Quote Originally Posted by LineageRazor View Post
Spoiler tags, just in case:
Bear in mind, the world as we know it is only twelve thousand years old. It's highly unlikely that ANY of the animals or intelligent races on the planet "evolved" to become what they are now. 12,000 years is simply too short a timespan for that.

The life on the planet is mostly or entirely descended from the "new life" Zodiark created at the behest of the Convocation in order to heal the damaged planet. He likely created all of the races and species as they are now, and they likely have not changed a great deal since then.

In the world of FFXIV, Creationism is the reality, and Evolution the myth! (Unless, I suppose, you consider the evolution that lead up to the Ancients and the plants and animals that co-existed with them prior to Zodiark's creation.) There are actual gods (even if they're really Primals, they're still pretty darned godlike); we know one personally, and Emet-Selch recently gave us the lowdown on the other.

Long story short: The Au Ra did not descend from dragons or voidsent, but were created to be exactly what they are, just as everyone else was. WHY did Zodiark create so many races? Only he knows for certain...
Explain why we literally have “evolution” mentioned in the Dunesfolk Lala creation screen then (i.e, “Perhaps the most unique characteristic of the Dunesfolk is their luminous eyes - a result of a glossy, protective layer which covers the pupil, an evolutionary response to their homeland's glaring sunlight”). :V

Just because Zodiark put new lifeforms in doesn’t mean he made them that way. It’s perfectly plausible since he and Ascians are in a completely separate dimension that he just tossed in the “base materials” so to speak and fast-forwarded to where everything is already going. They just didn’t turn out like the Ascians wanted.