Quote Originally Posted by Ametrine View Post
Stormblood managed to toss every previous rule and excuse to us lacking more beastly races right out the window.
Nah, that's not true at all. Races like Ananta and Lupin may live and work with humans, but it's clear that they are BEASTMEN living and working with humans. No one ever refers to them as human, because they are not human. This game has a pretty clear division between those who are human (predominantly human in appearance, with variance in height and bulk, and occasionally with minor animal bits tacked on) and those who are beastmen (pretty much everyone else who is not Voidsent). It was never about tribal behavior, or summoning Primals, though that may have been excuses made by various oppressors to justify their hatred and bigotry. No, it's always been about appearance, pure and simple.

In Eorzea, where the Warrior of Light gets their start, tensions with Beastmen are much higher than in Doma (and any tensions that might have existed in Ala Mihgo have been set aside for now, in order to face a greater foe). For the Warrior of Light to gain the trust and cooperation of the three starting nations, they NEEDED to not be a Beastman. Whether Hydaelyn COULD have made a Beastman the Warrior of Light is unknown, but if she had her plan would have come to a swift end.

For this reason, for a playable Beastman race to work out, SE would need to completely retool the Main Scenario to accommodate them. I just don't see that happening - and that's not even bringing into consideration the difficulties of redesigning every piece of equipment in the game to fit the new race.