Race Height Abnormalities

[XantchaArrapago]

The title is pretty self explanatory and as silly as it sounds it is something I would like to know more about. Like, does it exist like it does in real life? I am an RPer and I do stick to the minimum/maximum race height but I see a lot of controversy across the web and game about people making their characters taller than the maximum allowed in game. I'm just genuinely curious! {Please Assist!} :P

In example: Making a female Miqo'te that is 5'8'' rather than the in game maximum of 5'3''. Does this happen in the natrual order of things Eorzea or is it completely impossible?

The same can be said for a lack of height. Is it possible for a Male Roegadyn to be say 6'2'' rather than the minimum of 7'1''?

A serious answer would be appreciated! Thanks so much!

[Ashkendor]

I'd think that from a lore/character standpoint it's possible to have a very tall Miqo'te or a very short Roegadyn. The limitations on character height as far as the actual character creation screen are probably just to cut down the work on graphical resources. That way, the developers don't have to worry about how the equipment would scale for characters outside the narrow "normal" size range for their species. Eh, it makes sense to me, anyway. xD

[Bombast]

I'm fairly certain that the min and max for character creation is, in fact, the min and max of that race, barring disease, conditions, or magical ailments (Much like real life dwarfism or gigantism).

Could be wrong though.

[Terrini]

Or, you know, AGE which we can't actually make an Elezen teenager like Alphinaud.

[XantchaArrapago]

Or, you know, AGE which we can't actually make an Elezen teenager like Alphinaud.

Age is a given but a good thing to point out! I mean a fully developed adult though.

[Risvertasashi]

In example: Making a female Miqo'te that is 5'8'' rather than the in game maximum of 5'3''. Does this happen in the natrual order of things Eorzea or is it completely impossible?

The same can be said for a lack of height. Is it possible for a Male Roegadyn to be say 6'2'' rather than the minimum of 7'1''?

Height distribution (or similar characteristics) in a population tends to follow a bell curve AKA normal distribution; you have a great concentration at the 'average', and as you progress further away individual data points become rarer and rarer. We would expect 0.3% of the population to be past the 3 standard deviations mark in height (but this includes shorter as well as taller).

The character creator allows about 12.5cm (about 5 inches) variation for a female miqo'te height. This is actually really narrow! If we assume that this range is 1 standard deviation, then 5'8" would fall between the second and third standard deviations (169cm~174cm), where only 5% (or 2.5% really, since we're looking at tallness only here) of the population is. If the character creator range accounts for 2 standard deviations, then only 0.3% (0.15% only including the tall side) would fall into a range this far from the mean.

So, in short, yes that tall miqo'te female probably does exist, but the height constraints given to use in the character creator probably cover the range considered to be 'normal' (a 5'8" miqo'te female basically being very rare).

The same sort of statistical distribution could be applied towards shorter than mean heights as well, but added to this there are other variables that can cause stunted growth.

But all this isn't supported by lore. The devs could say that magically all of species X fall within a certain range or the character creator range, no exceptions. If it follows population trends, then what's possible is much wider than what's typical. Of course RL also has many variables that can affect distribution.

[Sagittarian]

statistics

\thumbsup
.. too tired for more lucid comment.

[XantchaArrapago]

Thanks for the responses so far! That's a very interesting answer, Risvertasashi, and one that makes perfect sense to me. A lot of RPers (not all mind you) disagree with the abnormality theory and frown upon anyone who goes beyond SEs set numbers. Of course this is within reason. Let's face it. A 5 foot Lala I don't see existing EVER!

Anyway! With that said I hope one day maybe the Devs can answer this question for the sake of RP argument. I see a lot of people get into serious debate over this. And there is legit reason to debate over it. But sometimes I see people get cut throat over it.

I personally won't do it until I hear a Dev tell me otherwise. But if other people want to do it that's fine. I just hate to see people go at each others throats about it.

[Kojikensei]

Raubahn is taller than the max highlander height btw.

[KikoriL]

Isn't that one huge Shallowtail Reaver in Sastasha normal, the one that drops the Waverider Gate Key, also taller than any player-made Roe?