Are dwarves the new race for 5.0?

[Vidu]

If they had a good reason as to why female Viera are taller, and still allowed for reasonably tall Viera males, it would not bother me.

...okay, sorry, this is still troubling me - why would they need "a good reason" to make females taller? Why would they need any reason except an artits going "You know what? That could be intresting for a change!"
I cant remember them ever presenting any reason why there is such an extrem dimorphism in Au Ra - or a reason why male Roes are more buff than females. Or why Hyur-girls arent as tall as the guys.
Sure, its what we're used to from the real world, but seeing how this isnt the real world... I dont see why there would be a need to explain why the females of a certain race are taller than the males.

[Lauront]

...okay, sorry, this is still troubling me - why would they need "a good reason" to make females taller? Why would they need any reason except an artits going "You know what? That could be intresting for a change!"
I cant remember them ever presenting any reason why there is such an extrem dimorphism in Au Ra - or a reason why male Roes are more buff than females. Or why Hyur-girls arent as tall as the guys.
Sure, its what we're used to from the real world, but seeing how this isnt the real world... I dont see why there would be a need to explain why the females of a certain race are taller than the males.

Again, I don't like the dimorphism with the Au ra. Hyur females are noticeably smaller than the males - same with everything but lalafell. The difference is one of degree and in the Au Ra's case I think it just looks stupid and puts me off playing a female one.

Nor is it unreasonable to ask them to justify something that is against the norm for the vast majority of mammalian species. That is what makes for good fantasy - explaining through the lore why a race exhibits certain traits, rather than just leaving it to pure artistic caprice. They don't have to but it's a damn shame for them not to use the opportunity to do so.

At least with the older iterations of the Drow, in the Forgotten Realms, the writers went to pains to provide a plausible reason as to why the females flipped the size differential.

tbf, the extreme dimorphism with no reason in Au Ra is not something they should repeat again because it was blatant pandering for the sake of pandering. Plus, it really made no sense thematically for Xaela, a warring, nomadic people, to have super tiny uwu women imo.

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Regardless, in the real world male rabbits are slightly smaller than female rabbits. Realism go. Tall girls forever.

Agreed, but on the last point, we're not talking about rabbits but humanoids with some rabbit features. So it's a different set of evolutionary pressures. As I said, if the developer team can come up with a good/interesting reason as to why they differ in that direction and incorporate them, fine. If not, I'm likelier than not to gloss over them, anyway. I'm not obliged to like what they include or how they include it.

[Rymm]

Nor is it unreasonable to ask them to justify something that is against the norm for the vast majority of mammalian species.

Eh, larger females in mammal species are more common than most people realize. It's just that the big, flashy animals that most people think of when you say "mammal" (lions, elephants, bears, deer, etc.) don't follow this. It's actually relatively common among rodents and marsupials. But if we are talking about a fantasy species it makes just as much sense to draw on real-world rabbits' genetic trends as it does to draw on real-world humans'.

And to my knowledge, this game doesn't explain in the story any of the cases of sexual dimorphism that we see, the Au Ra only being the most glaring example of it. I don't understand why (if it should turn out that bunnygirls are slightly taller than bunnyboys) it would be necessary in the case of the Viera. In fact I think the only time it mentions the reasons behind any evolutionary differences at all is to explain some of the trait differences between the clans of the different races, like why duskwight have darker skintones or dunesfolk have glossy eyes. And I'm not even sure if that appears in the game beyond the character creation screen.

[Lauront]

Eh, larger females in mammal species are more common than most people realize. It's just that the big, flashy animals that most people think of when you say "mammal" (lions, elephants, bears, deer, etc.) don't follow this. It's actually relatively common among rodents and marsupials. But if we are talking about a fantasy species it makes just as much sense to draw on real-world rabbits' genetic trends as it does to draw on real-world humans'.

It makes little sense. Rabbits do not have the same advanced social structures a humanoid race would have, which can strongly affect breeding patterns. It is fine from an artistic point of view to take inspiration (referring to the Drow, spiders were clearly the source, but the authors did not stop there and went further to explain why their society led to such an arrangement). If you want to justify it in terms of a race's lore, however, it will be by reference to the social norms that led to such dimorphism. I'd have liked for them to do that with the Au Ra, because whilst I think the implementation (versus the concept art) was not to my tastes at all for the females, it'd at least provide some insight into why the race splits along these lines. It's just good lore design to do so.

And to my knowledge, this game doesn't explain in the story any of the cases of sexual dimorphism that we see, the Au Ra only being the most glaring example of it. I don't understand why (if it should turn out that bunnygirls are slightly taller than bunnyboys) it would be necessary in the case of the Viera. In fact I think the only time it mentions the reasons behind any evolutionary differences at all is to explain some of the trait differences between the clans of the different races, like why duskwight have darker skintones or dunesfolk have glossy eyes. And I'm not even sure if that appears in the game beyond the character creation screen.

As I have stated multiple times now, I do not like the way they implemented the auri dimorphism; they're a bad precedent, not a good one. In general, I find their lore on the races lacking. Hence, I would like for them to instead put a bit more effort into it other than just appealing to some niche. They're releasing another lorebook soon, so I'm looking forward to them providing more insight into Auri (and other racial) lore.

I'd still not play an auri female with their current design but I like these kind of things being detailed, to better understand the race in question.

[Rymm]

It makes little sense. Rabbits do not have the same advanced social structures a humanoid race would have, which can strongly affect breeding patterns.

Yes, social structures can strongly affect breeding patterns. But having a social structure in and of itself does not necessitate larger males. Hyenas live in large groups (upwards of 50 members) with extremely complex social structure (on par with some species of monkeys) and the females are not only a great deal larger than males but also way more dominant in the group's hierarchy. If you are suggesting that a social structure needs to be more advanced to influence dimorphism (i.e. using tools, manipulating fire, and/or building an actual society,) then I feel the need to point out that the sexual dimorphism displayed in humans and our progenitors predates these developments by an incredibly wide margin.

It could be as simple a matter as the primitive species from which the Viera evolved had, for any number of reasons, larger females than males and that particular gene stuck around to the modern day.

Would an explanation be nice? Yes! More lore is always a welcome addition.

Would it be needed for Viera when it was not necessary to delve into the primordial genetic histories of any of the other races (all of them aside from Lallafel, not just Au Ra, display this to some degree) to explain their sexual dimorphism? I don't see why it should be.