Au Ra scale options?

[TwiibieTwuu]

Would be nice if they added a colour select from different shades

Whites - pale browns for the Raen
Blacks - deep blues/purples for the Xaela

I personally think greens (Raen) and reds (Xaela) scale options would also be kinda neat. But that's probably just me.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Ugh... Lizards.

[Tlamila]

Would be nice if they added a colour select from different shades

Whites - pale browns for the Raen
Blacks - deep blues/purples for the Xaela

I personally think greens (Raen) and reds (Xaela) scale options would also be kinda neat. But that's probably just me.

I'm totally up for green/light blue for Raen and reds and such for Xaela! The former will fit the under the sea theme and the second the firey personality theme.
Instead, meh browns.

[Iscah]

I'm totally up for green/light blue for Raen and reds and such for Xaela! The former will fit the under the sea theme and the second the firey personality theme.
Instead, meh browns.

I've been playing around with Miqo'te alts for the last few weeks and I have to say "meh browns" (ie. neutral colours) are far more glamour-friendly than bright ones. Somehow coloured tails clash with outfits far worse than hair does.

[Tlamila]

I've been playing around with Miqo'te alts for the last few weeks and I have to say "meh browns" (ie. neutral colours) are far more glamour-friendly than bright ones. Somehow coloured tails clash with outfits far worse than hair does.

id, my miq' has purple hair and fur, and I never had a problem with it. Brown also doesn't match with everything, for example it really fights with black and blue. Every colour has limitations.

[Iscah]

They should actually work on giving Au Ra scales in a way that doesn't look incredibly... Fake? Like the facial scales are OK (although given they can be added and removed by a hairdresser of all characters, does lend some weight to the idea that they're effectively stick-ons rather than real scales), but the body ones I find to just be silly... It's like you peeled strips of skin off a lizard and just glued them onto a Hyur... Granted, my biological experience with human/lizard hybrids is somewhat lacking, but I cannot imagine why Au Ra developed such sporadic patches of scales like they have...

While the overall effect is that they look like dragons, for actually attempting to 'explain' Au Ra physiology I'd rather point to armoured mammals such as armadillos and pangolins. (Granted, they're still fully-armoured rather than patchy, but it seems like a closer reference.) Horns and antlers are also a mammalian trait.

I wouldn't put too much weight on them "really" being able to add/remove scales at will though. It goes in the same category as being able to remove scars and alter limbal rings: on a case-by-case basis they probably shouldn't be possible, but on other races that same switch might only control makeup and earrings - so everyone is equally given access to turn it on and off.

As for how they developed "armoured" sections in the first place... evolutionarily speaking, they're going to develop where they're needed for protection - or rather, any randomly-evolved scale placements that contribute to their survival are likely to be passed down to the next generation.

Given we're dealing with horns as well as scales (the far bigger evolutionary question, really), developing armour around the face is actually probably a valuable defence against accidentally being gored by your partner... as is having the males and females be different heights so they're not going to poke each other in the eye.

It's the closest thing I've got to an explanation for the height differences, anyway...

The other body patches seem like they could be protective without getting in the way of movement.

---

I also wonder if scales look more out-of-place depending on the character's appearance? For my alt, I tried to tone his hair colour in with his scales (on the logic that they're all the same base substance and might take on a similar colour) and I think that makes sense as a character design, and certainly with NPCs I think they can look mismatched when they have a hair colour that is nowhere near their scales.

[Callinon]

As for how they developed "armoured" sections in the first place... evolutionarily speaking, they're going to develop where they're needed for protection - or rather, any randomly-evolved scale placements that contribute to their survival are likely to be passed down to the next generation.

Could also be sexual selection. It's the reason humans grow excessively long hair on their heads when there's absolutely no evolutionary advantage to doing so... it was more attractive. Could be the same for Au'ra. An ancient Au'ra ancestor could have sported a more heavily armored body, but over time less armor and more skin became more sexually attractive and so that's the trait that was passed on even if direct survival and natural selection wouldn't have gone that way.

Given we're dealing with horns as well as scales (the far bigger evolutionary question, really), developing armour around the face is actually probably a valuable defence against accidentally being gored by your partner... as is having the males and females be different heights so they're not going to poke each other in the eye.

It's the closest thing I've got to an explanation for the height differences, anyway...

That's actually a pretty good theory for that.

[Kidria]

Could also be sexual selection. It's the reason humans grow excessively long hair on their heads when there's absolutely no evolutionary advantage to doing so... it was more attractive. Could be the same for Au'ra. An ancient Au'ra ancestor could have sported a more heavily armored body, but over time less armor and more skin became more sexually attractive and so that's the trait that was passed on even if direct survival and natural selection wouldn't have gone that way.

It makes me wonder if, because Hyurs appear to always be the most populous race even way back when (Allagans appeared mostly Hyuran), that eventually ancient Au Ra and Hyur mixed enough to dilute the scales. A second generation half-breed now 'barely has any scales' according to the quest from Sui-no-Sato, which means the scale gene must be very recessive.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I believe it was stated in one of the lore books that Au Ra are closer to voidsent than dragons, but it never comes up in the game. The game does have Ishgard driving Au Ra refugees away and then hunting them down and slaughtering them because their scales made them look draconic, but that's only mentioned in a couple of job storylines (50-60 white mage and dark knight) and never comes up anywhere else.

[Kidria]

I cannot figure out where in the lore books the voidsent thing is stated. I've looked over both several times unless it's like, a throwaway remark in a somewhat unrelated spot?? Now I'm gonna have to go lookin again...