Questions about Au Ra children

Will we ever see Auri children in game? I'm curious about them, perhaps because we know so little about them. We know a few details about how they're treated in certain Xaela tribes, but beyond that I've not found much information.

Are Au Ra children born with their scales and horns? Or do they develop at a later point in life, either progressively throughout childhood or at puberty? We know that their horns grant them "enhanced hearing and spatial recognition" so it would seem strange to me that Au Ra would be born without them. However, I imagine giving live birth to a horned creature would be painful to say the least, or at least more painful than it usually is. Do Au Ra children perhaps hatch from eggs instead, similar to dragons or other scalekin?

I'd be curious to see what others think about these matters, and I'd love to learn if there's any official lore that addresses any of these questions.

My inital post was too long, so I thought I'd move these questions to a secondary post.

I'd also like to know how many children the typical Au Ra will have. Like, do they tend to have large families, or is it usually just one child? And is it common for them to have several children at once, or do they tend to have one child at a time with things like twins/triplets being more of a rarity?

Currently the answer to your last question is known, at least in regards to the Xaela.
According to Gildrein's posted details of the known Xeala tribes in the Racial Names thread the Himaa tribe often have twins, Identical ones at that, otherwise though for the rest of the Xaela tribes and for the Raen I would assume until such evidence to the contrary that twins, triplets and so on are as rare for them as for the other races.

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For reasons unknown, one out of every three pregnancies amongst the Himaa result in twins. As a result, over half the tribe's members have a doppelganger. This can prove an advantage during attacks, as it confuses the enemy into believing the dead have risen.

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As for your other questions, I'm unaware of any lore that tells of how Auri grow physically.

Au Ra are a race of man, so they reproduce like any of the normal races in eorzea, I'd imagine, so they don't lay egg and probably give live birth. Probably one at a time and twins/ multi-birth is doesn't happen too often

I think their horns fully develop during puberty, so while they were born their horns/ scales might've been not too noticeable/ very small. Since the horns are vital for hearing then they probably appears as little nub when born

Each Xaela tribe is different, but they're generally hunter-gatherers with a propensity for inter-tribal warfare. So I'd imagine the more kids they have the better, especially if you're in one of the top 3 largest warring clan amongst the Xaela. More can be seen in the Au Ra naming convention

Raen seem to live more in isolated villages and seem closer to Feudal Japan system: Territory is ruled by a family and have their vassals. With the exception of their "royalty" I'd imagine the more better when it comes to the vassels = more farmhands

In either case, Raen/Xaela don't live in a hash environment like Hellsguard Roegadyn where they have leave spare children to die since they can't be cared for.

I think the Au Ra are born with horns and scales but their horns are little nubs at birth, so I don't think giving birth to one will hurt because they have cute little nub horns...though...giving birth is painful in general to many women.
I do think their horns start fully growing at puberty as well as maybe growing more scales.

As for how many children they have..I'm not sure.

There's actually a rule of thumb in biology for calculating the average number of children a species has. Look at the number of breasts and subtract one, and that's the average number of their litter. So Au Ra, being a race of man, usually only have 1 child at a time.

While I wonder if they'll add children of all the races at some point,
As far as Au Ra stuff goes I'm also wondering if SE plans to add any new Culinarian recipes that are considered Au Ra dishes.

Every other race in game has a food that in the description says that its a traditional dish of that race.
Wonder what a traditional Au Ra dish would be? O.o

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Originally Posted by Gemma

While I wonder if they'll add children of all the races at some point,
As far as Au Ra stuff goes I'm also wondering if SE plans to add any new Culinarian recipes that are considered Au Ra dishes.

Every other race in game has a food that in the description says that its a traditional dish of that race.
Wonder what a traditional Au Ra dish would be? O.o

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For Raen, probably japanese type dishes like sushi, onigiri or teriyaki.

Id assume children are born with little bumps on their heads where horns will grow out. As for scales, they likely have soft patches at birth, that grow and harden as they age (perhaps the scales are a good guestimate of how old an Au Ra is). Tails are likely shorter at birth too, maybe even all roughly the same shape and size, growing out and into the different forms by adulthood.

Let's look at real-world examples.

For the horns, let's use deer as an example (just because they're quite ubiquitous). They aren't born with antlers; males grow them later in life. I'd imagine it's somewhat similar for the Au Ra, though they probably have nubs or whatever when they're born since they're basically the Au Ra ears.

While the scales lead many to a belief that the Au Ra lay eggs or whatever like reptiles, the fact of the matter is the Xaela Himaa tribe's description outright says "[roughly] one in every three pregnancies results in twins..." This confirms live birth, as does the fact that Au Ra women have breasts. The rate of twins in the Himaa tribe is also mentioned to be abnormally high, and is by real-world standards, suggesting Auri women give birth to only one child under normal conditions. There is also nothing linking the Au Ra to reptiles of any kind; though the scales often draw comparisons to dragons, and some people will treat them suspiciously as a result of this, there is no link between the Au Ra and any scalekin. (That we know of.)

Au Ra children probably develop rather like human children; rather similar until puberty, during which the sexual dimorphism they are now (in)famous for becomes apparent, up to and including their scaling differences (as males have a patch of scales on their back, while females do not).

Without empirical evidence and a way to obtain said evidence, this is the best I can do.

Any other questions?

What determines horn shape? Is it hereditary from either parents?

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Originally Posted by Seunkii

What determines horn shape? Is it hereditary from either parents?

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With no empirical evidence and no way to get empirical evidence, the best answers that can be given to these questions are: unknown and possibly.

(Or, if you wanna get meta, the character modelers and still unknown since PCs can't have children. Yet.)

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Let's look at real-world examples.

For the horns, let's use deer as an example (just because they're quite ubiquitous). They aren't born with antlers; males grow them later in life. I'd imagine it's somewhat similar for the Au Ra, though they probably have nubs or whatever when they're born since they're basically the Au Ra ears.

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Deer is an interesting example, reindeer in particular because often both male and female often grow antlers. Deer also shed their antlers annually, which I doubt Au Ra do, but could have interesting implications if they did.

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Originally Posted by Warr_of_Lint

Deer is an interesting example, reindeer in particular because often both male and female often grow antlers. Deer also shed their antlers annually, which I doubt Au Ra do, but could have interesting implications if they did.

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Regrowing their main hearing sensory unit annually would be incredibly inefficient biologically speaking. I highly doubt they'd do it, as that would be a terrible evolutionary trait.

In the case of the horns, it may be that rather than being born with nubs, they are born with horns fully-formed, but soft, much like how portions of an infant's skull are soft at birth. In most mammal species, ears are one of the more developed organs at birth; I would think Au Ra horns would be similar since they are functionally ears.