Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Foodstuffs one first!
- As I've stated before though, nomadic diets are plenty fine enough to allow for normal growth, Plains Native Americans having roughly the same heights in most cases, in others an inch or so less under average. Keep in mind, most nomadic people migrate with food or to find more food, and when they've got food, they don't waste a bit of that food. The U Tribe isn't much of a good example, they live in one position (An oasis curiously enough) in a desert, and recently have become somewhat of a trading hub, hardly nomadic and they would have access to food such as rolanberry cheesecake, it's probably their choose not to do either of those. Honestly, considering the size of Sandworms, the nutritional value of insects/grubs/worms, and how many of them there are, they seem to be a perfect choice for a great supplement for nutrition.

Animal fat is fairly plentiful in calories, plentiful enough to sustain several nomadic groups in their growth, why would the Xaela be different? Whenever you are spending your time hunting, gathering, and warring, you're going to get muscular, not to a hulked out body builder look, but they're going to be muscular. You can't stop the body from developing muscles, if the case is "Shoot, I'm not eating enough to substance my tribe's growth, guess we've got to go to war again!" then we've likely got our practical reason on why the Xaela fight so much. Even endurance body builds aren't lithe. Plus, we see plenty Miqo'te who aren't archers (In fact I think a good bit of the ones in the Forgotten springs are Lancers), really the only reason why Miqo'te aren't as muscular as ought to be are is they all have to use the lithe model.

Muscular efficiency
1- Ants aren't really a good example, being insects and any muscular growth is held back by the exoskeleton, but while smaller animals do tend to dense up their muscles better, generally you don't see that with human-ish figures. Look at people who do construction I'm not really sure if you could find someone without a muscular build in that field unless if they spent all day operating machinery. The body naturally builds muscles the more they're used, and as long as proper nutrition is supplied, there wouldn't be inefficient muscular growth, only muscular growth.

2- They're still fairly muscular, nothing ~bulging~. Heck, the Auri men look very much so "Endurance" build, the Auri women though look like they've got the metabolism of a tween and the body to match.

It's still strange that they mention it if it wasn't that long ago. Chances are, within a few centuries Raen would have slimmed down a good bit due to having kids with Domans and integrating into their society well enough.

3- You're paying for the subscription, the fantasia is a nice bonus, a "thanks for playing!" deal, it's basically free as the veteran reward could have been other things.

Most people seem to be designing their Auri ladies with two things in mind though, "Cute" or "Succubi". I think they are more interesting looking as well, but their body shape just makes me nearly loose interest in them completely. I wouldn't even call the dudes that musclebound, maybe a bit more wider than Elezen though, but they do look vastly more fit than the Auri girls do.

4- On the contrary, a company ought to listen to fans, all fans, least they result in "trimming fat" models which aren't sustainable long term. Likewise, I support the want for a more taller and muscular look for Auri woman by voicing the need for it (Despite my lack of Roe/Highlander avatar, a Miqo'te was my first race and I dislike the usage of fantasia). SE ought to do that because chances are "Flat faces purple skinned humans" and "regular humans but buffer" don't appeal to their tastes, yet a "draconic muscular human" might. Why would SE make another cute and "moe" woman in the game, whenever they're already people who are plenty content with choosing Midlander, Lalafell, or Miqo'te?

Chances are, you're not wrong with that, but I would wish SE would add some more diverse options when it comes to this. Whenever the choice is between "Lithe cute girl with horns" or "Lithe cute girl" or "lithe cute girl with cat ears" with hardly any difference between the three, then you're hardly giving the playerbase what it deserves. It's why SE ought to do a Highlander/Midlander split (Or at least make Xaela girls taller than 5'2 and Raen men under ~6'8) with the Au Ra, because it's best for everyone.

That's such a horrid excuse though, like I asked, when does it stop? When we've got 3 new races with the girls waifish and cute? 4 new ones? I mean, if that's what the fans want then that's what will happen. But SE ought not to rely strickly on what people want or else they just appeal to a niche. And like I said, it still doesn't answer why the Auri men are more inline to a gap between Roegadyn and Elezen, when they should be just as small as the girls are, using that logic.

Art ought not to be simply to please a target audience, or else you get the same old things, fans will eventually loose interest without pulling in new people looking for something else. You keep the base, but evolve past it. Even then, allowing myself to digress a bit, that sort of "appealing to one specific niche and only focusing on that because it gives you the most money" is kind of what lead to the "moeblob" and issues with little girls the anime industry is only focusing on. SE ought to be wary of that sort of logic, least our next race's addition isn't much different than the Elin from TERA.

Still a ~huge nerd~ Alka better spend less time in the books and more time swinging his axe! Papashan is past his prime! Maybe some new Lalafell could put up a bit of a fight, but with an equally trained Lalafell vs an equally trained Roegadyn, the Roegadyn is gonna with in battles of strength!