Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General What happened to Elves?

While my post was meant to being a direct reply to NickNick's, I guess I kind of indirectly replied to several opinions as well. I feel like it's safe to assume you're responding to me as you've referenced what I talked about specifically. I'm more than happy to explain my post more in-depth and talk about intent and interpretation as it will give me a chance to voice my own opinion on Larian's design choices.

It fits closer to older depictions of elves in folklore where they were viewed as harmful/disruptive to human society. As opposed to to being elusive and desirable when they became romanticized. I brought it up, as NickNick's post read as if there was no room to draw reference from anything other than Tolkien's interpretation if it had the name elf. As if it's the end all, be all. I didn't, nor was I trying to imply that Larian drew inspiration solely from germanic folore. I brought it up to illustrate that elves in design can come from the Tolkien depiction most fantasy media adopts. I think it's kind of short-sighted and inappropriate to demand every design choice of physical appearance and story/lore follow the same mold every time someone creates something fantasy related. I think it was Larian's intent to make design choices that drew inspiration from somewhere other than the many Tolkien clones that are out there. That being said, I'm also not trying to claim that the choices they've made are the most original or inventive. Making elves slaves, or viewed as savages because of their connection to nature or removal from society isn't new. They literally just flipped the typical roles of elves and lizard people in most fantasy media. However, I appreciate the lore behind *how* elven society got to where they were in DOS2.

As for the aesthetic design choices; I like the height, elongated and slender limbs/neck. They were easy/effective design choices to separate them from more typical elf designs. Not that it's ever been done before (hey Bioware). The proportion Larian achieve is more "correct". I also like the lean, lithe, sinewy muscularity to them. I think all of the choices relate and work in tandem with each other to depict their tribal-esque culture. I think they were good choices in relation to their designs in Dragon Commander to show the changes the race has undergone since. Dragon Commander being the first game in the timeline at 8800 AR while DOS2 takes place between 1233 AD and 1238 AD. Physical appearance is a great and easy way to narrate change over a period of time as long as that. Granted, that kind of physical evolution would've taken longer in real life, we're dealing with a fantasy setting. I do think the weird ridges/lines on the torso are unnecessary and distracting. There's definitely better ways they could've added more diversity from typical or their past designs. Ones that would've been more appealing and functional.

As for the actual 3d renders themselves, I like the female models. The head selections have a good mix of following the beauty triangle vs. characterization. Leaving a few that are more atypically beautiful and some that are more exaggerate to fit the new overall design. As for people complaining that Sebille doesn't look *exactly* like she does in a single piece of art, it's a CRPG, they were never going to spend the time/money on the facial renders to make them as detailed as the art. It's just not feasible or functional for a game with a top down view. The established features and proportion are rendered in her head model, however. Being a little simplified with slightly more exaggerated features (such as her eyes) reads better from a distance and is less expensive/time consuming to make.
I'm pretty disappointed in the male renders though. They focused way more on characterization to the point where most of them feel unusable for a personal character. I also don't like the choice to make the males shorter as they already did that with another unusually tall race in the game, the lizards. Not only is it more appealing on them, it also feels weird to repeat it. I feel like making the males and females the same height would have been better. The hairstyles are disappointing as well. There are too many tribal motiff options, that are frankly either poorly designed or just need better proportions. They should have made just as many civilized hair options to account for either circumstance (such as Sebille's hair being more tame/civilized because she didn't live in elven society) or realism because Elves wouldn't have *as much* access to construct them at Fort Joy. Most of them aren't functional either.

I also have a problem with the armor design. I feel like it should've been limited to several armor sets you can only get in either elven territory, from elven vendors or found in ruins (Or a combination of the three). It's un-immersive to have a majority of armor pieces somehow be fully elven so far removed from elven society. Not to mention it's somewhat disruptive to the flow in design of the rest of the game to have *so many* of them be over the top tribal motifs. I don't think they're bad, just too frequent.

I like the overall design going on(more so when including the lore). However there are definite flaws in some of the execution (looking at you male elves) and what I feel were some poor choices such as the armor and disparity/disconnect with the hairstyles.