Implications of Social-Construct terms of "Humanity" and "Beast"

beastmen is literally a social construct within the games lore. As in you can point to a amal'jaa and say "thats a beast man", but that term was only invented in the sixthed astral era to keep amal'jaa out of Ul'dah.

If Ul'dah were at war with the hrothgar at that time for example, they might have been considered a beast tribe instead. You can kind of see this idea later in shadowbringers, with the lalafell/dwarves being labeled as a beast tribe and the amal'jaa being intergrated in the crystarium like every other "human" race.

Are the dwarves ever called beastmen? As you said, the term originated in Ul'dah, I don't recall ever hearing it on the First.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Are the dwarves ever called beastmen? As you said, the term originated in Ul'dah, I don't recall ever hearing it on the First.

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This is very true, I guess I mean the way they are treated on the first is more akin to the other beastmen you encounter there (like the pixies, ondo and nu mou) while the amalj'aa are treated like a more "civilised" race. They're also called a beast tribe in the crafting log, which seems like a clue for the player.

So it feels like though there might be a biological component to what counts as a "beast tribe", in the cases of the hrothgar, au ra, kyojin, goblins, amal'jaa and ananta the distinction seems to be arbetrary at best and depending on local politics within the setting.

A better term to use would probably be barbarian as the "beast" component doesn't always seem to fit.

The First doesn't use the term "beastman" / "beast tribe," as that was mostly a construct created by wealthy Ul'dahns to discriminate against peoples that don't conform to Eorzean standards (worship of the Twelve, etc). The Doylist reason for it is the game originally had many similarities and parallels to XI, which actually did have significant differences between the races of man and beastmen, but once Yoshi-P took over from Hiromichi Tanaka they had to explain and recontextualize all that stuff in order to push the game out of XI's shadow.

Tellingly, "beast tribes / beastmen" have been discriminated against less and less as the game's gone on, with Heavensward featuring mostly peaceful unless under a primal's thrall beast tribes, Ananta being integrated to a degree into Ala Mhigan society, and no distinctions being made between the two in the Far East or on the First.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

The First doesn't use the term "beastman" / "beast tribe," as that was mostly a construct created by wealthy Ul'dahns to discriminate against peoples that don't conform to Eorzean standards (worship of the Twelve, etc). The Doylist reason for it is the game originally had many similarities and parallels to XI, which actually did have significant differences between the races of man and beastmen, but once Yoshi-P took over from Hiromichi Tanaka they had to explain and recontextualize all that stuff in order to push the game out of XI's shadow.

Tellingly, "beast tribes / beastmen" have been discriminated against less and less as the game's gone on, with Heavensward featuring mostly peaceful unless under a primal's thrall beast tribes, Ananta being integrated to a degree into Ala Mhigan society, and no distinctions being made between the two in the Far East or on the First.

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Which further cements the idea that these terms are primarily of social or political constructs and etc. Even the term, Human, was later replaced with the term, Spoken, later in the game's life cycle, but in the end it doesn't even matter, esp to the game's main baddies. Of course, there are differences in the biological appearances between the demihumans(they're not actual Humans but rather are very human in their appearances) and the beast races, but as some have noted, they're pretty arbitrary as you begin comparing the Hrothgar or the Au Ra with say the Lupin for example. I'd say that the Hyurs which they're called Humes in The First are the actual Humans in the franchise but with a different name..but even that it's pretty much up to the player's own headcanon really. Personally, all of the sentient races in FFXIV, both Spoken and Beasts, are basically derived from the ancients. There are races that are more closer to the apperances of the Ascians than others, but that's really about it.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DemiHuman

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Originally Posted by Lihtleita

This is very true, I guess I mean the way they are treated on the first is more akin to the other beastmen you encounter there (like the pixies, ondo and nu mou) while the amalj'aa are treated like a more "civilised" race. They're also called a beast tribe in the crafting log, which seems like a clue for the player.

So it feels like though there might be a biological component to what counts as a "beast tribe", in the cases of the hrothgar, au ra, kyojin, goblins, amal'jaa and ananta the distinction seems to be arbetrary at best and depending on local politics within the setting.

A better term to use would probably be barbarian as the "beast" component doesn't always seem to fit.

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Well, I can say that these terms are pretty much meaningless anyway, esp since the first doesn't even use these terms as well. The people of Ul-dah are the true a-holes really which the Ascians gladly exploit aka divide and rule. Now, there is differences in their appearances between the demi-human races and the beast-tribes, but as some have noted, they're pretty much arbitrary terms which even the two groups wanted to abandon these terms in it's entirety.

It's really too vague of a term to really be much use anyway outside of its original racist intention to 'other' them, given how differnet culturally and physically the beast tribes are not just from hyur but also EACH OTHER.

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Originally Posted by PeppermintBrown

It's really too vague of a term to really be much use anyway outside of its original racist intention to 'other' them, given how differnet culturally and physically the beast tribes are not just from hyur but also EACH OTHER.

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Dayum straight.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Are the dwarves ever called beastmen? As you said, the term originated in Ul'dah, I don't recall ever hearing it on the First.

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Well, for me, terms like Spoken, Human, Beast and etc are all arbitrary terms that are used to divide the sentient races apart. If anything really, they should abandon these terms all together really.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Are the dwarves ever called beastmen? As you said, the term originated in Ul'dah, I don't recall ever hearing it on the First.

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Nobody ever referred to them as such, they were merely referred to upon reveal as our new Beast Tribe. The NPCs ingame never refer to them as beastmen or anything other than Dwarves.