Off the bat I do understand that skin color in this game is based on a tribes biome and that characters in game won't be obsessed with such a thing. I'm writing this thread to spark healthy discussion by people who agree who disagree not to start a race war or something.
In the earlier days of development for chronicles of elyria, back when the tribes were barely even thought up or named. The team made a promise, they promised that this game would be a diverse and unique game unlike any other. When they finally announced the biomes that would be in the game I was elated to see biomes like
-Tropical rainforest
-Arid Desert
-Semi-Arid desert
-Saltwater Mangroves
-Savannah
-Tropical Wetlands
Now when you see this list of these particular biomes what do these all have in common?
Those biomes are all found on and around the equator of the real world. The important thing to note about the earths equator is that it receives the highest amount of sun/UV than any other places on the planet. I'm assuming the Elyrian equator also follows these basic rules. Humans who live in the real world equator have adaptations that allowed them to survive on the equator. Just to list a few of the common adaptations you have of course
- More melanin in their bodies resulting in darker skin, eyes, and hair mainly to protect from UV damage
- They grow less hair, this adaptation happened because obviously the less hair on one's body the easier it is to cool yourself down
Anyway I'm sure I'm stating the obvious with everything I've said up until this point. The tribes in chronicles of Elyria if you take out the 4 that will not appear at launch, have a pretty good balance of southern and northern tribes you have the Brudvir, Hrothi, Neran, and Kypiq who are all more or less northern tribes and something you would notice about those tribes is they are all mostly Caucasian, the Neran and Kypiq are tanner but still very Caucasian in terms of facial features and hair type. The Northern tribes are all perfect in my opinion, they look adapted to their biome.
Now let's get into the meat of this thread the 4 Southern tribes of the elyrian starting continent.
- Dras - swamp: pale white skin
- Janoa - Tropical rainforest: Medium to Tan skinned
- To'resk - tropical freshwater wetland: Medium skinned
- The Waerd - Semi-Arid Desert: Dark brown skinned
Do you notice an imbalance hear compared to the Northern tribes and what we know about the people who evolved along the equator on our planet? The equator is hot and it receives the most sun and has the longest summers
Sun=UV radiation=Dark skinned people
To'resk: The To'resk live in the tropical wetlands which if you didn't know they don't have very few tree canopies to hide from sun with, the To'resk are medium skinned but have a bonus for being able to be out in the sun longer. They have tough skin yes but pale skin is susceptible to the sun because it is pale. The To'resk should be Tan to Light brown in my opinion
The Waerd: the Waerd have dark brown skin and live in the Arid Desert, this is good. It makes sense how dark their skin is but remember among all 8 tribes only one has brown skin
The Janoa: If the Janoa are supposed to be elyrian analogs for the ancient south American empires such as Myan and Aztec then they are well. As well since their environment provides enough protection from harsh rays it makes sense they wouldn't be as dark as the other tropical tribes. That being said in the real world black skinned people do live in jungles of the Cango basin and have not evolved lighter skin because of it, on the contrary the African tribes that live in the jungles along the equator of Africa have the darkest complexion on the planet. The Janoa could have brown skinned members as well as tan skinned members.
Dras: the Dras I believe are supernaturally or magically pale for a reason unknown to us now as so they get a pass for being pale. Although since their skin is very vulnerable to the sun they
realistically wouldn't survive along the equator. From a evolutionary stand point.
In summary I believe that the devs should take another look at the "diversity" in their starting continent tribes lineup. The Waerd stand out like black ink on white sheets, they should not be the only brown or dark brown skinned southern tribe.
The Duke Morbis while reading the Janoa and Waerd write up also said they should be darker so i know I'm not alone in this.
Were you guys expecting the southern tribes to be darker also or do you think the tribe lineup is diverse enough as it is.
This is not about the tribes culture, this is only about aesthetics.
