Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Cilia]

Too much posts to respond to individually so I'll just go at it all at once.

Yes, I know there are already "cute" races and their emotes and such have no impact on their capability as adventurers. I suppose I just wanted more neutral body language than we were inevitably going to get, given the Au Ra women were designed to be "someone you want to protect." The petite build I can deal with, but the moé-flavored mannerisms I don't take so well.

Probably just spoiled myself by playing a female Highlander...

I'm not an RPer, so it's not about "my character's persona." I'm not even a woman IRL. I just prefer my characters to look like the sort of person you'd expect them to, and as the Warrior of Light I feel the PC should look like the one doing the protecting, not the one in need of protection.

Meh... whatever. Just look forward to this tough as nails woman protecting you while decked out in black plate mail and carrying a 5' sword.

[Sabeta]

Snip

She looks good. I kind of want to avoid that specific hairstyle though since I feel it's going to be on 90% of the Au'Ra.



I feel like I could make her better though, but I'm not sure how. I want her to look a little bit creepier, but my attempts so far have resulted in some rather ugly looking girls. This is the best I've managed so far.

[Nataruma]

Me likie!

My dude would be honored to be protected by that fine and healthy-looking young lady, as long as he doesn't have to chip any of his manicured nails. Bodyguard services are available, yes?

[Cilia]

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Not bad. If you're going for a creepier look, using an unnatural (as far as humans go) hair / skin color helps. Like purple skin with yellow eyes. Kinda weirds people out. I kept my design fairly tame (tanned skin for a Mediterranean look thanks to Xaela being tribal nomads, normal hair color, creepy eyes to give off a tough look), but it's really not that tough.

I'm only going with that hairstyle as a placeholder for what I end up using in-game. Depending on how Lightning's haircut and the ponytail look, I might end up using one of those instead... but they're not in the Benchmark, so, yeah.

My dude would be honored to be protected by that fine and healthy-looking young lady, as long as he doesn't have to chip any of his manicured nails. Bodyguard services are available, yes?

I just said I'm not an RPer... lol. If we end up in a dungeon together I will endeavor to play my part though. (Don't have a whole lot of tanking experience, but I never felt challenged in my rise to PLD 35.)

[Sabeta]

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My rules for designing her were 1) She must have either Blond/Red hair, and 2) Green Eyes. She's a healer first and foremost, so I wanted her to look reminiscent of all the notable NPC healers. (In other words, I want my dragonlady to look like a Padjal). I tried those color combos with some of the other skin colors, but they ended up taking her closer to diseased rather than creepy.

[Cilia]

My rules for designing her were 1) She must have either Blond/Red hair, and 2) Green Eyes. She's a healer first and foremost, so I wanted her to look reminiscent of all the notable NPC healers. (In other words, I want my dragonlady to look like a Padjal). I tried those color combos with some of the other skin colors, but they ended up taking her closer to diseased rather than creepy.

That's pretty restrictive, since it locks you into a lot of the more prominent options (Raen, Face 1, normal skin / hair / eye colors). The Xaela have a lot more "weird" skin tones, but the black horns / scales go against the intended Padjal look...

[Iromi]

She looks good. I kind of want to avoid that specific hairstyle though since I feel it's going to be on 90% of the Au'Ra.

That super popular hair style reminds me of"



I am ready for Kadaj to invade Eorzea! Haha

I like your hairstyle Sabeta, I am using the same

[lilirulu]

You know the phrase "Someone you want to protect" doesn't mean "They look weak". I want to protect my cat but I don't think she's weak or looks weak. Another example could be; Your significant other you want to protect them but may not think they are weak. Cutesy emotes ra

Though I talked to my friend who can speak Japanese about that and she translated the line as Yoshi-P basically saying he's "defending" the design of the female Au Ra in regards to the backlash they've been getting. Which to me makes more sense then the other translations of it because I don't really know how Yoshi-P could say the Au Ra could look any more defensible then other females/lalafells. Maybe the devs could come in and actually clarify it?

Also, if we are still posting our Au Ra:


Here's my bored-looking princess.

[Kytrin]

As Jackie Chan said in the New Karate Kid movie...Being still and doing nothing are two very different things. I like to think she'll smile calmly at you and let you underestimate her right up until the moment she guts you. Literally or figuratively. After all, wasn't it Kipling that said the female is more dangerous than the male?

http://novasunhawk.deviantart.com/ar...Gear-539685100

[Cilia]

You know the phrase "Someone you want to protect" doesn't mean "They look weak". I want to protect my cat but I don't think she's weak or looks weak. Another example could be; Your significant other you want to protect them but may not think they are weak. Cutesy emotes ra

Though I talked to my friend who can speak Japanese about that and she translated the line as Yoshi-P basically saying he's "defending" the design of the female Au Ra in regards to the backlash they've been getting. Which to me makes more sense then the other translations of it because I don't really know how Yoshi-P could say the Au Ra could look any more defensible then other females/lalafells. Maybe the devs could come in and actually clarify it?

Also, if we are still posting our Au Ra:

Here's my bored-looking princess.

Thing is, people want to protect the people and things close to them based on emotional attachment. Without emotional attachment, this protective instinct is still triggered by looks of youth and innocence; there's no other way to get it going at a glance, hence the difficulty of stamping out looks of youth and innocence in Auri women. They were designed to trigger that protective instinct - in other words, to be moé.

Now, I am totally fine with that because it's possible to overcome or downplay that element through clever use of the Character Creator. Face 2 is a slightly more mature look, Face 3 looks like a mature woman, etc. Their mannerisms and body language, on the other hand, have been shown to be nothing but cute and diminutive, which I personally don't feel suits the adventuring type. (Then again, the only current in-game Au Ra seriously spits in the face of the moé archetype...)

I'm not asking Yoshi-P or any of the devs to defend the design. I understand why it is the way it is. It's a major component of Auri racial identity; none of the other races have sexual dimorphism like they do. I just find it kind of silly to design a PC race as "someone you want to protect" when they are the ones that are supposed to do the protecting.

Then again, I suppose that's why SE pays Yoshi-P the big bucks, lol

She looks nice. I personally prefer shorter hairstyles because longer hair isn't combat practical, but that's just me. (And for people who continue riffing on me for using the popular "bang over eye" hairstyle, I may switch it out when the game goes live. Need to see how some hairstyles not in the Benchmark look first.)