Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Cilia]

Do any of you recall if at any point they said the Au Ra will be available during early access or not?
I really can't remember if they did or not.

I don't think they've given specifics, but I'm assuming all the Heavensward content (including Au Ra) will be available during early access. That's just an assumption, though.

That is very nice! My friend is trying to do the same, though to the farthest degree. She's actually quite livid over the choices of mostly typical beauty, though there's also years of pent up inner sighing at an industry that's full of typical beauties.

Kind of off topic, but I can completely understand that frustration, because I spent a lot of time playing with the character creator (and my veteran reward Fantasia) to get get my avatar looking like she does. Miqo'te, Lalafell, and female Midlanders were too cutesy or overtly beautiful / sexy for my aim, female Roegadyn too buff, and female Elezen are just kind of noodly and weird if you ask me. So I tinkered with female Highlanders until I got a relatively realistically beautiful avatar who still looks like she can kick your ass. I can probably get the same results with an Au Ra, though I'll need to wait until June to try and do so (no PS4 benchmark makes me a saaaaaaaaad panda....).

Even more off topic, it's helped me to understand why women don't like being hit on.

[KaijinRhada]

Snip.

It's a bit of a challenge in this game (well, many games) to do just that, but as you have shown it is possible to pull it off. My friend and I often discuss that female Au Ra are a missed opportunity for a savage beauty, but I understand that's not what they were aiming for. Perhaps another time for such a chance. It's perhaps easier to show stronger features with males, even with male miqo'te (and my favourite face), I would hope to see more variety in female characters in the future.

And yes, unsolicited attention isn't nice.

[MaethusXion]

I'm kinda irked, though... the ONLY horns they have shown for the guys are the front-facing ones, which are really impractical in battle. Not only are they right there at your face, they block part of your lower peripheral from some things on the ground, and even if they do act as sort of guards for strikes coming low-to-high, have you ever gotten hit in the ear with anything? That hurts on multiple different levels. I hope the male Auri are able to have the rear-facing horns like they show most of the females having...

[Viridiana]

I hope the male Auri are able to have the rear-facing horns like they show most of the females having...

4:58 mark of the benchmark video seems to show a male Au Ra in the foreground with rear-facing horns.

[MaethusXion]

4:58 mark of the benchmark video seems to show a male Au Ra in the foreground with rear-facing horns.

A thanks. Didn't catch that with so much activity in the video

[Omegakiyohime]

A thanks. Didn't catch that with so much activity in the video

I posted a picture earlier. There are a lot of hidden gems in the benchmark if you have your finger on the pause button. 2 new Beast tribes seem to be there as well.

Seems Male Au Ra can also have backward facing horns. Will update with a benchmark pic in a bit.

[MaethusXion]

I posted a picture earlier. There are a lot of hidden gems in the benchmark if you have your finger on the pause button. 2 new Beast tribes seem to be there as well.

Must've missed it when you posted the pic... plus black circle on a dark background doesn't help much when so much that isn't the flying routes is dark...

[Blueyes]

Regarding the horn and face connection, if you look at the earlier renders of Au Ra, there are different combinations of faces and horns (males on their own have two or three faces shown with one horn style). It's doubtful that they would make them exclusive to each other now, so I wouldn't worry about that.

I'm not so sure. It's important to note that there are options to add additional scales to the face as seen here and here which also appear to vary depending on the horn style. It can give the illusion of having a different face when in reality it's just the same with added scales. An example would be this image which has the same basic facial features as the male Au Ra shown above, but with added scales that overlap to create a different look.

[KaijinRhada]

I'm not so sure. It's important to note that there are options to add additional scales to the face as seen here and here which also appear to vary depending on the horn style. It can give the illusion of having a different face when in reality it's just the same with added scales. An example would be this image which has the same basic facial features as the male Au Ra shown above, but with added scales that overlap to create a different look.

That would be rather unfortunate. I would think, as compared to styles of tails that Miqo'te have, that horns would be in a similar position. Hoping that it would be the case, I wish I could read the text in the customization.

[LycorisSelunis]

Now that you mention tails I wonder what sort of customization the Au Ra will have? I can assume at least a length slider I hope. Since they mentioned succubus-like females I wonder if there will be a sort of spade pointed tail tip.

On the subject of multicolored irises again, my real eyes naturally change color (chameleon, it's called) based on my clothing and mood. There was a phase in highschool in which my eyes were tricolor- the inner being green the outer being blue bit with a sort of golden brown sunburst from the pupil overlapping. So multicolor eyes are possible IRL, though likely not in the same combinations we can create with the Au Ra.