Since the release of the Benchmark this has been pointed out time and time again as something the community is unhappy with. However, there hasn't been a reply as to if this is permanent or if with the official release of Au Ra in Heavensward, they will indeed be separate.

The reason why this is seen as such a bothersome issue is the fact that the horns are very noticeable and, in a sense, they are Au Ra's "ears". Elezen and Lalafels have very prominent ears and these can be adjusted by size and shape. Roe and Hyur have human-like ears so theirs don't change (understandable) and Miqo'te ears are the same size and shape depending on gender. But with such a vast difference between the horns and face shapes on Au Ra, it is understandable that the idea that they can't be mixed and matched freely is frustrating.

The horns already work with all of the hairs and hoods/hats (or at least the ones seen in the Benchmark). Why would making them separate from the face be such a big deal? Would characters look too similar? Would the horns distract/take away from the face? Is it too much character customization?

Thanks to some photoshop magic (that I have been at for the past 5+ hours), I'll let you decide for yourself.

Original for Females


Edited





Original for Males
(I sincerely apologize for how zoomed out these are, I had to take the screenies with photoshop open and I couldn't get any closer without significantly cutting off the horns, which doesn't help my case much)


Edited





Do the characters look too similar? Excluding the fact that it's the same skin/hair/eye color; no, they do not. The face shapes, eye shapes, lips, eyebrows, and face scales all offer a unique look, even if the differences seem minor at first glance.

Do the horns distract/take away from the face? Not at all. In fact, the horns add to the face and even enhance some of the resting expressions, making the expressions seem a bit different from one horn shape to the other.

Is it too much character customization? Considering there are some games with sliders for literally every little inch of your character's face and body, I think expanding the customization options from a pre-set 4 to 16 is hardly too much for us to handle.

I know everyone isn't going to agree that this is worth fixing, but I know I'm not the only one who is a little bit upset over this restriction. So, SE-senpai, please notice? <3