Guild Wars 2

So from what I can tell in ‘lore’ Norns average at 9’0" tall, so does that mean in-game the middle of the slider for Norns are 9’0"? Or have they been ‘shrunk’ due to game mechanics?

I’m curious since I made my Norn Male the maximum height, and before I got into RPing I wanted to be clear on his height.

So my question is in-game what is the height range for male norns, and is it the same within lore?

Thanks

Norn have definitely been shrunk down a couple times due to mechanics. I made my norn about mid height for the same reason but am thinking about max scaling him just to make him ‘norny’.

edit: I wouldn’t use the game scale since it seems to be inconsistant with the lore. The charr have been described as human size plus another half. In Sea of sorrows, Sikox is a tall charr and the two norn brothers are still a head and shoulders taller than him. But the game scale doesn’t allow that kind of disparity.

Between the smallest female and the tallest male, the discrepancy is important.
My character often wonders if she really belongs to the same species as those huge muscular warriors.

As a spy, she’s a tiny, skinny female with dark hair and “common” hair style, without any distinctive tattoos. She’s one head taller than the tallest of humans, and this comes handy when you have to merge into a human crowd (bent those knees under your coat!).
She’s a daughter of Raven, of course.

Is your scale up to date? As I wrote, I don’t think that my norn is of the same size as tall humans.

Lore-wise, you might want to know that norns are said to be a race of giants, cousin to the jotuns (cf. the Story Teller in the Great Lodge : both kins used to rule the world).

The scale is the latest one. I haven’t heard anything about any resizing since that scale came out. Though, I have a free character slot so I can test human vs short female norn.

edit: the first two are tallest male and female human. The last one is shortest female norn. They seem to be about the same size. the norn can be half a head taller than the male depending on the stance.

I forget where the comparison chart is located but there is one if you google, and it seemed pretty right for me. I have both a min and max height Norn and the difference is pretty huge (female) but the minimum is still taller than the humans I’ve met.

Well, I’ll note that Kodan are 10 feet tall, and the tallest female norn is slightly taller then them.

Seems semi-right to me, as taller norn females still tower over humans or sylvari (even max height females of each). Of course, details/specifics may be off (Though honestly I think people seem to constantly edge their humans toward the top of the scale instead of the middle. Best to size off the NPCs IMO.

That’s a good point. The tallest human is still pretty tall as far as human terms go.

According to this scale, the tallest Norn is 8’7". For the thing about Kodan, maybe at full hight Kodan are 10’ but all Kodan npc’s have severly hunched over necks. I am not sure about the thruth behind this chart though. Because if its right, I am taller than some Norn. Also, Lore-wise, Sylvari are slightly shorter than humans, but on this chart they are the same.

Phoenix Fire.6203:

According to this scale, the tallest Norn is 8’7". For the thing about Kodan, maybe at full hight Kodan are 10’ but all Kodan npc’s have severly hunched over necks. I am not sure about the thruth behind this chart though. Because if its right, I am taller than some Norn. Also, Lore-wise, Sylvari are slightly shorter than humans, but on this chart they are the same.

That scale says “Max height asura are 3’10” when they AVERAGE at 4 foot.

It says a max height charr is only SLIGHTLY taller then a human(max height).

That’s a scale I don’t think is accurate to the game at all, and isn’t even CLOSE to the lore.

To those who want metric numbers, we’d have then:

• Norns:
  Min: 1m78 ; Max: 2m62 ; Ratio: 1.471

• Charrs:
  Min: 1m52 ; Max: 2m08 ; Ratio: 1.367

• Asuras:
  Min: 0m86 ; Max: 1m17 ; Ratio: 1.353

• Humans & Sylvaris:
  Min: 1m50 ; Max: 1m90 ; Ratio: 1.271

Note that the charr are a bit tricky because it’s their standing height, not the overall one!

Now on the rant.
It’s fine we can have in game the diversity is size which is the proper of the humankind (Am I wrong about this being “proper”?), and we know that the Pale Tree did mimic this.
But then, what in the lore tells that all the other species would be (or not be) even more diverse in size (height) than the humans are?
As often in the game industry (and the leisure industry as a whole), I suspect a humano-centrism here (let’s reflect the irl life, let the player be the size he wants, because perhaps he likes or dislikes his own size irl, etc.).

The only reason I see for a norn, an ancient giant species, to be as tall as a human, even in the case of a large-scale degenerative process (loosing their magic, etc.), is to allow players of both species to play together with the feeling to belong to the same species.

My only point here is just:
Couldn’t have we accepted to play a “monstrous” (inhuman, “exotic”) species among 5 other, so that there is no problem in diversity and choice, which max:min size ratio would have been no greater than 1.2? Why?

[Edit] Even if this scale is false or obsolete, I stand on my rant about the norn size ratio! [/Edit]

It’s pretty clear that Norns have been shrunken down from their GW1 height. But they’re still pretty darned tall. Playing with a Human or Sylvari after playing a Norn does feel like transforming from an adult into a toddler. However, do I want the Norns to be taller to match the lore? No. Honestly, would you really want to do a jumping puzzle with a Norn taller than 9’0?! Don’t get me wrong, I love my Norn. I honestly feel weird playing as anything other than Norn or Charr at this point because I feel… tiny. But d@mn those jumping puzzle views!

I don’t think they’ve been shrunk that much. Probably just now there is a little bit of variety to their height, and humans are uniform height/build now (where in GW1, a necromancer would have a different max height, as well as overall body build then say, a warrior. Builds for sure were different, but height may not have been. unsure).

They are still crazy big though.

NWaters.3789:

So from what I can tell in ‘lore’ Norns average at 9’0" tall, so does that mean in-game the middle of the slider for Norns are 9’0"?

Interval midpoint is not the same as average.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_mean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(mathematics)#Terminology

Now you are going to understand my concern with the high max/min ratio.

Behold my lovely norn spy right after a little training with a Vigil Warmaster!
(My avatar is at min size and I believe this NPC is near the max size)

Now, is that 1.5 ratio still in use or is this peculiar NPC a mark of past experiences?

The sizes there are still in use. I think the helmet on the warmaster creates the impression that she is bigger than she actually is. the max height is about a third taller. Or about chest high in both pictures but without the helmet it doesn’t look so drastic to me.