERPers are probably the most common type of erper. Their thighs are usually maxed at +3, and they wear the skimpiest outfit possible, or a nude mod in the form of the Ducky Swimsuit or the default innerwear. Their existence has dwindled as Tera closed it's servers down, as nowadays they mostly goon in PSO2, FFXIV or VRchat. They come in many types, most common are the Elin futas. They're known for sending sexually charged whispers unprompted. Everyone that ever afked in Velika's Freedom Plaza has probably gotten virtually assaulted by them at least once.
The Tryhard: The biggest tryhard minmaxers that don't speak or interact with players they consider below themselves are always Elins. I believe they play the race because of a certain prestige that comes with being a tryhard and an Elin. Like they'd be caught dead maining a Human or an Aman. Usually it's because they're the ironic edgelord weebs type of people that say "git gud" or "skill issue" on repeat. If they ERP, they do it in absolute secrecy.
The E-Girl: My chronic nlog-ism flares up like herpes when I have to interact with them, sadly. Before the term e-girl became popular online, it was being used left and right in TERA. E-girls were a specific type of female players, usually asian american in NA and russian in EU, that love to do a fake uwu voice and dress their elins in pastel pinks and purples. They'd be huge assholes to anyone that isn't their pocket tank accessory, and if they did pvp they'd be even more insufferable. They'd always max gear on their healers first even though gear didn't matter much on healers. They're still present in private servers, but I'd say they're much more subdued, probably due to growing up and becoming generally more chill and getting disillusioned with the e-girl larp. The e-girl loves attention and popular games, so most of them moved on to other fotm games. If I further categorized e-girls I'd divide them into ddlg uwu autopedo types and mean girl abg types.
The Lolifag: These types aren't necessarily erpers, but they definitely wanked it to Mojarin's doujins and have heard about TERA on /v/, /a/, or /jp/. Non-existent almost, most of the 4chan TERA audience is gone. A lot of them trooned out, some of them turned into gooners and spend their time in VRchat or simping after vtubers, the ones that played hard moved onto ffxiv, bdo and other MMOs.
The Every Girl That Played Tera: Self explanatory. Elins cute nature attracts women that like playing female characters in games. They usually make them wear cute clothes, they color coordinate well, they make their elins tall to look more "adult" or they make Elins thighs less thick to look more appropriately child like.

POPORI

Official description:
The popori nation is made up of two distinct races. The elins—small female humanoids—were created by the goddess Elinu out of her own divine essence. The poporis are non-human beasts awakened to sentience by the elin. They are small, and accustomed to not being taken seriously. Poporis are curious, candid, uncompromising, and utterly ferocious—resolute and tenacious defenders of nature. They are quick to learn, and quick to judge. Lose a popori's respect and you may never get an opportunity to regain it.
My analysis:
Poporis are often the most ridiculed race. Often hated because they're furries, or because a typical popori player is usually very bad at the game, or a mix of both. I have grown to like popos as a race with time, their animations are incredibly well done and they can be really sweet. A lot of players came to like them as well in the recent years. Interestingly enough, Poporis in asian regions of the game (JP, KR, TW and SEA) were actually one of the most popular and liked races. Women especially liked to play them, somehow this adorable animal vibe never made it to the West though, I reckon it's because of furry degeneracy being too pronounced here.
Popo players come in a few common forms.
The Wholesome Furry: By wholesome I mean kind, helpful and generally a happy type of player (not talking about their potentially unwholesome porn habits). They don't get angry much and they're usually mid at the game, but they do like to help out newbies. In the past, especially in the NA region, these types of Poporis would very often be genuine and skilled roleplayers. Nowadays they're the thankfully rare hecking "wholesome" trans furries that are mostly nice people, but like to police everything around them. TERA luckily doesn't have many of these types, and they usually wander into the community by accident and leave quickly.
The Molester: An ERP Popori. Not that common anymore (or at all), but have to be mentioned due to their disgusting nature. Probably into the Ugly Bastard porn trope.
The Memelord: Probably the most common type of Popo right now, and what I would put my own Popori into. Usually a joke alt character. A 50/50 chance they're insanely skilled or really shit at the game. Makes the community a more fun place. Always in a weird costume. Bonus points if they have the Baraka voice on.

BARAKA

Official description:
The Baraka are related to Tithus' children, the giants, but in turning their backs on the giants' wars of conquest, they avoided their progenitors' doom on the Day of Flame. Baraka value knowledge of all kinds. They maintain libraries of the accumulated learning of their own people, drawn from all the world's races, in every city where they make their homes.
Despite their gentle nature and generally pacifistic philosophy, it would be a great error to suppose baraka are weaklings, for their other great hunger is for balance. Balancing mind and body means that every young baraka learns the arts of combat alongside the arts of knowledge. Like the amani, the baraka fiercely defend the weak and downtrodden.
My analysis:
Extremely rare, definitely even more rare than humans. Usually delegated to joke alts, but if someone actually mains a Baraka they're probably the chillest and coolest player around. They've got a Santa Claus vibe to them, idk how else to explain. I like them even if they suck, it's the rare race rizz.

AMAN

Official description:
Enslaved by conquering giants and freed many centuries later by the goddess Kaia, the amani value freedom above all things. They are naturally wary and slow to trust, but having earned their trust, you will have it until you prove faithless. You really don't want to do that.
Amani are direct in speech and action, honest, candid, and somewhat imperious. They are usually respected, often admired, sometimes feared. No one doubts they will say what they mean, do what they say, and make life very hard on their enemies.
My analysis:
Amani are rare as well, but not as rare as Barakas. On NA, you could find a handful of ERP Amani at the Forbidden wall in the Freedom Plaza. Often times, like poporis, a good amount of Amani were people that genuinely liked to roleplay. This trend doesn't follow on the EU region as nobody on EU really liked roleplay. For a while, back when crystals existed, you could min max lancer with the slaying crystal (more damage at a low HP) because Amani have a special passive that makes them basically unkillable at low HP if utilized right, which made a lot of Lancers race swap to Amani. Amani Females (also known as Femani) tend to play into the muscle mommy stereotype. Oftentimes they'll ERP as futas. It's the unfortunate faith of a muscled female race. They do look kind of badass though.