So... Au Ra really don't "fit" into the story well, as playable characters

[Ashkendor]

it is many times hinted at you hail from lands unknown, and many NPC's will address you as a foreigner to any of the nations.

I seem to remember the opening cutscene for brand-new characters saying outright that you come from "a distant land".

As far as race changing, I just sort of tend to shrug and handwave that one. Race changing is a gameplay mechanic that exists for the convenience and happiness of players on a level outside that of the game's storyline. It's easier for me to assume that either 1) Fantasia has no real canon effects and exists only as such a mechanic or 2) if Fantasia IS canon, it adjusts how people see you in both the past and the present. I race changed from a female Miqo'te to a male Au Ra, which should be a jarring change for NPC's but of course they don't notice a thing. It seems like as far as they are concerned I was always eight feet tall and covered in scales rather than a five foot nothing catgirl (or even the catboy I started as).

[Yamimarik]

I seem to remember the opening cutscene for brand-new characters saying outright that you come from "a distant land".

You're probably right lol, it's just been so long since I've seen (or payed attention) to that cut-scene haha!

[KisaiTenshi]

I seem to remember the opening cutscene for brand-new characters saying outright that you come from "a distant land".

Here's the kicker. You have to look at one of the V1.0 openings.

V2.0 is simply "you wake up after the calamity." period. How you got there, who knows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU5N24_5VIk

In V1.0 you're just ... randomly on your way to Limsa, Gridania or Ul'dah. Of which I prefer the Limsa opening, but prefer the Ul'dah starter quests.

The Gridania opening is the funniest however. You're just walking throuh the woods and "Yda and Papalymo" come crashing out of the sky followed by "I do belive we're dead Papalymo!"

After narrowly avoiding getting killed by a Dryad-type of monster, time stops, and a band of moogles go by. E-Sumi-Yan goes "The elementals fortold us you were coming"

Incidentally, if you want to see half of the V1 Limsa Opening, you can still run it with the V1.0 Benchmark.

Limsa's opening is just "You wake up on a ship, you hear voices, you go above deck, and you nearly get twacked by an explosion", nothing nearly as funny as the Gridania opening, but it's the most exciting because you get to see Leviathan.

Ul'dah's opening can be summarized as, "we really shouldn't parade giant monsters", and "Follow the flower girl." Though the reason I like Ul'dah's beginner quests the best is because of this scene:
first part , second part (It's the "learn to emote" tutorial type of quest in the Miner's guild with F'lhaminn, but the reason for it is far more fun)

The V1.0 opening cutscenes and tutorials were a lot longer, it's a shame they were cut down, because I enjoyed pieces like above. Though V2.0's has "bombs are always funny." Which lightens up some otherwise boring talking-head segments.


The Auri, don't really need a justification to appear, after all the initial playable races don't have one either. (Like as far as I remember, there was no male Miqo'te -at all- in V1.0, and there is only one in the CT storyline in V2.x)

If you want to stretch things without a retcon everything, nobody said the Doma were a race. Just like the Aha Migo's are not a race. It just ever-so-conveniently gives a reason to mix certain race distributions up. Ul'dah would otherwise be nothing but Lalafells, Gridanaia would be nothing but Elezen, and Limsa would likely be nothing but Hyur.

Your presence in Eorzea is also very naive as Eorzea is only ONE part of the world. At least with the V1.0 Limsa opening, it was vague enough to suggest you're a refugee or a ferry passenger from "?", the other two openings just plop you down on the road to nowhere.