Quote Originally Posted by Cilia View Post
Snip
Back to the fun~!

On the notion of energy expenditure and consuming food, considering that the PCs carry a buffet on them at all times and there's probably some sort of high calorie food that NPCs have (Like an MRE or those energy jelly packets that cyclists use on the road!), it's not too much of an issue I'd assume!

Gonna keep using numbers

1- No it doesn't, but muscular density and size plays a very important role in strength, after all, Raubahn isn't a toothpick is he? Cyclist come in very diverse body shapes as well, a mountain biker has a very different body shape than an on road cyclists, but still in either case, neither are that slim though, especially not to the size Au Ra women are. It's still not like a muscular person will always exhaust easily too, they just need a more stable caloric intake. It's not a question of "Why aren't the Xaela miniature demonic/draconic hulks" and more "Why don't the girls show any signs of muscle whatsoever?"

2- We don'tbut we can speculate, just as the Ishgardians resemble the Holy Roman Empire in a lot of ways, Xaela culture most likely has some basis in our world as well. Fantasy borrows elements from reality to make a more reasonable realm after all. And there is evidence of Native American women participating in war parties and actively participating in hunts. Again, endurance body shapes don't fit the girl Au Ra's body shape in the least. As someone else in the thread noted as well, farmers certainly aren't petite in the least, neither are hunter/gatherers.

The Raen lore tidbit we've got does state that they "long abandoned the nomadic lifestyle", which I doubt means recently, otherwise they wouldn't have made note of that.

3- It's not like they haven't done it before. Didn't they give out a Fantasia during the 1.0 -> 2.0 transition or for the first veteran bonus? Plus, I'd wager most people going Au Ra will be those who are already playing the game through use of Fantasia, they'd most likely just buy another one to change back to Miqo'te or Raen instead. Heck, chances are, SE made this race so that people would use a fantasia (After all, it's a race made to appeal to those who like the Miqo'te and Midlander), I doubt they're above just getting players to spend another fantasia to go again.

4- Junko was a genocidal maniac, not someone you want to take your views on the world from :P Plus, people have sway over their circumstances (Situatedness applied), and while I don't subscribe to "Great Man" theories of history, I will say some individuals did appeal and influence to the masses much more, but I digress.

We're not quite sure on why people don't play girl Highlander and Roegadyn, it could be that people actually don't have a more larger and tougher design that appeals to them. Nor to we really know the exact reasons on why they make the Au Ra girls "moe". Further, using "No one plays Highlander or Roegadyn" isn't much of a reason, as the male Au Ra resemble Elezen, another race with low PC population, except that they're taller and more muscular than the Elezen, so why is that the case? As a bunch of people have pointed out though, the Au Ra girls hardly look different than Miqo'te and Midlander, if anything it's just giving those people who prefer those body types another thing to fantasia too, as opposed to giving someone who wants a larger race, but isn't satisfied with current options, an option to choose. Plus, like you said, we don't actually know if SE would uphold their word on a statement like that, for all we know SE decided from the get go girl Au Ra will be "moe" guy Au Ra will be larger and more menacing.

That said, when does the addition of that body type stop? After the 2nd race waifish "moe" girls? The 3rd? Eventually you're going to experience an over-saturation of waifish "moe" girl options without addressing the actual problem of there only being 2 "larger tougher" looking options for girls. If we were to divide them into body shapes, you've got 3 that are "waifish and moe", Lalafell, Miqo'te, and Midlander, 2 that are "larger and tougher", Roegadyn (though the women Roes aren't nearly as large as the men are, just not as massive of a difference as the Au Ra have) and Highlander, and 1 race that is "Tall and lithe", the Elezen.


Alka Zolka is a huge nerd who probably gets his lunch money stolen by other Marauders and Papashan is a grandpa, hardly great warriors in battle!