Oh, it’s intentional. The aesthetic of the male charr was obviously nicked straight from Beast, right down to the long, hyena-like body and short legs. There’s no doubt about that. But everything is inspired by something.
Let’s be honest, though… if you could be inspired by boring fantasy races like the Vah Shir, the Kerra, or the Khajiit, or you could be inspired by something like Beast, which would you choose? To be honest, I think their inspiration was well chosen, because at least the charr don’t look like most fantasy races.
Not to mention that Beast was absolutely awesome and a well-loved character in most of my social circles. This made the charr an easy sell (unlike most beast races)!
So… yeah. It’s obvious ‘strongly inspired’ by beast. But then the Khajiit ended up being ‘strongly inspired’ by the Vah Shir and so on. It’s just how things are. Few things are completely unique. But the charr are still very unique compared to most beast races. I can’t really think of one other race in a game that has a visual aesthetic as original as the charr. And I know a lot about that topic.
