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Soooo beautiful...

"I dared not call him handsome, for he had strange, exotic features, and the way they came together was so perfect it was painful. Though in all appearances a man, there was something terribly different about him. High cheeks bones in sharp relief, sensual lips, glowing white skin so smooth and even you couldn't see the pores, eyes ancient and wise, and yet a young body, lean and tall, great and terrible all at once..."
Maddie describing an elf, Home with the Fairies, Chapter 6 "All Beholders Eye this Beauty"

The Inhumanly Beautiful Race is a fictional non-human species that is always, nearly without fail, incredibly good-looking. Not only are they good-looking, but they tend to be described as better-looking than the vast majority of humans could ever hope to be. When describing their beauty, authors tend to use terms like "inhuman", "otherworldly" and "ethereal". Depending on the author, such a species may inspire either simple chaste appreciation or immediate and profound arousal. In extreme cases, their looks are so incredible as to act as almost a form of glamour, instantly becoming the center of attention (and desire) everywhere they go.

While this concept can be found in all forms of media, usually this works best in a non-visual medium. With a novel, the reader can imagine their own ideal of beauty. In visual media, it may become a case of a subjective judgement of Informed Attractiveness, especially since "inhumanly beautiful" often translates as rail-thin, pronounced cheekbones, pale skin, high-femininity if female, androgyny if male, and other features that aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea.

Elves and (humanoid) Angels almost invariably fall under this trope, and The Fair Folk are often included. Physical Gods can easily do so. In recent years, Vampires have also increasingly been portrayed as having inhuman hotness and allure, in contrast to older versions where they looked more like walking corpses. And it goes without saying for succubi. Not incubi, though, as they're usually depicted as a kind of rapist gargoyle-creature. Some interpretations of sirens go this route, although other interpretations make any perceived beauty only a result of Glamour or Mind Control and the Siren's true form ugly. If they have children with humans or some other "okay-looking" group, their children may benefit from Mixed Ancestry is Attractive.

Compare The Beautiful Elite, which is this in terms of a social class rather than a race, though not necessarily to the point of seeming inhuman. Also compare Sculpted Physique, which can sometimes overlap with this trope as characters with a sculpted physique are designed to be aesthetically pleasing yet visibly inhuman.

In order to make this not subjective, examples should only be of cases where the race is described as being this In-Universe, either in the narration or by other characters.


In-Universe Examples Only:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • The Abh of Crest of the Stars are all described as looking very beautiful. It's a by-product of the fact that they're all genetically engineered: any physical "defects", no matter how slight, are cleared up prior to birth. Interestingly, this means that in Abh culture, beauty isn't considered very important. Calling an Abh beautiful is like calling the sky blue: it's a fact, not a compliment. Therefore Abh generally strive to be seen as elegant, which requires certain behaviors rather than genetic traits.'
  • In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, the gods are all naturally handsome and beautiful by mortal standards on top of radiating an aura that tells mortals that they're staring in the face of divinity. Even the Elderly Immortals like Goibniu are muscular with an Old Master look. Goddesses of love like Ishtar are on a whole other level, with Freya standing head and shoulders above the rest. Even Hephaestus, the goddess who the other gods call ugly, is merely less beautiful than the other gods due to being blind in one eye.
  • Mermaids in One Piece, especially the Mermaid Princess Shirahoshi, are the dreams of many a sailor to witness, said to surpass even the World's Most Beautiful Woman Boa Hancock. Even Kokoro, whose appearance shocked several of the protagonists unconscious (with one later actively forgetting her existence when a decidedly more attractive mermaid shows up a few arcs later), was revealed in the series' mail slot to be just as pretty as you'd expect when she was younger. Unfortunately, this also makes them the most desired species for slavery. It's also worth noting that mermen tend to be Gonks or at least resemble Fishmen.
  • The youkai in Inuyasha can take on a human-like form if they are especially powerful. And each of them looks much more beautiful in this form than any human being.
  • High-elf Archer from Goblin Slayer is very pretty. It will be mentioned later that all elves qualify to be beautiful. In her case, however, this is somewhat inverted, because almost all human girls and women are the minor characters, just as pretty to look at.
  • Amira from Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is a nephilim. She is much prettier than any human woman in the show. The reason for this is that she is half an angel, and angels qualify for this trope.

    Comic Books 
  • In the world of ElfQuest, most humans tend to feel this way about the elves (See image, above.) It sometimes provokes humans to extreme behavior, for good or evil.

    Fan Fiction 
  • Fan works set in Middle-earth may downplay or exaggerate the beauty of the elves. The Games of the Gods downplays it: when Rachel covers her Pointy Ears, humans accept her as an uncommonly beautiful human. Home with the Fairies exaggerates it: when Maddie first sees an elf, its "unnatural" and "inhuman" appearance overwhelms Maddie, who faints, perhaps because she is a transplant from a world that has no elves.
  • In Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, shipgirls are described as generally being better-looking than human women. Also deconstructed, as various unsavoury types male and female alike take advantage of them for that very reason.
  • In Kimi No Na Iowa, even the least attractive shipgirl has "a comfortable cuteness" that is "innately blemish-free" such that most normals need makeup to match, and the beauty only goes up from there. Most of them inspire awe in normals that see them, though how much of this is due to being just that beautiful and how much is a passive mental effect is ambiguous. However, the "inhuman" part also comes into play as this beauty is such as to be Uncanny to some.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Star Wars, the Diathim from the moons of Iego are known as "angels" and Anakin describes them as "the most beautiful creatures in the universe" (relaying stories he'd heard from spacers).
  • The Mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides are portrayed and spoken of as heavenly beauties who will use their beauty and charm to seduce men and pull them into the depths of the ocean to eat them alive. This is clearly not always the case, as we know for sure that at least Syrena is not like that.

    Literature 
  • The Alteriens from the Alterien series are all very attractive from a human perspective. This is especially true of the nanotechnologically-created Alteriens (Nano Alteriens), many of whom went through a beautification process prior to being transformed into the space elf-like species. They are thought of as beautiful in either their concealment or true forms.
  • Rob in An Outcast in Another World is continually annoyed by how cover-model-worthy every single Elf he meets is. The Elves themselves don’t seem to notice and have no trouble calling members of their own race ugly. They also don’t seem to think Rob is unattractive, despite him being only slightly above average in appearance by Human standards. Rob can’t understand their standards in the slightest.
  • The high spirits of light in the Astral Dawn series are all examples of humanity's highest ideal of beauty. In fact, despite their ability to look like anything they want, they can't look ugly because their outwardly projected appearance is a reflection of their good inner nature.
  • Kolnari, a Human Subspecies in The City Who Fought, have golden eyes, platinum hair, jet black skin, it's repeatedly noted that those who aren't heavily scarred are stunningly beautiful. They also like to wear as little as possible. Too bad they're Always Chaotic Evil to a frankly stupid degree. Also, since they have shorter lifespans than baseline humans who are Long-Lived in this setting, they lose their looks completely in their late thirties.
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses: Many of the Fae are depicted as such, especially the High Fae e.g. Tamlin.
    • Feyre becomes this after she becomes Fae.
    • Rhysand particularly so, even for a Fae - Feyre calls him the most attractive man she has ever seen.
  • The chieri from the Darkover series tend to awe any humans that actually see one.
  • Most vampires (except the Black Court) in The Dresden Files take on good-looking forms, but the White Court vampires are an embodiment of Vampires Are Sex Gods meets Inhumanly Beautiful Race. Most of the fae are also described this way. Both the Winter fae and the White Court use their smoldering sex appealnote  to prey on humans; Summer fae are just as beautiful, but typically more wholesome.
  • Elves in J. R. R. Tolkien's works are almost invariably described as being good-looking. The three best-looking females in Middle-earth are all part elvish. The Valar and Maiar also count, although they cheat — their bodies are artificial and custom-made, so their beauty is limited only by imagination and how Fallen they've become.
  • Elves in The Witcher series, too, though unlike in Tolkien's works, their Beauty most definitely doesn't Equal Goodness. Also, the dryads are a One-Gender Race of hot Action Girls. They can also transform human girls into one of them, which comes with a free +100 bonus to the Hotness stat.
  • Elves, again, in the Arcia Chronicles are exceptionally beautiful, which is justified by their species being many times older than humans, meaning that they represent the peak of humanoid evolution (frozen in time thanks to their immortality) while humans are still getting there. On the other hand, it is also deconstructed because perfect physique and looks means that all elves (of the same gender) look the same to humans, as their physical differences are so minimal that only fellow elves can spot them. Hair/eye color and clothes are the only way mortal races can tell elves they don't know personally apart.
  • Yet again, Elves in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. Their beauty is often described as angular and delicate looking while emitting a sense of great strength. The elves' inhuman beauty is referred to several times throughout the series and some elves go as far as to modify their appearance and attributes using magic. They are stated to be beautiful without exception and are noted as being of flawless skin, hair, and figure.
  • Elves again, in Lords and Ladies of the Discworld series, with a twist. Although they appear inhumanly beautiful (with emphasis on the ''inhuman''), they're really just projecting a Glamour on the inhabitants of other universes. When their glamour is removed, they are shown for what they really are: sad, pathetic deformed monsters.
  • In Twilight, all the vampires are described as being impossibly beautiful, with Edward being metaphorically referred to as a god. Depending on what they looked like as a human, they will become even more attractive after they've been turned into a vampire. Thus, the Cullens, who were already good-looking as humans, became drop-dead gorgeous as vampires, whereas James, a vampire who's described as average looking, was most likely unattractive back in his human life.
  • Selelvians from the Star Trek Expanded Universe. Which makes sense because they're Space Elves.
    • Also Arkanians.
  • The Veela in Harry Potter. They are beautiful women with long silver-blond hair, blue eyes, shining skin, and perfect teeth. However, they have supernatural powers to seduce men and hypnotise them, so it is possible that Harry's description of them is a little exaggerated. They have one downside, though: piss them off and they turn into crazy bird monsters that throw fire at you.
    Arthur Weasley: And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!
    • Interestingly, male veela are never mentioned though they presumably must exist; one important character, Fleur, is one-quarter veela, so a human/veela pairing clearly dilutes the genes. Word of God says that Fleur later has a son who would be one-eighth veela; Fanon tends to make him into a Pretty Boy.
  • Star Wars Legends has the Hapans, the near-human inhabitants of the Hapes Cluster, who are known for their extreme beauty.
  • The Elves in the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy are described as being much better looking than humans. Also, the difference between the beauty of elvish nobility and elvish commoners is compared in-story to the difference between an elvish commoner and a human.
  • The demonic Kialli in Michelle West's The Sun Sword books are inhumanly beautiful. In the same author's Chronicles of Elantra books, it is the immortal Barrani who are repeatedly described as perfect.
    • The Kialli are inhuman and their bodies are whatever they can force the Earth to give them, so they're limited by the combination of how much power they have and how much they care. Most are going more for terrifying than pretty.
  • In The Chronicles of Narnia, dryads and merfolk, at least from Lucy's point of view.
  • Example from Sci-Fi: Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga features the Cetagandan Empire, whose ruling caste are unsurpassed masters of genetic engineering. All of the haut are amazingly, superhumanly attractive, particularly the women.
  • Almost all of the major Martian races in John Carter of Mars are incredibly attractive Human Aliens (except for the very inhuman Green Martians). Lampshaded with the First Born, aka Black Martians—Carter notes that as a Civil War-era southerner he's not used to dark skin being considered attractive but even so he can't help but feel that the First Born's black skin only adds to their beauty.
  • The Nobles and Dhampyrs in Vampire Hunter D tend to be inhumanly beautiful and charismatic until they reveal their monstrous side. The titular character's superhuman beauty is often described at least a page's worth in every novel.
  • The 'Eletians' in the Green Rider series are often described as having an otherworldly beauty that somehow seems to bend light towards them, probably through their innate magic.
  • The Melnibonéans from Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga are this. Most humans fortunately don't get to lay eyes on them very often, but Elric turns heads wherever he goes.
  • The Slug-kinden in Shadows of the Apt are twelve-foot tall, pale, fat, covered in slime, and stunningly beautiful, in a terrifying way.
  • Deconstructed with (what else?) A Song of Ice and Fire with the ridiculously pretty (and inbred) Targaryen family. Incest is an acceptable Valyrian practice, after all.
    • The Lengii are described this way, being known for their great beauty, tallness (7-8' in height), and golden eyes.
    • The Others are described as supernaturally beautiful, with milk white skin, and pale blue eyes.
  • Incubi apparently fit this trope in The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth. Ivo seduces a thirtysomething-year-old virgin who normally avoids even handshakes after one meeting ("Elegy for a Demon Lover").
  • The aliens in Poul Anderson's Sargasso of Lost Starships. So stunningly beautiful is Velduma that Basil Donovan finds it hard to avoid infatuation even though he knows she is both sadistic and completely mad.
  • In Watersong, the sirens' curse grants them supernatural beauty. They are so inhumanly beautiful that they come off as eerie and unnatural.
  • Zigzagged with the Koltsoi race of aliens in Future Boston: facially, they're quite hideous, yet due to their limbs operating by hydraulic extension rather than joints, the way they move is so graceful that a drunken Koltsoi falling down a flight of stairs puts the best human ballet-dancer to shame.
  • Podatek translation  by Milena Wójtowicz features, among all the Fantasy Kitchen Sink it is, an exiled demon Jagienka, who unrepentantly causes traffic accidents.
    Humans, as a rule, aren't that perfectly beautiful. Jagienka was. She wasn't human, though.
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians has many characters who are the descendants of humans and Greek gods. It is mentioned that the children of Aphrodite (boys and girls) in most cases look very pretty.
    • Percy Jackson himself is extremely attractive. Not very evident in his own pov, but when another character interacts with him she describes him to have the good looks of a Roman god. This is when Percy is rescued after having been on the run for weeks, is quite injured and covered in dirt. He is remarked to look nearly identical to his father, the sea god Poseidon.
  • There are three examples in The Mortal Instruments.
    • The shadowhunters qualify for it, although there are a few exceptions. Overall, they are considered very pretty.
    • Even prettier are the fairies. Any fairy that looks human-like is described as very beautiful.
    • The vampires are among them. When a human is turned into a vampire, he also gets prettier.
  • The Mangaboos in the fourth Land of Oz novel are stated to be a highly beautiful race of moving vegetables. But it's cruelly subverted when they're revealed to be an irredeemably evil race, infamous among even neighboring tribes.
  • Humanx Commonwealth: The Pitar in Dirge are an alien race who look like amazingly beautiful, perfectly muscular humans with a broader range of hair and eye colors. This makes for a much smoother First Contact than humans had with the Insectoid Alien Thranx, so public opinion quickly shifts towards the Pitar. They turn out to be genocidal Absolute Xenophobes.
  • Kushiel's Legacy: The nation of Terre d'Ange was founded by a small group of angels who interbred with their human followers. Long after, the tiny fraction of angel blood in the d'Angeline people gives them life-long exceptional beauty — even the elderly look younger than they are and never go bald. The d'Angeline protagonist can't help but see outsiders as a bit coarse-looking.
  • The Kingston Cycle: The "Amaranthine" Fair Folk are so impossibly perfect in their beauty that it strains human minds to look at them or hear their voices. They use a magical Human Disguise to avoid accidentally bewitching human onlookers.
  • Trash of the Count's Family has multiple examples. Elves are described as all being incredibly beautiful, and the Whales are apparently even more beautiful than them. The Elf Pendrick is described as being more beautiful than even the Whales, however. While it's not clear if Dragons are especially beautiful or not, Eruhaben is described as the most gorgeous of all the Dragons as well as being far more beautiful than any Elf or Whale.
  • In Keeper of the Lost Cities, elves (the specie most of the cast belong to) are immortal, supernaturally powerful, supposedly morally superior and graceful beings who also happen to be gifted with otherworldly beauty, so remarkable that even the least handsome are on par with the most beautiful human models. The main character, Sophie, is also considered one of the most beautiful elves upon her arrival in their world after she was considered the prettiest girl in her human high school as a mere 12-year-old.
  • Unicorns, in The Last Unicorn, are the most beautiful creatures on earth. When circumstances change one of them into a young woman, she is more lovely than anyone has ever seen... but the mystical quality of her beauty fades as her humanity increases, and by the end she is just a pretty girl.
  • On the more nonhuman end, Companions in Heralds of Valdemar are angels in the shape of horses and rarely appear in a book without someone's narration rhapsodizing about how good they look, unless the Companion's actively trying to appear to be an ordinarily pretty horse. Beauty Equals Goodness is invoked, as no one not actively fighting a Companion can look on their ethereal super-beauty and not believe they're good.
  • In The Daevabad Trilogy, the djinn are very attractive in general, but djinn enslaved by the ifrit are ridiculously, unsettlingly beautiful. This is explicitly part of the curse, as a slave djinn is forced to fulfil all orders and desires of the human who holds their vessel, and the entire setup is meant to be destructive to the humans and hell for the djinn.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Thals are described as this in the first Monster of the Week serial, "The Daleks". While both races mutated heavily due to radiation, the Daleks, who favoured environment suits, became hideous beings, while the Thals, who favoured a combination of gradual adaptation and anti-radiation drugs, became a race of beautiful, blond-haired people. It seems that the Thal men are especially beautiful, as Susan is shocked by the beauty of the first Thal she meets, calling him 'perfect', and Barbara has something of an off-screen romance with a known Thal beauty. Of course, this relies on heavy amounts of Informed Attractiveness - they are all very good-looking, but certainly not to unusual levels, and their taste in fashion is hilariously stupid.
    • The Drahvin from "Galaxy 4", a race of beautiful blond female warriors, to contrast with the Rills (kind and noble creatures who look abhorrent to humans).

    Religion and Mythology 
  • Almost all the gods of Classical Mythology were inhumanly good-looking, with the notable exception of Hephaestus. Even he is often seen as this, just with a limp.
  • The elves in Middle English mythology were known for their beauty, and unsurprisingly they were the inspiration behind Tolkien's elves.
  • The Tuatha de Danann from Irish Mythology. They are generally described as tall, slender but strong, pale skin, freckled, long blonde or red hair, and large, blue or green eyes.
  • In Scandinavian folklore, elves are generally described as exceptionally beautiful with fair skin, long blonde hair, and blue eyes and dwell in the forests.
    • As were the elves (álfar) of Norse Mythology that also served as inspiration for Tolkien's elves. According to Heimskringla, the inhabitants of Álfheim were "fairer than any other folk". It's interesting to note that the Swedes, who often top the lists of the most beautiful peoples in the world, are (according to Ynglingatal) descended from Yngvi-Freyr (another name for the vanir Freyr, who is thought to have been cognate with the beautiful aesir Baldr), king of the Light Elves. The area now consisting of the Swedish province of Bohuslän and the eastern half of the Norwegian province of Østfold were once known as Álfheim.
  • Angels in The Bible typically appear this way when interacting with humans (though other passages suggest that this is merely A Form You Are Comfortable With). Unfortunately, it can also apply to the fallen angels—hence, St. Paul warns his followers in a letter that Satan often appears as a beautiful angel of light.
  • Devas in Buddhist and Jain cosmologies. They are the ones who -according to them- inspired the polytheistic religions like Hinduism out of pure admiration. Also some creatures like Gandharvas, Dakinis and Garudas can be described as inhumanly beautiful.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Nymphs are described as being so beautiful that they can make characters go blind just from seeing them.
    • Elves, of course, tend to be very attractive. Even the drow (dark elves).
    • Aasimar (humans with celestial ancestry) are nearly always described as this too; tall, slender, blonde or silver hair, naturally tanned... though sometimes they're described with features which are just a bit freaky.
    • The Eberron Campaign Setting gives us Kalashtar, a near-human psionic race—and, of course, elves. The Inspired, Evil Counterparts of the kalashtar, are in the same vein.
  • The elves from Magic: The Gathering's Lorwyn set. Their caste system runs on how beautiful they are, from the lowly Faultless to the ruling-class Perfect. Those that they deem not beautiful (i.e., every other race, as well as deformed or disgraced elves) are called "eyeblights" and are frequently hunted for sport.
  • In New World of Darkness:
    • The whole Daeva clan from Vampire: The Requiem. In their Clan Book it is stated that they're "stronger, faster and sexier than you". Even before the embrace, they are already attractive humans; after it, they become inhumanly beautiful, partly because of their discipline, Majesty, that allows them to bedazzle people with their presence. The clan book does make a point of the fact that anyone who knows enough about the Daeva (including the Daeva themselves) tends to find something off about them because their beauty is artificial and they are incapable of love. One of the illustrators noted that the Daeva are essentially sex objects rather than people.
    • Galateids in Promethean: The Created are, to the last, made from the bodies of the young and beautiful who were unmarred by the process of death. This makes all social interactions a breeze, at least, until the Disquiet kicks in. The main reason they undertake the Pilgrimage is that it's no use being inhumanly beautiful and alluring if everyone's going to turn on you in the end.
    • Then there are the Fairest from Changeling: The Lost. Remade as lovers and playthings to the Gentry, they are beautiful to the last (though not all of them in the most conventional sense), extremely skilled at social interaction, and have a buy-in with the Contracts of Vainglory, which ramp up their beauty and influence to superhuman levels.
  • The Old World of Darkness gameline Changeling: The Dreaming has the sidhe. At character creation, the sidhe automatically apply two dots to their Appearance score. As Appearance automatically starts at 1 and normally is capped at 5, this means every sidhe ranges from Appearance 3 ("Hey, he's kinda cute.") to Appearance 7 ("I worship at your feet, my lady!").
  • Exalted
    • Its version of The Fair Folk - Humanoid Abominations from outside reality that can imitate humanity better than actual humans can. Fair Folk Nobles start with a minimum of three in all their stats (on a scale where 2 is average), so it's literally impossible for them to have below-average looks. Their stats also naturally cap at 7, in a setting where 4 is the natural limit for normal people and 5 for demigodsnote . And they also have access to various charms to enhance their beauty and persuasiveness up with glamour.
    • This trope can also readily apply to any magical being of sufficient power. Any Exalt who raises her permanent Essence score above 5 (which generally requires being at least a century old) also raises the cap for her other stats, including Appearance, to the same level. Special mention goes to the Abyssal Exalted, who are required when they raise their Essence to either let their Appearance decay until they look like monstrous undead or raise their Appearance to superhuman levels.
  • Warhammer's Elves are described as an Inhumanly Beautiful Race, especially when compared to the generally dishevelled and ugly-looking humans who inhabit most of the world. Some Vampire bloodlines also qualify (chiefly the Lahmians), though some most definitely don't (the Necrarchs).
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • Eldar are said to look like beautiful humans, but also that they're so graceful it's creepy. This varies Depending on the Author; it's often said that they look very pretty at a distance, but suffer from the Uncanny Valley effect up close and move in a disturbing boneless way, like their fingers were worms.
    • Non-corrupted Horus Heresy and Great Crusade era Space Marines who have not suffered great disfigurement are generally described as being beautiful to an obviously inhuman standard. This being 40k however, the idea's twisted just a little; the sheer visual difference of a Space Marine also further marks him as posthuman, and can easily veer into the Uncanny Valley. Start combining this with Chaos and things can get even weirder.
    • See also Pretty Boy, which applies to the Blood Angels and pre-heresy Emperor's Children, particularly their Primarchs.
  • In Strike Legion, the Serrans, Lamerians, and even the "baseline" humans were genetically engineered to be this way.
  • Nobilis: Angels (who personify and promote beauty), and Excrucians (who are a race of Affably Evil Humanoid Abominations who desire to Ret-Gone reality and return it to the Primordial Chaos they came from) are both embodiments of beauty for differing reasons-Angels are like this because Beauty is what they are and desire from others (to the exclusion of everything else), while Excrucians embody the primal majesty and unfettered elegance of alien stars.
  • In Rocket Age the Martian royal castes and their courtesans are consistently described as being incredibly beautiful by human standards, with the towering Royals often being described in terms of their other-worldliness. Note, however, that concerning Martians they are far closer to The Beautiful Elite.

    Video Games 
  • Every apple farm in Caves of Qud, has an apple farmer's daughter hanging around, and the first time the player looks at one they're hit with the "love" condition that lasts quite a while. However, an in-universe book, "The Artless Beauty", suggests that apple farmer's daughters are not, in fact, the attractive daughters of rustic starapple farmers, but members of a very attractive near-human species who like starapples, and so hang around and help starapple farmers.
  • Elves in Dragon Age are often regarded by humans as extremely beautiful and ethereal, despite their low status and the hostility between them. They are known for their big eyes, thin frame, and soft features, which give them quite a distinctive appearance. According to Zevran in Dragon Age: Origins, the Antivan Crows train elves as assassins due to their beauty, making it easier to lure human targets.
  • Faeling in Lusternia tend towards this. Even the Drow-esque shadow faeling, despite their ashy complexion and crimson eyes.
  • The asari in Mass Effect are a feminine-seeming but technically genderless race of aliens with natural Biotic powers that mates by close telepathic contact and can do that with every known humanoid species in the galaxy, as the genetic material is taken from the mother and randomized by the father. Despite almost universally considering each other ugly, all the other species consider asari very attractive and as looking similar to them. The second game has a funny scene where a human, a turian, and a salarian are all watching an asari stripper and all three seem genuinely confused that either of the others has any interest in her note . It even works on salarians, who reproduce as hives in which the vast majority of individuals are males that never have sex in their entire life, and also somehow seems to affect people who only see pictures or recordings of asari without being near one.
    • The quarians seemed to have developed into this too, with various races finding them attractive (and a popular feature in 'Fornax'). This is even in spite of how all of them wear fairly-obscuring environmental suits (though these suits at least reveal their basic body shape and make their eyes visible). Even Javik notes that primitive quarians were considered attractive 50,000 years ago by his people.
  • The Syreen from the Star Control series are a race of Blue-Skinned Space Babes and are all inhumanly hot; they also dress very skimpily.
  • The Elves of various kinds from World of Warcraft are often praised for their beauty by other characters. Though sometimes it's not praise, as they are beautiful in a feminine way. Humans and dwarves tend to insult blood elf men for being pretty. The extent to which Marshal Garithos does this in Warcraft III makes it seem like he's hiding something. But Muradin Bronzebeard does the same thing in the same game. The draenei are also particularly described this way, although as they look similar to demons they also tend to scare people (and draenei men are decidedly not effeminate: though many find them very attractive). Naaru are also described this way, mostly because several of the races regard the Light as holy and they are beings of the Light. Nature creatures such as dryads can sometimes get this too. The Dragons in the humanoid forms they create for themselves are also this.

    Western Animation 


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