Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Kedrah]

Yoshi-P himself said it was based off Japan though, and there's the fact that they use Japanese motifs and words.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Yoshi-P himself said it was based off Japan though, and there's the fact that they use Japanese motifs and words.

I thought he concerned it WASNT based off Japan? Either Way its still rough high altitude terrain.

[Samcaesar]

Snip .

The Raen have been stated to have heavy association with Doma (See naming traditions), but most Domans don't look like Elezen-esque men and Midlander-esque women.

It's not very possible to have that sort of split, and it definitely doesn't occur in nomadic societies. If your society is going to need warriors, there's no good reason to cut off (And this assumes that Au Ra follow 1:1 sex ratios like every race besides Miqo'te) half of the population when it would build weakness. The second an Xaela tribe goes "Hm.. why not make it so our men are a bit faster in builds so they can outspeed the other men" or "Why not focus our women on more strength builds so that they can overpower other tribes' women?" they might have a pretty solid advantage. It's why such sexually dimorphic builds within the same race of humanoid creatures doesn't happen, especially not in a nomadic culture, intelligence and strategy doesn't allow it.

This hypothetical fight seems fun, so I want to explain further in it, as I feel you all are really overestimating speed and underestimating strength! The lalafell has to divert it's attention to two seperate fronts, dodging and still attempting to attack, all the Roegadyn has to do is defend itself and occasionally swipe in the direction of the Lalafell to keep them moving. Moving the entire body to dodge attacks takes a lot of energy, no matter how small and light they are, moving their entire bodies will take so much energy. Eventually our Lalafell rogue will exhaust themselves and become sluggish and that's when the Roegadyn simply takes a quick cleave and the fight will be over. Unless our Lalafell rogue is built to be the point where they could push back a full sized Roegadyn, they're not going to win, and a Lalafell with that sort of body shape isn't going to be lithe or even have that much of an endurance shaped build!

[Cilia]

Yoshi-P himself said it was based off Japan though, and there's the fact that they use Japanese motifs and words.

Only the Raen, and that's because they're part of Doman (the Japan analogue) society. We know literally nothing about Xaela societies, other than that they're nomadic, warring tribes that inhabit Othard's western steppe. Popular belief is that this means they're the Mongolian analogue, but we don't know that.

Hiss!

On Foodstuffs
-The plains American Indians aren't a good comparison to Xaela. They inhabited, y'know, plains, not steppes. Steppes have far fewer game animals, so the people who inhabit the region have to maximize the efficiency of what they have. Excessive musculature uses a lot of energy... we've been over this before.

The Xaela probably don't have large game animals like bison to provide plentiful meat. Small antelope is the best we're lookin' at, going by real-world examples. The available diet has a great impact on physique, and without frequent sources of calorie-rich foods they'd have a smaller and slimmer physique with more efficient musculature.

(So the real question isn't why are Auri females so tiny compared to the males, but why are the males so massive compared to the females? Seems like the same question, but it's not.)

1. Maybe insects aren't the best example, but let's look at a human example then: Bruce Lee. 5'7" and some change, between 135 and 160 lb, still renowned to this day for being one of the strongest people to ever live. It's not about muscle size, it's about efficiency; for all we know Auri women simply have much more efficient muscles than the men. Considering the size gap, without anything stating the women shy away from physical combat roles I'm inclined to believe this.

Can't say anything about the lack of muscle definition, but even the males aren't particularly cut. They certainly appear stronger thanks to their greater height and proportionally larger muscles, but we've been over muscle size before.

2. We don't know if Au Ra and Hyur are capable of interbreeding. They might be unable to produce viable offspring, so Raen genes would be unaffected by interbreeding with Hyur, leaving them with the physique of their Xaela ancestors. Urban life doesn't exactly favor particular traits, and without a significant amount of time (think hundreds if not thousands of years) for evolution to differentiate the tribes, there would be only cosmetic differences (horn / scale colors, a greater incidence of limbal rings among the Xaela, etc).

3. Nothing much to argue against. Original point is they can't change the design of Xaela females in the future because then they'd have to give everyone another free Fantasia. Yes you pay for the VR one through sub fees, so it's not free free, but you get the point.

4. I can understand that sentiment, not wanting to use a Fantasia to race change. I debated doing so with my VR one, but in the end decided just to tweak my current appearance. I didn't consider doing so to change to an Au Ra until I realized how much damn time I'd have to spend getting my crafting / gathering professions up again.

Still, you're not helping the case for sturdier females by playing a Miqo'te.

I won't just tell you what you want to hear, that "I understand and that's cool ". If you're not helping, you're part of the problem.

In regards to moeblobs and bishoujo stagnating the game just like the anime industry... it's a possibility. Definite possibility. If people stop playing because of the character designs, and nobody uses the moeblob / bishoujo designs, they'll change things up. 'till then, though, they'll do what's known to sell. It's a pretty shortsighted way to think, definitely, but it's not up to me to try and tell SE how to do their business.

(Personally, I'm too invested in the story to let moeblob race designs stop me from playing. But that's just me.)

It's too early to make a judgment call on that issue, though. For all we know they won't introduce more races, or the new ones will have fit females and doughy males. There are infinite possibilities, so being up in arms over female Au Ra and stating they suggest all future female designs are going to be moeblobs is... I dunno, I don't wanna say silly. Presumptuous? I think that works.

Wait and see what the future brings. If a 7th race has intentionally moé females without similarly built males, OK. 'till then, cool your jets a little.

Alka Zolka's intelligence is part of what makes him valuable, if he just focused on physical training he'd be just another meatheaded Marauder! Papashan might be older and past his prime but there's nothing saying he can't go toe to toe with larger foes!

Roegadyn being able to best Lalafell in a contest of sheer physical power is undeniable, but it takes more than brute strength to win a fight.

P.S.

You did not get the Au Ra naming conventions out before the end of the month, so I shall not send you a pizza, XIV devs. However, if you are quick enough I may send you my leftover Costco pizza from tonight. I will probably have it for lunch tomorrow though, so chop chop!

[WyrahFhurrst]

I don't think the Raen are really an offshoot race of the Xaela. Their lore simply states that they were also nomadic once and then decided to become sedentary. To assume that means their an offshoot seems like a jump. If their origin myth is the only bit of their history we have to go on, then neither one is the "original" and one just decided to become agricultural and the other kept on being hunter-gatherers.

[Cilia]

It's not very possible to have that sort of split, and it definitely doesn't occur in nomadic societies. If your society is going to need warriors, there's no good reason to cut off (And this assumes that Au Ra follow 1:1 sex ratios like every race besides Miqo'te) half of the population when it would build weakness. The second an Xaela tribe goes "Hm.. why not make it so our men are a bit faster in builds so they can outspeed the other men" or "Why not focus our women on more strength builds so that they can overpower other tribes' women?" they might have a pretty solid advantage. It's why such sexually dimorphic builds within the same race of humanoid creatures doesn't happen, especially not in a nomadic culture, intelligence and strategy doesn't allow it.

This suggests Xaela tribes engage in eugenics a la the ancient Spartans. Probably does not happen; the fittest survive naturally, not by selective breeding, as they're warring nomads. I've explained the advantages of a slimmer build (chiefly that it consumes less energy and thus requires less food), but we don't know why there's the gross difference in body mass between Auri sexes.

This hypothetical fight seems fun, so I want to explain further in it, as I feel you all are really overestimating speed and underestimating strength! The lalafell has to divert it's attention to two seperate fronts, dodging and still attempting to attack, all the Roegadyn has to do is defend itself and occasionally swipe in the direction of the Lalafell to keep them moving. Moving the entire body to dodge attacks takes a lot of energy, no matter how small and light they are, moving their entire bodies will take so much energy. Eventually our Lalafell rogue will exhaust themselves and become sluggish and that's when the Roegadyn simply takes a quick cleave and the fight will be over. Unless our Lalafell rogue is built to be the point where they could push back a full sized Roegadyn, they're not going to win, and a Lalafell with that sort of body shape isn't going to be lithe or even have that much of an endurance shaped build!

Relying on speed in combat would, actually, produce the opposite result of what you're suggesting. The greater size of a Roegadyn would mean they'd tire much quicker on the offensive due to needing to move their much greater body mass. A Lalafell has a much more efficient muscular system, so wouldn't tire as quickly and wouldn't need as much energy to maintain their movement. Defensive combat is also more than dodging (ever heard of parries and ripostes?). All the Lalafell rogue has to do is wait for an opening and counter. Minimize movement to conserve energy. The Roegadyn marauder, meanwhile, will be burning a colossal amount of energy moving their body mass.

Of course, this is assuming the Lalafell rogue is skilled enough to reliably dodge and smart enough to minimize their movement. It could go either way, really.

Play a Souls game and you'll quickly realize brute force is not often the answer to winning a fight. Play Bloodborne, and you'll quickly learn how finesse can trump even overwhelming power. (I killed a six-armed winged monstrosity equipped with six scythes, shadow magic, and the ability to create a doppelganger of itself... with nothing but an ax / halberd and a shoddy pistol.)

If you want an anime example... Super Trunks 2 vs. Perfect Cell. While Trunks had the advantage in terms of brute force, he couldn't move fast enough to hit his enemy, and tired himself out very quickly moving his increased body mass. Landing a blow might have seriously hurt Cell, but he was too fast thanks to his opponent's sluggish movement. It's not dissimilar to the proposed duel.

[Mahri]

Anime logic applies 100% because this is Final Fantasy.

Whatever the naming rules are based on, I'm rather blatantly going for a Quechua-culture, screw it, just general Amerindian look to my own character, who also happens to be a kung fu master that's also a stoner and a drunk with zero sense of direction, and also this is Eorzea where we have ambiguously Asian catgirls with African-sounding names and big Germanivikingwelsh grey guys plus other big guys but with bear noses and Indian-sounding names plus tiny potato desert people and French elves and then some regular humans.

I'm not sure what the point that I was trying to make here was.

edit: the Souls games rule, but I haven't played Bloodborne yet because PS4s are expensive.

edit edit: Holy crap, I just realized that the reason for the lalafell body shape? Is water retention for long desert hikes!

::mystery solved::

[Kaiser-Ace]

This suggests Xaela tribes engage in eugenics a la the ancient Spartans. Probably does not happen; the fittest survive naturally, not by selective breeding, as they're warring nomads. I've explained the advantages of a slimmer build (chiefly that it consumes less energy and thus requires less food), but we don't know why there's the gross difference in body mass between Auri sexes.

Cilia, you seem to have a grasp on the functions of muslemass, since I was grasping as straws with my theory on Xaela development and mostly pulling it out of my arse, how close was I to how that would actually work biology wise?

[Samcaesar]

Anime and Games~

Survival of the fittest is key. What the Auri girls are is hardly fit, they look like they belong within suburbs, not on the battlefield or anywhere near it. The Auri men fall perfectly align with "slimmer builds" with exception of their height, Auri girls do not in the least however.

If the Roegadyn actually trained and ate properly, swinging their axe time and time again won't tire them out. Keep in mind, people fought in suits of metal armor or armor in general, you don't see people shying away from that because it adds weight to their movements. Dodging is all a Lalafell could do, parrying requires directing the attack's flow to another direction via contact (It's why shields curve!). If the problem is "It only takes one hit" the Lalafell can't risk that possibility and can only dodge, and full body dodging is far more taxing than swinging an axe would be. The key here is balance which the Roegadyn would have a much job easier achieving better speed with their attacks (Repeated exercises leads to more endurance) than a Lalafell would at achieving better strength (A small body like that can only get so powerful)

Play a Souls game and realize that there's a reason why heavy strength builds are dominate in PvP (especially looking at DS1 and the Giantsdad issue), or why you can't parry every attack (Despite what fighting Gwyn would let you know, you can't parry a massive sword like that). And yet the most effective weapon for PvE (And PvP) was the stake rifle til it was nerfed, still, Ludwig's Holy Blade is a wonderful weapon to use in PvE and PvP. Souls games, despite the relatively nice combat mechanics, aren't exactly realistic considering your stamina bar is regains quite easily.

Mmn, using DBZ isn't a very good example for your case. With better strength in that series, comes better speed. It's been ages since I've actually watched or read Dragon Ball, but as a counter example, think of the Ginyu force, Burter being touted as being the "fastest being in the universe", yet was crushed simply because Goku was stronger. Power level is a compound of a lot of things, primarily raw strength though. No matter how fast you are, if all you do is mosquito bites, you're not going to be a threat.

Roar!

- "Plains" is just a generic term, the American Midwest is very much so a "Cold Steppe" as the area the Mongol empire began in is also a "Cold Steppe". Mongolians herded animals such as sheep and goats, looking up on their diet suggests that they could've ate just as well as the Native Americans of the plains did, with animal fat, milk, meats, and bones along with various vegetation as they found it, providing plenty nutrition (Though it was apparently incredibly bland due to lack of spices!).

It's only natural for a nomadic group to move with those herd animals, Mongolians followed and herded goats and sheep. Animal fat provides plenty enough for proper caloric intact. The Au Ra don't look malnourished as well, in fact the girls have fat in all the right places depending on who you'd ask. Men look fit enough and girl's obviously have enough fat on their faces to provide that cute young look.

(Shame SE doesn't just take the Au Ra and smash their two heights together! I'd be perfectly content with having the Auri height range be 5'8 to 6'4! It'd be the best of both world if they kept the faces even!)
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1. Bruce Lee is without a doubt muscular. ( Just doing a link here because the picture is pretty big and I don't know how to hide things on this forum!) http://iambruceleemovie.com/wp-conte...4/brucelee.jpg That's not really the body that the Auri girls have, maybe more like the men do, but definitely not the women. The women would have to be completely /removed/ from combat roles for that body to make sense, even the strongest of mages wants to at least handle themselves in a physical fight for some while as an efficient armed force can't have those weak links. Nomadic cultures don't work in a way that would allow women to remove themselves entirely from combat.

( Just doing a link here because the picture is pretty big and I don't know how to hide things on this forum!) http://i.imgur.com/1JOCz4k.png No matter how compact muscles can get, this is not the body of something with even efficient muscles, and it's not the body of something that would survive in a nomadic environment.
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2. The races of man, the currently playable races, are generally capable of interbreeding, it's why you can see Roegadyn dads talking to their obviously Hyur children. I'd wager it only takes a few hundred years to grow traits that look distinct enough, look at what we've done to dogs for example in terms of breeding traits we want, heck I've got a dog with vastly longer legs whenever his breed is normally much shorter.
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3. They ought to though, more options means more players, if someone dislikes the changes to Xaela and they changed to Xaela in the first place, they'll change again. And I paid for a monthly fee to play the game, the VR is a bonus for continuing this.
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4 Oh gosh I feel you, having a few alts and going through the MSQ again isn't them most fun, as much as I do enjoy the story. It's like a constant balance of wanting to rewatch the cutscenes, but that want waning with it being the second, third, fourth, et cetera time watching it.

I wouldn't be helping the case by changing to Roegadyn, I'm just an individual after all. I could be playing Miqo'te because I don't like the options of "big mean looking human" and "bigger, flat faced human", perhaps the addition of "Big, dragon girl" would mean I'd be changing, but that's not the new race. Besides, the fault ultimately is on SE, it's their game and their responsibility to all players. We all engage in things we'd object to normally, morally or personal taste wise, all the time. Just as a word of warning, never look into what corporations you buy from and what morally awful things they've done, with that sort of mentality you'd probably want to throw out most things you own.

I like a world that makes sense, the massive sexual dimorphism in the Auri doesn't quite make sense for a humanoid race. I'll still enjoy the story, but I'll be having issues enjoying some parts of it.

Chances are, considering fantasia and how much people are at least talking about the new race, they're going to add a new race. Considering their reasoning is, and this is a reasoning people have been claiming is reasonable, "Most of the player base goes with the "moe" girls, so we made the new race just as "moe" " I hardly see them changing their minds in the future as the playerbase continues to be dominated with "moe" girl races. It's a just warning/complaint of people being so apologetic towards that reasoning.


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Of course not, but you can't deny that brute strength is incredibly effective. Overall strategy + strength is best, it's why we've got tanks and those tanks have commanders to tell them what to do in war! Speed is nice, but if all you're doing is mosquito bites against metal armor then you're going to lose.

So sad about the lack of names conventions ; ; Really hungry for my Xaela lore.

Fantasy and weird names.

Oh but the best Anime (And fantasy) follow some semblance realistic rules! It's why fantasy can be so fun!

Mmn, probably going with an Eastern Slavic name for mine, but I still would love naming conventions soon so I could decide.

So many words x.x

[Chiramu]

On Foodstuffs
-The plains American Indians aren't a good comparison to Xaela. They inhabited, y'know, plains, not steppes. Steppes have far fewer game animals, so the people who inhabit the region have to maximize the efficiency of what they have. Excessive musculature uses a lot of energy... we've been over this before.
The Xaela probably don't have large game animals like bison to provide plentiful meat.

The Xaela I imagine are closer to the Nomadic lifestyle of the Mongolian people. Which is so perfect for my Au Ra WHM ^^, but they would have trading/alliances/warring with other Xaela tribes.
Being an Asian game, the Mongolians would probably be a good look to for some Xaela role play .