Rift/YMMV


 * Unfortunate Implications: There are two factions: one righteous and pious, one rebellious and iconoclastic. At first glance, these appear to be "good" and "evil" respectively (of course, further inspection, or indeed any inspection at all, reveals it to be a case of Grey and Gray Morality). The "good" side is comprised of races that are light-skinned by default, the "evil" of naturally dark-skinned races. Make of that what you will.
 * The fact that one of these races are desert nomads, the others are dark-skinned elves from a jungle-filled series of islands doesn't help the matter any.
 * Conversely, the paler-skinned side would be all too easy to Godwin.
 * The problem is, the "good" side are the religious fanatics, whereas the "evil" side, at first glance, appear to be fairly reasonable scientists who know for a fact that the current path everyone's on ends very, very badly. So it's hard to say if this is inverted, averted, or what.
 * Averted. You've got one faction of fanatics, one faction of potential Mad Scientists. The only darker or lighter shades here are the skin tones of the Ethians and Mathosians.
 * This is really, really, REALLY reaching. Literally none of the game media except the Guardian starter quests (which are told from the Guardian POV) even begin to approach supporting this. Not to mention you can make rather light-skinned Eth, Bahmi, and Kelari; as well as quire dark-toned Mathosians, Dwarves, and High Elves.
 * Unfortunate implications of goodness or evilness regardless of skin color, but instead based on religious affiliation could be here as well. Perhaps averted due to the creators giving both sides usage of propaganda. For some players, at first glance, the Defiant is the truly righteous, wielding pioneering technology, choosing to take fate into their own hands instead of following the vigil to a doomed fate(as seen in terminus). Then you have the evil Guardians being the ones with the old mindset, their sin being that of blind submission and acts of extreme prejudice against people they don't (care to?) understand. Though in the end, both sides are fighting the good fight, against Regulos. perhaps it's a case of Poor Communication Kills, or perhaps there's too much hatred to allow communication or diplomacy.
 * Much of the "good versus evil" schtick comes from the fact that it's essentially two groups of Knight Templars going at it: one in zealous devotion of their faith which denounces Defiant technology (since its power source is at least partially responsible for damaging the Veil and releasing the Blood Storm to begin with); the other in zealous devotion to their freedom to explore and invent without being told it's wrong "just because" and a group who in fact KNOW that their tech can succeed where the Guardians' faith cannot. Of course, if either side would get a clue that, maybe, if they spent less time fighting each other then the could probably pile up on Regulos as one giant army, they'd be done with the war and back home in a month. And we wouldn't have much of a game left.
 * On to a different source: Has anyone else felt strange going into a Golden Maw labor camp and finding everyone dressed in a style reminiscent of 19th century Chinese immigrants, complete with silk jackets and Coolie hats?
 * Hype Backlash: This game is advertised everywhere, and got a bunch of pre-release hype about being different from every MMO that's come before. It's pretty much World of Warcraft meets Warhammer Online with a smattering of Dark Age of Camelot.
 * Les Yay: If the Ship Tease between Uriel Chuluun and Kira Thanos isn't canon, it's pretty damn close. In the last part of the story of their "relationship" Mulia says that Kira has entranced Uriel's heart. In the headquarters of The Unseen, one of male agents asks if Kira would find his tunic attractive, to which he is told he is 'squirreling up the wrong tree.'
 * Which, if you think about it, gives the Defiant starting zone a distinct Bury Your Gays vibe, seeing as how . (Or it could just be that ).
 * There's also Enqyeke Chinua's self-admitted "schoolgirl's crush" on Asha Catari.