Races in the Moonlands

One of the difficulties of converting Magi Nation to use with Pathfinder is the issue of races. In the CCG, little thought is given to actual racial mechanics since race is pretty much just there for flavor. A few other sources that are no longer available gave some more insight into the racial characteristics of each group, but even that does not help a great deal.  There are really two ways to handle race; one is the lazy man approach and the other is the one for people who have a lot of patience.

One way to approach the races is to try and track down the various issues of The Book of Ages, a newsletter that was released to fans and contained tidbits about the various races. This is difficult because only six issues were ever released and only one of those was released online. Once you have gathered all of these issues together then you can use the information to come up with your own stats. This is the hard way.

The simpler way is to simply look at existing races from Pathfinder and find ones the closely match the races of the Moonlands. This can also be difficult since some races, like Arderians, Narans, Orotheans, and Paradans do not really match up with any existing race in Pathfinder. However, it is possible to take a stab at this method and it is still much simpler than the other method.

As an example, Naroomese are a race that lives in the forest, believe in living in harmony with nature, and both encourage adhering to the traditions of the past while encouraging each member of society to seek their own path. These traits describe elves almost to a tee and so elves should be used to stand in for Naroomese people. On the other hand Underlings are described as a short and stocky race, quiet but fierce, technologically advanced, and most importantly an underground dwelling race. This points to dwarves as being a good stand in for Underlings.

Now the question is how do you deal with the troubling races. Looking at the Paradans, the only things that really set them apart is their green skin and their ability to swing Tarzan-style through the jungle. The green skin is entirely cosmetic and the tree swinging is something that is learned rather than inate, so as far a mechanics go we can easily treat them as humans.

Here is a list of my own suggestions for races to use in the Moonlands and which regions to use them in.

Arderial-Humans. In this case the flavor needs to be slightly rewritten so that the Arderians live in flying cities similar to the Netherse in the Forgotten Realms rather than being able to fly under their own power.
Bogarth-Originally I was going to say goblins, but I am leaning more towards gnomes instead.
Cald-Half Giants work the best for a fire resistant race.
Core-Drow probably work best for the shadow magi.
D'Resh-Again I would go with humans.
Kybar's Teeth-Again I would go with half giants since Kybarites are described as being larger than other Moonland people.
Nar-Considering the harsh climate, I have no idea for Narans. Perhaps humans would work here as well.
Naroom-Elves
Orothe-I would say use the Gillman from the Guide to Absalom for the aquatic orotheans.
Paradwyn-Humans again
Underneath-Dwarves
The Weave-Weavers are small, friendly, and homebodies, and halflings are perfect to fill in for them.

Edit: After spending some more time looking at the cards and such, I think that using one particular race to stand in for the magi from a region is a bad idea. I have seen much more variety in the art than I had first noticed. Narans and Paradwyn are the only ones that seem to maintain a consistent appearance. Instead I would treat the regions as countries and use the usual array of races.