Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
Empyrean skin color
Izil
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
Might seem like nitpicking by a lot of people, but im rather confused as below we see an Empyrean mage
And this is a description of the Py'Rai (woodelves)
If both Empyreans and Py'Rai can have brown skin, then why mention Py'Rai in particular? Think many people expected to distinct Empyreans from Py'Rai and vice versa through visuals like skin color not just culture?
And this is a description of the Py'Rai (woodelves)
If both Empyreans and Py'Rai can have brown skin, then why mention Py'Rai in particular? Think many people expected to distinct Empyreans from Py'Rai and vice versa through visuals like skin color not just culture?
2
Comments
I don't think having dark skinned dwarfs or elves is very immersion breaking since they are pretty much classic at this point. They have been in D&D and other fantasy games for years. To me the immersion argument don't exist unless there is just some crazy needless explanation tangled up in the lore.
You can still have racial specific armors, tattoos, face structures, and abilities with the skin colors being, less restrictive. The same really goes for eyes and hair colors. Player agency is just more important than whatever story IG is trying to tell. This is a game not a novel.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
I dont see why this is an issue.
To Izil, I totally agree. When you have different cultures representing the same species or race, it totally makes sense you'd want them to be separate in appearance.
Don't forget about this and remember to bring it up later. From what Jeff "leaked" about the Vek being the smallest race, I wouldn't be surprised if the team WAS working on making the races distinct, but it's definitely something we should keep in mind.
And the wiki page.
And the sources for the relevant portions on the wiki page.
Did you?
The following is the sequence of events that lead to this thread;
Random discord user, I'd like to play a Py'Rai, and prefer to play darker skinned characters, will that be possible?
Intrepid, yes.
Wiki, *adds information to Py'Rai race*
Intrepid, *releases picture of Emperian with dark skin*
Random poster on the forums, I thought Py'Rai were the darker skinned race, because the wiki says they can have dark skin but doesn't say that about other races.
Now, tell me where I am wrong in your eyes with that assessment of things, and if you cant, tell me where there is an issue anywhere other than the assumption the OP had that.
Noaani is right as to why Py'Rai in particular is mentioned though. I'm sure a question was asked if Pr'Rai could have brown skin, the answer was yes.
The problem is, someone assumed the statement that one race could have dark skin meant that another race couldn't - which is obviously a silly assumption to make. Then that same someone saw a picture of a race they wrongly assumed couldn't have dark skin, but the character in said picture had ever so slightly darker skin than this person seems to have thought they should have.
There is nothing at all here - or anywhere - about all races being made the same. There is simply a misunderstanding by the OP.
The point is both for the racial passives and the racial aesthetic. Mostly the Aesthetic. When I say racial aesthetic I mean buildings and armor. The things that people can control that they like. You can put a roman attire on people of any skin color and it makes sense. Not just because the roman empire was one of the most diverse cultures in human history, but because the racial aesthetic is coming from the attire not things like skin and hair color. We already know that armor aesthetic is tied to race:
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Racial_weapons_and_armor
This is fine as long we don't have to choose between having a skin color we like and aesthetic we like. Whist some people are lucky enough that they can have both.
Regardless of if the DEVs agree with me or not. I don't think they do... MMORPG history has shown that this sort of thinking where races must be restricted to certain skin tones or hair colors has never truly had any appreciable effect on any game. Especially when race is so closely related to humans. What is appreciable is how annoyed fans get when they are forced to pick a race whos lore and aesthetic they don't like to get a skin or hair color they do like.
Most people are not asking for vibrant green skin or something outside of a believable pallet. People just want to be able to make a character with their own human skin color and not be forced to play a race they don't like. Unless you are playing something like orc or half demon that has a reason to have no normal flesh tones, there is really no reason why the full human pallet should not be available to any race with human flesh tones. Even wow finally figured that out. You can now play a dark skinned blood elf and no ones immersion had to suffer to make this possible.
TLDR:
In this case where armor aesthetic is tied to race. I think it would be awful to restrict skin and hair colors to a high degree.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.