Many of the elements in "EverQuest" have been drawn from text-based MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) games, particularly DikuMUDs, which in turn were inspired by traditional role-playing games such as "Dungeons & Dragons". In "EverQuest", players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as a "char" or "toon") by selecting one of twelve races in the game, which were humans, high-elves, wood-elves, half-elves, dark-elves, erudites, barbarians, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, ogres, and trolls. In the first expansion, lizard-people (Iksar) were introduced. Cat-people (Vah Shir), frog-people (Froglok), and dragon-people (Drakkin) were all introduced in later expansions. At creation, players select each character's adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric — called a "class" — see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization of the character facial appearance is available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc.).