Lalafell and Dwarves... Plot Hole Potential?

[Mansion]

If you look at the two pictures side by side you can see that the eyes do line up. There is an extra piece missing in the helmet-less picture, specifically the fake beard from the christmas event.

Excuse my Paint skills but roughly :


I agree with Iscah. I think they just use the same body model, but they don't have lala heads under that helmet

[LineageRazor]

RIP Aetherochemical Compound 123 theories.

I mean, this still leaves plenty of room for the theory that Compound 123 are the RESULTS of experiments on Lalas, of course!

I agree with Iscah. I think they just use the same body model, but they don't have lala heads under that helmet

It's possible that the glowing eyes are decorative, and they're actually seeing out of the top part of the helmet, somehow. Still, I hope you're right - true Dwarfs or riot!

[Mansion]

It's possible that the glowing eyes are decorative, and they're actually seeing out of the top part of the helmet, somehow. Still, I hope you're right - true Dwarfs or riot!

My original "concern" was that the helmet seemed to be too narrow for a lalafell head actually, as it has an odd shape (the helmet!).

[Balipu]

Well considering the split was thousands of years ago it is not impossible to imagine that Lalas and Dwarves aren't 100% same biologically speaking.

Also worth noting that we don't know when they were classified as a beast tribe.

[Eloah]

I agree with Iscah. I think they just use the same body model, but they don't have lala heads under that helmet

It may look like it, but your images don't line up. But, this does help me see what you mean. Adjusting for the minor differences the eyes don't "line up" as expected, but the do to a degree. The glowing eyes would line up near the bottom of the models eyes, not near the center as I originally thought.

All that aside, while I don't expect them to look exactly the same, the dev's have said they are lalafells, and made reference to Lamimi, the Devout of Darkness, possible interactions between a lala PC and lala NPCs, as well as different factions of dwarves. Interactions like that can't happen if they look drastically different, sorry old school dwarf enthusiasts.

[Iscah]

It may look like it, but your images don't line up. But, this does help me see what you mean. Adjusting for the minor differences the eyes don't "line up" as expected, but the do to a degree. The glowing eyes would line up near the bottom of the models eyes, not near the center as I originally thought.

What do you mean, the images don't line up? They're clearly matched - the beard is a few pixels out, enough to see the join but not enough to affect the location of the faces.

The dwarf's eyes are prettymuch where I thought they'd be on the Lalafell face: lined up with their chin, not their eyes.

If you're looking at the feet, they're unevenly placed on the original picture.

[Eloah]

What do you mean, the images don't line up? They're clearly matched - the beard is a few pixels out, enough to see the join but not enough to affect the location of the faces.

The dwarf's eyes are prettymuch where I thought they'd be on the Lalafell face: lined up with their chin, not their eyes.

If you're looking at the feet, they're unevenly placed on the original picture.

The image on the right, the "Dawrf" version, is slightly smaller and a little lower than the one on the right, the "Lalafell" version. Taking those differences into account, the glowing eyes would line up with the lower part of their eyes and cheek, the image posted shows the eye directly on the cheek. I was wrong about them lining up with the lalafell eyes, but they aren't as low as others might think.

Art is a funny thing, even a millimeter difference can make something look rail thin or super thick.

But please, I admitted I was mistaken, let's leave it at that.

[MikkoAkure]

I think the eyes not lining up is just a design choice for the helmet and that we’re not supposed to be thinking this deeply into it. Just like how there’s a whole bunch of different hats and helmets for miqos that have our ears in different places.

I was pretty sure that at the fan fest they said that dwarves are 100% our lalafell. If not, then why would they have a helmetless dwarf on the Shadowbringers website?

[Nalien]

I was pretty sure that at the fan fest they said that dwarves are 100% our lalafell. If not, then why would they have a helmetless dwarf on the Shadowbringers website?

I don't think they said they're 100% our Lalafell, they said they're the race the Firsts Lalafell became after 12,000 years of divergent evolution. They share a common ancestor, that's about it, I doubt they're meant to look like Lalafell under the helmet, that's just a design trick to save time.

From a development standpoint, they likely are just Lalafell with a special helmet that completely warps their heads; Unequip it and it'll be a Lalafell. From a lore standpoint though, they're effectively just an offshoot of Lalafell. What they look like without the helmet and beard is irrelevant, because "they're never seen without them".

[Iscah]

The image on the right, the "Dawrf" version, is slightly smaller and a little lower than the one on the right, the "Lalafell" version.

I still can't see the size difference you're describing. The dwarf side is a few pixels lower than it should be, but the scale looks correct compared to the original picture.

The bottom edge of the tabard is off by a few pixels, and the base of the beard by about that same amount, and the outer 'plait' of the beard by again the same amount. That tells me the scale is consistent, or the degree of mismatch would be different between the top and bottom of the image.



The dwarf's eyes are definitely on the Lalafell's cheeks, and - if you assumed they're a different race simply borrowing the Lalafell body model for animation's sake - it changes their entire apparent appearance.

If that's where their eyes are, then assuming they have a "human-shaped" head with the eyes roughly in the middle, the top of their head would be somewhere around where the horns are on their helmet - but they're still using the body proportions designed for the Lalafell model.

Not having any visible hair to 'fluff up' the size of their head doesn't help either.