Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Mahri]

Starting your game in a schoolgirl skirt and doing a little tuck-pounce when you jump doesn't entirely jive with being from a savage clan of hunter-gatherers, either. But what does check out? A friend of yours in the Rogue quests. An enemy of yours in the Archer quests. And the one dame who hangs out in North Shroud, you know the one.

Yes, it would've been better to give Au Ra ladies a more sturdy option, but if you look at the variety of appearances you can go with for them and are only seeing the pretty-princessness to the absolute exclusion of all other personality, then, well...again, I dunno what to tell ya. Except maybe "sorry."

I guess what I'm getting at here is, this game's writing and atmosphere is pretty damn good at conveying personality and diversity in the races that go far, far beyond their basic character-creation aesthetic, which is a huge inspiration to those who like to give our own characters equally distinct flavor.

Hell, if they can show us Lalafell that are convincingly fierce, strong-willed, and exceedingly not-to-be-trifled-with, as they absolutely have, all first-impression bets are off.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Shrugs, just my personal complaints, plus I have a hard time taking any gal Miqo'te in game too seriously as a "warrior", except for the one who considers herself an Amalj'aa and that one, meow I'm a little bit scared of her! On the battlefield between two tribes, who I doubt have a large enough population to segregate girls and boys from warfare, a 5'2 warrior isn't going to far well at all against someone two feet taller, and I think that's just a little silly!

It's kind of hard to separate the pretty-princessness from them whenever their in game model is a super waifish and not super tough excluding a lot of small touches one can add. I mean let's be honest, when you see a Lalafell or Miqo'te your first instinct isn't going to be "Oh I better watch out!" (More like "watch how far I can punt it" in the Lalafell case!) no matter how many ruthless capitalists or savage huntresses you encounter.

It's just a little immersion breaking and I just wish SE would've done a few small things to help make Xaela girls feel as much "warring nomads" as their guy counterparts do. Shrugs x2

[Cilia]

It's kind of hard to separate the pretty-princessness from them whenever their in game model is a super waifish and not super tough excluding a lot of small touches one can add. I mean let's be honest, when you see a Lalafell or Miqo'te your first instinct isn't going to be "Oh I better watch out!" (More like "watch how far I can punt it" in the Lalafell case!) no matter how many ruthless capitalists or savage huntresses you encounter.

I think a lot of people agree about this; Auri women are ultra-petite, while men are ruggedly built. Even though I've really taken to them (I really do prefer to play fantasy games as fantasy races, and none of the 1.x ones really worked for me), even I wish the women were just a little taller and more built to match the males' stature. There's at least a 1'6" difference between the men and women (at least!), and the males look like they have twice as much body mass as the women, if not more.

Not saying I want them buff like female Roegadyn, but it would be nice to have a frame that says "I'm a female Auri adventurer who can do something besides sling spells!"

Not gonna stop me from Dark Knighting it up as an Auri woman, but y'know...

There are "rugged" female body types in the game (female Highlanders and Roegadyn), but people aren't playing them very much; why work so hard on something people aren't going to use?

It is possible to make a mature, (sort of) realistically beautiful Auri woman. You can make them sort of aggressive-looking (even if that requires Face 4 and Eyes 3).

So while I do wish Auri women had a body shape other than ultra-petite, and that it were easier to stamp out the moé factor, I'm pretty happy with and understand why we got what we got.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

It shows dedication to the fans and the world they've created really, it's that small sorta stuff. I mean, why make content that hard if most people, ie casual audience, won't be able to do it? I kinda wish that they just did a Highlander/Midlander split for them, it makes more sense lore wise and would've been best for most people in the situation. Like the biggest issue is when I have my Au Ra, who I've attempted to make as tough as possible in this situation, it'll be so similar to any other person who tries to use in game resources to make a tough looking Auri girl.

I mean, personal tastes aside, it really just makes the most sense for a tribal, warring, nomadic groups to not have such petite girls, which is mainly why I'm just a bit frustrated with the Xaela girls >.>

I get why they did it.. I just wish it wasn't the case!

[WyrahFhurrst]

I mean, personal tastes aside, it really just makes the most sense for a tribal, warring, nomadic groups to not have such petite girls, which is mainly why I'm just a bit frustrated with the Xaela girls >.>

I get why they did it.. I just wish it wasn't the case!

Unless those girls are also the ninjas and being petite helps in stealth during assassinations. I'd have a hard time taking a male Au Ra seriously as a ninja in the same way I doubt many take male Roegadyn seriously in the same position.

[jomoru]

Unless those girls are also the ninjas and being petite helps in stealth during assassinations. I'd have a hard time taking a male Au Ra seriously as a ninja in the same way I doubt many take male Roegadyn seriously in the same position.

What about Elezen of either sex, highlanders and Roe Females?

[Samcaesar]

Unless those girls are also the ninjas and being petite helps in stealth during assassinations. I'd have a hard time taking a male Au Ra seriously as a ninja in the same way I doubt many take male Roegadyn seriously in the same position.

See, and that's my issue, it'd make sense for the Raen, being connected to Doma and all, to have petite bodies, why the guy Raen aren't also small and petite is bizarre to me in that case. With warring nomads like the Xaela, I doubt they'd have time for learning precise assassination techniques, and instead probably going at it raw and hard with stuff like Warrior or Monk.