A concept for a new playable-race, with lore and feasability considerations

So I was watching Overlord recently, which got me thinking about the potential for greater racial diversity in FFXIV and what races might potentially be added in future; whether they be original or imported from another FF game, such as Au Ra and Viera respectively.
This is indeed assuming SE plans, or are content to add further races to the game.

In short my idea is thus:
A race of Allagan androids or automatons.


Offhandedly this might sound crazy, but take a moment to think about it;
For one, androids would logically be of similar morphology to the races we currently have in-game, meaning there would be few to no issues with gear maps/clipping, or of player alienation (as there might be with less-humanoid races such as Bangaa).
Secondly, similar entities have appeared in the Final Fantasy series before: including a race of Robots in FF Adventure and the Yuke from Crystal Chronicles. Their presence would thus not be unprecedented.
Thirdly, in the context of the Crystal Tower and Coil quest chains both clockwork and cloned entities are known to exist. Robots/androids are conceptually quite similar to the aforementioned and for playable robots to also exist is a relatively small leap of logic.
Finally they'd also bring something new to the table in terms of aesthetics. Compared to some of the concept art I was a little disappointed by how 'human' the finalised Au Ra design was, but robots/androids can take any number of forms: from the Casts of Phantasy Star to the droids from Star Wars, and everything in between.

They're also pretty easy to shoehorn into the lore.

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Given life by crystals and mobility through ambient aether, the [Race] were a product of Allagan aetherochemical engineering. Designed as a simulacrum of the lesser races and built to be capable of harnessing Hydaelyn's crystal blessing, they were to serve as synthetic thralls for the Elder-primal Bahamut and other Eikon-summoning experiments. Production was however halted when the [Race], though sentient, proved resistant to tempering. Unable to sustain Bahamut's corporeal form, the scientists of Allag opted to instead immortalise and entomb Meracydian scalekin within the lesser moon Dalamud; that their prayers and rage might serve to maintain the primal's physical body in lieu. Now without purpose the [Race] were ultimately sealed in [new expansion zone], but were awakened in the wake of The Calamity by the gradual perfusion of their would-be master's aether.

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Thoughts?
Also if this is the wrong forum I apologise. Please feel free to move the thread.

Something like this might be interesting to encounter as an npc, but I think there are some tricky things to consider if you want to make them playable characters.

Firstly, I don't think the people of Eorzea would treat an Allagan Automaton the same way they treat the playable character. Whatever the playable races are, they need to be something that people would welcome into their guilds and shops and settlements. Secondly, I think a lot of text in the game would need to be changed if your character was a member of this race. For example, anything that refers to our character bleeding or breathing, really anything that has any connection to our being organic beings...which I imagine would be a lot.

It won't work, for one reason - the Echo. The Echo is such a major part of the narrative (and gameplay too for that matter) to ignore simply for the sake of adding a playable race that is incapable of using it. As the Echo is granted by Hydaelyn Herself (the Mothercrystal) to only living beings (because She is the source of all life on the planet), and the player's character gains it immediately upon beginning the game, needless to say an artificial automaton simply cannot be granted such a gift.

Personally I think we have more than enough player races in the game as it is - implementing the au ra into the narrative was a tight fit enough.

I say the next logical step would be mixed races (maybe even limits due to genetics)

But as far as a new unique race, "The Five" are Eorzian and the Au Ra are from Oethard. Considering we'll likely go to Oethard after we retake Ala'mhigo Garlens mat be the next playable race (with the echo bypassing Garlen Magic gimping) but other than that, we'd have to wait till we either went to meracidia (Theoretical homeland of the Miqo'te tribes) or wait till we head west over the Rohtano to "The New Contenent" which is presumably near Sharlyon Proper.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

As the Echo is granted by Hydaelyn Herself (the Mothercrystal) to only living beings (because She is the source of all life on the planet), and the player's character gains it immediately upon beginning the game, needless to say an artificial automaton simply cannot be granted such a gift.

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This sentence contains an awful lot of assumptions. First off, who's to say that an automaton can't be a living being? What rule is there that there can only be life in things that are made out of meat? Secondly, even if they aren't "alive" how can you be sure that Hydaelyn can't grant the echo to a toaster oven if she so chose? How does being the source of all life limit her in any way in her interactions with non-living things? Hydaelyn is kept deliberately mysterious, and we currently have little or no idea exactly what she is capable of.

No, if there was an automaton race, players playing it would get the Echo, and there would be no conflict of lore preventing it - either the androids would be living things, or Hydaelyn can grant the Echo to whomsoever she chooses.

The biggest issue with this race suggestion is the OP's clear desire for an inhuman race. SE's made it pretty clear that they are reluctant to do this because of the difficulties in creating new armor models. If we did get androids, they'd be very humanlike in appearance, with only a few visual cues that they're actually robots - maybe some creases at the joints, or glowing eyes, or antenna or whatever on an otherwise human body.

Actually, The Echo Its self is why a machine couldn't have it. A machine doesn't have a soul so the echo can not be granted as a soul is a fundamental requirement.

Now it IS possible for a Bio-Mechenical construct, like the reploids from Megaman X, to have souls, but androids are still just a souless robot that just happens to look like a living being. This why allag fought Primals with Robots, you can't temper a souless machine either.

Given the Fact there are Allagan Clones, yet the Question is... are they mind controlled / serving a purpose only or do they have a free will of their own?

Lore Wise it wouldn't be hard, think of something like Dalamud Pieces crashed down with parts of Hives full of Allagan Clones in them, you the (Allagan Clone) escaped one of these Coils and made your way to one of the Citystates.
It needs tons of NPC Dialogues to be changed (It's like the Dialogues in Fractal, based on your Race, the Devices throw something out related to your Race)

As for the Soul thing, it can be a Aether thing, everything is made out of Aether, the World, the Primals, the Environment, everything.

'Allagan Clones' could be an interesting race, but they'd have to have severely limited character creation options >_>.

Gona say this for the last time.

'Allagans are not a race its a nationality. Can the lore team please put this to rest already.

The new race could be something like Darth Vader, General Grevious, or the Adeptus Mechanicus Techmarines, in that the race was once of organic form but have simply replaced their limbs with robotic parts.

This satisfies the echo portion by having the beings originate in organic form, but have chosen on whole as a race to "better themselves" physically with robotic appendages.

There could be a light and dark version of the race. The Light version has qualities and a personality and looks more human than robot (unexposed metal parts, acts human, etc), whereas the Dark version care not for projecting a human image (terse personalities, may have gapping metal parts sticking out of body, tears in the flesh covering body, jaw missing, red lightbulb in eye socket, etc)

Though the example I put above sounds a lot like the beginnings of some Necron-like Terminator horror plot line for the game. I would assume the developers could weave the race into the game like the Domans; refugees that simply integrate/have been hiding amongst everyone this whole time.

Unless it had a terrible aesthetic, I'd probably play a synthetic race in a heartbeat.

I'm not really optimistic about the appearance of one in this game but I'd get a lot more excited about that than lizardpeople, personally.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

Actually, The Echo Its self is why a machine couldn't have it. A machine doesn't have a soul so the echo can not be granted as a soul is a fundamental requirement.

Now it IS possible for a Bio-Mechenical construct, like the reploids from Megaman X, to have souls, but androids are still just a souless robot that just happens to look like a living being. This why allag fought Primals with Robots, you can't temper a souless machine either.

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More assumptions. Where is it ever stated that a soul is a requirement for the echo? And regardless of this, who says that a machine can't have a soul?

A human being is a machine made of meat and bone that happens to have a soul. An android is a machine made of plastic and metal - why can't it have a soul? The fact that Allagans used soulless robots to fight Primals proves nothing - they could have developed souled robots for other purposes.

Humans create souled machines by the millions every day. It's called giving birth. To insist that the way we do it now is the only way that it's possible for it to be done is terribly close-minded.

Personally, I think that a soul can find a home in any appropriate recepticle, regardless of what materials it is made from.

I don't think we need anymore races as we have enough variety unless new races and old ones bring exclusive traits or skills.

Who knows what the future brings. Didn't they say that 4.0 won't require 2.00-3.xx in order to play? Perhaps 3.xx will bring the end of the Asciens and/or the echo.

Heck, we might end up fighting Hydaelyn for all we know

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

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Someone doesn't know much about the lore then.

The Echo is powered by the soul. This isn't just SE, The Echo is a supper power that allows one's soul to communicate with the world and it's people allowing one to see the past via a problem person or places memories and by extension sheild their soul from other influences. It also usually grants a type of Omni-Linguisum.

Tempering isn't just Brainwashing or it could be resisted and broken by strong willed people. Tempering is binding someone's soul and to a primal, that's logical since Echo usuers are 100℅ immune to tempering as are artificial mechines who don't have them at all.

And the reploids I mentioned are Bio;Mecnical SENTIENT Machines who achived self awareness.
Bio-Mechanical means they could potentially manipulate aether, and Sentience + Self Awareness is the foundation of a soul. So Clockworks can NOT have the Echo, they are programed Machines with no aetheric connection.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

Someone doesn't know much about the lore then.

The Echo is powered by the soul.

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I won't say you're wrong, but I will say

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

I was so disappointed that we ended up with Au'ra instead of the burmecians that were teased. I wouldnt care to see another race honestly.

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Originally Posted by WellFooled

I won't say you're wrong, but I will say

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

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I do believe both Minfilia and Elidibus say as much directly and Lahabrea implies it multiple time as well.

You'd have to get Moose-Sensei's dialog transcripts for 2.1-2.3 in order to find the exact wording. I'm afraid I don't think to screenshot dialog till its too late.

Yeah, it's mentioned repeatedly throughout the game's entire storyline from even 1.0 that the Echo is transcending the boundaries of the soul, both the user's own and the souls of others. This manifests in various ways, but specifically viewing another person's memories as if they themselves had lived them, understanding another language without actually having learned it, being immune to tempering by a Primal, and much more.

As this information is spread out throughout the game's story it would take me forever to track down the screenshots I took which I could quote from specifically, but I can steer you in the right direction - the very first meeting you have with Minfilia when you first joined the Scions she explained this specifically. So yeah, as Kaiser stated, it's made very clear the Echo is soul powered, and because the soul (as in, life itself) comes from Hydaelyn, the Echo can only be gifted to someone born from Hydaelyn - an artificial construct like an automaton simply would not have access to that, no matter how much you try to handwave it away.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

I can steer you in the right direction - the very first meeting you have with Minfilia

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There's the reference I was looking for. I looked up that cutscenes, her exact words are

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Yours is the power to transcend the boundaries of the soul--a power known as the echo. The echo allows you to pass through the walls of a man's soul, and hear the resonations of his past. You will be in his memories, and see things as he saw them. You may even interact with that which you see, though you cannot change the outcome of events. For another blessing, the Echo will enable you to know a man's mind even if you cannot comprehend his words.

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Now that I have this quote though, I want to play devil's advocate. It describes the echo as transcending the boundaries of the soul, but the context of that statement only ever speaks of other people's soul, not the echo user's. Nothing, at least from this quote, expressly says it does anything to our soul or even requires that we have one. It's a logical assumption, but not expressly laid out.

Also, does all life come from Hydaelyn? The Ascians appear to be alive, but (unless they were from Hydaelyn to begin with and were turned) their origin looks like it's from some other source. I also thought I read somewhere that Midgardsormr is not of Hydaelyn? So if Hydaelyn is only a source of life and not the source, can she only give the echo to life she is the origin of? How do we know this?

It's OUR soul that's transcending its boundaries (aka our bodies) and interacting with other souls.

The Ascians seem to have perfected the Echo and are capable of preventing physical death by moving their soul to a new body in a symbiotic sense.

Lahabrea even fused with another overlord to form The Ascian Prime.

But as a whole, the full limits and strengths of The Echo seem to only be known by The Emissary, Elidibus, himself. And he's not sharing.

But since Lahabrea was eaten by a primal it's make sense based on that dialog that souls are indeed made of Aether (FF7 style *cough* Lifestreem).

So if Souls are Made of Aether too and Hydaelyn's Aether is in everything on that planet (key word THAT) then not only is a soul needed but one from The Planet Hydaelyn as well. (Or where ever Zodiark is since he can grant it as well)

And on the note if Planet Crystals, who's nessisarilly to say Zodiark and Hydaelyn are the ONLY Planet Crystals, ergo the only worlds?

There Might be Echo users from the planet Mega-Ultra-Chicken who were granted it by their God The Mega-Ultra-Chicken and sent to conquer other worlds with their Crispy Fried Wrath.

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Originally Posted by Voldemort

The new race could be something like Darth Vader, General Grevious, or the Adeptus Mechanicus Techmarines, in that the race was once of organic form but have simply replaced their limbs with robotic parts.

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It can be a cyborg race like in Phastasy Star, in fact the two MMO's should combine to be "Final Phantasy star 14!"

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

And the reploids I mentioned are Bio;Mecnical SENTIENT Machines who achived self awareness.
Bio-Mechanical means they could potentially manipulate aether, and Sentience + Self Awareness is the foundation of a soul. So Clockworks can NOT have the Echo, they are programed Machines with no aetheric connection.

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You are so fixated on flesh! I don't know much about Mega Man X's story (I pretty much stopped playing after the third game), but regardless of the technobabble they threw at you in that series, or which of dozens of sci-fi definitions of "bio-mechanical" they chose to use, I still see no good argument why a soul couldn't find a home in a fully mechanical, constructed body, so long as that body was sufficiently advanced. Heck, look at the terrible places a lot of souls (presumably) already end up, like babies that wind up stillborn.

Allag has already produced numerous machines that are clearly self-aware. Talk with any node in Azys Lla and it's easy to see that they are aware that they exist. "Sentient" is a terrible word to use, as well, dating from less enlightened times when people assumed that only human beings actually had sensations, and that animals could not feel pain because they were simply fleshy machines programmed to react as though they could feel pain. Even under current definitions, "sentient" basically means anything that has senses, like sight and hearing - Allag machines clearly have those, as well.

You don't have to look far in sci-fi to find examples of life forms that don't have biology as we understand it today. Star Trek, for example, had at least two examples I can think of of intelligent sillicon-based life forms - the Horta from the original series, and those crystal things from the Next Generation (can't remember what they were called; they refered to humans as "ugly bags of mostly water"). If we presume that these life forms had souls, why couldn't a machine constructed of similar materials also have a soul?

I guess the real question is this: What is so special about bone, muscle, blood, and synapse that it represents the only place a soul could take root? To me, this sounds like a very human-centric point of view. "Humans have souls. Humans are made of meat. Therefore, only things that are made of meat can have souls." If you were to present this sort of argument to anyone who knows what logic is, you would be laughed off the floor.

No, science fiction makes it clear that, if the setting decides that it is permissible, even a chunk of drywall could have a soul. The real question is whether there's anything in the world of Final Fantasy XIV that forbids it. We don't know enough about how souls work in Final Fantasy XIV to make any kind of assumption. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Wedge would insist that Gilly has a soul. He may be right or he may be wrong, but what basis do you have to make that call?

See, now you're just grasping at straws here - the game has made it quite clear that the soul is aetheric 'essence' - a kind of energy that is born from Hydaelyn Herself and returns to Hydaelyn when a lifeform dies, existing in a kind of river of souls retconned with the name of the similar river of life from FFVII known as the 'Lifestream' (itself loosely based on James Lovelock's 'Gaia Hypothesis') - in version 1.0 it was simply called 'the river of aether' or 'the aether'.

Accordingly artificial life which is not born from Hydaelyn therefore does not have a soul. This is why the dead cannot be returned to life as their soul has already returned to the Lifestream - instead a Voidsent almost always sets up shop inside a dead body when someone attempts to resurrect them, such as what happened to the unfortunate Avare, and Lady Amandine, to name a few (specifically, this is the MO of mindflayers and succubi, and possibly ahirman as well).

As for Maggie the magitek armour, I'm liable to take her apparent self awareness with a grain of salt - given the fact it seemed that her self awareness was inadvertently triggered by the player and was not something that just 'came naturally' (maybe the Echo/Blessing of Light influenced it's programming, or something).

Either way, I definitely stop short at saying she has a true 'soul', as she is still just a machine, albeit a machine with a clockwork computer that has given her some rudimentary intelligence and self awareness. But I'm rambling again...

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

You are so fixated on flesh! I don't know much about Mega Man X's story (I pretty much stopped playing after the third game), but regardless of the technobabble they threw at you in that series, or which of dozens of sci-fi definitions of "bio-mechanical" they chose to use, I still see no good argument why a soul couldn't find a home in a fully mechanical, constructed body, so long as that body was sufficiently advanced. Heck, look at the terrible places a lot of souls (presumably) already end up, like babies that wind up stillborn.

Allag has already produced numerous machines that are clearly self-aware. Talk with any node in Azys Lla and it's easy to see that they are aware that they exist. "Sentient" is a terrible word to use, as well, dating from less enlightened times when people assumed that only human beings actually had sensations, and that animals could not feel pain because they were simply fleshy machines programmed to react as though they could feel pain. Even under current definitions, "sentient" basically means anything that has senses, like sight and hearing - Allag machines clearly have those, as well.

You don't have to look far in sci-fi to find examples of life forms that don't have biology as we understand it today. Star Trek, for example, had at least two examples I can think of of intelligent sillicon-based life forms - the Horta from the original series, and those crystal things from the Next Generation (can't remember what they were called; they refered to humans as "ugly bags of mostly water"). If we presume that these life forms had souls, why couldn't a machine constructed of similar materials also have a soul?

I guess the real question is this: What is so special about bone, muscle, blood, and synapse that it represents the only place a soul could take root? To me, this sounds like a very human-centric point of view. "Humans have souls. Humans are made of meat. Therefore, only things that are made of meat can have souls." If you were to present this sort of argument to anyone who knows what logic is, you would be laughed off the floor.

No, science fiction makes it clear that, if the setting decides that it is permissible, even a chunk of drywall could have a soul. The real question is whether there's anything in the world of Final Fantasy XIV that forbids it. We don't know enough about how souls work in Final Fantasy XIV to make any kind of assumption. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Wedge would insist that Gilly has a soul. He may be right or he may be wrong, but what basis do you have to make that call?

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I'm fixated on the Biological Aspect (And there are plant creatures in Eorzea so "Flesh" doesn't always equal biological) because I have a fundamental understanding of what "Aether" is in the classical sense. Long story short, Aether is the Divine Life Energy of Biological/Organic Beings. Golems don't have Aether, nor do Clockworks, nor Homunculi, nor any other man made construct regardless of life or sentience.

I keep mentioning the reploids because they broke the mold. By the time of Megaman Zero the differences between man and machine had almost become semantics as the reploids became more Biological and Humans became more Mechanical thus breaking the typical Sci-Fi mold when added to the fact that The Reploids were thinking and feeling in their own right, completely self aware with their own souls in at least the poetic sense. But they still would have limited Aether at best and likely no way to channel it.

Aether is Life Energy so Machines that are not truly alive in the Biological since CAN NOT possess Aether. You'd be more likely to get a race of Plant People than Droids.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

You'd be more likely to get a race of Plant People than Droids.

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An Alraune or Dryad race would also be acceptable.

So, here's a question to those arguing about souls/echo:

Suppose an Eorzean were critically, catastrophically injured... and required a full body prosthetic. Perhaps the Goldsmiths guild comes up with something, or maybe Cid & his Ironworks engineers do it (possibly with some reverse-engineered Allagan tech?), but one way or another someone pulls it off.

Do they still have a soul? Can they have the Echo, particularly if they had it before?

Please answer before revealing:

Ultimately though, the Lore team will write whatever they want. If they were to add a synthetic race that's playable, they could always say that they had some sort of Human/Hyur/other organic basis before conversion, or had somehow been touched by the light of the crystal, or any number of other things.

I do agree we're unlikely to ever see it, but simply because most players wouldn't care or wouldn't want it... not because of lore. My 2 gil anyways.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

So, here's a question to those arguing about souls/echo:

Suppose an Eorzean were critically, catastrophically injured... and required a full body prosthetic. Perhaps the Goldsmiths guild comes up with something, or maybe Cid & his Ironworks engineers do it (possibly with some reverse-engineered Allagan tech?), but one way or another someone pulls it off.

Do they still have a soul? Can they have the Echo, particularly if they had it before?

Please answer before revealing:

Ultimately though, the Lore team will write whatever they want. If they were to add a synthetic race that's playable, they could always say that they had some sort of Human/Hyur/other organic basis before conversion, or had somehow been touched by the light of the crystal, or any number of other things.

I do agree we're unlikely to ever see it, but simply because most players wouldn't care or wouldn't want it... not because of lore. My 2 gil anyways.

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This is an interesting and valid question.

Since Echo Wielders' souls are effectively immortal despite their mortal corporeal body, Which is apparently a normal echo power to an enlightened user since the Ascians taught a Sahagan Echo User how to move his soul to a new vessel as well, then I believe that you could indeed move your soul via echo to a Mechanical Vessel made out of similar Aether Channeling Magitek that the Garlands use and still retain the echo.

How well this would work how ever is open to debate, specifically this one, and completely subject to writer's privilege on how it'd operate.

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Originally Posted by Glasya

An Alraune or Dryad race would also be acceptable.

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This could actually add a whole new possibility to adding Geomancer to the game in a future expansion. After all, who better to wield earth magic than a Plant Person.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Accordingly artificial life which is not born from Hydaelyn therefore does not have a soul.

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It is this vague definition that is at the heart of the issue here. Just what, exactly, does "born from Hydaelyn" mean? Hydaelyn does not personally conceive and birth every living being on the planet. No, Hydaelyn's children do that. Hydaelyn's children create a new child through the reproductive act, and that child recieves a soul from the Lifestream. Why is it so impossible to imagine that a child of Hydaelyn could create a new child using their hands, rather than (parden the crudity) their gonads, and then have a soul flow just as freely into that?

I maintain that there is no conflict in the idea of a souled machine, because we are ALL souled machines, created through the labors of our parents and given a soul by Hydaelyn. If Hydaelyn sees a recepticle as worthy of a soul, she can give it one. To presume that only natural biological processes can produce a worthy recepticle is arrogant, human-centric, and not even IMPLIED by the lore of the game as far as I know. With that said, if any people were advanced enough to create machines advanced enough to be worthy recepticles, it would be the Allagans.

It is dangerous, too, so associate souls so closely with Hydaelyn herself. I'm sure Midgardsormr would be put out if you were to insist that he has no soul, and neither would his seven children. It might be fair to suggest that 'sormr and his brood have a different kind of soul from a different origin - after all, the Ascians most likely got theirs from Zodiark, and there could well be other world-beings out there wherever the dragons came from. (For the dragons born on Hydaelyn, then - do they get their souls from Hydaelyn, or from whereever the dragons originated? Can a dragon have the Echo?)

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

I have a fundamental understanding of what "Aether" is in the classical sense. Long story short, Aether is the Divine Life Energy of Biological/Organic Beings. Golems don't have Aether, nor do Clockworks, nor Homunculi, nor any other man made construct regardless of life or sentience.

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Actually, mentioning the Golem of Prague is kind of a murky area. In some stories, the Golem was self-aware and self-willed, even as he obeyed the commands of Rabbi Lowe to protect the Jews of Prague, and could even fall in love. He was given life by way of God's name, inscribed on paper and placed within him, and could have that life removed by taking it away. God, the source of all souls, gave this artificial being life, and could very well have given him a soul, as well. Cuz, you know, he's God. Pretty resourceful guy.

As for Aether in "the classical sense" - it was my understanding that Aether has nothing at all to do with life, biological or otherwise. Aether was postulated as an "element" to fill up all the empty parts of outer space that served to keep the stars and other celestial bodies apart from the earth - and these interpretations date back as far as Ancient Greece. Hard to get a lot more classical than that! I don't think I've come across any real-world usage of Aether that associates it with life or souls - that's all the stuff of fiction and fantasy.

Aether is convenient as an mystical "fifth element" that fantasy authors can co-opt for any purpose they like, and that purpose is frequently to explain magic. It's no different here; Squeenix adopted the term as a medium for their own storytelling, and this means that they can interpret what it can and cannot do however they like. There's no classical interpretation of Aether even in fiction that limits its power to only biological creatures.

As for Reploids blurring the line between machine and man - they hardly broke the mold. That's pretty much the exact plotline behind the movie "Blade Runner" and the novel that inspired it, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find earlier examples, too - the topics of just how close to you have to be to human before you are human, and how far can you stray away from being human before you are no longer human, are very popular topics in sci-fi! That mold is still alive and well; Mega Man used it, and I'm sure it'll be used again more than a time or two in my remaining lifetime!

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

After all, who better to wield earth magic than a Plant Person.

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The snarky answer? ....Conjurers ~.^

Keep in mind I was born in the early 90s. When I was growing up Robot fiction was already phased out for the Ninja craze where every thing was about the mystical stealth warriors known as Ninjas.

And there are 6 Classical Element, the 4 basing being Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water, The 5th Original Element, Chaos, which was the 4 Base Elements combined, and the 6th Element Aether also referred to occasionally as "the Divine Element" because it was beyond human understanding and did not actually exist in the mortal world (Chaos was the highest power in the mortal plain).

As for Golems, I'm not talking about that specific golem. I'm referring to Golems in general which, Like Homunculi, were Alchemic Constructs that were built for a purpose. the Significance of the particular one you mention is that God specifically granted a soul to a soulless creature as a divine act. But there were others besides that one. It's just the most well known.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

The snarky answer? ....Conjurers ~.^

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Oh oh!! IDEA!!

Geomance can be a 2nd Advanced Job for Conjurers like Scholar was to Arcanist!!!

Maybe be a DPS class to mirror how Arcanist turned from DPS to Healer. While were at it, lets give lancers the "Dragon Knight" Job to parallel with Dragoon as a Tank Job.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

Keep in mind I was born in the early 90s. When I was growing up Robot fiction was already phased out for the Ninja craze where every thing was about the mystical stealth warriors known as Ninjas.

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Pff. Don't be ridiculous. Ninjas can't have souls! That's just silly.

Robots and cyborgs as playable characters.....oh wait, I remember now! I don't think the reception went well

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Pff. Don't be ridiculous. Ninjas can't have souls! That's just silly.

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On coures Ninjas don't have souls!!

How else do they do all that dark magic, shadow,elemental stuff. They're Witches! Burn the Witch!!

I pray to Thal that the next race is Viera. So much of FFXIV is taken in some part from FFXII. From some of the mob designs to the empire (Archadians/Garleans), to stuff like magicite.
Moreover, they already created concepts for FFXII Viera, and they won the race poll. It's feasable with lore since they can put them in the same location that Miqo'te come from. It would make a lot of sense since they're both half-beast and from the woods.

Who doesn't want the new expansion moogles to be these?
http://i.imgur.com/KhStxj0.jpg

I want Viera. I don't care about where they fit into the lore of FFXIV. I don't care about how they'd have to explain a male Viera. I just want bunny people.

I would really not expect to see a race from another FF series, re: Viera. As for automata, I like the idea but I feel like it would be too hard to really explain how not unusual they are. Consider how the Godlsmiths, or the Sons of Saint Coinach, or even the Garleans would love to get their hands on tech that functional from the days of Allag.