POC representation

[Iscah]

And you can't really blame people for interpreting the features as "white" for characters who have eye colours that is Blue/green/grey and hair that is blonde/red/brown whilst also having pale skin, as this is typically seen in people of European descent, and not often seen elsewhere.

Yeah, I'm not saying they're at fault for reading it that way - and also, importantly, it does not apply here in this game, at least for Hyuran characters, except possibly for the Far Eastern characters using the same models as "European" Eorzeans.

Eorzea is clearly equivalent to Europe, maybe with some part of Africa mashed into the bottom of it. (The rest of Africa, at least geographically, may be Meracydia - what little we know of real-world-equatable information is that it's somewhere to the south and that aloe and sesame, both African, are native to it.)

[NessaWyvern]

Yeah, I'm not saying they're at fault for reading it that way - and also, importantly, it does not apply here in this game, at least for Hyuran characters, except possibly for the Far Eastern characters using the same models as "European" Eorzeans.

Eorzea is clearly equivalent to Europe, maybe with some part of Africa mashed into the bottom of it. (The rest of Africa, at least geographically, may be Meracydia - what little we know of real-world-equatable information is that it's somewhere to the south and that aloe and sesame, both African, are native to it.)

They probably just chose their fantasy-Europe as the main setting because it would go down better with Japanese audiences. Also, European people commonly have brown/black hair and brown eyes, yet you don’t really see this in the scions. They’re pushing that pale-hair, pale-eyes, pale skin thing that is favourable in Japanese media.

So it probably does still apply in this game.

[Iscah]

They probably just chose their fantasy-Europe as the main setting because it would go down better with Japanese audiences. Also, European people commonly have brown/black hair and brown eyes, yet you don’t see this in the scions. They’re pushing that pale-hair, pale-eyes, pale skin thing that is favourable in Japanese media.

That doesn't mean the characters are meant to be Japanese though. But the implications of that "stateless" character design means that you can't tell the difference between "anime character who is Japanese" and "anime character who is English" because they'll come out looking the same due to the art style, so you have to rely on other cues besides the characters' appearances to work out the intended equivalent.

The logic that "they're meant to be Japanese because Japanese people make their Japanese characters look indistinguishable from European characters" doesn't hold. It just means you can't tell which one is intended by looking at a picture of the character without context.

Nothing about the characters seems Japanese. Not their names or the way they dress or the place they live in. They write in an English-derived alphabet. They are actively contrasted with the Japanese-inspired Doman and Hingan characters.

[NessaWyvern]

That doesn't mean the characters are meant to be Japanese though. But the implications of that "stateless" character design means that you can't tell the difference between "anime character who is Japanese" and "anime character who is English" because they'll come out looking the same due to the art style, so you have to rely on other cues besides the characters' appearances to work out the intended equivalent.

The logic that "they're meant to be Japanese because Japanese people make their Japanese characters look indistinguishable from European characters" doesn't hold. It just means you can't tell which one is intended by looking at a picture of the character without context.

Perhaps I mis-communicated my point here. My point is, that is mostly directed at the OP, is that main characters in FF14, and in Final Fantasy in general look the way they do because of Japanese culture, and how they like using characters that appear “white”/pale. Regardless of if the character is Japanese or not.

For example, when a noodle company drew Naomi Osaka, who is a Haitian-Japanese tennis player, as much paler-skinned and with light brown hair.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46986366