Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Elves are not Elven - Tel-quessir feed back ;)

I'm no AD&D aficionado but I read they're meant to be stunningly beautiful. I looked though those official art work pics and they look closer to one of the Greys. I don't know about you but that's not my idea of beauty. I will say this. I for one am glad Larian's reigned in on the arms race of ear length and foregone the ridiculous Fu Manchu eyebrows of WoW. Elves originate in Tolkein's works (well they actually come out of Northern European folklore but that's another thing) and were more akin to Vulkans from Start Trek in terms of ears but in the last decade or so they've somehow ended up with ears longer than your arms. So personally, unless the model has changed since the OP, I think Larian's done a pretty good job on Elves. Could do with shorter ears but generally better than anyone else in the last 15 years.

I love the design of the elves in BG3!

Either way is fine with me. I certainly wouldn't mind true elf models but I honestly think it is subject to interpretation.

They say elves are beautiful, but beauty is not the same for all. Some, myself included, do not think that a lot of the true elf images are beautiful at all. I also didn't think Aerie was beautiful, and I didn't really like her character. I liked Jaheira, but she looked to me like a human with pointy ears.

I've also seen drow images both as pointy eared dark skinned people and true drow portraits, and I always preferred the more human looking images.

But, on the other hand, variety is good. Elves looking like humans with pointy ears makes them not as diverse and special. They're just humans with pointy ears. nothing more. It might be more interesting to have true elven models so people can really see the differences between the two. I mean, it is sad that if you choose the wrong hairstyle that covers the ears, you can't even tell if you chose to be a human or elf.

Elves are usualy concidered beautifull, bcs their faces are symetric (unlike humans) ...
Nothing more, nothing less.

What is a true elf model ? The models in the OP are the artistic proposition of an artist who had been working for 5 year long with wotc, twenty years ago. Nothing more, nothing canon. It's also worth mentionning he worked a lot in the science fiction area. I think that Larian options are as valid as any other, whether people like it or not is another debate.
Btw, in the OP, the BG2 portraits certainly do not represent all elves in that game, the best example being the queen Ellesime. Even Jaheira (half-elf) was very different in the first BG game.

My criteria is simple: if - after blocking an elf's ears with my fingers - I can't tell them apart from a human, they fail the "Elf Test". Barring some of the drow/dark elf options, most of the elves ("half-" hybrids included) in Baldur's Gate III fail the Elf Test. While I don't have a lot personally invested in this game, it is still disappointing to see Larian take the path of least resistance when it comes a staple race of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. I am curious...did they make this decision because contemporary people in general are more sensitive to the "uncanny valley"?

By the way, I'm not letting certain D&D artists off the hook; there are official art pieces displaying "humans with pointy ears". However, there are also pieces of art that clearly live up to the core/canon written descriptions of how elves should look.

I think this comes from other games and Tolkien lore. BG1 and BG2.... Elves defintely do not look like humans in BG1 and BG2. They have more Elven like faces and not only pointy ears.

Belle Delphine you can google her is my favorite dresser of human as Elf woman. She has dressed to all kind of things including Cat and also Elves.

That being said no I am not some ultra fan of her have not bought her bathwater. She attracts me to her looks, music (I am back tune despite I know she does not sing most of it), artistic talent. She is on top of that a GAMER girl that plays games. She is considered NUMBER 1 E-GIRL.

Elves live almost an eternity and age ultra slowly.
Belle Delphine started her career underage as teen, but nowadays is young adult.
Reminds me of Britnery Spears when she made her first song that made popular she was 17.

There is no CELEBRITY person that I am ultra fan of so I would must meet live so I am not super much into fandom and no I have not bought any of Belle Delphine products though I have seen her youtube videos and seen some very nice pictures of her as an Elf.
I would not mess with Belle Delphine fandom crowd. Here is a true story. She has millions of fans. Youtube banned her.... that got her fans enraged and youtube very quickly unbanned Belle Delphine saying a mistake has been made though some of her old videos remained deleted from youtube. I can imagine the feedback was not nice to youtube when they banned Belle Delphine.

Now Elves in BG3 are kind of ok, but could be better with that I mean more Elven.

Below are some images of elves that I found; some of these images are old while others are fairly new. With the fan-art exceptions of Corellon with Eilistraee and Aerie (at the very bottom of the images in the next post), all pieces are for official Dungeons & Dragons products.

Agree to disagree if you wish, but I feel that these characters all look fairly elven without being utterly hideous the way other franchises portray the fair folk.

I believe OP already covered the most explanatory pictures. O_o

I'll post it here, was reading through my 4e forgotten realms players handbook and came across something that shocked me. The muscular elf in BG3 (forgot his name), would actually legit make sense in forgotten realms. He would be considered a Wild Elf; based on this description wild elves are more muscular than wood elves. Exposure to the sun makes their skin dark but does little to their black or chestnut brown hair. Many wild elves also decorate themselves with tattoos, war paints, and ritual scars.

Curious, does 5e say anything related to green elves/wood elves/wild elves?

Yay!

When one is forming a case of this nature, it is imperative that the evidence be overwhelming.


Come to think of it, subrace exception(s) aside, elves in general aren't feeble; if anything, it appears that elves are stronger than the baseline race (i.e., human). How? Well, consider this: elves tend to be both shorter and slimmer than humans, yet they do not suffer a penalty to Strength.

Oh that's a good one, never thought about the attribute layout.

That's a bit dismissive not to mention somewhat inaccurate in the aggregate. Several artists over D&D's forty-odd years of publication have rendered elves recognizable as elves based on official/core/canon descriptions. They don't all look precisely the same - and I don't think anyone would argue that - but each zeitgeist produced something unique while identifiable as distinctly inhuman.

Terrific point! Aerie's unquestionably elven mien would most certainly be butchered if her face were made to conform to those of Larian's Humaelves. Coran and Kivan may have an easier time fitting in, however.


What elves?




May you please cite your (official) source?

No offense, but you go a bit to hardcore for lore of source of Elves looks for my taste.

The male specially (women less) look to Human like I think of current Elves in BG3. Elves typically mora angular handsome, beautiful and the male Elf slightly to broad face human like face for my taste. Well not saying they look awful, but agree the Male Elves (you can choose the default look) look to human like slightly.

I would accept Belle Delphine with her looks and pointy Elven ears. Do not confuse with her cat pictures and she has been dressed both as cat and an Elf. I am not talking about her most seducively or say extreeme face pictures, but one of less extreeme that is clearly not adult only content not even near that.
I admire BELLE as CELEBRITY star and she started her career already at underage reminds of Britney Spears that became STAR at age of 17 with her first major song. Belle Delphine pictures 17-21 age she is young 21 currently. Elves should look young and if they aged they do it extreemely slowly and live for thousands of years.

Do not mess with BELLE Delphine Celebrity fans and yes I am her fan:

Oh and do not say I dont like Elven looking. I love the LOTR movies (the Hobbit movies more average then good) and we were hardcore and dressed up to fantasy clothes when watching LOTR 1, 2 and 3 movies in cinema when they were released. We were roleplayers already by then. Many start roplaying already as teenaager.

Yes and I have read TOLKIEN books. Well and I have played DnD paper and pen and played BG1, BG2 and BG3 Early Access to name a few games of many games that I have played.

To be honest, I am not sure why you are once again bringing up that celebrity.

Also, Tolkien's seminal work may have influenced Dungeons & Dragons, but the latter franchise isn't beholden/limited to one film studio's live-action interpretation of the former.

She is the best human that has looked like a young woman Elf outside of say movies and perhaps TV series.

You could have also said simply I agree with OP. Yet you have posted more pictures. You are correct to that what DnD might have set for typical Elf look is not limited to the boundaries of LOTR movies, but yet I am content with LOTR elves for most part at least.

I begin to think we have slightly different taste. The first LOTR movie specially the actor Cate Blanchett was perfect as Galadriel the Elf Queen. My favorite scene from first LOTR movie was when hobbit Frodo offered the artifact One Ring to Elf Queen Galadriel and she became tempted by the powerful artifact One Ring power.

I begin to suspect you might want even more Elven then I. For example realistic wish is they could slightly alter the look of Male Elves and even that is not certain that Larian will do.

The 2D picture look extreemely different and these are characters in 3D. I am talking about small changes and not huge ones.

How are the two situations comparable? New (i.e. different) pieces of art were shared both as a means of buttressing the thread creator's argument and as an expression of solidarity. Surely, "The more, the merrier."?


I enjoy the films for their high production values, music and spots of brilliant acting, most definitely. That said, I didn't go in expecting them to conform to the canon/core aesthetics of Dungeons & Dragons not do I wish for Baldur's Gate III to borrow too much (if anything) from that film trilogy...if that is indeed what happened with Larian's attempt at D&D elves. By the way, take a look at New Line Cinema's version of Haldir; in D&D, this fellow's countenance would most definitely qualify as "human face".