Highlander Eyebrows - 7.0 Graphics

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

Coming back here to hope for eyebrows in the updated character creator. Maybe they’ll slip it into the Benchmark.

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It would be great, but I'm not holding my breath lol. I do hope they at least fix the brow makeup placement if nothing else.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Just a reminder that in the 2020 Valentione event they gave Bert eyebrows in the promotional material because they knew exactly how he'd look without them.

https://i.imgur.com/dmRIawk.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...785a2cc4_b.jpg

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Man, and he's wearing the heart face paint with his eyebrows too. That means this piece of concept art is impossible to recreate in game, at least within the limitations of the player's character creator :(

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Just a reminder that in the 2020 Valentione event they gave Bert eyebrows in the promotional material because they knew exactly how he'd look without them.

https://i.imgur.com/dmRIawk.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...785a2cc4_b.jpg

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Hopefully they're not just *that* out of touch with Highlanders that they didn't even realize it.

Showing support for highlander eyebrows
Even though I'll never play highlander - it'll be a win if eyebrows for them are finally added

And more face paint slots so we can stack face paint (like above picture) I'd personally love to wear more than just blush or only an eyeshadow

I'm just saying, Highlanders would be a lot more popular if SE even tried

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FI56jYdVUAAVbRd.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Es5uh9EU...jpg&name=large

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Originally Posted by Allegor

I'm just saying, Highlanders would be a lot more popular if SE even tried

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FI56jYdVUAAVbRd.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Es5uh9EU...jpg&name=large

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This is all I want.

and a thicker beard that doesn't morph our faces.

I genuinely don't think they care lol. Like it's not even on their radar at all. What matters is cat fangs.

I cannot watch the live letter yet but do they finally address the facepaint placed differently?

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Originally Posted by potatsdevourer

I cannot watch the live letter yet but do they finally address the facepaint placed differently?

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No, they basically said the proper lighting (which was missing in the benchmark) will fix most issues. They did show examples, on Miquo'te, and the improvement is noticeable.

And then they talked about addressing feedback on Miquote and Lalafell teeth.

Highlanders aren't important.

Ah yes. Of course Miqo‘te and Lalas first. Forgot that highlanders are still stuck in little A‘la Mhigo and its whatever eyebrowlessness culture.

Feel disappointed, not surprised tho. I would expect even more disappointment on the new benchmark release.

But maybe if we keep posting our enthusiasm for eyebrows, someone will notice and slip them in (:

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

No, they basically said the proper lighting (which was missing in the benchmark) will fix most issues. They did show examples, on Miquo'te, and the improvement is noticeable.

And then they talked about addressing feedback on Miquote and Lalafell teeth.

Highlanders aren't important.

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I had the same thought after the previous live letter and felt a little annoyed for you all. But after giving it some more thought, I think it's mostly a case of restoring what was previously there (the fangs) vs. adding something new (highlander eyebrows).
It is unfortunate because there are many races with issues and complaints, but I guess they chose to go with the easy wins to pacify the loudest complaints, and I suppose that's fair enough.

Now, hopefully restoring what was there previously does actually include fixing the eyebrow face paint as well! But there should still be the option to have actual eyebrows. People may want to use the face paint option for an actual face paint that isn't faux eyebrows, and I can't imagine the eyebrow face paint working particularly well in anything other than dark colors.

The new benchmark should be out soon, and while I don't necessarily expect them to have added eyebrows, I do hope there are at least fixes and improvements for the other issues mentioned in this thread.

at this point i just want them to put the face paint back to where it was. benchmark moves the facepaint and the result is different face expression since highlander is under mercy of facepaint eyebrow unlike other races.

personally, if they even bother making eyebrows, they would have announced it anyway since it is new feature and as per usual, gotta keep the expectation as low as possible

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Originally Posted by potatsdevourer

at this point i just want them to put the face paint back to where it was. benchmark moves the facepaint and the result is different face expression since highlander is under mercy of facepaint eyebrow unlike other races.

personally, if they even bother making eyebrows, they would have announced it anyway since it is new feature and as per usual, gotta keep the expectation as low as possible

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Yeah, I'd also be content with at least having the facepaint fixed for now. But as of the Benchmark release, they changed the positioning and it looks awful and almost comedic.

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Originally Posted by Risough

I'm with you, man. The face paint option has helped up to this point but it already looks rough any time the camera gets close to my character. It's only gonna look rougher in comparison as everything gets crisper after the update. I tried the benchmark today myself and I was also pretty bummed with how it looked.

I feel like the game is long past the point where the lore can explain male highlander players not having the option to use eyebrows. We've seen two highlander characters appear in the story with eyebrows. We've also seen highlanders from a huge variety of cultures and I simply find it hard to believe a practice like shaving eyebrows would be followed ubiquitously across all of them.



I'm sure you're not alone. I bet a lot of people would give highlanders a try if they could use eyebrows. They're pretty much the only medium build male character model.

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While I would agree with you it looks dumb, it's cannon that if you're a highlander WoL you're Ala Mhigan, which means you shave your eyebrows culturally.

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Originally Posted by Malthir

While I would agree with you it looks dumb, it's cannon that if you're a highlander WoL you're Ala Mhigan, which means you shave your eyebrows culturally.

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I'm genuinely curious where it is stated in the game that the WoL is Ala Mhigan and follows their cultural behaviors.

I wonder how much work it would be to add a few more eyebrow 'paint' options for Highlanders.

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Originally Posted by RethDaron

I wonder how much work it would be to add a few more eyebrow 'paint' options for Highlanders.

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Probably the same amount of work to add actual eyebrows.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

The only way to have brows since launch is to use the makeup option amd essentially paint them on.

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There is another option.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

There is another option.

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I'm sure this response is only a joke or a troll, but that's only an option if you don't care about being a Highlander. Try pitching that solution to the Miquo'te weeping over their shortened fangs and see the uproar.

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Originally Posted by Malthir

While I would agree with you it looks dumb, it's cannon that if you're a highlander WoL you're Ala Mhigan, which means you shave your eyebrows culturally.

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Can you provide a citation for the claim that highlander WoLs are Ala Mhigan and follow their cultural practices?

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Originally Posted by RethDaron

I wonder how much work it would be to add a few more eyebrow 'paint' options for Highlanders.

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Thanks, I prefer real eyebrows, with various shapes and hair textures. I know many use the face paint option, but for me, these drawn eyebrows always look equally bad as no eyebrows at all. Besides, my face paint slot is always taken by eyeshadows, cause they are a must if you want to do a good face in the current character creator.

So yeah, hope we will be seen and heard by SE. If not in 7.0, then in subsequent patches.

sometimes i wonder why the male highlanders on the first also shave their eyebrows

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Originally Posted by grinkdaboy

sometimes i wonder why the male highlanders on the first also shave their eyebrows

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Because Highlanders aren't important or popular enough to make changes to the models.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

Because Highlanders aren't important or popular enough to make changes to the models.

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And then they tease you with "Kung Fu Grandpa"

(Ran'jit)

and his impressive eyebrows.
I was hoping they'd at least make the face paint "eyebrows" look like actual eyebrows, but of course they didn't.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

And then they tease you with "Kung Fu Grandpa"

(Ran'jit)

and his impressive eyebrows.
I was hoping they'd at least make the face paint "eyebrows" look like actual eyebrows, but of course they didn't.

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Instead, it looks like clown makeup in the benchmark lol.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

Instead, it looks like clown makeup in the benchmark lol.

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Right? I mean, they look great on my female Hrothgar in the benchmark, but that's only because they look like markings on her fur rather than actual eyebrows.

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Originally Posted by RethDaron

I wonder how much work it would be to add a few more eyebrow 'paint' options for Highlanders.

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it would be "easier" since they have added few face paints in the past and it would be a ok compromise but then you would have to choose eye brows over face paint which would annoy some people AND it would look weird in the races that already have eyebrow options so you'd have double brows on a lalafell as an example.

So they probably would be hesitant in doing so pretty much like they have for anything character creator related Hrothgar just got "lucky" since they had to rework the entire section to add hair and features.

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Originally Posted by Malthir

While I would agree with you it looks dumb, it's cannon that if you're a highlander WoL you're Ala Mhigan, which means you shave your eyebrows culturally.

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They state the reverse actually as early as the ARR Miner quests where Deep Canyon acknowledges that you are not Ala Mhigan and probably from farther abroad. I don't believe the WoL's clan is ever actually acknowledged at any point. If the game even did so, Hellsguard characters wouldn't have their name split into either just mentioning forename/surname when referred to.

Also Ivon Coeurlfist, who is like the epitome of Highlander Ala Mhigans, doesn't just have eyebrows; he has the bushiest brows, practically beards above his eyes.

Anyway more on topic it would be a great customization option to have actual eyebrows for highlanders because as shown in this thread and elsewhere, they've implemented NPCs that use the normal highlander model but with full eyebrows added to the model.

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Originally Posted by Risough

Can you provide a citation for the claim that highlander WoLs are Ala Mhigan and follow their cultural practices?

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Firstly the shaving eyebrows and scaring pre dates Ala Mhigo, it's been their their culture the entire time along side scarification and removal of teeth etc, go to the official lore about the clan and you will see that. It also states on the character creator that highlanders have become increasingly rare and almost exclusively come from Ala Mhigo. So while you could make the argument it says "almost" giving the idea your highland could theoretically come from someplace else. The initial homeland and culture of highlanders predates the founding of Ala Mhigo. This is why the facial features are scarificaiton. Now granted I agree that if on the creator it allows us to choose to scar the face or not, it implies these cultural things are optional therefor you should give the option of having eyebrows. But it is indeed the culture of all highlanders over 99% being from Ala Mhigo,

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Originally Posted by Malthir

Firstly the shaving eyebrows and scaring pre dates Ala Mhigo, it's been their their culture the entire time along side scarification and removal of teeth etc, go to the official lore about the clan and you will see that. It also states on the character creator that highlanders have become increasingly rare and almost exclusively come from Ala Mhigo. So while you could make the argument it says "almost" giving the idea your highland could theoretically come from someplace else. The initial homeland and culture of highlanders predates the founding of Ala Mhigo. This is why the facial features are scarificaiton. Now granted I agree that if on the creator it allows us to choose to scar the face or not, it implies these cultural things are optional therefor you should give the option of having eyebrows. But it is indeed the culture of all highlanders over 99% being from Ala Mhigo,

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You stated that it's canon for the WoL to be Ala Mighan, which isn't the case. There's a difference between the general lore and history of Highlanders and applying it to a single character. I don't even think the shaved eyebrows is explained within the game itself. We just have a statement from a Q&A that was asked once upon a time to give a reason for it. Additionally, while it may be a cultural behavior, it's not a racial trait or genetic quality. It's a choice.

Umm.. if I may add something else, aside from eyebrows, would kindly please make our shoulders a tad wider?

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a

I guess we will see on June 3. There's no mention of facepaint changes or adjustments aside from lip gloss. There's basically a 0% chance of actual eyebrows, but I really hope the placement of the facepaint was at least fixed.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

You stated that it's canon for the WoL to be Ala Mighan, which isn't the case. There's a difference between the general lore and history of Highlanders and applying it to a single character. I don't even think the shaved eyebrows is explained within the game itself. We just have a statement from a Q&A that was asked once upon a time to give a reason for it. Additionally, while it may be a cultural behavior, it's not a racial trait or genetic quality. It's a choice.

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My initial statement was to someone claiming that the WoL could have come from a different culture of highlanders, which is not the case, character creator states information about the highlander clan. There's additional FF14 lore about them too about how they originally lived in the mountains near Gyr Abania, they unified as a people created Ala Migho. The culture of shaving eyebrows, scarification, andfiling teeth/removal of some teeth, existed before settling of Ala Migho and continued after. It is however, the same culture and the same people, and while the lore starts that almost all Highlanders are from Ala Migho, meaning there could be rare exceptions such as your character. All Eorzea highlander have the same culture, they all originate from the mountain people of Gyr Abania.

My point was that there is not an additional culture of highlanders in Eorzea. However, since the scars are optional and some characters haven't shaved their eyebrows, the implication is, it's not a mandatory part of the culture. Therefor should be optional in the same way Au'ra have a facial feature for turning on and off eyebrows, IMO.

Thank you for providing some additional context, Malthir. I've seen both of the sources you mentioned and I actually linked the highlander lore thread earlier in this one. I'll provide the text of the blurb from the character creator for convenience here:

Character Creator:

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Originally Posted by Character Creator

The Highlanders were the first of the Hyur to reach Eorzea. Their name derives from their long tradition of building strongholds in the mountains. Compared to their Midland brethren, the Highlanders are noticeably larger in build.

Of late, Highlanders have become an increasingly rare sight in Eorzea, their number represented almost exclusively by those who fled Ala Mhigo after its fall and now work in the desert city-state of Ul'dah as mercenaries and sellswords.

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I quoted the excerpt on eyebrows from the highlander lore thread in this post.

The blurbs in the character creator hold information to help you come up with your own background for your character and understand how others might see them in the world, but nothing in that last sentence is forced on your character. I interpret that "almost" qualifier is added to the blurb for that reason.

I also dug up the quote from Deep Canyon that Luluya mentioned:

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Originally Posted by Deep Canyon

I must say, you're not what I was expectin'. I was sure Adalberta's newest protégé would be an Ala Mhigan—like every other miner this place produces these days. But I'll wager you're from even farther afield... an' that you're an adventurer. Hmph.

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You'll get this same text even if you play as a Highlander, so Highlander WoLs are not canonically Ala Mhigan.

Hopefully we’ll see something as a surprise on June 3rd (:

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

Hopefully we’ll see something as a surprise on June 3rd (:

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Eyebrows would be a massive surprise, but I feel like there's a .01% chance of that.

I'll be really disappointed of the face paint still looks as bad as the first benchmark, though. Fingers crossed.

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Originally Posted by Risough

Thank you for providing some additional context, Malthir. I've seen both of the sources you mentioned and I actually linked the highlander lore thread earlier in this one. I'll provide the text of the blurb from the character creator for convenience here:

Character Creator:


I quoted the excerpt on eyebrows from the highlander lore thread in this post.

The blurbs in the character creator hold information to help you come up with your own background for your character and understand how others might see them in the world, but nothing in that last sentence is forced on your character. I interpret that "almost" qualifier is added to the blurb for that reason.

I also dug up the quote from Deep Canyon that Luluya mentioned:


You'll get this same text even if you play as a Highlander, so Highlander WoLs are not canonically Ala Mhigan.

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Which is true, I was saying that you are canonically Ala Mhigan when it comes to cultures, clearly I didn't word my initial statement well. The culture of eyebrow shaving and tooth filing, scarification etc pre dates even that. So while it is true you could say your WoL is a rare exception to being Ala Mhigan, you are still from the same culture of Highlanders. The conversation I was replying to in my first comment, was to someone claiming your highlander could have come from a culture different culture of highlanders that didn't do this. However as stated in the lore, the Eorzean highlanders as a clan survived the 4th Umbral calamity by taking refuge in the mountains around Gyr Abania, it then goes on to talk about the culture of eyebrow shaving, tooth filing, tooth removal, scaring. The highlanders operated functionally as nomadic mercs for years, until later unifying as one people and creating the Country of Ala Mhigo.

So to reiterate, while you have a very rare chance of seeing a Eorzean Highlander that's not from Ala Mhigo, which means your WoL could have been born somewhere else, ALL highlanders come from a culture of shaving eyebrows and scaring etc. Not disagreeing that it should be an optional facial feature the same way the scars are, I was disagreeing with the notion that's there's different Highlander cultures across Eorzea, there isn't.

You mentioned you were responding to someone stating the WoL could be from a different culture of Highlanders. Were you, perhaps, responding to this part of my first post in this thread?

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Originally Posted by Risough

We've also seen highlanders from a huge variety of cultures and I simply find it hard to believe a practice like shaving eyebrows would be followed ubiquitously across all of them.

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If this is what you were responding to, I wasn't referring to the WoL or any other Highlander culture within Eorzea. We've met Highlanders in Thavnair, Old Sharlayan, The First, and Dalmasca if you count the Company Muscle aboard the Prima Vista. All of them have shaved eyebrows despite having no apparent connection to the Highlander clan in Gyr Abania. I find that unrealistic, especially on The First given that a prominent NPC from Shadowbringers does have them.

That said, I don't think the clans are meant to be a 1:1 correspondence to any Eorzean city-state. Just as in real life, each city state has a diverse make-up of people even if one group is more strongly represented. If the population of Limsa Lominsa is, for example, only 1% Highlander then those Highlanders would still be of Lominsan culture and reflect those values.

I don't think we have enough information to say where or when the practice of shaving eyebrows, filing teeth, and so on originated. We know Highlanders lived in places other than Gyr Abania prior to the 6th astral era because we see statues of Highlanders in Mhach and Dun Scaith. It wasn't just Highlanders that fled to the mountains of Gyr Abania in the floods of the 6th umbral calamity (the 4th calamity was the calamity of earth), it was pretty much everyone Nym and Amdapor could get to evacuate.

We know some Highlanders left Gyr Abania due to the Hildibrand questline of all places. The Gentleman Zombie was a soldier in Sil'Dih when it felll. According to Encyclopaedia Eorzea, Sil'Dih was formed in 969, Ala Mhigo in 1135, and Sil'Dih fell in 1181. While it's possible the Gentleman Zombie immigrated to Sil'Dih in the 46 years the civilizations overlapped, I think it more likely he was a descendant of Mhachi diaspora who returned to Yafaem after the waters receded. After all, if you had survived a catastrophic flood wouldn't you want to return and see what became of the place you called home?

The Gentleman Zombie has shaved eyebrows. If his lineage had no connection to the clans in Gyr Abania after they left, does this mean the practice pre-dates the flood? It's hard to say because we aren't given enough information to discern what is due to technological limitations and what is a deliberate design choice. Bert, for example, was obviously intended to have eyebrows but that was not reflected in game.

I'm a bit concerned we've taken this thread too far off the rails debating the history of Highlanders. Ruin, this is your thread so if you feel we've gone too far off topic just say so and I'll drop the subject.