Discerning Lalafel Age

[K'nahli]

I was a bit wary about making this topic since there's something at the back of my mind telling me that there is lore pertaining to this that can give me a quick answer but I wouldn't know where to look so I'm sorry if this is something most other people already know the answer to.

 

 

For the most part, there isn't a lot offered in-game to adjust the perceivable age of a character and only recently are we seeing more unique NPCs that use models unavailable to us to give the impression of well-aged characters. So with that in mind, is there anything to indicate that there is any visual variation between a young lalafel(pre-teens or teens) and one that is... let's say 20+? I am aware that it was described as "difficult" for other races to estimate their age due to their child-like appearance, but would people who have been around them all their lives be able to tell a child/teen from an adult merely by looking at them?

 

And if not... well, would it be safe to assume that those worried about offending lalafel citizens would be easily susceptible to mischievous children(I won't count the Idyllshire example since that could be anything)? Or would something such as the voice be a give away despite the fact that some of the in-game versions are quite youthful and cutesy nonetheless.

[allgivenover]

All of the Lalafell that are older by their own admission look the same as younger Lalafell.

 

In my head-canon races that are not Lalafell cannot discern Lalafell age.

[Oli!]

When Lalafell are really young, the best way to tell would most likely be size, since they're apparently born small enough to the point where they make a good snack for lots of monsters throughout the world.

 

Other than that, appearance-wise, they mostly stay the same; if one let a bunch of grey hair grow out, or had a super long beard, it might be plausible to say that they're older than most; other than that, their physical traits remain constant through old age. A Lalafell that's 100, as far as we can tell, probably would not look any different from a Lalafell that is 30.

[Dante Abigor]

No, you are forever doomed to guess our ages until we decide we want unreasonably gray hair and derpy face hair identifying such.

[Hammersmith]

I think lore says to find out a lala's age you have to cut it in half and count the rings.

[Kage]

I'd have to see if i cna find the cutscene.

 

One of the new quests in Mor Dhona (53? 56?) has your character working with Doman kids. Something happens that points to a Lalafell family.

 

....

 

Except the mother and father just look the same as the daughter and son. Whether or not the daughter and son were pre-teens, teens, or 20s is not mentioned.

 

... but you have no idea they were older than each other except for the fact they were labeled "___Mother" and "____ Father" "___ Daughter" "____ Son"

[Caspar]

It seems like many older lalafell are distinguished by having white hair, but that does not explain Dewlala, who has red hair and seems to be up there in the years, probably comparable to the graying Lolorito and Teledji.

 

I tend to take it as one of those things that's obvious to people of the race but not to people outside of it. A character could be considered young, or old looking, for the race, but it would only be discernible to other lalafell, who have sufficient exposure to know. It's why ICly, I usually give non-Lala characters a pass for treating my character like she is younger than she is, as they have no way of discerning her age, but not other Lalafell, whose players so far have been generally playing the same way as I have.

[Lilia Lia]

This is something I would imagine lalafells themselves know how to do (somehow) but that the other races just wouldn't understand.

 

I like to have fun with this by making Lilia act completely oblivious to age differences among the non-lalafell races.

[Zyrusticae]

Hah! Forget Lalafells, how do you discern the age of any race?

 

No one has wrinkles! Except for the REALLY old people, and those NPCs get faces that we don't have access to. That strapping young Miqo'te lass might actually be in her mid-50s and you just can't tell because Miqo'te don't bloody age. Ever.

 

Still, I suppose that's a different issue than telling the difference between a pre-teen and adult Lalafell. With that absence of secondary sex characteristics or any of the other tell-tale signs of aging (wrinkles, sagging, facial proportions, etc.), it's just not possible for anyone to tell.

 

And IF Lalafell can tell, the only possible ways would be through telepathy or maybe scent, because there are literally no physically discerning factors that give it away.

[Oli!]

Hah! Forget Lalafells, how do you discern the age of any race?

 

No one has wrinkles! Except for the REALLY old people, and those NPCs get faces that we don't have access to. That strapping young Miqo'te lass might actually be in her mid-50s and you just can't tell because Miqo'te don't bloody age. Ever.

 

 

 

I'd honestly just chalk this up to the game's visual style, and the fact that we're only just now encountering NPCs that are supposed to be old (except for like, Papashan maybe). It's very likely that the developer team just saw no need to put them in at the time and are only just starting to, similar to how World of Warcraft saw no need to give racial leaders unique models until nearly a decade after the game launched.

 

I've noticed that some people like to justify this by saying that there's a very low chance that the elderly could have survived the Calamity or whatever, so do with that what you will, but at the end of the day I think that's just a developer thing either way.

[Caspar]

This is something I would imagine lalafells themselves know how to do (somehow) but that the other races just wouldn't understand.

 

I like to have fun with this by making Lilia act completely oblivious to age differences among the non-lalafell races.

Virara does not really know much about the age of other races, so some things perplex her. Like when a Hyur is bald and is not extremely old, she is very confused and disturbed. Yet after only a few months of being around many other Lalafell for the first time in her life, she was able to rapidly discern their approximate age through observation, and some trial and error. That is why she often will call older Lalafell "Uncle" or "Aunt" because of her Master's open-ended instruction to "respect your elders," even if they do not want their age to be noticed or are sensitive about it.

 

Likewise, I figure the nature of her looks is pretty hard for a non-Lalafell to discern. Supposedly she looks a bit mature for her age and 'statuesque,' but aside from her unusual height, that's not something any non-Lala would be able to tell just by looking at her. It's all relative after all.

[Jonexe]

I can't find it anymore to save my life, but I distinctly remember there being an in-game lore note about how Lalafell don't visible age past the point of maturity.

 

Or I'm insane. Either is possible.

 

Edit: The base lore of Lalafell also states that it would be difficult for Non-Lalafell to determine a Lalafell's age.

 

"The Lalafell are a folk both rotund and diminutive. Small by any race's standards and possessed of a childlike countenance, it proves difficult for non-Lalafell to gauge an individual's age with any degree of accuracy."

[Shoshopu]

Hah! Forget Lalafells, how do you discern the age of any race?

 

No one has wrinkles!

 

While I totally understand and feel your point I wanna be an arse and point out there is one roegadyn face that is wrinkly as hell- you just can't notice it under most lighting conditions, probably depends on the skin color too (and the character I just linked has a 16 year old son who looks... at least 20... *shakes fist at character creator*)

 

As much as I headcanon additional details in characters that aren't present ingame due to character creation limitations anyway (like Shopu's giant eyebrows), I figure lalafell age could be determined by things like wrinkles about the eyes, white roots in the hair, facial hair, and height... Just things you can't see because the character models ingame are rather limited in small details like that. I don't really like to think that they're this special ageless race that looks childlike forever, they just happen to be short with big heads but show all the same signs of aging as everyone else.

[Dat Oni]

I enjoyed Koporo admitting he's 36 years old and having everyone who wasn't a Lalafell just look at him with gasps and awe.

[Hammersmith]

Takes a little work, but with the right sunken eyes and facepaint, you can give yourself a craggy, ugly face of an old man!  Way easier for males though.  The wimmin models are all 18 forever and it's creepy.

 

[-no longer matters-]

Takes a little work, but with the right sunken eyes and facepaint, you can give yourself a craggy, ugly face of an old man!  Way easier for males though.  The wimmin models are all 18 forever and it's creepy.

 

I think War looks like she's in her 30's. Roe women using the right face can look middle aged.

[Seriphyn]

For Lalafell, I just presume that anyone that spends a long time around them (such as an Ul'dahn) will have a very good grasp on how gauge their age.

[Lilia Lia]

Way easier for males though.  The wimmin models are all 18 forever and it's creepy.

 

I think Faye did a good job of making a Midlander who looks in her late 20s/early 30s.  I think she definitely looks older than the 24 that her wiki indicates and I was surprised to learn that was her age.

 

I think the eyes, nose and mouth are the way to go.  Smaller eyes and a bigger nose will look older.  Faye has those high-set narrow eyes that look mature.

[Kage]

I found someone's screenshots of the Lalafell family I was talking about.

 

This is the FATHER AND SON. Guess who's who?

The whole family!

...the mother and father have dark hair and their kids have recessive genes showing. At least the kids have their mother's eyes?

[Shoshopu]

I found someone's screenshots of the Lalafell family I was talking about.

 

[big ol screenshots]

 

The whole family!

...the mother and father have dark hair and their kids have recessive genes showing. At least the kids have their mother's eyes?

 

They do kinda have that youthful, feathery Precious Moments hair going on (I don't know if that's just a crappy southern-US thing or not but that's what the hairstyle the son has always reminded me of), perhaps that's what they were going for.

 

Would this be a bad moment to shamelessly insert my character's family tree (in a link so as to have mercy on those with internets as poor as mine)? I'd like to think it's a decent example of how to make a range of ages, particularly older lalafell. The parents might still not look like they're in their late 40's/early 50's but they definitely look older than their children. Like Lilia said, it's in the details, like the eyes (though graying the hair doesn't hurt).

[Flickering Ember]

I don't think we know what lalafell children look like since there aren't any in the game. It is just like how we don't really know what roegadyn children look like since they aren't in the game either. 

 

Therefore, all the lalafells we see in game are adults, including the children of the lalafell family.

 

Males of each race aside from lalafell have at least one face option that is at least middle age looking. Though a good way to make a male lalafell look older is their facial hair options.

The female characters all look forever young, though. And I suppose trying to discern if a female lalafell is going through menopause is much like trying to make any other female character look the same.

 

Au Ra, Miqo'te, and Midlander females all look like teenagers to me. There is no facial option that looks significantly older on any of them. To me, that is. Female highlanders look like they are in their early 20's. Female elezen look late 20's. Female roegadyn look late 20's to early 30's. (Which is being a little generous but hey)

 

 

My overall point: Difficulty trying to tell adult ages in lalafells is pretty much the same as every other race: a handful of older options to make older males and everyone else looks 15-25.

[Shoshopu]

I don't think we know what lalafell children look like since there aren't any in the game. It is just like how we don't really know what roegadyn children look like since they aren't in the game either. 

 

Although the proportions between Lalafell and Tarutaru are rather substantially different (and Roegadyn and Galka to a lesser extent, but aside from the missing tail I think it's more of an art style change than a design change), I think the examples of FFXI children would be a decent model to base them off of... for headcanons and fanart and what have you.

galka kids are just too cute asdfghjk

 

Therefore, all the lalafells we see in game are adults, including the children of the lalafell family.

 

Probably, yes. That's my thought. They look slightly younger than the parents if you're reaching (like I was with the hair) but they're probably still adults. It's the parents that look too young, not the children that look too old. They're called daughter/son, so there's nothing indicating they're supposed to be children (unless I'm remembering wrong).

[Kage]

Therefore, all the lalafells we see in game are adults, including the children of the lalafell family.

 

Probably, yes. That's my thought. They look slightly younger than the parents if you're reaching (like I was with the hair) but they're probably still adults. It's the parents that look too young, not the children that look too old. They're called daughter/son, so there's nothing indicating they're supposed to be children (unless I'm remembering wrong).

 

Indeed, as I said before there's nothing in the dialogue to indicate the offspring's age.

[Lilia Lia]

In the Gold Saucer, near one of the staircases in Event Square (I believe), there's a Hyur child NPC and a Lalafell NPC who are bickering with one another.  It seems as though the two of them are in trouble for something.

 

Proportionally the Lalafell is "adult" but the context seems to be implying she's a child.  Either that or an adult and a child were playing some game that got them into trouble.

 

I'll try to take screen captures when I get home.

[Terra]

In the Uldahn 1-15 MSQ there is an NPC Lalafell called a child when you are asked to give cookies to the starving children hanging around the coffer and coffin. This Lalafell child is full grown by PC standards.