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posted ago by CarmenOfSandiego ago by CarmenOfSandiego +59 / -0

So Stellaris, the "4X" game by Paradox, is releasing various updates to some of its older, previously "cosmetic" DLCs which includes the Humanoid pack. In these updates are two new portrait options that are being described as "Elves".

Behold, "elves": https://i.ibb.co/1f3ZyxJ/elves2.jpg

Don't worry, they come in many colours, the fact the default option is brown is totally a coincidence.

https://i.ibb.co/wLrcCqQ/dfa5a33825065088193e525adb199e510ad02a7e.png

https://i.ibb.co/HGD7DJZ/eec8cf19bf79a5de08f7069acceb264e38cef117.png

Do note that so far that second image is still labelled as "Females", so wait and see how soon that changes to "Body Type 2" or something else.

The second set aren't much better: https://i.ibb.co/ZSDWdJ5/085749c6cadb73a8aeb68cf0be5b83dd18d47db2.png

The response has been somewhat cathartic with many players calling out the new designs as of a quality not befitting a game such as Stellaris which has been running for 7 years now.

There are also some very expected comments about how the portraits have certain slants towards actual human appearances. As well as bats.

Some of the nicknames for the portraits even include "Nubians" more so because they look less like Elves rather than more like certain Human groups.

Keep in mind Stellaris is the game which previously banned certain mods that would skew leader/population appearances in certain ways, in this case towards Caucasian, however as is known by many here it's acceptable when The Message is "correct.

Oh and a final point, these changes to the past DLCs are coming with a price hike. Those who have them won't be charged extra but a previously cheaper tier of DLCs that added in species content instead of "Story content" as the larger DLCs are referred to is now on par with the newer DLCs which brings the total DLC cost for Stellaris to something like $270.