Guild Wars 2

If, like me, you enjoy and admire the daring character creators who can capture an aesthetic in their characters that isn’t the usual one, post what you have!
I study West African culture professionally, and am an ardent fan of things central and East Asian, so of course, my characters in this game had to reflect as nuanced and accurate a representation as I could manage to get.
So for my Canthan duo, I sought to capture not a typical Japanese or even Chinese aesthetic, but a Mongolian look. I did this mostly because I’ve always felt that the Luxons really draw from that nomadic vibe – though the world of GW2 doesn’t allow for the elaborate shamanistic body ornamentation of the Jade Sea, alas!

For my Istani, I went for a look I drew from Yorubaland in Nigeria. The two Kournan men I made were drawn from Wolof and Hausa faces. I love them all and am proud of each, though I have my Ascalonian, Krytan, and nonhuman characters too.
I tried to get a gw1 paragon’s feathery look on the Istani (who is easily my favourite character), while my necromancer Kournan is built around the Grenth backpiece in his colourscheme. My blind Kournan devotee of Balthazar is, of course, as fiery as I can make him – I kept thinking of the Kournan priests at resurrection shrines in GW1.

These are the ones I get complimented on, enthused at over, and as I myself always praise other players who’ve attempted and usually gorgeously captured their own non stereotypical humans, I thought I’d start a share thread dedicated to celebrating the diversity possible in this game! (with an eye to getting even more base faces we can tweak into unique neat concepts )

I agree you have a point, but there are few other ways to describe it. “Post your Canthan/Elonan characters” perhaps?
For me, one of the great joys in GW is that you aren’t locked into playing ‘standard white fantasy hero/heroine of European descent’ as in so many other traditional MMOs. Nightfall was jawdroppingly inclusive, and Factions brought some fabulous new aesthetics.
I was inspired in large part by a player commenting on ideas for character creation improvements which would allow for more Asian and African faces. That thread wasn’t really the place for it, but it made me want to share what I’ve been able to do, and invite others to show their own characters in turn.

Being able to create characters that portray non-white faces in believable ways matters a lot to me, which is why when I see another player with a stunning character that engages with that, I stop and whisper them. As I’ve in turn been whispered by players of African descent who cheer on my Elonian characters.
I do tend to see people more willing to represent Canthans ingame, though they’re usually decidedly East Asian in both look and name. I feel that the Luxons derive a lot of their culture from the nomadic people of the Mongolian steppes, which is why I looked there for inspiration for my own Canthan characters.
I do get your point and will try to retitle the thread to more accurately represent my intention – which is to celebrate the diversity possible in this game.
I’d love to see other characters people are proud of and love who capture a specific aesthetic not usually available in most MMOs.
:) Hope that clarifies!

Okay, here are a couple characters I am of which I am quite proud. Hope you like them! :-)

You will see many Canthans in:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Post-your-Canthan-toons-here/first#post4772056

Double post! I do wish we could get more elaborate facial definition. The base facial structure in this game’s humans doesn’t actually vary all that much. Here’s what I was able to do in another game’s creator (too bad that game was one of the most toxic messes I ever played in, and in-game the faces didn’t strongly reflect what you had done in the creator, but man could you get some nice looks so long as you didn’t actually log in).

I don’t imagine GW2’s creator will ever go that deep, alas, and I’m grateful for how much can be done with it. So this is more a wistful yearning than anything else.

I have an inkling this is just going to annoy people, but hey, maybe he’s a descendant of Koss.
Voiceover in the personal story was hilariously wrong, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Heh, I so wish we could have Koss’s hair! Or Margid’s..
I do love to see what people are able to do with the creator even with limited base faces for Elonian or canthan characters. It’s amazing how well some slider tweaks can make a gorgeous character.

Stiofan.6720:

Im sure its not your intention but this thread is kinda racist tbh. How would it look if i made one titled ‘post your white (caucasian) only charecters’.

there’s no caucasian race in the game; there can be tyrian race if you wish.
and the thread is about sentiment to old continents from the better game.

segman.3560:

Stiofan.6720:

Im sure its not your intention but this thread is kinda racist tbh. How would it look if i made one titled ‘post your white (caucasian) only charecters’.

there’s no caucasian race in the game; there can be tyrian race if you wish.
and the thread is about sentiment to old continents from the better game.

The post title was changed after he made that statement. It didn’t say “Canthan/Elonian” originally.

then I saw the topic already changed, no offense

Already posted my Canthans in that other thread, so here are my guys from the Land of the Golden Sun.

The original title was ‘ethnic’, not Canthan/Elonian. Bluntly, I was mostly really enthused about seeing characters that push the limits of the sliders in an effort to respectfully and beautifully capture the gw1 vibe. I vacillated on using ‘ethnic’, and I still almost would prefer it if it didn’t carry a negative connotation. I’d love to see a gorgeous Krytan character made to strongly nod to the gw1 flavour of that nation.
I came from a mmo where the only human options really were ‘generic white fantasy hero/heroine’, and one of the biggest things I love about this game is that you really CAN show characters drawn from other ethnicities in our world, in order to reflect the ingame lore nations like Kryta, the three nations of Cantha etc.
:)
Also ‘she’ for making the statement. female player I just often play guys.

Edit: Tach and Drev, those are gorgeous characters!
And adding a screenie of an old gw1 Krytan to demonstrate what I mean about them – they were certainly not ‘white’ in gw1 that I’d say
Seeing players who’ve really attempted to reflect the nuances of the old gw1 nations is such a thrill for me to see.

Posted this on the other thread, but here’s my generic Canthan assassin-class character!

Here’s my warrior, Akidu. He’s of Kournan descent.

Stiofan.6720:

Im sure its not your intention but this thread is kinda racist tbh. How would it look if i made one titled ‘post your white (caucasian) only charecters’.

And while we’re at it, all urologists should be locked up for gender based discrimination and treating only males! Now that’s a real threat to our equality and freedom!

ZeftheWicked.3076:

And while we’re at it, all urologists should be locked up for gender based discrimination and treating only males! Now that’s a real threat to our equality and freedom!

Haha, females go to urologists too, trust me.

Akidu looks great, Tamlin!

I tried to design a character after the Kurzicks from Guild Wars 1—they were my favorite Canthan ethnic group.
That said, I realize my character doesn’t look very Asian—I don’t have a great understanding of facial variation between different peoples. I would love to see some kind of artist’s page that could give me a baseline for understanding some of those differences.
All of your characters look great!

My two are Natasha T. Ripper on top and Casca Griffithbane on the bottom.

Top: my Vabbian mesmer. Wanted to use the traditional browns as seen in GW1 but also wanted to retain the purples seen in mesmer abilities. Styled with an open outfit and a hood to help in the desert sun!

Bottom: my Imperial Canthan fire elementalist. Modelled in traditional eastern colourings. Probably my favourite I absolutely loved Factions.

I’m Asian. I grew up deeply influenced by the wuxia trend in the ‘90s, so I’m always fascinated by ancient East Asian culture. Most of my characters have this modern Asian face but once in awhile, I made costumes for them heavily inspired by those.

Below are my thief, posing as a kunoichi (female ninja) cladded in battle armor, and my elementalist, as a noble bride in the Song dynasty gracefully playing her pipa.

My name is Ayla Dejarin, heir to the Estates which are now occupied by The Horde of the Undead Lich.
My ancestor fought the Nightfall and was one of the Heroes that cast Abaddon back into the abyss.
I escaped the raids on our land by fighting my way North through the Crystal Desert and I am now residing in Kryta under protection of the Queen.
Soon I will unite with my brothers and sisters to take back which was taken from us!

my ranger is rdy !