Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Elves should look more otherworldly

Actually, visualisation for the Forgotten Realms elves was done by Ed Greenwood before AD&D or D&D, or even Chainmail, was a thing. He had already mostly created the world before suggesting it as a setting for D&D. He, like Gygax and Arneson, was influenced by fantasy authors such as Tolkien for their world's inhabitants and so similarities already existed, but changes were made to Greenwood's original world to better suit the D&D/AD&D game. Forgotten Realms elves, however, owe more to Greenwood than to Gygax and Arneson.

What you picked up on for the rest of the post is slightly misinterpreted. I was not suggesting that I ought to be able to create an elf character that is bright purple with a huge melon for a head and six legs, but that, within the guidelines of Forgotten Realm's existing literature, I should be able to create a character that suits what I want t create, be that dark brown, light-skinned or anything in-between. No fantasy setting has ever described every single individual of a species with their setting, and it is therefore possible that variants of (say) a Wood Elf have features that are not exactly the same as any of the illustrations seen on the internet. As it is possible, I would like that option to be available for my version of an elf character. Ideally, of course, I would like an infinite number of variations, but this is impractical. However, the elf faces seen in BG3 are not, to my mind, in any way unreasonable. I'd like more choice, yes, but we cannot have everything.


I'm not sure I'd slap ears on anything and call it an Eleve.