Quote Originally Posted by Lucidbro View Post
Why do you have such an impression? That's like saying normal women are "big and fierce". Their height ranges from 173cm to 187cm, well within the normal height ranges of a western woman. Regarding their physiques they're just in average fit shape. And you say they're on a "pretty far end of the spectrum", I can only wholeheartedly disagree with that, and I don't think it's really a matter of opinion.
Um. I guess I have a different idea of what qualifies as 'big and fierce'.

For the record, they can be built like MMA fighters, and I would consider those women to be 'big and fierce'. Especially next to Hyur Midlanders, femMiqo'te, and femRa (and Lalafell, but I shouldn't need to mention them). They also have some of the sharpest facial features available to female characters, which is one of the reasons I never rolled one (the other being that I don't want my character to be... that tall, heh).

If my perspective seems skewed, consider that the grand majority of players will roll female characters in the 149-160cm range, with many never even approaching the realm of the 173cm+ range. See this chart from a survey of PSO2 characters for an illustrative example. Thus, by this standard female Highlanders are definitely in the realm of 'big and fierce' when compared to their counterparts in every race except Roegadyn.

Unfortunately, this chart is also a great example of why female Au Ra are so dissimilar to their male counterparts - they just wouldn't be anywhere near as often played. They'd be stuck in the realm of Roegadyn as far as popularity goes, and obviously, Square Enix has found that it is simply not worth the monetary investment.

All that being said, I would agree that a more bestial race would fill a niche that neither Roegadyn nor Highlanders currently occupy. It's just that none of the metrics available to SE indicate that such a race would be popular, and so here we are.