Elvish "pupilless" eyes - possible explanations

[Mefisto]

Elves developed by Kitty have scary eyes. The look like blind. Of course Elves can see and are humanoid enough to assume that their eyes aren't much different from human eyes. But why they look like they have no pupils, just white or grey mass? I have some ideas about this:

1. Actually they have pupils but they are masked by special layer of cornea which protects eyes against strong reflections of light. Elvish eyes evolved from human like eyes in which pupil is always round. The evolution toward eyes more suitable to dark forest environment caused the enlargement of aperture of pupils. At the same time the eyes begun to receive more light during the sunny day in the open space. The appearance of polarising layer before the eye lense was another adaptation which both protected the eyes against sudden dazzlement and gave better vision of colour. Elves see the colours more saturated than humans. Additionally the outer surface of elvish cornea can work as half-transparent mirror cutting very strong beams of light.

2. The bottom of elvish eye is reflective. The light coming from the eye blends with the grey colour of iris.

Any other explanations?

[thespaceinvader]

#1 is probably the preferable one, but this isn't really the sort of thing that needs explaining IMO. Unlike analysing reproductive mechanics, the workings of the elvish eye aren't likely to have a lot of impact on the story. Knowing how a species has children could

[Sgt. Groovy]

3. The eyes have no pupils because they are compound eyes. Weird? So are the insect wings.

EDIT: The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Even though the elves looks remarkably human, they are actually an insectoid species. Their wings have nothing to do with "faerie", but the winged individuals have simply reached the fully mature stage, while everyone else are wingless nymphs. What looks ears to us are actually the antennae, and they sense smell, not sound (their sense of hearing is located in their knees).

[Mefisto]

Sgt. Groovy: You should write fanfic or whole campaign about this.

I thought about compound eyes but discarded this idea because of discussion of genetics. It looks like a consensus that four humanoid species of wesnoth are descendants of common ancestor. So I searched for something that would allow to retain main features of primate eyes with small modifications maybe.

thespaceinvader: species usually are separated not only by certain threshold of genes but also by mutual unattractivenes of potential mates. After all sexual selection is as strong mechanism of evolution as natural selection. "Dead eyes" would be signal for the other elves - "I'm of your kind" and at the same time it would be a strong repellent to humans, dvarves or orcs. It could much influence their decision not trying to mate with elves unless they have a fetish for blind partners:)

In terms of evolutionism the pupilless eyes would be clear epigamic trait but why not give them some real meaning as an adaptation to environment? It would have some consequences:
- elves would dislike strong saturated colours and prefer subtle shades and hues. They would also not value anything shiny so they would not find metal armour aesthetical, only useful in certain conditions. That's why they prefer hide, fine farbic and furs as an armour and clothing.
- elves are accustomed to dark forest but if they have eyes with polarizing filter, they would not be dazzled by reflexions from snows - and that's why they can move and fight in the snow better than humans. And this would also help them to adapt to desert condition in UTBS.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Their pupils may be opaque to visible light, because they see some other part of the spectrum, for which their pupils are transparent. Their clothes could be very colourful in their eyes, even though they are muted to us.

[thespaceinvader]

Mefisto: I don't doubt that the elvish eyes could themselves be important in-story. But (unless Groovy's explanation is used) I don't see how the biological explanation of why they are the way they are is. The underlying biology of reproduction is vital in knowing how to portray childbearing and parental/familial relationships. Knowing that elves' eyes are polarised isn't likely to come up in-story IMO.

[Mefisto]

I just think that introduction of this different eyes in elf characteristics can influence interaction between species and societes. For example: common folk can distrust elves because they are scary. Mages can be interested with them because they raise their curiosity. Human males could think that elvish ladies have nice curves but certain face features make them so gross that they aren't worth lust. And vice versa. I'm still trying to imagine how Wesfolk would interact with native species of their new home and why Haldric eventually betrayed his elvish allies. It could be additional flavour if somebody wanted to throw some sentences into his/her campaign. That's all.

We can discuss biology of family, sex and development of elves in other topic.

So unless somebody else is interested in exploration of elvish appearance and their way of world seeing, we can close the subject.

[johndh]

I think it could be interesting to explore from the perspective of how elves see. It seems unlikely to come up in-game, but fanfic could play off of it. I think what you've got so far does seem to go along with elves' neutral day-night preference. They see better in low-light conditions than humans do, but the light doesn't bother them like it might bother orcs, so they fight just fine no matter what time of day or night it is.

[StDrake]

I'd come back to the possibility of compact eyes. We know elves are under some pretty fae influence especially as they develop their magical side, and in some cases it can be seen to manifest in insectoidal features. Sprites get them nice, big n visible as those membrane wings, that doesn't necessarily cut out the possibility of the whole race suffering a nasty case of eye mutation into insectoidal forms.

..err insects have compact eyes right? im not mistaking terms here?

[Eleazar]

...they don't have pores either! or any hair on their skin!

Just because an artist doesn't specifically render a small detail doesn't mean that detail is not supposed to exist. With the width of the stroke normally used for the elves, you shouldn't expect to see pupils individually rendered. It's a rather common stylistic choice.

[kitty]

Elves developed by Kitty have scary eyes. The look like blind.

Just for the sake of completeness: I didn't introduce those - I took them as part of canon from Jetrel's HttT Kalenz portrait. They have been that way a long time. They are a very minor and (very easy) means to make the elves a tiny bit more outlandish.

And while it is a probably bad explanation my personal one was always Mefisto's second version

[Simons Mith]

I was going to write a little article about Wesnoth phrases. One which struck me after seeing Kitty's 'green eyes' comments was to make a line about 'a green-eyed elf' - sort of the Wesnoth equivalent of 'a big boy did and ran away', or, if you know your Odyssey, 'No Man', or 'I bought it from a green-eyed elf', meaning, 'It fell off the back of a, um, a chariot'.

[johndh]

I was going to write a little article about Wesnoth phrases. One which struck me after seeing Kitty's 'green eyes' comments was to make a line about 'a green-eyed elf' - sort of the Wesnoth equivalent of 'a big boy did and ran away', or, if you know your Odyssey, 'No Man', or 'I bought it from a green-eyed elf', meaning, 'It fell off the back of a, um, a chariot'.

Or "A little bird told me."

Regarding reflective eyes, maybe that's how elves regulate the amount of light entering their eyes: the entire gray part is the pupil and it becomes more reflective in bright surroundings, while they would become transparent and dark in low-light settings. Outside on a clear day at high noon, they'd be reflective to the point of mirror shades, and in the dark they'd become more similar to a human pupil. This is an alternative to the way human eyes work, by dilating or constricting the pupil to let in more or less light. Also, maybe elvish eyes also react to other queues like anger and arousal like human pupils do. I can imagine a sylph's eyes turning pitch black when she's about to faerie-fry somebody.

[thespaceinvader]

See, that's the kind of story-related fluff that's really useful. Not necessarily just how something works, but how that then relates back to things we can actually depict on-screen.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I like johndh's explanation. It's interesting, makes perfect sense, helps make the elves more distinct, and makes Wesnoth more it's own world. It really could be the official explanation, IMO.