Hey everyone, welcome to my ‘perhaps these screenshots might once come in handy’ section.
Today we’ll be looking at the Ixal, everyone’s favourite Allagan construct descendants. Reason being I needed some info on the chaps - especially anything concerning height - for RP purposes.
Now, I’m not going to beat around the bush, okay. These lovely feathered neukers are pretty bleeding tall. If we look at the leader lineup from the last msq storyline, the Ixal easily hold 3rd or 4th position had this been a tallness competition. But how tall IS this anyway? Let’s find out.
(More under the cut)
Our first stop is Ehcatl Nine. I admit I forgot to say hi to Sezul, but I did go pose next to the other tinkerers. Everyone standing ‘seemed’ about the same-ish height. It’s not that easy to tell but that’s the general vibe I got anyway.
Ayo’a might canonically be 175cm, he’s still 173.2cm in game. Taking this into account, it looks like our standard standing Ehcatl Nine might be just over 220 cm (or about 7'2.7"). This would mean that, as things are now, they would only be dwarved by max height Roes. Can someone check if this is indeed the case? I’m kinda curious.
Next stop were our not so friendly friends at the Ixali Logging Grounds.
Found a nice enough duo somewhere at the entrance. I had a little trouble finding the center on the ground in the next picture, but all in all it looks like these brown logger fellows are in the same height range as their green neighbours. We might be on to something.
That settled, Serinus and I moved further North towards frosty Natalan.
Now here is where things started to get interesting. While we were there, a Fate popped with a boss. This lovely though aggressive lady so happens to sport a whopping 4+ meters. I’ve no idea if this is simply a game thing to make the boss stand out or if 13′5″ is a reasonable enough size for Ixal, but yah. Big gal.
Regular inhabitants all seem to come within that 220 cm range again.
And so, our next stop was Xelphatol.
Seeing all the lumber the Ixal need to build these structures, you almost begin to understand why the elementals wanted them out of the Twelveswood when their numbers went up. Granted, they are flightless now and in the olden days they probably perched in the treetops or something, but still. They were created to help engineers with maintenance tasks. ‘Crafting’, or at least something related to engineering, might as well be in their blood. The Ixal might’ve had Viis-like villages in the Shroud for all we know.
That said...
Xelphatol has smaller Ixal fighting alongside the taller ones. It’s easily overlooked, but, just look at these wee chicks, it’s adorable.
I didn’t manage to measure the first boss (the one with the balloons), but the second one didn’t mind posing mid-dance.
Also had a chat with a little ‘boss’, emphasis on little. Still over 3m tall, yikes. Do fancy that mask.
And now.
Ho boy...
I’m not gonna lie, Tozol cracks me up. He’s like Xande’s birdsona or something, grumpiness and all. I don’t know what’s up with these ‘Skysent’ families, but honestly looking at his face my guess is inbreeding. There is so little Ixal on this guy, like the DNA that makes up the humanoid base has been made stronger over the ages. The beak is so tiny, the neck so thick...
Also you should totally check out this tail, it truly is something:
Chonk.
Anyhow, yes, this big lad is about 5 meters tall.
I also wanted to compare the Ixal with their Iksalion ancestors, but got lost in Gyr Abania for some reason before my game crashed twice. A search deep in my screenshot archives did net me a picture of a dead Iksalion for reference. However, even the estimation on here is not something I am fully behind because the wings cover the legs (and the coat covers mine). But still, it gives an indication of the size of these things:
Another problem is these constructs don’t stand. They fly with their knees up. Even so, the attempt to put a measurement on this angry individual do seem to be in range with the sizes of Ixal found in the North Shroud and Coerthas.
Checking out these Iksalions makes me wonder how they could do the tasks they were set out to do. The top part of the wing holds the claws. Are those already hands? Or do they do everything with their talons? Also is that tail clipped?
Either way, here are the results of my not so scientifically correct journey:
If all of these relative sizes should be seen as canon, the way they ramp up boggles me. What makes an Ixal grow past 3m? Do they keep growing with age/status? Are certain families just bigger than others? What exactly makes this difference?
Maybe on a later date I’ll see if I can add Dozol Meloc on here too. Until then, I hope these estimations will be able to help anyone who were wondering about their size too.
