Small in Stature, Not in Mind

There are have been many fantastic depictions of the power of the little person, ranging from the infamous Yoda, to Gollum, to Harry Potter's Dobby, to Stitch (c'mon he's cute!). Now we have the Asurans to add to that continuum of small beings with big hearts and bigger brains. (Well, except for Stitch; he wasn't that bright.)

Asuran creation screen in Guild Wars 2
Note the crazy sliders just for eyes!

I finally got a chance to make an Asuran in BWE3. I had always thought mine would be like a female Yoda, wizened and wise and ass-kicking, but it turned out that despite all the sliders, she just looked too damn cute! There was even a slider for "cheek puff". Everyone say, "Awwwwww." I guess could have tried harder to make her ugly, but why bother?
As for the body shape choices, you could select pot-bellied, pot-bellied or more pot-bellied. They all look like two-year-olds with their little tummies stretched out after a nice meal.

I played on my Asuran engineer for a little bit, but didn't much like the class, so I ended up switching over to other races and classes so as not to waste time. However, I did get to quest for quite a while with Dogmatichades' toon, an Asuran Ele named Vort. Fiesty little bugger, and quick to boot. We chased his little butt all over Metrica Province and then some!

Asuran townclothes

All the lore talks about how bright the Asurans are, how intelligent and witty and mechanically minded. I think ANet did a great job of incorporating that into the Asuran personal storylines, quests and attitude, while at the same time putting in a huge dollop of humour and cuteness that makes it much harder to hate them for being waaaaaay smarter than you.
For example, when they run and fight, their little floppy ears stand up on end. Adorable! Of course, if you mention that, they'll order their golem to kick you in the shins, but still I couldn't help but smile at Vort's undeniable cuteness as he raced towards the next battle, ears flapping. And when they strafe, they stop as if their momentum is almost too much to handle, tilting them over to one side as they screech to a halt on their stumpy little legs.

I was also amused with a lot of the first quests in the starting area. I had the most fun there of all the zones. The dialogue was clever and silly, and I discovered later that the quest choices were different according to which race you were playing. It makes sense that a newborn Sylvari wouldn't be able to understand the complexity of an Asuran invention. ("Fiddle with the triangular thingy")
I won't give any spoilers, but the next time you're in Lollipop Land and you need a good giggle, I suggest you try out the heart quest Doola's Golemancing Research and talk to a Golem Assistant to help him collect data. "Squeee!"

It looks like my guildies are settling into their preferred races, and we are quite varied in our tastes. Dezi has always known she wanted to be a Norn, Dogmatichades couldn't be anything but an Asura, and I have pretty much accepted the fact that I was born to be a Sylvari. It'll be fun to see what our guild race and class distribution will be. Of course, I'm making one of each!

Vort, Dezi and Spiral in a very hot hot tub!