Which race deserves to be the main protagonist?

The current mascot is fine.

It makes sense from a lore perspective, too, since Midlanders are found in almost every major region to a notable degree. The same cannot be said of the other playable races.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

The current mascot is fine.

It makes sense from a lore perspective, too, since Midlanders are found in almost every major region to a notable degree. The same cannot be said of the other playable races.

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We also wouldn't want to get rid of him after the massive boost his design got in Stormblood, right? :>

http://i.imgur.com/jewIhkW.png

Whichever race invented the Warrior class deserves to be the Warrior of light, Roegadyn Hellsguards

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Whichever race invented the Warrior class deserves to be the Warrior of light, Roegadyn Hellsguards

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Do we really want Curious Gorge in charge of saving Eorzea?

Yes :D
Personality and name doesn't define one's ability

https://i.imgur.com/8uJfCg9.jpg

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Yes :D
Personality and name doesn't define one's ability

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And his ability is clearly....erm....missing a few screws.....

No, you don't want him as the mascot....NO

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Originally Posted by AmemeAmeklin

Do we really want Curious Gorge in charge of saving Eorzea?

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LMAO. I just discovered Curious George two days ago while I was mining on my alt. I was like "What in the seven hells is this NPC doing out here??"

hows about
Viera ;)

Hm... The Hyulezenfellmiqodynra obviously.

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

To be fair, race stats matter so little past lv49 that I could see SE just flat out baseline them accross the board to effectively remove them like they did with elemental resistances based on patron deity.

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That's actually a good idea, here's to hoping that something doesn't go wrong when they announce half-ling/hybrid races(chances are something will go wrong because Murphy's Law said so; like say bringing back elemental resistances outside of Eureka to make up for no race stats or tanks losing all of their strength points on their accessories or the exact opposite and give tanks full strength on their accessories and merge Direct Hit Rate and Critical Hit into 1 stat so that way stats are bit more streamlined but that would mean that the devs finally learned how to balance stats :P )

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Yes :D
Personality and name doesn't define one's ability

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I mean sure...

...but then there's Curious Gorge and the WAR questline and I just don't think it's a good idea.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Yes :D
Personality and name doesn't define one's ability

https://i.imgur.com/8uJfCg9.jpg

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Sure, but we have to think about History books xD

I'm bold enough to say it. They are all white or of white skin. It's the same old same old to me Eben when of other races. It's so bland.

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Originally Posted by Fredco191

Hm... The Hyulezenfellmiqodynra obviously.

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God... what would such a race look like?

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Originally Posted by Super_Bee_Brian

I just hope nobody chooses the lalafell. I got nothing against lalafell but... Seriously, they look hilarious. One of my lalafell FC mates calls herself a pineapple. How hilarious could you be to have the nickname of a friggin pineapple?

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I'd likely say Lalafell as a response to a lot of questions, but I'm really not sold on this entire "Warrior of Light" thing and would prefer a less prominent role in the story.

That all said, judging by looks is liable to lure you into a false sense of complacency and get you to underestimate your smaller stature brethren. That's a mistake.

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Originally Posted by Ameela

(even IX which had a world with hippoes and mouse people featured a young adult human guy... let's pretend the tail doesn't exist)

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Nooo, let's remember the tail. And let's remember Trance. And let's just call him what he really is: Saiyen.

Namazu should be the protagonist.

I'm not sure what to pick really. So long as it isn't your typical bland and white human/Hyur I'm game for anything! :D

I don't mean any offense to what I say above but video games, movies, books, etc really need to stop taking the safe route with making some uninteresting looking bland light skin guy the main protagonist/mascot of every thing. Because out of all the races in this game that get to be featured in FFXIV and all we get is the same old throw up light skin male human/Hyur with nothing particularly special or interesting about him. I still like him but at the same time, like I said before, this whole going the safe route with the same type if main character/mascot for video games such as FFXIV really needs to stop.

I kind of like the idea of the WoL being an Au Ra, since as a race they're more obscure then the others due to their limited population range and generally reclusive culture. The notion of Eorzea's grand savior hailing from some small tribe or community scarcely anyone knows about appeals to me somehow.

They're also something unique to XIV and the most distinctive of the races (Who otherwise fall into fairly typical fantasy archetypes). It still bugs me that Yugiri hasn't shown up to help represent XIV in any of the spin-offs (Particularly FFRK, where they seem to have decided to let Thancred steal her thunder by utilizing XIV ninja skills).

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

(Particularly FFRK, where they seem to have decided to let Thancred steal her thunder by utilizing XIV ninja skills).

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It's really weird because it actually feels like Yugiri was kinda made to replace Thancred?
Like I'm getting into some weird conspiracy theories here but has anyone noticed the old 1.0 cast has been slowly replaced by newer characters introduced in 2.0 or after?
Like obviously Thancred and Y'shtola are still around but they've become much less prominent in the story and their roles can (and mostly ARE) being fulfilled by Yugiri and Krile respectively.

"Deserving" is a strong term in that matter, but what is a "protagonist" anyways?
I have been trough many situations where the "frontman" was not doing anything, just a mere puppet to present to the public. The real deals have been done in the background.

And in that matter I think the Lalafell could be easily placed in that role. They are the underdogs, and usually only seen as small people, often connected with children and such. That they are clever, grown-up (no pun intended!) creatures is often overseen. This can go the other way round, too, when you have the big, muscly man that is basically an empty shell and useless for any task (apart from lifting weights). In almost other game, the small species (or race as you call them) is the one that has "hidden" strength that put them into an unexpectedly important role: The Asura with their technology such as waypoints that also revive, travel, general intelligence and such. In LoL, the Yordles build machines or are swift and cunning. The Mascu in bless are merchants and inventors. Try to mess with them, that's like messing with Amazon, Google and Apple at the same time. The Tarutaru were excellent mages blowing up armies with their magical abilities. The Lalafell are just widely written to be shallow and with no depth, but still waters run deep, eh?

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Originally Posted by MrKusakabe

"Deserving" is a strong term in that matter, but what is a "protagonist" anyways?
I have been trough many situations where the "frontman" was not doing anything, just a mere puppet to present to the public. The real deals have been done in the background.

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I mean yeah but that doesn't stop them from being the protagonists and when you think about it that's exactly who the Warrior of Light is, just the brawn of the particular group they're in, always following orders while people like Alphinaud do the actual work behind the scenes.
I play lala and never thought of her as particularly smart or cunning, just really good at hitting things with an axe which, thankfully, is all she needs to do :cool:

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Originally Posted by Ameela

It's really weird because it actually feels like Yugiri was kinda made to replace Thancred?
Like I'm getting into some weird conspiracy theories here but has anyone noticed the old 1.0 cast has been slowly replaced by newer characters introduced in 2.0 or after?
Like obviously Thancred and Y'shtola are still around but they've become much less prominent in the story and their roles can (and mostly ARE) being fulfilled by Yugiri and Krile respectively.

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we are most likely done with yuguri for awhile now since Doma arc is over
yshtola and Thancred have had loads of time to shine and develop in Arr and HW

I totally agree with MrKusakabe, lalafell are normally seen as underdogs, which would make a very interesting and inspirational story about fighting against stereotype, having a message of "don't let anyone define you and tell you who you are, what you can or can not do". Hmm..actually why not make a story with all the races stereotype and blow all those stereotypes, showing that there is more to a book than is cover.

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Originally Posted by Soge01

I don't mean any offense to what I say above but video games, movies, books, etc really need to stop taking the safe route with making some uninteresting looking bland light skin guy the main protagonist/mascot of every thing. Because out of all the races in this game that get to be featured in FFXIV and all we get is the same old throw up light skin male human/Hyur with nothing particularly special or interesting about him. I still like him but at the same time, like I said before, this whole going the safe route with the same type if main character/mascot for video games such as FFXIV really needs to stop.

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More diversity overall is good, but in the specific case of FFXIV’s generic Midlander guy I feel like it’s okay because he’s not meant to be a distinct character but is effectively one step above a dotted outline saying “insert your character here”. It seems to me that he’s boring by design.

Edit to add: If the “default WoL” had a distinct, interesting appearance, I think you might get a small-but-noticeable amount of people saying “oh, that’s the ‘proper’ design for the hero, so I’ll recreate it instead of making something up” (in the same way that you’re often free to rename RPG characters but many players will keep the default ones) and then you’d have lots of clones of that character. Make him boring, and it’s less likely to happen.

Y'shtola.

Actually what ARE the races stereotypes? I want to know. D:

I'm not sure if these can be considered stereotypes but....

Elezen: Snobby elves whom think their better than everyone else.

Lalafell: Crafty little underdogs with the innocence of a child and the malevolence of a warlord.

Hyur: Default race because their humans and are ALWAYS considered the most important of all.

Miqo'te: The sexy race that appeals to everyone.

Au'ri: Japanese Pop Star Girls. The guys are clones of each other.

Roegydan: Big and brawny with usually nothing else to show besides being big and brawny.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

More diversity overall is good, but in the specific case of FFXIV’s generic Midlander guy I feel like it’s okay because he’s not meant to be a distinct character but is effectively one step above a dotted outline saying “insert your character here”. It seems to me that he’s boring by design.

Edit to add: If the “default WoL” had a distinct, interesting appearance, I think you might get a small-but-noticeable amount of people saying “oh, that’s the ‘proper’ design for the hero, so I’ll recreate it instead of making something up” (in the same way that you’re often free to rename RPG characters but many players will keep the default ones) and then you’d have lots of clones of that character. Make him boring, and it’s less likely to happen.

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I see your point and agree on it. :D But my biggest complaint is why are default characters like him always light skin? I mean, as someone with darker skin I feel as if I'm be told I'm not included in the game's story whenever I see characters like that. I mean, considering that generic and boring is fine, but constantly using that type of character for so many things besides FFXIV's CG story telling is kind of a real pain in the butt to see all the time.

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know? Especially in a game like FFXIV where there are so many different races yet the boring light skin Hyur is picked yet again to represent everyone...

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Originally Posted by Soge01

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know?

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I mean at the risk of sounding racist, it does make sense for characters in the kind of setting XIV is in to mostly be white, considering it's a fantasy game and almost 99% of all fantasy worlds are based on medieval europe, which had wayyyyy more white dudes than black.

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Originally Posted by Ameela

I mean at the risk of sounding racist, it does make sense for characters in the kind of setting XIV is in to mostly be white, considering it's a fantasy game and almost 99% of all fantasy worlds are based on medieval europe, which had wayyyyy more white dudes than black.

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Your not being racist and I respect your thoughts. :) But if you really look into the lore background of games like FFXIV, you'll find that a good solid portion of the game is actually made from multiple different cultures around the world and not just European.

That, and I never give making a main protagonist light skin an excuse for automatically doing so without much thought into it other then "it's the safe/default route". I just find that lazy.

As an example, I like Lightning from FFXIII because she's an incredibly strong and goal oriented female protagonist with a decently driven enough backstory that really makes you eventually understand and feel for her and her struggles to save her sister in the first game. I never liked how people liked to point out how she was just "Cloud with Boobs" because she a serious and distant personality at first when she was just only being that way because she was worried sick about her sister and stricken with grief for having nearly lost her forever.

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Originally Posted by Soge01

I see your point and agree on it. :D But my biggest complaint is why are default characters like him always light skin? I mean, as someone with darker skin I feel as if I'm be told I'm not included in the game's story whenever I see characters like that. I mean, considering that generic and boring is fine, but constantly using that type of character for so many things besides FFXIV's CG story telling is kind of a real pain in the butt to see all the time.

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know? Especially in a game like FFXIV where there are so many different races yet the boring light skin Hyur is picked yet again to represent everyone...

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There are a few potential reasons, I guess:

- people write (and draw) what they know, and what they think of as normal

- people write (and draw) what they know, because they don't want to accidentally offend people from other cultures by 'doing it wrong'

- rightly or wrongly, 'white' has been the 'default setting' for characters for a long time now

- logical conclusion that a character in a "medieval Europe" fantasy setting should look European unless specifically from another location/culture in that world. Don't want to just include a "token foreigner" for the sake of diversity if it doesn't make sense.

- an extra layer for fantasy stories that "other races" tend to be things like orcs and elves rather than humans of different skin colour

- an interesting one found via TV Tropes: for Japanese media, or anime in particular, characters are intended to appear without nationality - the Japanese audience sees them as Japanese, while Western viewers will see them as looking Caucasian.

- linked from that article, the idea that people have different concepts of a 'default human being'.



In my case, I'm 'white' - Australian of English ancestry as far back as I'm aware - and although I see people of all races as 'normal people', my 'default human being concept' is still white. It just is. Whether that's because I am, or it's a learnt thing from media/society, I can't possibly say. (Edit: On further thought, my ‘default concept’ is male, which I am not, so perhaps it is more of a learned concept.)

a catgirl, duh.

Probably the guy in every trailer. (Hyur)

Hyur. Just because its the generic "human" race. Because humans are always the protag.

Hyur is a subcategory, it's not the human race


Human = roegadyn, lalafel, au ra, miqo'te, hyur, elezen
It's a subcategory, not the original race before all other existed

The non-troll answer is Male Midlander.

Lalafell! And the story about their true origin from Azys L(a)la.

Or Raen, because we know nothing about them except of the ones who living in a pineapple under the ruby sea.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Hyur is a subcategory, it's not the human race

Human = roegadyn, lalafel, au ra, miqo'te, hyur, elezen
It's a subcategory, not the original race before all other existed

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You know what they mean though, don’t you? Yes, all the races are considered “human” within the game world (although they generally avoid using that term), but Hyurans are the one race that are actually human-by-normal-definition as opposed to being approximately orcs, elves, hobbits and half-animal hybrids.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

You know what they mean though, don’t you? Yes, all the races are considered “human” within the game world (although they generally avoid using that term), but Hyurans are the one race that are actually human-by-normal-definition as opposed to being approximately orcs, elves, hobbits and half-animal hybrids.

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Not only that, we have the term "Hume" also. Human, hyur, hume. Anyone notice a pattern?

Technically, the other races aren't human but humanoid. I'm not sure why SE decided to muddy the waters. Humanoids are species whose characteristics are relatable to a human. Usually it means being bipedal (which does have exceptions like lamia), often walking upright (although there are exceptions with things like faeries and kobolds), and requiring a certain amount of intelligence. Those that get 2 out of 3 still may be considered humanoid, but it is more of a gray area. Maybe they wanted a term specific to playable races, but they didn't have one.

My vote goes to the male hyur from the trailer as well. The fabled derplander.

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Originally Posted by Soge01

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"?

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You should also remember that this game is made/developed in Japan, which is not only at least 90% one ethnicity (which happens to be pale), but also has a history of their own form of racism (see: Ainu people, WWII and Japanese Imperialism) and until about 300 years ago was completely xenophobic as well. When I look at the faces for characters, I tend to see 'Japanese' rather than 'white', although I recognize the features that are considered more European as well. Japan has their own racial stereotypes for us Americans, of course...but the fact that all races get such a wide variety of skin tones and NPCs run around in all colors of the rainbow is quite nice. Of course, when most of the MSQ characters are pale, anyone picking a darker skin tone ends up being the token person of color in the story XD

It's funny how everyone labors under the misapprehension that there were no ethnically Nubian/African people in medieval Europe and thus never include characters with a darker skin tone in stories. Back then they had the Moors (who were from a specific area), Nubians, etc... 'black' was not a concept before the US was established but that doesn't mean the people who would fall into that category today weren't around.