ooc (appearance)
This is not required by the Edensphere application, but nonetheless, due to Animus’s strange features (half plant, half elf, all man) and the fact that the icons I have only convey so much, I thought it would be a useful reference.
Animus is a half-human, half-Guado hybrid, and bears the traits of both species blended together. Guado, for the uninitiated, are pretty much Final Fantasy’s answer to the wood elves of high fantasy. Unfortunately, FFX went the “spirit of the forest” route as opposed to the “Legolas” route, and as such Animus looks disconcertingly...plantlike. How he differs in appearance from a human--and from a Guado, for that matter--will be described here.
SIZE: Humans in FFX-verse appear to be roughly the size of modern humans, if not a bit smaller, and with roughly the same build. Guado on average tend to be marginally taller than humans, and to have a wiry build. Animus, however, pretty much towers over every non-Ronso member of the cast (Ronso being lion-men), with a defined though not bulky build. This phenomenon is likely explained by hybrid vigor, if one cares to get technical about it. Basically, though, I hold with most fannish interpretations that place him as approaching six and a half feet in height, so--big guy, basically.
PROPORTIONS: Guado proportions and human proportions are two different things. This is most notable in the limbs: Guado have very, very long arms, ending with oversized hands. Animus’s arms are much closer to a normal human’s in proportions--perhaps slightly longer than they ought to be--but like a Guado, he has large, long-fingered hands, even for a humanoid of his size. He’s also disproportionately broad-shouldered for a Guado, whose build tends to be narrow and wiry, with little difference in the circumference of shoulders, waist, and hips.
HAIR: Ah yes. Hair. Humans in Final Fantasy X are restricted to the natural shades of brown, black, and red (blonde hair seems to be almost exclusive to the Al Bhed), which seems to grow generally like caucasian hair, while Guado have hair in shades of green, brown, red, purple, and blue. Animus, like his father, has blue hair. More importantly, though, is the strange issue of how Guado hair grows. It seems that unless the hair is kept extremely short (some Guado blitzers do this, presumably for hydrodynamics), it sort of locks and fuses into “stalks,” which grow and twist almost of their own accord, rigid and prone to knotting aesthetically. The effect is described often as looking like a network of tree roots springing from the head. Animus, though, is only half-Guado, and this has all had an interesting effect on his hair. Most of his hair is mostly-human in texture--perhaps not as soft as if he were a full human--and he wears it brushed back, layered and shoulder-length. He has, however, three “stalks” of Guado hair: One just above either temple, growing out and behind his head before splitting, the top split curving up and looking remarkably like horns, the bottom split being a long, contoured “tail” that tapers to a point around his hips. He has also a forelock of Guado hair, a jagged arch that descends and tapers to a curved point just below his chin; despite growing from the center of his hairline, it is twisted slightly to his right, presumably minimizing the obstruction to his vision. Lastly, Guado tend to have odd hairlines, jagged, sometimes starting very low on the forehead, sometimes the eyebrows joining with the rest of the hair on the head. Animus’ hairline is in the same place as a human’s would be, but like a Guado, the line itself is jagged.
FACE: Guado facial structure appears to be, at the bone level and probably also the level of the musculature, functionally identical to a human’s, but there are some differences on the superficial level. Eye color is one: Guado have a different range of eye color than humans do, and Animus himself has light lavender eyes. Ear shape is another. Guado, like the elves they’re blatant expies of, have large ears that taper to a point and tend to stick out from the head more than a human’s would. Animus is an interesting case with regards to the ear thing--his ears hug the skull like a human’s, and in his canon the upper halves are constantly covered by his hair, so that the shape is never seen. That being said, Teg’s headcanon is that yes, his ears are pointed and vaguely teardrop-shaped. Stoneface should have fun with that. Lastly, and most strikingly to a human observer, are the bizarre little fleshy ridges running over a Guado’s face. The pattern is different for every Guado, and the ridges generally cover the forehead and cheeks only. In Animus’ case, though they look uncannily like veins, they’re really not--the pigmenting in the ridges matches the color of the Guado’s hair, hence Animus’s blue hair means blue ridges. The pattern formed by his ridges is as follows: two distorted capital-H-like shapes over each eyebrow, each a mirror image of the other, with one “leg” of the H extending into the eyebrow and apparently re-emerging under the eye, forming a curved tear-track shape over the cheek, with a branching at the cheekbone that jags back towards the ear. The ridges do not end abruptly but appear to taper back into the skin, the coloration fading as they do.
NAILS: Humans in FFXverse have normal nails. Guado have claws--long and sharp and mostly straight claws, the warriors apparently will plate them with steel and use them as weapons, as they’re almost as long as their fingers. Animus’s claws are...not so impressive, but they are much more dangerous than a human’s, being pointed, sharp, and about three inches long. They also appear to be naturally the same lavender shade as his eyes, and are curved like a human’s nails tend to curve when they are worn long, instead of being mostly-straight like Guado claws.
TORSO: Given Animus' ...interesting fashion sense in FFX...we have several very detailed shots of his torso, and though we never see any full Guado shirtless for comparison, we can see that there are notable differences between him and a human. For one, the flesh over where the ribs end and the abdomen begins is arched perfectly and oddly striated, and there appears to be more tendinous inscriptions over the rectus abdominus than in humans--i.e., we’re looking at more like a “ten-pack” than a “six-pack.” Lastly comes the issue of his tattoos--he has two, either rampant heraldic lions or segreant heraldic dragons in black ink over either pectoral, both surrounded by what appear to be stylized flame motifs, that cover the pectoral and extend over the shoulders as well. I have headcanon for WHY he has such elaborate tattoowork, but it’s immaterial. What’s important is that he does.
And that’s a quick rundown of Animus’ bizarre Guado/human biology--anything else I tell you would, alas, fall into the realm of headcanon, though if you have any questions, do ask! I would be delighted to answer them.
Animus is a half-human, half-Guado hybrid, and bears the traits of both species blended together. Guado, for the uninitiated, are pretty much Final Fantasy’s answer to the wood elves of high fantasy. Unfortunately, FFX went the “spirit of the forest” route as opposed to the “Legolas” route, and as such Animus looks disconcertingly...plantlike. How he differs in appearance from a human--and from a Guado, for that matter--will be described here.
SIZE: Humans in FFX-verse appear to be roughly the size of modern humans, if not a bit smaller, and with roughly the same build. Guado on average tend to be marginally taller than humans, and to have a wiry build. Animus, however, pretty much towers over every non-Ronso member of the cast (Ronso being lion-men), with a defined though not bulky build. This phenomenon is likely explained by hybrid vigor, if one cares to get technical about it. Basically, though, I hold with most fannish interpretations that place him as approaching six and a half feet in height, so--big guy, basically.
PROPORTIONS: Guado proportions and human proportions are two different things. This is most notable in the limbs: Guado have very, very long arms, ending with oversized hands. Animus’s arms are much closer to a normal human’s in proportions--perhaps slightly longer than they ought to be--but like a Guado, he has large, long-fingered hands, even for a humanoid of his size. He’s also disproportionately broad-shouldered for a Guado, whose build tends to be narrow and wiry, with little difference in the circumference of shoulders, waist, and hips.
HAIR: Ah yes. Hair. Humans in Final Fantasy X are restricted to the natural shades of brown, black, and red (blonde hair seems to be almost exclusive to the Al Bhed), which seems to grow generally like caucasian hair, while Guado have hair in shades of green, brown, red, purple, and blue. Animus, like his father, has blue hair. More importantly, though, is the strange issue of how Guado hair grows. It seems that unless the hair is kept extremely short (some Guado blitzers do this, presumably for hydrodynamics), it sort of locks and fuses into “stalks,” which grow and twist almost of their own accord, rigid and prone to knotting aesthetically. The effect is described often as looking like a network of tree roots springing from the head. Animus, though, is only half-Guado, and this has all had an interesting effect on his hair. Most of his hair is mostly-human in texture--perhaps not as soft as if he were a full human--and he wears it brushed back, layered and shoulder-length. He has, however, three “stalks” of Guado hair: One just above either temple, growing out and behind his head before splitting, the top split curving up and looking remarkably like horns, the bottom split being a long, contoured “tail” that tapers to a point around his hips. He has also a forelock of Guado hair, a jagged arch that descends and tapers to a curved point just below his chin; despite growing from the center of his hairline, it is twisted slightly to his right, presumably minimizing the obstruction to his vision. Lastly, Guado tend to have odd hairlines, jagged, sometimes starting very low on the forehead, sometimes the eyebrows joining with the rest of the hair on the head. Animus’ hairline is in the same place as a human’s would be, but like a Guado, the line itself is jagged.
FACE: Guado facial structure appears to be, at the bone level and probably also the level of the musculature, functionally identical to a human’s, but there are some differences on the superficial level. Eye color is one: Guado have a different range of eye color than humans do, and Animus himself has light lavender eyes. Ear shape is another. Guado, like the elves they’re blatant expies of, have large ears that taper to a point and tend to stick out from the head more than a human’s would. Animus is an interesting case with regards to the ear thing--his ears hug the skull like a human’s, and in his canon the upper halves are constantly covered by his hair, so that the shape is never seen. That being said, Teg’s headcanon is that yes, his ears are pointed and vaguely teardrop-shaped. Stoneface should have fun with that. Lastly, and most strikingly to a human observer, are the bizarre little fleshy ridges running over a Guado’s face. The pattern is different for every Guado, and the ridges generally cover the forehead and cheeks only. In Animus’ case, though they look uncannily like veins, they’re really not--the pigmenting in the ridges matches the color of the Guado’s hair, hence Animus’s blue hair means blue ridges. The pattern formed by his ridges is as follows: two distorted capital-H-like shapes over each eyebrow, each a mirror image of the other, with one “leg” of the H extending into the eyebrow and apparently re-emerging under the eye, forming a curved tear-track shape over the cheek, with a branching at the cheekbone that jags back towards the ear. The ridges do not end abruptly but appear to taper back into the skin, the coloration fading as they do.
NAILS: Humans in FFXverse have normal nails. Guado have claws--long and sharp and mostly straight claws, the warriors apparently will plate them with steel and use them as weapons, as they’re almost as long as their fingers. Animus’s claws are...not so impressive, but they are much more dangerous than a human’s, being pointed, sharp, and about three inches long. They also appear to be naturally the same lavender shade as his eyes, and are curved like a human’s nails tend to curve when they are worn long, instead of being mostly-straight like Guado claws.
TORSO: Given Animus' ...interesting fashion sense in FFX...we have several very detailed shots of his torso, and though we never see any full Guado shirtless for comparison, we can see that there are notable differences between him and a human. For one, the flesh over where the ribs end and the abdomen begins is arched perfectly and oddly striated, and there appears to be more tendinous inscriptions over the rectus abdominus than in humans--i.e., we’re looking at more like a “ten-pack” than a “six-pack.” Lastly comes the issue of his tattoos--he has two, either rampant heraldic lions or segreant heraldic dragons in black ink over either pectoral, both surrounded by what appear to be stylized flame motifs, that cover the pectoral and extend over the shoulders as well. I have headcanon for WHY he has such elaborate tattoowork, but it’s immaterial. What’s important is that he does.
And that’s a quick rundown of Animus’ bizarre Guado/human biology--anything else I tell you would, alas, fall into the realm of headcanon, though if you have any questions, do ask! I would be delighted to answer them.