Why do all Norn males have gynocomastia

[Substance E.4852]

At least they don't have roid gut
 

On 11/1/2021 at 6:45 PM, Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

Maybe male Norns also nurse their young. They’re not human after all and don’t need to follow human biology. 

Norn reproduce via spores, this is confirmed cannon

[The Greyhawk.9107]

3 hours ago, Substance E.4852 said:

At least they don't have roid gut
 

Norn reproduce via spores, this is confirmed cannon

Nah, they totally propagate via Mitosis, as a Lore nut I can confirm this to be canon.😜

Joking aside, male Norn seem to have a physique more in line with "Strongman" lifters than bodybuilders.

Edited November 3, 2021 by The Greyhawk.9107

[TwiceDead.1963]

Arnold is from Tyria and these are his people.

Sadly gravity on earth was twice as stronk and it compacted him when he arrived on our planet.

 

Seriously, Norn are just big humans. There's no distinction to be made. Lore-nerds can waltz on over wagging their fingers going No! No! No! , but I'm telling you; if it walks like a human, talks like a human, looks like a human and drinks like a human, then it's probably an Ostrich.

Edited November 3, 2021 by TwiceDead.1963

[Klowdy.3126]

2 hours ago, TwiceDead.1963 said:

Arnold is from Tyria and these are his people.

Sadly gravity on earth was twice as stronk and it compacted him when he arrived on our planet.

 

Seriously, Norn are just big humans. There's no distinction to be made. Lore-nerds can waltz on over wagging their fingers going No! No! No! , but I'm telling you; if it walks like a human, talks like a human, looks like a human and drinks like a human, then it's probably an Ostrich.

There is absolutely no reason to think their biology is any different, just based on their way of life. Babies are born from their mothers, get older for 70-100 years, and die. They have hair, eat food, alcohol has similar effects on them as a normal human, and the list goes on. It's just a few people that felt the need to be contrarian for no reason at all. Not as if this topic has ever held space in their brains before this thread. Doesn't matter. The devs will, literally, never have an opinion on this matter, so I guess it's all just speculation.

[Tachenon.5270]

The way I see it, male norn are are clones of Popeye's antagonist Bluto/Brutus and probably came to Tyria via the Mists, same as that other invasive species, humans.

 

On a side note, are quaggans mammals? They look like mammals, cetaceans, specifically, until they get upset.

 

On another side note, are sylvari warm- or cold-blooded (or the plantly equivalent of one or the other or neither)? If they wear cold weather gear in the Shiverpeaks, for instance, does it keep them warm?

 

Before anyone suggests it, no, I'm not venturing into the Lore section of the forums. That place is terrifying. /e cower

[phokus.8934]

We have talking animals, magic, fireballs coming from fingertips, never having to go to the bathroom or eat or drink, we never die… and people want to throw real life biology on top of fantasy?

[Einlanzer.1627]

19 hours ago, Klowdy.3126 said:

You can infer whatever, but the universe is definitely based around the natural universe. Mammals are all born from other mammals. Birds come from eggs. The existence of made up creatures doesn't have any bearing on the nature of something the devs have definitely never even considered. 

 

This concept is called verisimilitude - and it basically refers to the idea that even a fantasy world needs to make internal sense and be consistent with at least some aspects of the real world to make it believable enough to be immersive.

Calling something "fantasy" isn't an excuse to just do whatever you feel like doing with it. Not a good one, anyway.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Einlanzer.1627

[The Greyhawk.9107]

1 hour ago, phokus.8934 said:

We have talking animals, magic, fireballs coming from fingertips, never having to go to the bathroom or eat or drink, we never die… and people want to throw real life biology on top of fantasy?

Yes.  Its called the Violation of the Suspension of Disbelief.  Even a fantasy world has to have enough similarities with the real world in order to be accepted.  Also, game mechanics ≠ in-universe rules.  Player characters not needing to eat, drink and kitten is game mechanics, not an aspect of the fictional world the game takes place in.

[Dawdler.8521]

18 hours ago, Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

 Now this topic has me wondering. If a pregnant female Norn transforms into a giant bird and gives birth, will she lay an egg that she’ll need to sit on till it hatches. 🧐
 

so many questions. 

No.

Thats called free breakfast.

[Blude.6812]

20 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Why is this even a concern?  Armor covers the chest anyway.

It probably isn't a concern, likely just throwing out a fishing line.

 

[Farohna.6247]

They're hairless kodan...bound to have some body quirks.  Hairless bear man.  Concur that they have more of the strongman build and less of the body builder physique just for posing.  Clearly the women evolved a bit more gracefully.

[Stadsport.8714]

I don't think they look like they have gyno, but their pec shape is different from what a lot of "ideal" human/male/bodybuilder pecs look like. But their whole build is. Proportionally, male humans look the "best" (from a bodybuilding/critique perspective), but are obviously way smaller than Norn. Male Norns have ridiculous traps, odd shaped heads, and yeah kind of odd looking pecs. They look close enough to humans that we want to compare them to other humans, but they are technically a non-human race in a fantasy world. 

[Gibson.4036]

2 hours ago, Stadsport.8714 said:

They look close enough to humans that we want to compare them to other humans, but they are technically a non-human race in a fantasy world. 

This is what makes them fall into the uncanny valley for some people, and why this topic keeps coming around for the past ten years.

It is kind of funny that they distorted human proportions for male Norn, but just made female Norn large framed human proportions.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[The Greyhawk.9107]

3 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

This is what makes them fall into the uncanny valley for some people, and why this topic keeps coming around for the past ten years.

It is kind of funny that they distorted human proportions for male Norn, but just made female Norn large framed human proportions.

In hindsight they probably should have left them comparable to the male Norn of GW1.

[firedragon.8953]

18 hours ago, TwiceDead.1963 said:

Seriously, Norn are just big humans. There's no distinction to be made. Lore-nerds can waltz on over wagging their fingers going No! No! No!

Hah! You mean humans are just little norn. Look at norn children! Humans! Humans are just children. 
 

15 hours ago, Klowdy.3126 said:

get older for 70-100 years, and die

This is incorrect.
"Norn can also have long lives, living up to 120 and maintaining their good health and vitality for a long time, though very few die of old age." https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn

The purpose of male norn and male/female charr is so you can play "hard mode" fashion wars.

[TwiceDead.1963]

10 minutes ago, firedragon.8953 said:

Hah! You mean humans are just little norn. Look at norn children! Humans! Humans are just children.

I cannot dispute this. CURSES!

[Klowdy.3126]

3 hours ago, firedragon.8953 said:

Hah! You mean humans are just little norn. Look at norn children! Humans! Humans are just children. 
 

This is incorrect.
"Norn can also have long lives, living up to 120 and maintaining their good health and vitality for a long time, though very few die of old age." https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn

The purpose of male norn and male/female charr is so you can play "hard mode" fashion wars.

Lol, nice.

[LSD.4673]

On 11/1/2021 at 11:38 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Perhaps, one should not compare them with human physiques.  It's a bit like saying why do male lions have manes? Other large cats don't. 

Yes, let's avoid comparing the generic human characters to actual humans. They have such deep and conplecks lores to differentiate them. For example, norns is biggers.

[phokus.8934]

On 11/3/2021 at 8:55 AM, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Yes.  Its called the Violation of the Suspension of Disbelief.  Even a fantasy world has to have enough similarities with the real world in order to be accepted.  Also, game mechanics ≠ in-universe rules.  Player characters not needing to eat, drink and kitten is game mechanics, not an aspect of the fictional world the game takes place in.

No that's where you're wrong.  Fantasy is exactly that - it can be anything you want it to be.  This is ANets fantasy world after all and it can be anything they want it to be.  See, that's the thing about fantasy.  It can be whatever you want it to be.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

15 hours ago, phokus.8934 said:

No that's where you're wrong.  Fantasy is exactly that - it can be anything you want it to be.  This is ANets fantasy world after all and it can be anything they want it to be.  See, that's the thing about fantasy.  It can be whatever you want it to be.

You can try to make it whatever you want, but if you go too far or aren't consistent your audience will reject your work.

[Einlanzer.1627]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:10 AM, phokus.8934 said:

No that's where you're wrong.  Fantasy is exactly that - it can be anything you want it to be.  This is ANets fantasy world after all and it can be anything they want it to be.  See, that's the thing about fantasy.  It can be whatever you want it to be.

 

In reality, it doesn't actually work this way. See the post above about verisimilutide - it's an extremely important thing to understand if your goal is to produce fantasy that people can enjoy.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Einlanzer.1627

[Zola.6197]

We stan big juicy norn pecs.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

The whole "Norn are just bigger Humans" argument it strange because, even in real life, there were many, many species of Humans that all died out, with just one species surviving (kitten sapiens). There's even evidence the different species lived together at various points in history, and interbred as well.

 

In other words, even in the physical world, being Human isn't a strict definition of Human. It only became that way because we got lucky and survived against all odds where all the others didn't.

 

There's alot of topics that cover why and how humanoids are the most efficient form. It doesn't mean the Norn have Human biology, it just means that having a humanoid figure with redundant body parts is useful. For all we know their internals are completely different, because its the external configuration that determines how you interact with your world and thus how well you survive;  even on Earth, the internals of most species are extremely varied, but many carbon-based life forms follow similar external patterns due to also having similar requirements to survive.

 

There's more that could be said on the subject, but, evolutionarily speaking even the Asura, Charr and Kodan aren't that far from Humans in our world. What seem like extreme changes are likely only a very small percentage of their genetic code. (The Sylvari are another story entirely, of course).

Edited November 9, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[The Greyhawk.9107]

1 hour ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

The whole "Norn are just bigger Humans" argument it strange because, even in real life, there were many, many species of Humans that all died out, with just one species surviving (kitten sapiens). There's even evidence the different species lived together at various points in history, and interbred as well.

 

In other words, even in the physical world, being Human isn't a strict definition of Human. It only became that way because we got lucky and survived against all odds where all the others didn't.

 

There's alot of topics that cover why and how humanoids are the most efficient form. It doesn't mean the Norn have Human biology, it just means that having a humanoid figure with redundant body parts is useful. For all we know their internals are completely different, because its the external configuration that determines how you interact with your world and thus how well you survive;  even on Earth, the internals of most species are extremely varied, but many carbon-based life forms follow similar external patterns due to also having similar requirements to survive.

 

There's more that could be said on the subject, but, evolutionarily speaking even the Asura, Charr and Kodan aren't that far from Humans in our world. What seem like extreme changes are likely only a very small percentage of their genetic code. (The Sylvari are another story entirely, of course).

Can't help but laugh at the censoring of the scientific name for the modern human species.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 11/2/2021 at 12:14 AM, Mushin.6789 said:

This has always kind of bugged me, but why do all the male norn bodies have to all have gynecomastia.

I corrected it there for you.

And it's not the only issue the selectable male norn bodies have. You might also be interested in this thread:

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Ashantara.8731