Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
I consider every Au Ra male face, except for the old man one, to be more or less classically Biseinen(Bishōnen but fully adult). When I was Au Ra male for a couple of years on my main, I used the young looking one, as I liked those horns best (also on my Raen alt on Sargatanas). Though I generally like the one Theodric use's face a bit better. I don't think their more slender, smooth faces are a bad thing, nor the fact that they are slightly less manly than the other manly options in game . I just find the complaint funny, cause in my eyes, OP has more manly options available already. (If I had to do a hierarchy of masculinity it'd go something like Roe Male = Highlander > Hrothgar > Au Ra M > Midlander >= Catboi > Bunny Boi from what we've seen > Lalafell) - (Of these I've played Roe, Highlander, and Au Ra for years at a time. I tried Midlander and Miqote and could only stand them for about a week).

I think y'all basically want Biseinens with muscle sliders heh. Not a bad thing to want. I'd very much like to not have to hide jawline weirdness with facial hair, but that is the option I've got for my favorite race/clan/face combo.

I also think that Highlander faces all play out better outside of the character creator and in motion. A large reason why I stopped being Au Ra, other than being purely sentimental/attached, was that I liked the emotes that Highlander male faces convey, as I feel they convey situations within the story responses more accurately to my own face/how I feel etc. That and... Male Au Ra run like lanky catboi and have very slender hips.
I tend to look at femininity as consisting in rounder, softer and sometimes fuller facial features, verging more towards neoteny; obviously there is variability, much as there is with men, but that's what I regard as its main thrust. It's why I see the faces I mentioned for Au Ra as so at odds with it. You can arguably push the Magnai face in that direction, and certainly the "youthful" one is inherently that way. However, I usually opt for squarer jaws, more angular chins and a fairly long, mildly convex nose - basically the aesthetic of the blood elves from their concept art (and better implemented now in-game as well.) I consider it better to think of masculine facial features as resulting in a number of possible archetypes that are distinctly masculine, rather than resulting in one specific one, i.e. broader/squarer, although that does correlate with it. Biseinen might be the right term for it, provided it isn't taken as being "pretty" as opposed to handsome, but it seems like a pretty broad term.

I don't even tend to rate Hrothgar in that regard. Yes, they're very muscular, but their faces are so far from human they don't register in my mind along the usual masculine/feminine dichotomy. I'd say in terms of my preferences, Au Ra are at the ideal point, followed by Elezen, specific Midlander and specific catboy picks, highlander and then the rest. Male Viera I am reserving judgement on to see the full spectrum of their options.

In practice, Elezen are let down badly by their anatomy and stiff animations, so I find myself jumping between Au Ra and Midlanders (usually derplander, for the strong jaw/nose/stubble options, or the Oboro face for more delicate features) depending on what I feel like playing at any given point, but I prefer Midlanders slightly for their more fluid animations for casters. Just wish they could be customised with more muscle. I even wish the same could be done with Au Ra and hope that they one day get a muscle tone slider.

With Au Ra I do think the emotes can verge on being a bit goofy at times, but I do think the assertiveness fits their unga bunga lore, so I can overlook foibles in SE's design, like the weird hip design in armour.