Dwarfs, Oh Dwarfs!

[Madance]

Well, as the topic title implies, I wanted to talk about some slightly serious matter. Dwarfs. Most specifically, FEMALE Dwarfs.
Look, I got that Dora is meant to be adorable. Don't get me wrong, she really is! However, if we look at it bluntly, she resemble a kid far too much to not be polemic. Ramas, on other hand, do look like a Dwarf from many fantasy games out there. When we put them together as a couple, it raises some serious flags, like:
"Female Dwarfs resemble kids? What kind of game is this?"

So, to avoid this kind of thing, what do we do? Avoid putting female Dwarfs on future games in Aravorn? Pretend they don't exist? Mention them but show no sprite whatsoever?

My suggestion would require some work but would avoid such matters in the future:

Make female Dwarfs "less child like", like, smaller eyes, big eye brows, have a chubby body, larger hands and actually show some aging. Beards would be nice, but in the case of Dora, since she actually lived a lot of her life around humans, she could be waxing it so she might not "scare" the humans from the Empire away, since they do not appreciate other races, so to survive among them, you must adopt their ways... And after such a long time around them, she got used to it. Dora would be an exception to the other Female dwarfs since she had to look like a youngster so she might steal better from humans that might mistake her for a kid.

I'm saying this because I do not want to hear some people complaining about Loren or any other game featuring Dwarfs, or even damaging future development of future games by ignoring such an iconic fantasy race for the sake of a misunderstanding.

I hope my suggestion might be useful in the future, and I hope we see someday some female Dwarfs.

[jack1974]

Yes that's a good suggestion indeed! When I make more dwarves I'll tell artist to follow your indications since seems perfect

[Madance]

^___^ Glad to help! I'm actually a fan of Dwarfs, so this is wonderful news!

[Sylrissa]

This is a brilliant idea, and I agree that living around humans so much would give a quite reasonable excuse for Dora to look the way she does compares to other dwarves.

[Jaeger]

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Anyways, I agree with the OP for the most part. Facial hair is optional and can be ommited. Generally, dwarfs are usually depicted with having a stout physique. Limbs are thick, although the legs in particular may be relatively short. Heads are proportionally large. They sometimes may have wider, heavier faces but as females would still have a softer jawline.

Some examples (click on spoiler tab):

Spoiler:

Keep in mind it's just a guideline and not an ironclad rule. Besides, if humans can vary in shapes and sizes why can't the same be said for dwarfs?

[jack1974]

Sure, indeed more than the beard, I think Dora is not really dwarf looking for the body, she just seem small/young, and not like her male counterpart (Ramas). Also wasn't easy to explain to artist when you talk to a non-native English speaker and you have trouble yourself with English to use specific terms But I can always use other image references.

[megaman12321]

It's kind of hard to make female short without making them look like a child or too young. There's adult short and child short, and most dwarfs go under child short, which makes a adult fitting to that size hard. So, designers tend to make the dwarves bulkier, scale an adult design down to size, or make them more child-like. Madance is probably exaggerating regarding the reaction of Loren's Dwarves since there is no set design besides height and people are willing to take changes if they aren't too drastic, but yeah, I think a older look for dwarves would work better

What exactly is the dwarf height to humans?

[jack1974]

Hmm I don't know but I'd guess between 120-150cm ?
But yeah the main problem is the body / facial shape

[megaman12321]

Body isn't really a issue for me, as both Ramas and Dora are pretty lean for dwarfs, which I find completely okay, actually preferable since I see lots of bulky dwarfs, male and female, in other fantasy games. I guess the issue in this thread is that Dora shouldn't exactly represent what the female dwarves look like in general. She's fine by herself, but I guess the other dwarves, if we meet them, should be slightly less child looking

[yayswords]

The fanservice ambition is always there, which I guess steered it. But you can always add some fat dwarves 'cause surely someone would want to hit that too.

Also wasn't easy to explain to artist when you talk to a non-native English speaker and you have trouble yourself with English to use specific terms

It's not always a bad thing, because sometimes when a non-native speaker tries to explain something to another, the creative explanation used in place of an actual word works better than the word itself. Depends on the actual native speakers, some just go OMG YOU DONT KNOW THAT WORD WHAT IS THE STATE OF ENGLISH EDUCATION IN YOUR COUNTRY I AM CALLING THE UN THIS IS SERIOUS, some actually use a synonym :P

In particular, I find that two non-native speakers are more unlikely to involve idioms and proverbs.