Are hrothgar and coeurls related?

I noticed that there is an option to have coeurl whiskers on Hrothgar. Also, some of the Bozja NPCs have the strange coeurl whiskers as well. It got me thinking about what is the function of those whiskers. Is it a vestigial body part for some Hrothgar?
And thinking about how there are Hrothgars with a horn and Hrothgars with larger fangs and how that makes them a sub-race. Is the whisker thing another unwritten sub-race of Hrothgar? According to some lore I read, Coeurls are from the Near-East, so maybe these Hrothgar with the coeurl whiskers are descendants from that area instead of Ilsabard.

There is no indication that Hrothgar are related to coeurls. Or that Miqo'te are related to cats. Or Viera to rabbits. Other than pure 'this part resembles that part' conjecture.

From what I can tell, there is no relation. However, considering that we do not encounter any Couerls or Behemoths on the First, I'm going to go under a crazy theory that they are in fact Hrothgar experimented on by the Allagans, which led to the creations of these creatures out in the wild. This would explain why there are none on the First, because the Allagans did not exist there, and the one major Empire that did, Ronka, was ruled BY Hrothgar.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

From what I can tell, there is no relation. However, considering that we do not encounter any Couerls or Behemoths on the First, I'm going to go under a crazy theory that they are in fact Hrothgar experimented on by the Allagans, which led to the creations of these creatures out in the wild. This would explain why there are none on the First, because the Allagans did not exist there, and the one major Empire that did, Ronka, was ruled BY Hrothgar.

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Couerls are native to Thavnair. It would make sense why we don't see any on the First because their version of Thavnair was eaten up by the Flood. Behemoths are anyone's guess since the lorebook says they were completely unknown until the latest umbral era but personally I'm personally kind of sick of everything being traced back to the Allagans.

As far as why there are some hrothgar with couerl whiskers, I think it's just that the devs wanted a creative option that felt Final Fantasy-esque rather than anything that's supposed to be seriously looked into.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

As far as why there are some hrothgar with couerl whiskers, I think it's just that the devs wanted a creative option that felt Final Fantasy-esque rather than anything that's supposed to be seriously looked into.

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Maybe that's just what happens to big cats when a certain gene is turned on, and couerls have it turned on by default?
Like pump enough Big Whisker Hormone into a lion and it'll sprout some of those too?

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Originally Posted by Roda

Maybe that's just what happens to big cats when a certain gene is turned on, and couerls have it turned on by default?
Like pump enough Big Whisker Hormone into a lion and it'll sprout some of those too?

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Lions in this game don't need anymore of any kind of hormone. We're kinda lucky Hrothgar don't look like their shoulders are going to explode too.

I've been wondering for a while what exactly the deal with all the sapient species in FFXIV is, actually. Given that they (most of them...) exist on the First as well means they predate the Sundering, so does that mean they existed alongside Amaurot? Came after, and were the "new life" that's constantly alluded to after Zodiark's summoning?

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

I've been wondering for a while what exactly the deal with all the sapient species in FFXIV is, actually. Given that they (most of them...) exist on the First as well means they predate the Sundering, so does that mean they existed alongside Amaurot? Came after, and were the "new life" that's constantly alluded to after Zodiark's summoning?

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It hasn't been clarified, but it's been at least implied that the races of man we're familiar with sprang into existence after Zodiark stopped the Final Days.

Granted we only have a single window into pre-Sundering existence (and it's a heavily biased one at that), but there's no conclusive evidence or even known account of world population prior to the Final Days / Sundering.

In response to OP's question, there is no known link between Hrothgar and coeruls, just as there is no known link between Miqo'te and cats (or coeruls for that matter), Viera and rabbits, or Lalafell and popotoes.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

or Lalafell and popotoes.

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My fried Lalachips say otherwise........

But then WHY do some Hrothgar have the couerl whiskers if they don't serve some similar function?

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Originally Posted by DeirdreLeaf

But then WHY do some Hrothgar have the couerl whiskers if they don't serve some similar function?

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"Because the devs wanted it" is the reason why a lot of stuff exists and most of the time it's not any deeper than that. Even the lore creators have just thrown stuff in because they felt like it without meaning for there to be any deeper meaning. The reason why Heavensward is full of dinosaurs? World-builder Banri Oda REALLY likes dinosaurs. Why do some hrothgar have couerl whiskers? Hrothgar are cats, couerl are cats, and an artist or dev probably just wanted to throw them on them because they can and it's probably not any deeper than that.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Couerls are native to Thavnair. It would make sense why we don't see any on the First because their version of Thavnair was eaten up by the Flood. Behemoths are anyone's guess since the lorebook says they were completely unknown until the latest umbral era but personally I'm personally kind of sick of everything being traced back to the Allagans.

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Ahh, but who was there in Thavnair in the past? THE ALLAGAN EMPIRE! Joking aside, I find it silly to not assume the Allagans could be involved, they literally created the Ixali, captured Elder Primals, made Dalamud, and Crystal Tower (a tower made up of white auracite). They had their hands in so many things we've encountered up to now that it's not inconceivable.

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Originally Posted by DeirdreLeaf

But then WHY do some Hrothgar have the couerl whiskers if they don't serve some similar function?

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Watsonian answer? They might serve a similar function. There's no known in-universe reason for them though; every race has human physiology unless otherwise noted though, so they may serve no biological function or a similar function to cats' whiskers. (While there is no known link between Hrothgar and coeruls or cats of any size, that doesn't mean they can't coincidentally have physiological similarities.)

Doylist answer? They're totally there to be reminiscent of coerul whiskers, as well as serve as a stand-in for facial hair on that Hrothgar face. They're there to serve as a mustache, helping to sell the idea of the man-cats.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

not encounter any Couerls or Behemoths on the First

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There are caracals in the Rak'tika Greatwood.

No behemoths perhaps, but they seem to be found in snowy regions and Norvrandt doesn't have any.

I do really look forward to seeing if 6.0 finally explains/clarifies the origin of the races.

Namely, whether they were creations of Ancients, or if they literally are the former Ancients who simply had their forms twisted by the Sundering (As was originally suggested from what Varis had been told by Elidibus back in 4.5).

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Originally Posted by Iscah

There are caracals in the Rak'tika Greatwood.

No behemoths perhaps, but they seem to be found in snowy regions and Norvrandt doesn't have any.

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Yeah though given that most of the FIrst was wiped out just 100 years ago, and Norvrandt is all that is actually left, that doesn't really tell us much sadly.