Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General What is behind elf design?

I just remember playing Dragon commander and elves pretty much looked very similar to humans, wonder what influenced the decision to make them look distinct.

Also it's quite ironic that in Dragon commander as far as I remember they were mostly Vegan, and now they are cannibals.

In DD they were also the "skinny humans with pointy ears" type of elves, whereas in ED they looked... well, completely different. In DOS2 their appearance is somewhere in between. I forget the exact explanation that was given in ED but something happened. Which is fairly typically unhelpful and uninformative of me.

I kinda wish they kept the human skin, the only thing I dislike about their looks now :/

It's definitely a very different and very distinct take on elves. It does take some getting used to.

It's not that it's a bad take on elves. It just so happens to be almost completely contradictory to the elves of 10,000 years earlier and the elves of 24 years earlier.

Fantasy games have a huge problem with overused races. Elves being the most common of this. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of how they look but I'd rather them look interesting and unique than be the same fucking thing I've seen across thousands of games and movies.

I guess I just still prefer "skinny human with pointy ears" Elves to "completely alien looking" Elves. The "Eaters of the Dead" gimmick is okay I guess, though technically would only be "cannibalism" when they eat dead Elves. If they toned down the alien elements, maybe used the same skin texture as humans, it wouldn't be so bad. Or at least gave us the option to use other skins.

Just my thoughts.

I actually like it, and think they should have gone a little further, by making it so when they enter combat, their skin literally transforms into tree bark.

I like the new elves a lot.

I have to point out that cannibalism is the consumption of the flesh of a sentient race by another sentient being not just an elf eating another elf otherwise if a black person ate a white person or vice versa it would not be cannibalism. I say this because there is as much difference between someone of Asian or Caucasian decent as there is between the concept of an elf and a human.

That being said I hate the new design for elf armor it looks ridiculous other than that the elves look like skinny humans with pointy ears its just the graphical design of armor that makes them look different in the game and tattooing. Also I think the cannibal thing is some kind of strange nod to the AD&D Darksun setting at least that is what it seems like.

That's scientifically unfounded and incredibly racist.

Actually the comparison holds to a point. They're biologically different (to a degree) and have obvious/and not so obvious difference, but similar enough that the differences arent quiet that important. In this case, I believe, the post was meant to highlight the similarities with humans and elfs that make what they do count as cannibalism.

Though the word "race" in high fantasy has more common with "species" since I'm pretty sure the various "races" don't share common ancestry in evolution.

EDIT: It's not racist to highlight that different races have different genetic traits and that sometimes these traits can directly translate to pros/cons of biology developed based on specific factors over time.

It literally is. The concept is called scientific racism, and it has been thoroughly discredited by modern science.

That's not to say populations aren't biologically different from one another; but linking that to "race" is fallacious, because "race" is not a biological or genetic reality. Examining the genetic differences between populations in different regions reveals not clear delineations but rather a continuum, and any attempt to separate out such populations into different categories is by its nature arbitrary.

Okay, so after a little reading I find this focus on the idea that one says "race" and thus must mean distinct with a notable genetic difference questionable. Race generally refers to population groups based on regional ancestry that developed notable phenotype.

Human DNA is highly malleable inherently. Add that to the fact that no one group has been in isolation enough to develop clear lines of differentiation and of course it's a continuous function of region....otherwise there would be differences as distinct as humans and elves.

EX: If someone says Asians are generally short, that's a reality of their phenotype developed by the region they developed in...."Race" is an identification of region group, generally, and the characteristics of said group. Asians aren't short cause they're Asian, they're Asian cause they came from (originate) Asia and a developed characteristic of such is that they're short and look a certain way. You could argue that we all originated from the same region if you look far enough but that's like saying we're all related if you do the same, yet we differentiate between family units unless you're close enough in bloodline to a certain degree.

*tilting head* I find the idea of acknowledging phenotype differences between races as racist strange. I find the idea that me saying one is generally taller and therefore has an advantage in certain circumstances makes me racist strange. <-This seems to be what you're implying

Edit: I do find this conversation a bit interesting, but we are getting off topic. I think the point made was that what elves do counts as cannibalism cause they're close enough to humans and dwarves such that it counts under definition....though I don't think that holds for lizard people.

Bear in mind that the word cannibalism and a lot of the terminology we use has emerged in a world where we didn't have to worry about the nuance of literally having different species of humans.

Our language would look quite different if modern humans hadn't killed off the Neanderthals so early in our history.

I think it's safe to say that elves are human enough for it to be considered cannibalism.

Yes, but what of lizard people? O.o Are you implying our supreme overlords are also human enough? Should I break out in song singing "One of Us"?

I really love their aspect of largely "consent" being at the core of their cannibalistic ideology. It does add a bit of a unique, respect driven approach to their culture. Its as some other real cultures in our world have described it in the past, as "please, allow part of me to become part of you" e.g. the "blood brother" hand shake (as horrifically bad this is for spreading blood-born pathogens lol).

I honestly wish the Default elf female was as equally clad in armor as the male, and that there were plenty of options for reserved as their are for skimpy.


If we look at Guild Wars 2 for example, they have an EXTREMELY diverse set of options from "realistic almost" plate armor to "skimpy bathing suite" levels of lollicon armor in some cases. The important part is there is freedom of choice and "skimpy" is not FORCED on anyone by default, just as being prudish or reserved is not forced on players as well.


As a gay male feminist of the moderate branch of feminism, the single most important aspect for me is having agency in how one presents themselves vs being forced into a default image that others set for you or your character.

Sometimes the overly sexualized theme simply fits and works, and other times it does not.

If I want my Elf Female to be a fem fatal lightly clad assassin showing some skin (bark?), awesome please let me do this.

If I want my elf to be a well protected fully armored tree bark wearing bad ass bitch, please let me do this! You can strike a balance and no, you don't have to provide a billion options like a high budget full on MMO, but please don't make me feel like I have to choose one style or the other by default and with no options.


Here are examples of some of my really enjoyable Sylvari characters and my norn Thief from Guildwars 2:

Faelyn, my "desert nomad" looking Sylvari Druid.

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6LnJ4-WjK-CNGdmMEFqVmZhMWs/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Inara, my celestial knight-archer themed Slyvari Dragonhunter.

[img:center]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6LnJ4-WjK-CT0lvM0k4WGF0Z2s/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Lastly, Talaan, my norn Daredevil (the skimpy one, a gal needs freedom of movement while being acrobatic!):

[img:right]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6LnJ4-WjK-CWVM3a2dLSEtFTlk/view?usp=sharing[/img]


Not mine, but here is an excellent example of "heavy" plant armor.

http://i.imgur.com/KXTADZX.jpg

You should probably throw this in the thread concerning female and elf character models

Lol, no its not inherently racist to use the word race when talking about different types of human heritage.
It is not the scientific definition of the word race, but that is not how people generally use language.

Racism is a serious word, used to imply something serious.
To denegrate people because of their ethnicity is really wrong, but noone here was doing that.

Talking about how asians tend to be short, acandinavians pale, and people from Kenya run fast is not racism. It does not come from a place of malice.

Racism is only meaningfull as an "accusation" if it refers to something bad, if you are going to point at any type of discussion regarding how people are different and shriek "racism" all you are doing is diluting the meaning of the word.

The interesting question is why you want to throw the accusation of racism around in such a way that will make the word as harmless as calling something "blue". Eventually if that is how the word is treated people will just shrug and say: "yea, so what?"

Did you look at male elves? They're wearing just as little, if not less.