Lore about races/species appearance?
Syntia13
Member Posts: 514
While I am nuts about BG, and quite crazy about PST, those were/are my only contact with Forgotten Realms. (I blocked out the memory of ever reading the novels, thank you very much). I know that there are people on this board who know the universe inside out, and I have a question for you.
Are there any kind of guidelines/rules/descriptions about how the different races (or is it species?) look like? The descriptions in character creator are mostly quite vague about it
Elves tend to be somewhat shorter and slimmer than normal human.
Half-elves are handsome folk, with the good features of both races.
Dwarves are short, stocky fellows, easily identified by their size and shape.
Gnomes are shorter and slimmer than their dwarven cousins, but have significantly larger noses.
Halflings are short, generally plump people, very much like small humans. Their faces are round and broad and often quite florid.
What about other details, in particular regarding facial features?
What are ear shapes and placement, eye shapes, who grows facial hair, and who doesn't?
In BG2 Jaheira and Aerie have slanted, almond shaped eyes. Is that a typical elevish trait, or just artistic license?
Do elves grow beards, ever?
Do lady dwarves?
Do halflings have pointed ears?
Do dwarves?
It seems to be common knowledge that elves have 'pointy ears', but how pointy? Are we talking this: http://quenya101.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/elf-ear-surgery-new-beauty-trend.jpg , or this: http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af20/crinos81/Elvenarse.jpg , or something in between?
What about half-elves, which exact 'good features of both races' do they have?
What about drows? What IS the correct color for them, and should their faces look human (like both Viconias), or should they look like over-tanned elves? On that topic, what does a male elf look like? (There were none in BG2, and in BG1 everyone looked human :P )
Are there any 'regional' differences in appearance within races? Yoshimo has a very eastern look to him, when all other humans are 'European types'. Are there FR equivalent of Africans or native Americans? Are there such equivalents among elves, halflings, dwarves, etc.?
The reason I'm asking all those question is that, while waiting for BG:EE, I'm playing around with the portraits, and I thought it would be nice to tweak the NPCs' appearence to A) be more to my taste and
be more lore accurate. To this end, I'm going to try (key word - try) to put pointy ears on Jaheira and Coran, maybe change their eyes, and generally mess around with a digital brush.
I was wondering what other changes I could make, and which I shouldn't.
Thanks in advance for information.
Are there any kind of guidelines/rules/descriptions about how the different races (or is it species?) look like? The descriptions in character creator are mostly quite vague about it
Elves tend to be somewhat shorter and slimmer than normal human.
Half-elves are handsome folk, with the good features of both races.
Dwarves are short, stocky fellows, easily identified by their size and shape.
Gnomes are shorter and slimmer than their dwarven cousins, but have significantly larger noses.
Halflings are short, generally plump people, very much like small humans. Their faces are round and broad and often quite florid.
What about other details, in particular regarding facial features?
What are ear shapes and placement, eye shapes, who grows facial hair, and who doesn't?
In BG2 Jaheira and Aerie have slanted, almond shaped eyes. Is that a typical elevish trait, or just artistic license?
Do elves grow beards, ever?
Do lady dwarves?
Do halflings have pointed ears?
Do dwarves?
It seems to be common knowledge that elves have 'pointy ears', but how pointy? Are we talking this: http://quenya101.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/elf-ear-surgery-new-beauty-trend.jpg , or this: http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af20/crinos81/Elvenarse.jpg , or something in between?
What about half-elves, which exact 'good features of both races' do they have?
What about drows? What IS the correct color for them, and should their faces look human (like both Viconias), or should they look like over-tanned elves? On that topic, what does a male elf look like? (There were none in BG2, and in BG1 everyone looked human :P )
Are there any 'regional' differences in appearance within races? Yoshimo has a very eastern look to him, when all other humans are 'European types'. Are there FR equivalent of Africans or native Americans? Are there such equivalents among elves, halflings, dwarves, etc.?
The reason I'm asking all those question is that, while waiting for BG:EE, I'm playing around with the portraits, and I thought it would be nice to tweak the NPCs' appearence to A) be more to my taste and
be more lore accurate. To this end, I'm going to try (key word - try) to put pointy ears on Jaheira and Coran, maybe change their eyes, and generally mess around with a digital brush. I was wondering what other changes I could make, and which I shouldn't.
Thanks in advance for information.
0
Comments
No, elves don't grow beards (or other body hair)
Yes, Dwarven ladies have beards (or the did)
No, Halflings don't have pointed ears, Nor do dwarves.
I perfer the Liv Tyler ears, but I think FR elves are slightly longer than that, but not as long as the other elf you linked to.
Yes, there are regional Differences for Humans, FR's Native Americans live in Maztica across the Trackless Sea (colonized by Amn, the people south of Baldurs Gate).
Further south of Amn you have Calim which is a Middle east Representation. as for Africa, I'm not sure?
Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes all have racial subsets (Elves have Sun elves, Moon, Wood, Wild, Aquatic, Avarial, Lythari(I think I've spelt that wrong, but they are sort of like elves that change into Wolves), Drow)
Drow skin is dark gray through to black, and they are Elves so should look elvish just dark skinned (not just darkly tanned)
As for appearances of the different races, I believe it changes between books. The 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting has an overview of races with pictures, but only one specimen of each, and they look different from 4E pictures. Also, the depictions of single individuals change with artists and over time (compare the early 90s Drizzt to the present one), so one FR elf might look quite different from another. I'd say pretty much anything goes, really. Except for those ultra-long elf ears, I've never seen those in FR works. They do look less human than LotR's elves, though, BG2 has the 3E elf art style put down somewhat well.
Those are more Lineage or Wow like.
edit : just re-read the post and get the impression that i thought i was an artist there for a moment. hmm. strange.