Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Kedrah]

It's kind of funny to me that because the female Au Ra are small and beautiful, people think they aren't badass.
How do you know they can't kick some butt and look good doing it? :P Maybe they even wear the pants in their culture despite the burly men!

[Mahri]

The one Au Ra we already know about in the story is the pack leader of a ninja gang who's put it all on the line to help an entire population of desperate refugees, and casually chums around with Eorzea's most dubious characters (us).

If you aren't convinced that lizardgirls can't be iron-hard badasses yet, I don't even know what to tell ya.

[Samcaesar]

It's not that they can't be badass, it's more that when you design a character with "moe girl" as the base the result won't ever be that far from "moe girl", and I find that a little frustrating. Ultimately I really wish they used a more Highlander esque hyur approach when making the Xaela, because it doesn't make much sense to be afraid of something basically 5'2 max whenever you're over 6' on the battlefield and the second you see their face it's like a "young maiden in love" sorta appearance, it's not something that says "warring nomads", you feel me?

[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

[Grayve]

It's not that they can't be badass, it's more that when you design a character with "moe girl" as the base the result won't ever be that far from "moe girl", and I find that a little frustrating. Ultimately I really wish they used a more Highlander esque hyur approach when making the Xaela.

Never said they can't be badass, just stated that they don't look it. Personality is great and I love it, but the pictures do not convey a badass personality. They convey a delicate looking female. I was just disappointed because I was looking forward to playing an intimidating yet attractive soldier. So, I'll stick with highlander. Just my first dnd toon way back when was half dragon, so I had high hopes.

[Balipu]

Your design kinda makes me reconsider that hairstyle even though i didnt originally like it. Maybe it's just cause I went with face 4 cause it fits the kinda dark/evil look I was going for XD

But this hair works best with limbal rings. Imagine a huge glowing ring shining through the hair

[Samcaesar]

Never said they can't be badass, just stated that they don't look it. Personality is great and I love it, but the pictures do not convey a badass personality. They convey a delicate looking female. I was just disappointed because I was looking forward to playing an intimidating yet attractive soldier. So, I'll stick with highlander. Just my first dnd toon way back when was half dragon, so I had high hopes.

Agreed completely. I just wish the Xaela took that approach while the Raen took the delicate look, it makes more sense that way, but I suppose time restraints prevented them from doing something like that (At least I hope >.>). I might be able to crank something out that looks a little less delicate and more warrior-like looking, but it'll always be looming over my head, especially when trying to roleplay that sort of character around others who's first ideas of your character will be "petite green-skin scaled girl"

[zuzu-bq]

Hello world! (First forum post after months stalking);

I'm really anxious to change into Au Ra soon and I'm following this thread since it have been created.

I agree you can make the female au ri look agressive even tough they were designed to be cute/moe. But hey, if you couldn't, what fun that would be to have no variety?

I may post my Au Ri designs later if you guys want to see more.

[Hysterior]

female au'ra is the new miqote it seems