Revelations from Patch 4.3

[Cilia]

I wouldn't call Varis ugly, per sé, but I certainly don't find him attractive. The pale skin, sallow eyes, hard lines, and white hair all make him look somewhat older. The major issue is that he's only got a couple very hard lines on his face - the effect makes his face look rather plastic, for want of a better term. The older look suits him (if we're to assume Zenos is 20+, he's likely 40+; not exactly a spring chicken, and being a military leader / sovereign is stressful), but the plastic look is off-putting.

Shadowhunter (Gauis), on the other hand, is ruggedly handsome. He does look more youthful than someone nearly 60 would reasonably be expected to look, though.

I agree that characters tend to flip-flop between "spring chicken" and "old and decrepit," unfortunate as that may be. I'd argue it's a limit of graphical rendering - the subtleties of age are hard to graphically display. The only character who does this well is, in my opinion, Count Edmont, who looks older but not ancient; unlike Shadowhunter he's got subtle hard lines, and unlike Varis has enough that the rest of his face doesn't look fake.

[Theodric]

I'll have to double check but I'm pretty certain that the lore book puts both Varis and Regula as being in their mid forties. So comfortably middle aged rather than old. I'd use the former term to describe characters such as Varis and the latter to describe the likes of the Archbishop of Ishgard.

[Cilia]

Even if he's only ~45, the stress of military life and becoming the sovereign ruler of Garlemald would leave Varis looking a bit older than his physical age. Being the leader of a nation is notorious for making people age badly: see US Presidents (who hold office for, at most, 8 years, but typically come out looking 10 - 15 years older).

I figured it out, though - it's the jowls.

[Rocl]

I'll have to double check but I'm pretty certain that the lore book puts both Varis and Regula as being in their mid forties. So comfortably middle aged rather than old. I'd use the former term to describe characters such as Varis and the latter to describe the likes of the Archbishop of Ishgard.

You are correct, Varis is 46 and Regula is 44. Gaius should be 56, and weirdly enough Eula was 38. Huh, Nero is 34. I wonder how old Nael was supposed to be that they felt comfortable bestowing upon him the title of Legatus...

Also, as always, the sort of "hot or not" is pretty subjective. I... don't find much about Hien attractive at all... it has earned me quite the scorn from some folks! Though I do feel like this opinion of mine has changed somewhat recently...

[Cilia]

You are correct, Varis is 46 and Regula is 44. Gaius should be 56, and weirdly enough Eula was 38. Huh, Nero is 34. I wonder how old Nael was supposed to be that they felt comfortable bestowing upon him the title of Legatus...

Also, as always, the sort of "hot or not" is pretty subjective. I... don't find much about Hien attractive at all... it has earned me quite the scorn from some folks! Though I do feel like this opinion of mine has changed somewhat recently...

Well considering Zenos can't be much older than 25 and he's a Legatus, who knows. Garlemald is believed to run on a very "might makes right" philosophy, after all... so people like Nael (Eula) and Zenos becoming Legates at a young age is entirely plausible... even if it lets batshit insane people take on positions of power they have no right being in...

I find Hien to be ruggedly handsome, much like the Shadowhunter (Gaius).

[Jyera]

Yeah it's definitely subjective who players think of as personally attractive. But I honestly gotta say yes, the aforementioned sallow and jowly-ness of Varis is totally off-putting lmao. XD

I find I'm in a slight minority for character aesthetics, interestingly. Cid is the character that most brings me to my knees, but he has sort of a cult following within the fandom.

.../shakes fist at Shadowhunter some more

[Theodric]

Hien's just the right mix of ruggedly handsome and classically handsome for me. It's hard to say who I'd put in second place. Maybe the Warrior of Darkness? As for some of my favourites from previous titles...

Seifer, Gabranth and Rufus from the men.

Edea, Lulu and Beatrix from the ladies.

[LineageRazor]

So about that:

It's surprising that apparently a beasttribe can become an auspice, but then, they're turtle-people, so perhaps their lifespan is large enough that some individuals can get to the point they obtain auspice powers. Tenzen as far as I understood was a warrior of light (having the echo, having a crystal, the auspices mentioning our WoL is similar to him).

Pretty sure it's more than just the longevity of the species. If that were the case, there's no way that any tiger (Byakko) would ever become an auspice. Tigers rarely live longer than twenty-five years, far short of the necessary span to become an auspice. There was something special about Byakko that gave him the potential to become one, and I presumed that that specialness applied to Tenzen, as well. The same applies to most of the other species we see in the Four Lords storyline.

As for Soroban, bear in mind that the box aged him so that he could become an auspice, but age isn't what kills people. It's the age-associated breakdown of bodily functions that does you in. Because this is artificial, magical aging, it's entirely possible that Soroban could be aged well past the normal limits of his people. If he stayed that way for too long, his body would start to fail (had he not become an auspice), but thankfully the magic of the box was temporary. I'd say that this chapter of the story alone isn't enough to draw the conclusion that Kojin, as a species, live long enough to become Auspices, but it's certainly possible that certain special individuals (like in the case of Byakko - and Tenzen?) might.

[SilverArrow20XX]

One thing that struck me about Varis is how ridiculously huge he is. Like, I always got the impression he was a big guy, but he towers over Zenos by a good several inches, and Zenos is himself huge.

[VargasVermillion]

One thing that struck me about Varis is how ridiculously huge he is. Like, I always got the impression he was a big guy, but he towers over Zenos by a good several inches, and Zenos is himself huge.

I originally thought garleans were just big people but many of the garleans we've seen recently through the ivalice raid are midlander/highlander size, and Cid is also on the smaller side with nero and gaius being significantly taller. Most military officers who are more often than not purebloods are also larger than most races.