So... Au Ra really don't "fit" into the story well, as playable characters

They pulled a Marvel comics on us and retconned it.

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Originally Posted by Terin

Just curious, are there *ANY* Au Ra NPC's in the game, besides Yugiri? Specifically, any Xaela? I would just be curious to know, what sort of "vibe" they give off. How do they talk? What kind of clothing do they where? Do they talk about their past at all?

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Spoiler tags for the sensitive! The Au Ra I've seen so far, besides Yugiri, are:

Sidurgu - Xaela. Your Dark Knight trainer after you hit Lvl.50. Mentions that the Xaela fled from the Garlean invasion and were greeted to the kiss of steel by the Ishgardians mistaking them as Dravanians. That said, ambiguous wording on his part - he only mentions Au Ra in general, and not any particular tribe or clan.
Alaqa - Xaela. Primary antagonist for the White Mage questline after Lvl.50. Attempts to take revenge against Eorzea because of racism against her people, going as far as using physical violence and doing 'unspeakable' things to the Au Ra. Again, ambiguous wording on Alaqa's part - she only says her 'people', rather than a particular tribe or clan.
Yuki - Raen. A character during the Ninja questline after Lvl.50. A silent and determined girl intent on taking back her clan's treasure (full name being Yatsurugi no Yuki). Distrusts you and Oboro greatly due to the part that shinobi played in Doma's downfall. Can't say more, I haven't levelled my Ninja to 60 yet. :p
Akagi - Raen. Ally during the Ninja questline after Lvl.50. He's Yuki's retainer and his mission is to keep her safe. Naturally, knowing how willfull his princess is, he requests your help multiple times when Yuki gets going on her shenanigans.

Overall, I'd say the Xaela are a very cynical and brutal folk. Sidurgu just outright murders a knight you spared (and is the resident edgy Dark Knight to boot, so you can guess how much love he has for old-fashioned justice), while Alaqa decides that murder killing Eorzea is far preferable turning the other cheek and working out the kinks of racial tensions through peaceful means. They both also wear black armour/clothes, further giving them an overall mean vibe.

The few Raen we meet don't give much of an impression, sadly. Yugiri seems married to the job more than anything and Yuki would prefer that you remain out of her sight. Akagi seems to be a bit of a simpleton; he skips flowery language, omits letters from words and is an overall very straightforward and grounded dude. Yugiri and Yuki run around with daggers and fairly standard Doman garb I'd say, though Akagi uses recoloured Foestriker's and an axe. I suppose it's one way to show that Akagi seems to fit into Eorzea just fine, unlike the other two Raen. :p

Regarding one mentioned by Raminax:

When it comes to Akagi, he actually mentions several times that he's not really a fighter, and the axe is more for show than anything else. It may be him being more comfortable with using things from other cultures, even if he's no good at it, or it may be part of his attempt to appear like a worldly wise bodyguard of sorts.

Wow, it's nice that the Au Ra have some background when it comes to job quests and that they really are discriminated against, especially in Ishgard

Though I really would've preferred if they at least have one Au Ra with a side quest chain.

As many have said, your character is from a far away land. And again, as stated by others, the sight of an Au Ra isn't a shock due to the fact that they have been seen and they have been documented and so on. Think of Eorzea as THE place for all races to be mingled or at least have passed through, so it's safe to say the Au Ra have passed through Eorzea at one point in time and as a result documentation has been made of the race and so on and so forth. I'm sure SE will keep this type of thing going for all new races that come, it's the safe route. So ultimately unless SE makes a playable race that was literally created during the msq in a lab/whatever there is no real reason for a reaction to be given.

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

I seem to remember the opening cutscene for brand-new characters saying outright that you come from "a distant land".

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Here's the kicker. You have to look at one of the V1.0 openings.

V2.0 is simply "you wake up after the calamity." period. How you got there, who knows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU5N24_5VIk

In V1.0 you're just ... randomly on your way to Limsa, Gridania or Ul'dah. Of which I prefer the Limsa opening, but prefer the Ul'dah starter quests.

The Gridania opening is the funniest however. You're just walking throuh the woods and "Yda and Papalymo" come crashing out of the sky followed by "I do belive we're dead Papalymo!"

After narrowly avoiding getting killed by a Dryad-type of monster, time stops, and a band of moogles go by. E-Sumi-Yan goes "The elementals fortold us you were coming"

Incidentally, if you want to see half of the V1 Limsa Opening, you can still run it with the V1.0 Benchmark.

Limsa's opening is just "You wake up on a ship, you hear voices, you go above deck, and you nearly get twacked by an explosion", nothing nearly as funny as the Gridania opening, but it's the most exciting because you get to see Leviathan.

Ul'dah's opening can be summarized as, "we really shouldn't parade giant monsters", and "Follow the flower girl." Though the reason I like Ul'dah's beginner quests the best is because of this scene:
first part , second part (It's the "learn to emote" tutorial type of quest in the Miner's guild with F'lhaminn, but the reason for it is far more fun)

The V1.0 opening cutscenes and tutorials were a lot longer, it's a shame they were cut down, because I enjoyed pieces like above. Though V2.0's has "bombs are always funny." Which lightens up some otherwise boring talking-head segments.


The Auri, don't really need a justification to appear, after all the initial playable races don't have one either. (Like as far as I remember, there was no male Miqo'te -at all- in V1.0, and there is only one in the CT storyline in V2.x)

If you want to stretch things without a retcon everything, nobody said the Doma were a race. Just like the Aha Migo's are not a race. It just ever-so-conveniently gives a reason to mix certain race distributions up. Ul'dah would otherwise be nothing but Lalafells, Gridanaia would be nothing but Elezen, and Limsa would likely be nothing but Hyur.

Your presence in Eorzea is also very naive as Eorzea is only ONE part of the world. At least with the V1.0 Limsa opening, it was vague enough to suggest you're a refugee or a ferry passenger from "?", the other two openings just plop you down on the road to nowhere.

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Originally Posted by Eisen-Zorn

That's why they didn't show her. The design of the Au Ra wasn't finished and they didn't want to set something that could be changed later. Aside from her tail, Yugiri was actually just a modified Miqo'te model at the time.

Edit: This was in response to someone asking why Yugiri was always covered in 2.0

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Actually, it's more that the model of the Au Ra wasn't finished. The design had been finalized by 2.2 this was

It doesn't change the awkward and horrid story telling with regards to her. Why the heck does she hide her face whenever Tataru's first response to her is "She's pretty!"