Au Ra, what are they?

[Theodric]

A weight/muscularity slider (ranging from athletic to muscular) for all races, plus an expanded option of faces (between 6 - 8) would be much welcome. I'd rather they added that first, before other races. I do want to see Viera, as you describe them, and then perhaps after that a beast race of some manner or other, however I'm more eager for expanded options at this point in time. If Garleans happen to be the third playable hyuran race, so much the better.

I doubt they'll ever add Garleans as a playable race. As much as I'd love that to happen I can't see them doing it with their inability to wield Aether unless they somehow manage to get around that by having a Garlean Warrior of Light being some sort of exception. All they really need to do is add a 'Third Eye' glamour as well as some of the gear used by the likes of Livia, Gaius, Regula and Nero. Combined with some facial tweaks for Hyur it'd be fairly easy to portray a Garlean that way.

[Lauront]

We can't stay in Eorzea forever. Makes you wonder how the five races adapted to Othard or Thavnair...

I'm hoping that they won't have it that all of them did, i.e. that some races are likelier to cluster in different regions to others.

[Sinistral]

As far as i'm aware, most Au Ri come from Doma, the land of Yugiri and her shinobi (Let's think as ancient Mongolia and Japan). I don't know when or how they came to Eorzea, but as far as i'm aware, they came together with Yugiri as refugees by the end of A Realm Reborn. But we only get to see that Yugiri is actually an Au Ra in the beginning of Heavensward. Surely enough, when we go to Doma liberate it from the Garleans, we will get not only more lore about the Au Ri -- but at least one new job as well! The Samurai will come. And i really woulda want to see how the Samurai would blend in in Hydaelyn's lore.

But we can't liberate Doma, because it no longer exist.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

But we can't liberate Doma, because it no longer exist.

Pretty sure the entire country wasn't geographically annihilated. Providing we get the means to do so, I think we're perfectly capable of kicking the Garleans off the land and giving it back to those who left it, and if we go to Othard, I'm sure that will be a part of the story in some sense (considering how close we are with Doma's refugees).

[myahele]

We have to consider that Doma =/= Othard the continent. I can see the City-state of Doma being destroyed, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any survivors.

Many may have went to Eorzea but

In the NIN quest we see a Doman "princess" doing her best to help her vassells alive by selling her family's relic

So there still exists Domans that wish to rebuilt

[Haeresis]

I can't find the post now, but didn't the developers said that MAYBE have another clan besides Raen and Xaela?

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

I can't find the post now, but didn't the developers said that MAYBE have another clan besides Raen and Xaela?

They did! It was from a recent dump of miscellaneous lore. The third clan is apparently from a small chain of islands just off Othard.

[Theodric]

I'd only be interested in a 'third clan' for each of the playable races if they're going to be distinct both physically and in terms of their lore. It'd take up a lot of development time, sure, but it'd be a good way to include highly desired options for customisation.

So far only Hyur have major physical differences between their clans. For the other race's clans it's a lot more subtle.

As a rough example they could add Ishgardian Elezen with more muscle (which would make sense given that their people are built on strength and hardship) to appease those like myself who prefer their elves to be big and beefy.

For Au Ra they could go with something a bit closer to the original design displayed in the early concept art.

[WyrahFhurrst]

An Au Ra clan could have one set color of skin, and instead allow players to decide on scale color, which would be pretty sweet.

I'd like to see Lowlander Hyur and Meracydian Miqo'te especially. If there's Highlander and Midlander Hyur, and Midlander are smaller than Highlander, I think Lowlander would be the next logical step, and be shorter than both of the other two. Not sure how Meracydian Miqo'te would be different, outside of being more tribal, perhaps including some Babylonian traits to their society, considering they may be the ones who named Tiamat and Bahamut.

Forestfolk or Mountainfolk Lalafell would be interesting, with Forestfolk being more lithe and a bit taller than our two current clans, and Mountainfolk being more muscular and a bit more stocky.

Frostborn Roegadyn could be a group from the far, far north and have whites and light blues for skintones, though I have no idea how they would differentiate in naming scheme.

I agree on the Ishgardian Elezen, though. I imagine they would be like High Elves, taller, fairer, perhaps not quite so giraffe looking.

[Nalien]

An Au Ra clan could have one set color of skin, and instead allow players to decide on scale color, which would be pretty sweet.

I imagine the third clans "thing" would be something akin to the limbal ring, but for scales rather than eyes. The Dawn Father/Dusk Mother lore for the Raen and Xaela have me imagining that, while the Raen attribute their white scales to a strong connection towards the Dawn Father, and the Xaela attribute their black scales to a strong connection towards the Dusk Mother, this third clan would likely be somewhere in the middle and thus have mixed scale colour as a result.

Would be nice to have some scale customization though, Yugiri has some slight coloration on her horns, for example... I'd be more interested in having more scales though, the arms in particularly I just find disappointing... Some of the concept art had basically the entire forearm and hands covered in scales, and I cannot for the life of my figure out why the developers scrapped that concept...