Why are Elves so ugly?

LalMirchi · May 2023

Brutally beautiful High Elf

NotaDaedraWorshipper · May 2023

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

ESO made all races look better...more human IMO. Compare the Altmer or the Orsimer to what they looked like in Skyrim or even in older TES games and they look 100% more attractive in ESO. High Elves in Skyrim were super unattractive with very angular faces just like Orcs looked like ill tempered green pig men - but that made it more believable that they were not the same race as Man.

The races also look terribly similar in Skyrim, it's hard tell many of the races apart. But yes, the races definitely look more conventionally attractive in ESO. Which is why I'm often confused when someone claims a race or more is ugly. It's hard make a character ugly in ESO unless you make do extreme opposites on the sliders which mostly looks unatural than ugly.

I consistently had an impossible time telling the difference between Bosmer and Altmer in Skyrim. I like how both look much better in ESO.

And also Nords and Imperials felt like they were impossible to tell apart too. The only giveaway was their names a lot of times.

Same, Wolf. Which really shouldn't be an issue between those mer. Dunmer is only told apart from them because their skin is grey-ish.

The races of man imo are even worse. You kinda have to go by name to tell nords, bretons, imperials, and sometimes even redguards apart

Seminolegirl1992 wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Forgot to post my "appreciation" to elves here. Sure, some people might not think mine characters are attractive, but which has been stated, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and I and I know others think they are rather fetching.

My altmer might be a bit unusual from many female altmer often shown. She's older, and I wanted to embrace the angular faces and bird of prey eyes. So not exactly mainstream beautiful.

Two flavours of bosmer:

Two dunmer, and I like them for their sharp and angular features:

And for good measure, an orsimer, because they are mer too despite what other mer say and I think he's rather dashing in a ruggedly handsome way.

Do you happen to have sliders for your dunmer male? I love the way he looks!

@Seminolegirl1992 Thank you, I'm rather happy with him too

Can pm you pictures of the sliders the next time I play.

Credible_Joe · May 2023

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

You'll notice that when they do the cinematic high elf they skip all of that and she looks quite attractive.

She'd look more attractive if she looked like an actual altmer.

I loathe mer in the cinematics. They don't look like mer, they are humans with pointy ears. There has been threads made about it, latest was regarding Necrom's and the derpmer in it. They should make them look like actual mer.

The only change I would make to the cinematic elves is making their eyes more consistent with how they look in the game. To me, the distinguishing features of an elf are larger, canted eyes with much larger, more vibrant (almost luminous) irises that almost entirely obscure the sclera. For altmer, anyway. And also orcs, I think.

However, if I made that change and got feedback that it made the subject look alien and uncanny, I'd be very open to reverting the adjustment to something more human.

I'd be very interested to see game-elven eyes applied to the cinematic Elven hero. I have no idea whether it would look better or worse.

LalMirchi wrote: »

Brutally beautiful High Elf

Here's a great example of elven features. The elves in promo cinematics really go off-model for what's presented in-game.

@ZOS_Kevin , I can get behind giving them more eye-shape variance, but is there a particular reason the design / marketing team decided not to go with the more exotic colors and iris size?

We wouldn't be able to tell she's elven at all without the ears.

ProudMary · May 2023

"ugly" is such a subjective word it's almost meaningless. For instance I love spiders and snakes. Most people think their ugly, but they're actually very beautiful when you look at them closely.

Avishag · June 2023

Aztrias wrote: »

I don't think Altmer(High Elves) in ESO look that ugly, but I guess beauty is in the eye of beholder.

Personally I'm not that much of an elf fan in general, but I really like Elder Scrolls Elves especially the Dunmer.
I prefer the more alien/strange looking Elves, the flawless beautiful(in human eyes) and immortal elves are boring to me.

Same..Dunmer are more attractive than this Hollywood blonde perfection. But each of their own I guess..
I love my female Dark elf ❤️☺️

Thee_Cheshire_Cat · June 2023

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe wrote: »

Coppes wrote: »

Come on, posting images of female elves is just cheating. Let's see the men.

I posted some of mine earlier, but in case you require further evidence, here is a small fraction of my boys 😊

Damn you have fiiiine taste in making the menz.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · June 2023

Credible_Joe wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

You'll notice that when they do the cinematic high elf they skip all of that and she looks quite attractive.

She'd look more attractive if she looked like an actual altmer.

I loathe mer in the cinematics. They don't look like mer, they are humans with pointy ears. There has been threads made about it, latest was regarding Necrom's and the derpmer in it. They should make them look like actual mer.

The only change I would make to the cinematic elves is making their eyes more consistent with how they look in the game. To me, the distinguishing features of an elf are larger, canted eyes with much larger, more vibrant (almost luminous) irises that almost entirely obscure the sclera. For altmer, anyway. And also orcs, I think.

All mer got those eyes, it's one of the main features that makes mer differ from men. Bosmer are the only ones that are slightly different from the other mer, but that's because they got different pupils. They still got the large and slanted eyes with irises that cover almost the whole sclera.

However, if I made that change and got feedback that it made the subject look alien and uncanny, I'd be very open to reverting the adjustment to something more human.

I wouldn't. I would make the mer look like an actual mer and not a LOTR elf, no matter what feedback I got. Mer are supposed to look that way, not pointy eared humans.

I'd be very interested to see game-elven eyes applied to the cinematic Elven hero. I have no idea whether it would look better or worse

Lore elven. It would be better because that's how they look according to lore and are shown in game. It's a bizarre choice how they show daedra, khajiit, argonians etc how they are supposed to look but the mer are always conventionally attractive young women with pointy ears. Also feels kinda false show them as that when that's not how they look.

Jammy420 · June 2023

I think theyre beautiful. The humans are drab and boring imo.

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe · June 2023

Thee_Cheshire_Cat wrote: »

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe wrote: »

Coppes wrote: »

Come on, posting images of female elves is just cheating. Let's see the men.

I posted some of mine earlier, but in case you require further evidence, here is a small fraction of my boys 😊

Damn you have fiiiine taste in making the menz.

Thank you kindly! All 18 of my characters are elves boys

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe · June 2023

Jammy420 wrote: »

I think theyre beautiful. The humans are drab and boring imo.

Absolutely!

boi_anachronism_ · June 2023

Ma boy is not ugly thank you very much

barney2525 · June 2023

whoever designed the character decided Elves Must frown constantly. They also are not allowed to have hair color that will make jewelry look good - as in Silver. All Elven jewelry must look yukky bronze.

WaywardArgonian · June 2023

Just came by to post some Dark Elves.

morrowjen · June 2023

Cheveyo wrote: »

Elves in Elder Scrolls have always been fugly. The only way to get pretty elves in these games is through mods.

EVERYONE in that game looked like a potato head. It took many tries and many years to solve that issue and even now there's only so much mods can do to help the potato head problem in Oblivion.

That said, I will never forgive Bethesda for what they did to the Dunmer in Skyrim. They looked absolutely haggard and extremely ugly. Thank God for mods that fixed that.

I will say I like TES/ESO ears far better than the ears in other games that stick out wide like they're the elven version of Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman. ESO and properly modded TES elves look great (and by that I mean fixing Skyrim's Dunmer). I don't remember them looking bad in Morrowind given the graphics but the beast races looked ridiculous until Skyrim. In ESO, the Dunmer and Wood Elves look great. It's just the Altmer that can look too extreme at times but that varies from character to character. There are many beautiful Altmer out there too.

Grizzbeorn · June 2023

NOT ugly...

AnduinTryggva · June 2023

barney2525 wrote: »

whoever designed the character decided Elves Must frown constantly. They also are not allowed to have hair color that will make jewelry look good - as in Silver. All Elven jewelry must look yukky bronze.

That!

I don't mind the eyes, the ears or the hairy part of the eyebrows at all.

I dislike the Hepatitis color of high elves.

For basically all elves I dislike specifically that the bony portion of their eyebrows look like those bulky ones with which - sorry to say this - modern artistic representations of the *** neanderthalensis are done.

They always have their eyebrows drawn together as like they look angry.

And when you select the more heroic or edgy face form specifically boys get a weird checkbone-chin-eyebrow form that simply looks terrible. Just look at some woodelf boy faces of npc.

To sum up: I think it is simply too hard to make beautiful elves. This is specifically true for male high and wood elves and dunmer girls to be honest.

On a general note I miss a slider to manipulate mouth width.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · June 2023

barney2525 wrote: »

whoever designed the character decided Elves Must frown constantly. They also are not allowed to have hair color that will make jewelry look good - as in Silver. All Elven jewelry must look yukky bronze.

...you can get silver jewelery for elves?

xclassgaming · June 2023

What do you mean? ESO is has the best looking elves in any game.

The other tes games tho...oof.

Wolf_Eye · June 2023

WaywardArgonian wrote: »

Just came by to post some Dark Elves.

Hot dang...

I mean uh....nice looking Dunmer you got there.

Wolf_Eye · June 2023

JiveSalts wrote: »

Since this has turned into a bit of an elf appreciation thread, I'll post my ever growing list of elfy bois.

I just want to say I have a very very deep appreciation for the scholarly looking one at number 2 and the pirate looking one at number 3. They look quite handsome.

But your other ones also look fantastic as well! I love how you set them up for the photo to showcase a bit of their personality/careers etc....

StarOfElyon · June 2023

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

To be honest I think Elves, specifically High Elves are pretty ugly as we can create them in ESO while in the overwhelming majority of the fantasy literatures Elves are considered to be of extraordinary beauty. How did that happen?

Heresy. Be glad you're not getting Skyrim elves.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · June 2023

StarOfElyon wrote: »

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

To be honest I think Elves, specifically High Elves are pretty ugly as we can create them in ESO while in the overwhelming majority of the fantasy literatures Elves are considered to be of extraordinary beauty. How did that happen?

Heresy. Be glad you're not getting Skyrim elves.

Or Oblivion potatoes.