Beard Concepts - Take a look!

[DonArkanio.6419]

Hey there,

I think Icebrood Saga is the most viking we can get!

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With that being sad, I made a concept of a custom beard for each race. I excluded humans, since they got new options with PoF.

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This is the first set I made. More to come. Might also add a custom human facial hair concepts in the future. I decided to go with the different option for each race, and chose the most fitting in my opinion.

So, I hope you enjoy this little project, share your thoughts!

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[Cruzy.3706]

Dude, they look awesome!!!Really nice work

I would love to see them ingame

[Humor.5763]

As much as I dislike facial hair in general on my characters in game, I have to say, these are actually fitting for their races.

Good Job.

[Amy of Darkness.5248]

WOW! That's quality facial hair! (◕∇◕)⌵bI love these concepts! Would absolutely love to get that goatee for Asura, no fair the concept art shows they totally could rock that look but none of the models come equipped with facial hair. That Green Man lookin' Sylvari is fantastic, too.

[zealex.9410]

I need that sylvari beard in mh life, please anet, my money's right here w8ing.

[Drizzt.1796]

First of all, sylvari have leaves, asura are actually bald, (see Zojja and any asura wearing light tier 3 asura helm), Norn just have normal beards, and charr just have hair.Second of all, to be honest, all of this is so weird to look at.

[Thornwolf.9721]

We need WAAAAAAAAAAAY more beards, Please.... heck we need more customization in general.

[Krypto.2069]

Well done, @"DonArkanio!

You make me want to make a male Asura (and I'm no fan of Asuras)!This is some sweet bearded detail that would increase my immersion levels - no doubt! :+1:

Thank you for sharing! :smile:

[Za Shaloc.3908]

These are fantastic--truly wish they were in game. I always select facial hair on my (human) characters but only stubble/short styles because I dislike how full the classic one is and the PoF styles have a really odd texture. I absolutely love the norn beardstyles because they are so much more intricate, but I don't ever really play norn. Sylvari isn't one I had thought of before, but I love the way you interpreted it and it would be a great way of making them look more diverse.

[Kitich.4580]

just.. WOW!

I don't like playing sylvari, but this one would change my mind. Asura is great as well.

[MorningGlow.5376]

Haha, that Sylvari's beard is just too magnificent to bear. I love it!Gj, on the other beards, too. They do fit the respective race quite well.

[Amy of Darkness.5248]

@"Drizzt.1796" said:First of all, sylvari have leaves, asura are actually bald, (see Zojja and any asura wearing light tier 3 asura helm), Norn just have normal beards, and charr just have hair.

The artist drew leaves for the appearance of a beard and not hair, and several sylvari display facial-hair like features so this is not a stretch. Their entire facial and body features are made of leaves layered on top of each other like an un-bloomed cabbage, nothing suggests that this isn't a possibility for a Sylvari to grow beard-like features with broader types of leaves like the artist here depicted. A Dandelion leaf beard would be pretty neat, I think. As mentioned I feel like it is reminiscent of medieval art of the Green Man, a popular motif with leafy greens standing in for a wild beard.

Second...OBJECTION!Zojja may be bald but Asura are not naturally bald. Zojja has eyelashes, so it's likely she shaves her head-- having one's entire egghead on full display and unobscured by hair is probably considered attractive, who knows. Flimsy lore excuseplanations aside, Zojja's almost certainly only bald because the existing hairstyles clashed with the helmet they designed for her, and that's all. If the cultural armor was designed before she was, however, then it was simply a matter of choosing to have the character be bald because the helm just does that and they didn't bother altering her model to have hair with it when it will take the hair off Player characters.

Helmet baldness means nothing, for by that logic all humans are bald, norn are naturally clean-shaven, and charr horns are all fakes, because they come off with with a good majority of headgear (see the Top Hat for a prime example of completely unnecessary baldness on a human female!)Only the Swaggering Hat doesn't take your hair off, because they included a hairstyle for each race as part of the hat itself. Most helms that aren't headband style like bunny ears will em-balden your character. Anet's inability to mitigate hair vs full helm clipping issues is not a valid source for lore.

The concept art, and even going back to Eye of the North where they were introduced, shows that Asura have always had hair, and yes even facial hair.Some of the reeeally old second pass concepts had them mostly bald, but since they clearly have noses now and aren't goblin troglodytes I hardly think that counts as valid representation of what we see in the game today and what was established in GW1. Them not having beards in spite of Steward Gixx (first image) and Professor Bronk showing clearly they could in concept art that is shown to us both at creation and as a loading screen, is a result of just being lazy and not caring enough to be consistent.

Also, even if they were bald (which they are not) and those were wigs, with the ability to simulate close shaved hair they would definitely be able to wear stick-on facial hair that looks real.

(This is all probably too much for a reply as you probably don't care, but I see the bald Asura comment a lot and feel compelled to weigh in)

[Drizzt.1796]

@Amy of Darkness.5248 said:

@"Drizzt.1796" said:First of all, sylvari have leaves, asura are actually bald, (see Zojja and any asura wearing light tier 3 asura helm), Norn just have normal beards, and charr just have hair.

The artist drew leaves for the appearance of a beard and not hair, and several sylvari display facial-hair like features so this is not a stretch. Their entire facial and body features are made of leaves layered on top of each other like an un-bloomed cabbage, nothing suggests that this isn't a possibility for a Sylvari to grow beard-like features with broader types of leaves like the artist here depicted. A Dandelion leaf beard would be pretty neat, I think. As mentioned I feel like it is reminiscent of medieval art of the Green Man, a popular motif with leafy greens standing in for a wild beard.

Second...

OBJECTION!

Zojja may be bald but Asura are

not

naturally bald. Zojja has eyelashes, so it's likely she shaves her head-- having one's entire egghead on full display and unobscured by hair is probably considered attractive, who knows. Flimsy lore excuseplanations aside, Zojja's almost certainly only bald because the existing hairstyles clashed with the helmet they designed for her, and that's all. If the cultural armor was designed before she was, however, then it was simply a matter of choosing to have the character be bald because the helm just

does that

and they didn't bother altering her model to have hair with it when it will take the hair off Player characters.

Helmet baldness means nothing, for by that logic all humans are bald, norn are naturally clean-shaven, and charr horns are all fakes, because they come off with with a good majority of headgear (see the

Top Hat

for a prime example of completely unnecessary baldness on a human female!)Only the Swaggering Hat doesn't take your hair off, because they included a hairstyle for each race as part of the hat itself. Most helms that aren't headband style like bunny ears will em-balden your character. Anet's inability to mitigate hair vs full helm clipping issues is not a valid source for lore.

The

concept art

, and even going back to Eye of the North where they were introduced, shows that Asura have always had hair, and

yes even facial hair.

Some of the reeeally old second pass concepts had them mostly bald, but since they clearly have noses now and aren't goblin troglodytes I hardly think that counts as valid representation of what we see in the game today and what was established in GW1. Them not having beards in spite of Steward Gixx (first image) and

Professor Bronk

showing clearly they could in concept art that is shown to us both at creation and as a loading screen, is a result of just being lazy and not caring enough to be consistent.

Also, even if they were bald (which they are not) and those were wigs, with the ability to simulate close shaved hair they would definitely be able to wear stick-on facial hair that looks real.

(This is all probably too much for a reply as you probably don't care, but I see the bald Asura comment a lot and feel compelled to weigh in)

Hmm... what if they just wear a wig?

[Teratus.2859]

Yes please!!

I rarely use long facial hair on my characters because most of the current styles just look horrible or dumb.I wish there were more facial and longer hair options as well.

Some of my male human characters are starting to look quite similar becuase of the lack in hairstyles.. or should I say lack of appealing ones.There are a lot of short/semi-shaved hairstyles which I have a strong dislike for.

I've mentioned in the past that many female hairstyles are exceptionally long so we know this is possible in Gw2 to do.Plenty of us guys in the real world spent years growing our hair to extreme lengths.. hell I havent had hair shorter than my waist in 15 years.It's disappointing that I can't run around with a waist length hair or braid in Gw2 on a male character.Hell i'd even settle for more shoulder length styles providing half of it wasn't shaved off XD

[MorningGlow.5376]

@Drizzt.1796 said:

@Amy of Darkness.5248 said:[...]Also, even if they were bald (which they are not) and those were wigs, with the ability to simulate close shaved hair they would definitely be able to wear stick-on facial hair that looks real.[...]Hmm... what if they just wear a wig?

Duuuuude!?^^

[Amy of Darkness.5248]

@"Drizzt.1796" said:Hmm... what if they just wear a wig?With the way the hair works in the game, every race is wearing a wig! ;)Joking aside, they are mammals and that hair is real, lore wise. You're probably just teasing with that laconic response because I wrote a whole novel in reply, but I'll take the bait 'cuz I'm a sucker for over-explaining pointlessly. Buckle up!

I think if they wore wigs, with how gossipy and catty everyone sounds when you hear NPC dialogue in the background, there would absolutely be some Human or Charr taking a potshot at the Asura for not having real hair.I also don't think they have the same hang-ups with baldness that humans do, though I'll admit this is me filling in some holes the lore team left open, but there's religious, cultural, age and health related baggage when it comes to us humans and our hair. So far I have not seen much to suggest Asura are particularly ageist against the older generation or that male pattern baldness is a thing for their species. Baldness isn't consistent enough to suggest it's culturally significant beyond what we've been informed in-game and beyond about what Asura consider attractive traits in a potential mate-- brows and ears. You can choose to make your Humans and Norns bald also, so I think it simply comes down to player choice. Some people just prefer the bald look especially with the stripe patterns that run over the scalp.

Most bald Asura I've seen as NPCs are either:

1. Wearing skin-tight cultural helm that removes hair (aside from Zojja I have not seen another bald female Asura)

2. Ancient old farts like Phlunt

   If Asura wore wigs, it would be ostensibly to appeal to human sensibilities and what humans consider attractive, so that's right out the window! Asura care little about what the races they consider mentally inferior think about their looks. The artist who designed them even suggested they'd find offense in being called "cute".The Rata Sum loading screen certainly makes it look like baldness is the default, but as an artist myself I can just say with reasonable confidence that a good portion of the loading screens are speedpaints, and stopping to reference the canon hairdos, then rendering them, slows the process down. Not having to bother rendering hair because the Asura have no taboo with baldness is a freebie!

But also in response to "what if they wear wigs"? Then it makes even less sense to say they can't have beards, because they'd use the same technique to apply fake facial hair!

[Drizzt.1796]

@"Amy of Darkness.5248" said:But also in response to "what if they wear wigs"? Then it makes even less sense to say they can't have beards, because they'd use the same technique to apply fake facial hair!

Oh.