Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I firmly believe that the Au'ra are genuinely draconic in the same way that Miqo'te are genuinely feline. Would the Au'ra protest to being call "Dragon Descendants"? Probably yes being as the Miqo'te in general are offended by the idea that they are literally descended from cats as well as humans in our world (And likely Eorzian Hyurs) are offended by the claim that we are descended from Apes.

So Draconic, Cat-like, and Ape-like doesn't necessarily mean shared blood. As for them coming to Eorzia, it's possible that Yugiri is indeed an orphan but the Au'ra and the Domans do have some history together. But Doma is not the only nation in Oethard nor is it the Only Oethard nation that Garlemauld has conquered. Lets say that The Garlens have fought dragons before on Oethard and the dragons there were even more malevolent than the Dravanians. Then by exterminating the area's "Dragon Problem" some nations may have joined Garlemauld by choice. Then the Now Garlen territory that is now no longer plagued by the "Evil" dragon kin are assisting in the conquering of their neighbors. Imagine their shock and horror when they come across a race of Draconic Humanoid people that a terrifyingly similar to the beasts that terrorized them in the past. Yea you'd freak out too.

My wager is that since Eorzia is seemingly the only nation as a whole to mount a solid opposition against Garlemauld, and do so not once but three times, upon hearing that Eorzia has taken the Doman refugees in the Au'ra may have decided to send "Reinforcements" to Eorzia so that the remaining Domans stay free and they could form a proper resistance through a potential alliance with Eorzia (Then hello 4.0 taking us to Oethard and Garlemauld's front door)

BTW I spell Au'ra with the apostrophe because I believe the final name will be spelled that way ala Miqo'te vs Miqote

[Baithin]

Unrelated, but in the 2.2 questline, I noticed that Yugiri mentions "beings of yore" similar to the Primals that existed in her homeland in ancient legends.

Does this mean that Eorzea isn't the only place that can potentially have Primals? I always found that kind of limiting, because the Primal threat is such a huge part of this game and if future expansions to other places outside Eorzea don't have them, that'd be kind of lame. =/

[Dynza]

So the next bit of speculative lore I'm going to talk about are the dragons and their possible relation to the au ra. This bit of information probably has more to do with dragons than with the au ra, but like we're all theorizing, there's bound to be some connections between to two. Like before, this post is before I've played through the new 2.5 MSQs. As I have yet to play through them, most of my information is speculative and could be completely wrong, so feel free to disregard everything if it turns out that I'm way off here. But I do hope that you readers will consider some of the information that I post here.




So, according our lore guru(s), the dragons have their own language which they use to speak and communicate with themselves. This language has likely evolved and transformed over thousands of years of use and communication between its natural speakers and those that learned the language. Yet it seems like it may not be the only means of communication between dragons. As seen in the 2.5 trailer, dragons seems capable of communicating through song and whether that song carries words (sounds with meaning) or is even audible to mortal ears or non-dragons is completely up in the air at this point. We do know of a few words used by the dragons and were recently translated to us by the lore guru(s); "Ahk", "Morn", and "Afah". These words translate into "Circle", "Death", and "Eternity" respectively. We don't really know many other words used by the dragons, but these three words seem to give us a little glimpse into how they might sound. It seems that the dragons have a tendency to speak in mono-syllabic or bi-syllabic sounds. Short and sweet and a very compact language as suggested by the lore gurus. And I suspect that the au ra is a name given by the dragons to represent this particular race.

We know about the miqo'te, hyur, roegadyn, elezen and lalafell races and the fact that their names of their species tend to originate from their own language and origin, but au ra are unique in that they possess a name that's not quite similar to the other races. The word aura, a word closely related in spelling to au ra, originates from the minor greek goddess or goddesses of the breeze. The aurai are said to be born from the gods of the four winds and resembles nymphs or ghosts. The au ra of Hydaelyn don't appear to carry any similarities to the Grecian myths. Further, the name au ra likely carries a different pronunciation than what we may be used to and probably closely relates to the Japanese pronunciation of aura.

Thus the name au ra is likely draconic in origin and its likely that the species itself can speak or understand the draconic language. Or perhaps the au ra language is a derivative language rooted in draconic, much in the same way that latin is the root language of many others. In an earlier post, I mentioned the possibility that the au ra could come to Eorzea because they had heard the song of a dragon. While the possibility is faint, it does lead credence that the au ra could perhaps understand the draconic language or hear a song that the other mortal races could not, further belying their draconic origins. I wonder if the opening sequence for new au ra players will be different than the one used for new players of the five races, and bear some similarity to the legacy players who arrive five years into the future. Will a new au ra player awaken from a dream in which they hear the roar of dragon bidding them to come to Eorzea, and then from there hear Hydaelyn's plea? It's an interesting of bit speculation that might not end being true, but it'd be fun to see (or role play!)

Finally, there's one more bit of speculation regarding the au ra and the dragons. We've learned of rumors by the Ishgardians that dragons are capable of casting powerful illusions or shapeshifting into mortal forms. We witness this first hand during the MSQs on the way to level 50 when we engage the High Inquisitor, a frightful dravanian who had taken the guise of an elezen. Early lore from 1.0 also suggested that one could become a dragon by consuming its flesh or drinking its blood, such acts are considered heretical by the Ishgardians, but I wonder if such acts were similarly condemned by the people of Othard? Could the au ra be a mortal tribe that once hunted and consumed dragon flesh and blood and were thus permanently transformed into the beings we see now? Were they cursed or blessed by dragons or were they created by them from the aetherial realm? If there are dragon kings as powerful as Midgardsormr and Nidhogg on Eorzea, and Bahamut in Mercydia, then perhaps there is a dragon king as powerful as they on Othard. And perhaps they are responsible for the creation of the au ra.

[Mholito]

As seen in the 2.5 trailer, dragons seems capable of communicating through song and whether that song carries words (sounds with meaning) or is even audible to mortal ears or non-dragons is completely up in the air at this point.

What if the "song" consists of "words without sound"? Just an idea that hit me while I read your post.

[WyrahFhurrst]

What if the "song" consists of "words without sound"? Just an idea that hit me while I read your post.

An all dragon a cappella group sounds awesome.

[Wadoka]

An all dragon a cappella group sounds awesome.

Dangit.. now have dragon barbershop quartet singing "Mr Sandman" stuck in me head...

[Kaiser-Ace]

Dangit.. now have dragon barbershop quartet singing "Mr Sandman" stuck in me head...

In The Labyrinth of Ancients no doubt. lol.

[Dynza]

What if the "song" consists of "words without sound"? Just an idea that hit me while I read your post.

From the way we think to the way we communicate we use words to create a sense of precision of what we see, feel and hear. So I'm not quite sure what you're getting at when it comes to "words without sound". Unless you're talking about telepathy and non-vocal communication. Certainly, I think dragons could be capable of that, but we haven't seen evidence of it or contrary to it.


Anyway, just a quick thought here to get this discussion moving along. FF14 bears a number of spiritual similiarities to FF11 and so I want to throw out a what-if question to probe a response.

We know the lore behind FF14 was written years in advance, even before 1.0 was released, so here's a thought. What if the Au Ra were written way back then and were originally an NPC race. What if the Au Ra bear similarities to the Zilart and the Kuluu?

[Kaiser-Ace]

From the way we think to the way we communicate we use words to create a sense of precision of what we see, feel and hear. So I'm not quite sure what you're getting at when it comes to "words without sound". Unless you're talking about telepathy and non-vocal communication. Certainly, I think dragons could be capable of that, but we haven't seen evidence of it or contrary to it.

One way could be vibrations as well. Many animals IRL use infrasound to communicate over long distances which, Unlike echolocation, is an extremely low frequency noise that is below human hearing. Notice that Midgaurdsormir mentioned the song already being sung. Well I heard no roar or any other sound, the only sign is the "Dragon Star" what ever that is. So it seems to me that the Dravanians can communicate in a way that not even the Echo can detect which means to me that the spoken races can't hear it at all.

[Mholito]

From the way we think to the way we communicate we use words to create a sense of precision of what we see, feel and hear. So I'm not quite sure what you're getting at when it comes to "words without sound". Unless you're talking about telepathy and non-vocal communication. Certainly, I think dragons could be capable of that, but we haven't seen evidence of it or contrary to it.

I meant the fact that they can communicate in a way that most people can't hear. "Words without sound" is a part of the lyrics to "Answers". I just thought that there might be a connecction.