Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
As I've said in a couple of discussions, having scales doesn't make them reptilian, and horns are a mammalian trait.

Armadilloes or pangolins seem like a better reference for how Auri 'scales' might actually work in reality.
There are a lot of irl reptiles both extant and extinct that have horns???? And even so, no mammal has horns that work anything like Au Ra horns. Technically no irl animal uses horns for hearing that I know of, but the whole hearing via bone vibrations is a distinctly reptilian trait.

Again, I'm not saying Auri are actually reptiles; I'm just saying they seem more like being a transition point of sorts between reptiles and mammals. The scales are also implicitly described as resembling dragon scales on the character creation screen. Of course, that most likely is a result of convergent evolution from whatever species their ancestors were, but I doubt they're anything like what exists irl. This is the part I waggle my fingers and say "weeaboo fantasy bullshit". What the heck would we even call reptile kemonomimis? I just don't think full on mammal correctly identifies Au Ra. Sure, they hit almost everything on the mammal checklist, but so does every distinctly not mammalian Beast Tribe like Sahagin, Amal'jaa, and Gnath.

But short of getting a full on anatomical dissection (which is alas never gonna happen), it's hard to gauge what exact traits Auri have. especially what's under their pants, lol. Being able to reproduce with Hyur unfortunately doesn't mean much in a fantasy setting and irl taxonomy REALLY falls apart when classifying certain fantasy creatures (what would a griffin even be classified as? to say nothing of the evolutionary improbability if we were to apply irl evolution on them.

I love trying to piece together fantasy biology exactly because it's never simple when it comes to human-like species with bestial traits. I honestly doubt the taxonomies would even work the same at all. Heck, we have actual mobs based on prehistoric animals but many look nothing like them *sideeyes raptors and gastornis, the latter of which is hilariously what Chocobos are based on but in the game they're literally colorful dodos*