Please make the in-game Au Ra (Males) more muscular, reflective of the Artwork

[Terin]

Yeah, the Shiva thing was something we sort of put together, based on outlying information. They definitely described Au Ra as having specifically "dragon features", but more recently said the females would be able to customize themselves to have more of a "succubus look". This, of course, has also fueled speculation that Succubi are, in fact, Au Ra, or that the Au Ra have some kind of "demonic" origin.

I'm personally banking that they're connected to Saint Shiva (simply because it was such a big point of introducing us to Ishgard int he Main Scenario), but neither theory is confirmed.

[Felis]

Well, when asked about the Au Ra during PAX, Yoshi-P compared the Au Ra to demons/succubi. Not dragons.

He talked about the possibility of the character creation, not the Au Ra lore

In the benchmark software, how can you experience the character creation for Au Ra?
Y: Similar to the character creation benchmark software that we released for A Realm Reborn, we'll also have character creation included in this benchmark with the Au Ra race's characters added. Since we're using up the last bit of time we have to add more features to the Au Ra, the number of selections might be a bit limited, but you can still save the data and use the appearances you create once the game is released. Once we have all of the options programmed, we plan to update the benchmark.

How diverse are the creation possibilities for Au Ra?
Y: By combining different colors and horn styles as well as different eye types, you can create a female character that can resemble anywhere from a beautiful woman to a succubus.

It sounds like there's more of a range available than there is for other races - was that your plan?
Y: I told the art team to add more personality to the facial patterns on the Au Ra for both genders. For the original races, the patterns are pretty similar with small changes between them, but the Au Ra change that up.

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/125...29-Translation

[Reinhart]

The 'descendants of Shiva' theory is mostly debunked with some recent information from Ferne relating to a minion guide text block.

2. Hyur is Hyuran. Lalafell is Lalafellin. What on Earth Hydaelyn is the adjectival form of Au Ra?
This one's a little special. Instead of just tacking an 'n' to the end of Ra, the term takes on a slight metamorphosis. Au Ra -> Auri (pronounced Ow-ree, rhymes with Maori). Example: "An Auri warrior can eat a whole turkey in a single sitting."

Wind-up Odin: Many have pondered why a dark divinity with roots in northern mythology would wield a blade with a decidedly Far Eastern name. A popular theory is that Odin acquired the blade upon slaying an Auri warrior who was the first ever to notch his theretofore unsullied plate.

Which not only reinforces that the Au Ra are from Othard to the Far East (rather than Dravania or such to the northwest), but also that they were around back in the time of the Allagan empire, about 4000 years and 3 ages before Ishgard and Shiva.

[Nestama]

Then what up with the idea of Shiva having kids with dragon and made this race? Or was that never really part of real fact and just a guess from players?

Was it ever stated that Shiva even had kids?

[DracotheDragon]

Was it ever stated that Shiva even had kids?

It has never been stated, the reason most say Au ra is shivas children was the lack of early lore, and the phrase "laid with a dragon"

though they must remember to Lay (or sleep) with your (or the) enemy also means that you are on a mutual or friendly terms, its an old phrase that is often used to describe a situation involving a non-adversarial relationship between two individuals or entities that would normally be unfriendly or adversarial.

aka Ishgardians and dravanians who are enemy's if one from either side were friendly with them they would say that they laid with the other,

in short a warrior of light with the sore thumb achievement has laid with the kobold, sylph, amalj'aa, sahagan and the ixali.

[Terin]

Well, regardless of he Au Ra's origins, I just still think they fall too much into the area of "things we can already play". A touch more muscular to their torso and shoulders, though, would give them a much more defined physique, which I think would play well against the other races. As it stands, they still seem thin.

Anyone happen to remember Zyzz, the bodybuilder? That's the kind of body-type I could see working for a new race. Nothing "big" like the Roegadyn, but physically more powerful-looking.

[Velhart]

Don't we have a benchmark coming out next month that has the character creator for Au Ra? SE already said you can make dramatic alterations to the model beyond what they have shown off. So I would see what the character creator offers before making complaints.

[Terin]

Don't we have a benchmark coming out next month that has the character creator for Au Ra? SE already said you can make dramatic alterations to the model beyond what they have shown off. So I would see what the character creator offers before making complaints.

Oh, I didn't know it was going to be that soon! Not that it does much good to offer any constructive criticism at that point, since it would be even less likely to get picked up, but if nothing else, I'm eager to see what sort of options they'll have. Hopefully, they include a decent collection of Artifact Sets to preview, as that can definitely make a big difference, as well.

[Reinhart]

I believe in one of the many interviews lately, it was mentioned that they were aiming for the April 25/26 weekend to release the 3.0 benchmark, a week after the Live Letter with the extended Heavensward trailer held in a movie theatre.

[Terin]

Ah, well that's not so far off, then! I know they mentioned the benchmark probably wouldn't have ALL of their options options in place, but it should hopefully give us a good bearing on how they're going to look. Hopefully they look more masculine, closer to that "Mesomorph" body-type that I posted earlier.